Izon TV Glasses Free 3D Breakthrough

Wow.

If that’s all I wrote on this update, that would pretty much sum it up. The 50″ Glasses Free 3D TV from Izon TV is a true breakthrough in immersive viewing technology.  The system uses the lenticular lens and 4k panel as others in the field, but the “magic” is in the software. Unlike previous televisions we’ve tested, there was no proprietary software required to re-encode the content, no converter boxes to run through. We were able to view my standard 3D side-by-side content from my USB drive (encoded HD MP4 file), HDMI out of a 3D BluRay player as well as a first I’ve seen, live content via HDMI out of our Sony HDR-TD30V HD 3D Camcorder (which has now dropped to $1200).  We also saw some 4k digital signage content that could be useful for some of the commercial venues around campus.  We also discussed other use cases including viewing medical content or immersive video conferencing (since it handles live 3D content)

It all looked fantastic. Looking at the screen bezel, the image looked inset. Pointing at the image in front of the screen made it look as if you were inside the screen.

The lenticular we saw was optimized for around 9′ of distance however they said they had the ability to create other lenticulars for other distances. The viewing angles were great. You lost the 3D effect at about 25° but it basically just faded into 2D. We had one person comment that it was far more comfortable for them to watch than 3D with glasses while another commented it was about the same. One thing about not having glasses on is that it allows you to look around the room to “rest” your eyes from the 3D more easily. If you are wearing glasses, you tend to keep focused on the screen for longer stretches of time.

Izon is a content company having contracted with many major studios to do 2D to 3D conversion. They do offer services to help enhance 3D content, but I have to say, that our point and shoot content looked pretty spectacular on their screen.

We’re hoping to have a unit for extended testing after the first of the year. If you are interested in reviewing for use in your school or department, please email oit-mt-info@duke.edu.