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VR on the cheap: a review of the Vuzix iWear VR920 video eyewear

A low-cost, high-quality video headset has been a dream for a long time, and …

Making your reality virtual

iWear VR920
Manufacturer: Vuzix
System requirements: Windows XP
Games supported with head-tracking: World of WarCraft, Unreal Tournament 2004, Half-Life, Counter Strike, MS Flight Simulator X, IL2-Sturmovik, X-Plane, Gtr-II, rFactor, Second Life
Price: $399

There are a few products you get tired of hearing about when you begin to review hardware and gaming equipment, and none more so than video headsets. I love a good monitor, and I can shop for televisions for hours, but whenever I'm at a trade show and a company tries to strap video equipment to my face, I know I'm in for a headache. I've tried every damn video headset on the market—and I'm sure a few that never made it to market—and quite frankly, I thought they all sucked. Everyone thinks they have the next big video headset, and they're always wrong.

The future, is it now?

Why are these products so hard to get right? Small, high-quality video displays are expensive, and it's just not natural having them so close to your eyes. Low-resolution video usually rules the day, and trying to focus on a display that's running at 320x240 a few inches from your face is a painful task. Also, you look like a geek. It sounds like a sexy idea, but it's rare that a headset is anything approaching tolerable.

When Vuzix sent me the press release for the iWear VR920, a product that would include 3D, head tracking, and built-in audio, I was skeptical, but review samples were available. Why not? I told them I'd give it a look, but also that I wasn't sure where the review would go: a front-page feature or a blurb on a journal. "This is a front-page product," I was told, but of course they all say that.

The package came, and they certainly set reviewers up: each review sample comes with the headset, a very nice Saitek flight stick, and a copy of Flight Simulator X. The 30-day loaner sent a message: this will be a complete virtual reality setup.

I began hooking things up. I don't know if I've ever gone into a review with lower expectations.

Setting up

Installing the drivers went as simply as expected, and hooking the headset into the computer consisted of plugging into a USB port and then attaching the VGA cable into the back of the computer. Here's the thing, though: the cable comes out of the glasses as one wire and then splits into two parts for the USB and VGA connectors. I realize that most computers have USB ports on the back of the case, but if you wanted to use a port on the top or front of a large case, you might have to use an extender. Also, this is a proprietary cable that doesn't disconnect from the glasses; if your dog decides to chew through it, you'll have to send the glasses back to have them repaired. I would have preferred that the glasses came with a detachable cable that could be easily replaced, and while this may seem like a small nit to pick, the devil is in the details. Ruining a set of $400 glasses if cable goes bad would be infuriating.

The best form of birth control I've ever used

The glasses sport two 640x480 displays, and can scale down from 1024x768. While that resolution doesn't seem high on paper, it's rather impressive for a headset display. In fact, the first time I put the glasses on, I was impressed with the fact that my desktop looked fine, and text was easily legible on the screens. I was afraid that things would be hard to see, but the glasses were good for composing e-mails and instant messaging; the displays are sharp enough for general computing as well as watching video and playing games.

My first impressions with the glasses were impressive, but I did notice some rolling lines. You can also see above and below the display; the goggles do not block out reality completely. That may be nice for some people, but I would much rather have all of my visual focus be on the screen in front of me. I found myself turning the lights off in the room whenever I used the headsets. Vuzix offers an "Immersive Eyeshield" on its site for $15, but that would have made a nice pack-in. Luckily the headset is comfortable—even if you do look pretty ridiculous wearing it.

Audio is delivered through headphones built directly into the headset, and while the arms were adjustable, it took me a while to get them comfortably in my ears. While they may look like earbuds, the headphones are actually meant to rest right outside of your ears. The audio is decent, but nothing spectacular. Luckily, the headphones are removable, and if you can hook up your headphones of choice directly to the sound card or have a front-panel audio connection on your computer, you can use anything you want with the VR920. I think Vuzix would be better off removing the built-in audio to save a few bucks and simply adding a headphone jack directly on the unit.

One of the features on the glasses is the ability to show a stereoscopic effect using both screens for true 3D. Unfortunately, this only works with NVIDIA 3D Stereo drivers, and those haven't been updated in a very long time. Also, they don't play nice with the latest drivers for my 8800GTS. If you're running Vista or have an ATI card, you're out of luck completely . As of this writing, I have yet to be able to get stereoscopic 3D to work on my test system.  Stereoscopic 3D is old technology, and no one has supported it since the days of those goofy pack-in glasses you used to get with your video cards. While it would have been neat to try it, I couldn't get it to work even after rolling back my drivers, and I wouldn't have been willing to live with old graphics card drivers to use it anyway. This seems to be a "We can do it, so why not?" feature, instead of something that's actively supported.

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