You know what? If I were to buy a television for the sole purpose of playing video games and I didn’t expect any friends to ever drop by (no two-player action), I might just consider picking up a pair of video glasses like these instead.
Overview
I had a chance to try out the Myvu Crystal “video eyewear” recently and boy, what a difference does a little double-resolution make. While most video eyewear systems on the market clock in at 320×240 pixels, the Crystal manages to cram 640×480 into a package that you might even be able to get away with wearing in public, say, on an overnight flight or another type of event where most people around you are asleep. These glasses are getting smaller and more normal-looking, is what I’m saying.
Some technical details, straight from Myvu:
Introducing Myvu Crystal: watch what you love, when you want and look great doing it. Featuring SolidOptex® — the Myvu patented optical system — Crystal transforms your portable media player into a hands-free, full-screen private viewing experience. All that within the thinnest, lightest and most durable video eyewear available.
- Full VGA quality — our highest resolution available
- Our widest field of view — over 33 percent wider
- Features Kopin’s CyberDisplay® technology, offering the highest pixel density and sharpest resolution for any video eyewear of its size
- Earbuds from Ultimate Ears® for enhanced comfort, extended bass and sound isolation
- Up to 4 hours of battery life
Here’s what they look like. I figured you’d rather see them on a hot girl than on me.
Pros
So I was sent this set along with an iPod Nano to try out how the system worked with relatively high-motion video. There were several movie clips, the most rambunctious being a scene from The Incredibles. With previous video eyewear that I’ve tried, anything playing at 320×240 just seemed kind of “blah” to me and made me feel like if I wanted to watch something at that resolution, I’d just hold my cell phone in front of my gigantic noggin for a while. The Myvu set, though, was pretty close to those claims you read that say “It’s like watching a 60 foot screen!” except that you can tell it’s not 60 feet but it does actually look pretty “normal” like a TV would. I tried out a few videos from my own iPod Touch as well as some YouTube clips and was pleased.
My real intent, though, was to try these puppies out with some video games. I loaded my Wii up with Excite Truck, Blazing Angels — a WWII flight game, and Tiger Woods 2008 and connected the glasses via the included red, white, and yellow RCA cables.
Excite Truck doesn’t let you change the view, so I was perpetually perched above and behind my truck, which was still cool but left me wanting more. Blazing Angels was phenomenal, though. I almost felt like I was flying and would get intermittent sensations of vertical and horizontal movement that affected me enough to move my head around to try to catch more of the action. Tiger Woods was fun, too, because I could concentrate on keeping my head steadily focused downward while swinging each club. Putting, especially, felt a lot more real.
The audio, too, sounded great. The attached Ultimate Ears ear buds felt very comfortable and the speech and music in movies and games was crisp and clear.
Everything was controlled by a simple, yet functional remote that sat in between the glasses and your video’s source. The iPod-centric version comes with a plug that goes into the bottom connector on your iPod and the regular version comes with female RCA plugs that can hook into most standard video sources. Both versions cost the same.
Cons
So those are some of the positive aspects of the Myvu eyewear. The negatives include; a whole mess of cords (standing up to play Tiger Woods was a little difficult at times), and a relatively high price tag at $299. Some people might take issue with the four hour battery life being too short but I can’t imaging wearing any sort of video eyewear for that long. I don’t know if I’d sit through an entire movie but I’d definitely use them for gaming because I like racing and flight sims.
Finally, Myvu’s done a good job of slimming these things down to an almost-normal size, but I’d almost rather have a set that covered my eyes completely. That I could see the outside world around me was kind of distracting. To each his own, though.
Recommendation
For the most part, the pros far outweigh the cons. The sticking point for most people here, though, is going to be the price. For a set of high-resolution video glasses, $299 isn’t all that steep — they’ve come down a LOT in price over the past five years — but it’s like, do you really need video eye glasses? Do you even want video eye glasses?
If you answered yes to either of those questions, though, then I think you’d be more than happy with this Myvu Crystal set.
Myvu Crystal Product Page [Myvu.com]
I bought a set (in all black, not the crazy yellow/orange featured). I’ve only used them about three hours so far. They are interesting. I’ve only watched movies broadcast from my Ipod Touch. They are surprisingly pleasant and immersive but I found I needed a break after about 90 minutes. The issue, for me, was a bit of eye fatigue and some discomfort on the bridge of my nose. All-in-all, I like them — I give them a solid B.
Where did you buy them? Off the myvu site or somewhere else?
I bought them directly from myvu.com. I had a good experience in that they shipped very promptly. In the past I had a good customer service experience from places like Amazon, e.g. ordered day 1 with two-day shipping and they arrived two days later. On manufacturer sties I frequently find that I order on day 1 with two-day shipping and it arrives a week later — two-days after they shipped it but they shipped it several days after the order.
They can also be found at most Sears and Best Buy stores. I have a set and I think I was expecting a bigger screen because of all the hype, but all-in-all it ain’t too bad. It’s actually rather pleasant, but like others after a while your eyes begin to get a bit crossed and fatigued.
I have this and I also have the ones of relaxview (http://www.relaxview.eu). I prefer this last much better specially in terms of look.
I think one reason myvu glasses let you see the outside world is because of a problem all-enclosing goggles have produced in the past–without a reference point at least in the periphery, the eyes become disconnected from the rest of the senses and conflict, and conflicting senses are the primary cause of kinetosis–motion sickness.
Do you know if they work with the iPhone? I’ve looked all over for that bit of information and can’t be sure.
Thanks,
STEVE
I’ve only used mine with IPod Touch and Nano, but both worked fine and via the IPod dock. Since everything I read suggests Iphone and Touch are effectively the same device — without the phone in the Touch, my guess is that it would work but I can’t say for sure.
P.S. I made the original “Chris” post. I’ve now used these for more than a dozen hours. I’d now only rate them decent, not great. This is interesting technology that I’ll continue to watch and don’t mind supporting financially. The issue is that they are just enough hassle in terms of wiring, charging, carrying and capability in bright light (During daylight hours I’ve sometimes put a blanket over my head to avoid the visual distractions), that I frequently find myself just defaulting to the IPod Touch screen. This is similar to my experience with voice dictation software — it is great and very cool but just enough barrier to entry in terms of putting the mic on, etc., that I often just use the keyboard. Hopefully you get the point.
Have just got one and it does work with iphone, but you need to make sure that the movie upload to your iphone with Mpeg-4 format :)
Actually yes, they have an adapter that looks just like the one for the ipod, but it works with both. You can go to the accessories section of the website http://www.myvu.com and check em out. $25 bucks
In fact, we also produce this item ,and we can make it with 8G built-in memory,then there’s a super functional Player Module.
And the cost is only half with Myvu(320*240 640*480 )
David Zhou
Sales Supervisor
Shenzhen Live Digital Technology Co.,Ltd
Add:9/F,West Tower,Xincheng Building,No 1027,
Futian District,Shenzhen,China.
Tel:86-755-25945893ext 701 Fax:86-755-25945859
Cell:+86-131-6371-0456
Email:david@livetech.com.cn
MSN:withxiaoman@hotmail.com
http://www.relaxsee.com
how do you buy your products?
LV-QA04
how much including shipping to :
Yellowknife, NT Canada
X1A 3T3
Let me no
Just got them yesterday, and they work like a charm. Was only able to watch them for a few hours at a time, as my eyes became sore. Useful for quick stops, or breaks, but not a long term solution.
I tried these at a store the other day and didn’t like it at all. My girlfriend didn’t like it either. Our vision is bad though and we both have one eye that is much stronger than the other so it felt funny looking through them and i didn’t like that I could see all around me and just see the screen floating. I was extremely disappointed and glad I didn’t buy them before trying. You might like them but I thought they were terrible
I can’t seem to get my Myvu glasses to work with my ipod touch. I can hear the movie but I cannot see the movie through the glasses.
I just got mine, the Crystal version and it worked for about 10 seconds with my iPod Touch and then fizzled out. Paid for 2nd Day Air but now I have to wait for a new battery as they said a batch went out with bad batteries. Not impressed.
I haven’t bought a pair of these yet, but I’m also in the situation, where one eye is much stronger than the other… what are the drawbacks of this, with this particular unit?
Can you use these things if you wear eyeglasses? Do you wear them over your glasses? Or can you adjust their focal length so as to replace your glasses?
I bought mine for travel. I was having trouble turning the unit off–battery would drain. Thay sent a replacement unit that appears to have a bad battery!! I am having mu doubts about the “quality” of this product.
where can i buy myvu in Indonesia ?
I just purchased my myvu crystal, it does not work. I took it back to best buy, second one does same thing. No video, very muffled sound. I am using an Ipod touch 32 gig. How can 2 be bad? also, cannot download the users guide from Myvu website. Very disappointed.
I just got one Myvu Crystal through ebay. I too have the same problem. No video, muffled sound. Im not sure if it is problem with the connectors or the viewer itself. Anyone here got this problem and solved it? I opened this box with great expection and greatly disappointed. Somone please help.
I found the shades to be working well despite what leads I use. However every Ipod I have tried my shades with seems to be very temperamental about outputting the video into the shades.I frist belive it was there was a problem with my Ipod to Shades leads and I got a new set to only find i had the same issue as before, no video but some sound. If I mess around with the leads over and over try going in and out of menus & reloading my videos till it sometimes works. It does not always work I find and Iam still trying to find that knack of getting it to work 100% of the time.
I belive the issue is with the Ipods, not the shades as they work with everything elles fine
An update. The issue with my MyVu crystal was due to the dead battery. I emailed MyVu support. And they quickly replaced the pendant controller which contains the battery.
Now my MyVu works greats. I will give an “A” for the MyVu crystal.
I to can’t get it to work with my itouch 32g 2 gen. I
bought my at amazon.com.
For those having trouble with the video.. many time its is that you need to specify to use the video out to TV option in the program you are using…. otherwise it will try and play it on the itouch screen instead. I had the same trouble trying to use the component cables to my TV with dtunes…. under the setup was an option to specify “video out” Hope that helps