3D Emitter-Equipped Notebook PCs to Arrive Second Half, Nvidia Says

The first wave of 3D-capable notebook and desktop PCs have been hampered by high prices and a do-it-yourself approach to assembling a system, Phil Eisler, general manager of Nvidia’s 3D Vision group, told us in an interview Wednesday. But with the arrival in the second half of some 3D emitter-equipped notebook PCs and increased bundling with 3D glasses and monitors, the market will expand rapidly, Eisler said.

Sales of 3D notebook and desktop PCs have been limited to online retailers and a handful of brick-and-mortar chains such as Micro Center and Fry’s Electronics. Nvidia set up kiosks at Micro Center and Fry’s, but national chains like Best Buy -- awaiting the arrival of major brands and lower prices -- haven’t jumped in, Eisler said. The models available range from Asus Computer’s G51J-3D $1,549 notebook PC featuring a 1.6 GHz Intel processor and 640 GB hard drive to Acer’s $3,100 Predator G7750 with a 2.5 GHz Intel processor, 12 GB RAM and 8 TB hard drive. High-end gaming PC suppliers like Falcon Northwest, Velocity Mico and Dell’s Alienware also offer models. And TigerDirect Thursday was packaging its private label $1,849 Visionman 3D notebook with a 22-inch Samsung Syncmaster monitor. The Visionman has a 2.5 GHz Intel processor, 500 GB Western Digital hard drive and Nvidia GTX 9800 graphics chip.

The 3D PCs are carrying a $300 premium over standard models due to the added cost of the glasses and LCD panel, Eisler said. A 120 Hz 3D LCD panel for PCs costs about $50 more than a standard version, he said. “Many retailers have been worried about the price point and with the desktop it’s been kind of build you own right now and that lends itself to e-tailers,” Eisler said. “We have been doing demonstrations at Frys and people can potentially pick up the glasses and not know they need to get a monitor as well. With the notebook model, it will be all integrated now and the glasses will be in the box and you can pick it up and take it home."

A new crop of notebook PCs, including some with built-in 3D emitters, is expected to arrive in the second half, retailers said. Among these are models from Toshiba, retail sources said. Hewlett-Packard and Sony haven’t announced plans for 3D PCs. Clevo and MSI also are expected to ship notebook PCs this year, industry officials said. The new models will likely move the category closer to breaking the $1,500 price barrier that’s seen as the key to expanding the category, Eisler said. Some new notebooks will continue to use an external emitter, he said. And some may adopt Nvidia’s new Fermi architecture that’s found in the company’s 3D Vision-compliant GTX-480/470 graphics chips.

The PCs will benefit from the growing number of 3D movies and games. There are 425 3D-capable PC games available and 90 3D movies are expected to be released in 2010-2011, industry officials said. To further development of PC games, Nvidia created a stereo driver and has worked with Taiwan’s MStar on timing controllers needed for 3D capable LCDs, Eisler said. About 25-30 3D videogames are expected to be released this year, including seven -- Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2 for PS3 and Sony’s God of War III among them -- that will ship midyear, industry officials said.

The videogames console suppliers will have a “small library” of titles available this year, but they are “definitely stretching the hardware beyond what it was designed for to handle 3D,” Eisler said. Videogames companies don’t have “the organized software stacks of APIs like DirectX so that’s why it’s not easy for them to convert the whole library like we can because we have an API that enables us to do that,” Eisler said. “They have to reprogram the entire game to be stereo."

The LCD panels for PCs are upgrading to 1920x1080p resolution this year from the 1680x1050 resolution found in Samsung and Viewsonic monitors in 2009, Eisler said. AU Optronics is expected to join the ranks of 3D panel suppliers that includes Chi Mei Optoelectronics, Chunghwa Picture Tube (CPT), LG Display and Samsung, he said. Chi Mei and LG Display have been supplying 15.6-inch and 17-inch panels for notebook PCs, while Samsung, LG and CPT provide the LCDs for monitors, Eisler said. The size of 3D-capable LCD monitors is expected to increase to 27 inches by year-end, Eisler said.

While many PCs are deploying CyberLink’s 2D-to-3D conversion software, Eisler was critical of TV makers’ decision to deploy the technology. Because TV processors are typically slower than those found in PCs, “it’s not going to be something that you're going to watch for two hours,” he said. “You are going to watch for five minutes and then prefer to go back to the 2D version. I think it may help at the point of sale time, but whether people are going to actually use it long term, I have my doubts. It’s kind of like when HD had all that up-converted content. Until they truly got stuff shot in HD, it didn’t do much for me."

Nvidia also is working with Panasonic to “reprogram” Nvidia’s 3D glasses to accept the code from the company’s 480 Hz plasma panels, Eisler said. “We think that can be overcome, but it’s more of a next-year thing,” Eisler said. - Mark Seavy