Adding a new dimension to notebooks | Bangkok Post: tech

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With banner ads for the movie Avatar 3D plastered across newspaper pages and outside Bangkok cinemas over the New Year the timing was certainly right for Acer to make its first foray into 3D with the relatively inexpensive Aspire 5738DG notebook PC being the flagship.

MAIN PICTURE Without the glasses (inset), images on the Acer Aspire 5738DG notebook’s WXGA display look a little blurred, but only when using the software that creates the 3D effect. Otherwise, this is a good desktop replacement with a 3D surprise up its sleeve.

This is a 15.6-inch, 1366x768 (WXGA) notebook PC in the Gemstone series that boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo P8800, 2.66GHz CPU and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4750 graphics processor. It deploys DDD TriDef's software-driven approach to 3D encoding that takes advantage of an invisible screen overlay to offer dual polarised images that a pair of 3D glasses resolve for the viewer.

And it works well, in most instances, even with images and video that are not adapted or were not prepared for 3D, such as regular digital photographs or video files. To obtain the 3D effect, you must open images or video using TriDef's Ignition software (and, of course, wear the glasses provided - either clip-ons if you already wear specs or a standalone pair).

As you might expect, video games, movies or photographs that were created for this flavour of 3D viewing work best, although the current selection is limited - but James Cameron's Avatar is indeed the first major video game that has been built for TriDef's 3D approach.

There are also some applications that are TriDef 3D ready, such as Google Earth, which is interesting in 3D but which suffers somewhat from a lack of clarity for text, especially if viewing place names in English on a Thai edition of Windows, which has the effect of making the English text appear smaller. If there is a trade-off in using 3D, it is a loss of some detail since the resolution of an image is effectively divided between the left and the right eye.

So it is primarily for images, still or moving, where 3D packs its "Oooh!" value after you have carefully adjusted the screen to optimum viewing angle and distance; generally this is some 120-degrees and viewed from slightly further back than usual. The 3D software start-up menu by default offers a 3D image to help you optimise things.

Looking at the 3D images that come with this notebook provides a good impression of the extra dimension's ability to enhance your viewing experience, and I am pretty confident in making the prediction that within a few years serious gamers will be enjoying most of their content this way.

One thing that is holding things back today is the lack of a common standard in the implementation of 3D - for there are several approaches to achieving this effect - plus the fact that a lot of graphics processing power is required.

Just how much depends on the approach taken, but given Moore's Law and the effects of competition and market forces, both the standards and graphical horse power issues should have been resolved in a few years' time. After that, we have holographic images to look forward to, but that's another story.

Another factor could be scepticism about 3D images and a lack of exposure to them, coupled with hazy memories of viewing ho-hum 3D images back in school while wearing cardboard-framed glasses with red and blue lenses. Certainly, and before you dismiss the idea out of hand, take a swing by an Acer shop or any large IT store and check out the 3D effects on an Acer Aspire 5738DG demonstration model.

And while Acer is a pioneer, more players are coming to the table. Indeed, it has recently been reported that Apple has filed a patent application that hints of 3D future for the company, while Samsung is pursuing the TriDef software-based solution along with Acer. In addition, nVidia has a more expensive hardware-oriented approach that has been deployed by ASUS.

But the 3D capability in this notebook under review is not its be-all-and-end-all feature, and can be seen as a bonus rather than the main attraction since, in all other respects, this is a practical notebook that makes a good desktop replacement with a large keyboard that has a nice feel to it. There are also many connectivity options, including an HDMI port, a five-in-one memory card reader, four USB ports, built-in Bluetooth, WiFi, a DVD-RW drive and webcam. Note, however, that there is no FireWire or ExpressCard54 slot available.

Preloaded with a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium - a big improvement over Vista, needless to say - the Aspire 5738DG-884G50 also has biometric fingerprint recognition built in and comes with 4GB of RAM and a six-cell lithium ion battery that provides between slightly more than two and over three hours' computing time, depending on performance settings and what you are doing.

Notching up a 4.1 on the Windows Experience Index, with Aero graphics holding things back (other components scored higher), there was sufficient power to support snappy business applications although gaming, especially in 3D mode, was less spectacular. Gamers should also note that use of the TriDef 3D processing software impairs performance by around 50 percent, according to Notebookcheck.net.

Being of the Acer Gemstone marque, this notebook has a shiny navy blue case, with a glossy screen that opens up a little inelegantly thanks to a latch that is tucked into the base of the unit. This reveals a wide keyboard with a full numeric keypad that hints at more of a business orientation than a multimedia one since there are also no dedicated multimedia keys such as were found on most earlier Acer Gemstone models.

The presence of the numberic keypad also has the effect of offsetting the touchpad to be in-line with the space bar and centred about one third of the way in from the left of the unit which takes a little getting used to at first.

The screen surround is a glossy black, with the keyboard itself being matt black while the keyboard surround and palm rest is a matt grey. Many stickers touting this notebook's features, explaining multi-touch gestures or promoting Intel Centrino, Microsoft Windows 7 or ATI Radeon await the owner's removal.

Certainly a hands-on session with this Acer notebook shows the benefits of 3D in a good light. The Aspire 5738DG-884G50 is priced here at 39,900 exclusive of VAT, and kudos should go to Acer for introducing 3D in a system that performs well and at a price that is affordable for many.

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