[Sebastian]

Recently, I tried my luck at 3D monitors for my gaming laptop, an MSI GT663.
I bought myself an Asus VG278H, paired with 3D glasses and what-have-you. Turns out the monitors was defective, so I tried my hand at the customer service and managed to get it replaced.. three times. After which I managed to withdraw my purchase and lay low.

I still want that damn monitor. It comes at a decent price and the reviews I've been reading has it praised to the heavens. Thing is, the problem I had seem to have been quite common among some of these monitors which means I had a defective IR transmitter -- which is built in right on top of the display.

So, before I order another one of these pups, how can I make doubly sure that my PC is 100% 3D compatible with this technology?

As I said, I'm on a MSI GT663, with a GTX 360M.

PC product page :http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GT663.html#/?div=Specification
3D monitor product page: http://www.asus.com/...onitors/VG278H/

I'll be forever grateful for the help here, fellas.

edit: topic moved for greater justice

[Plagman]

How are you connecting the display to your laptop?

[Sebastian]

Plagman, on 22 November 2012 - 02:25 PM, said:

How are you connecting the display to your laptop?

HDMI 1,4.
All the cables save for this was included in the purchase so I had to buy it seperately. Before you say it, the manual said the monitor supports HDMI 1,4 for 3D usage as well.

[Kathy]

Based on MSI specifications, NVidia 460M specifications and 3d Requirements your PC supports 3d. If you could make monitor output in 120Hz then your video/monitor combination should have been able to output 3d image.

[Plagman]

Sebastian, on 26 November 2012 - 04:07 AM, said:

HDMI 1,4.
All the cables save for this was included in the purchase so I had to buy it seperately. Before you say it, the manual said the monitor supports HDMI 1,4 for 3D usage as well.

I was just wondering if you were using an adapter from the DVI port of the laptop or to the DVI port of the monitor; I think that for this stuff to work you have to have dual-link DVI on both ends or HDMI on both ends (with both ends supporting 1.4, as you said). If you're using an HDMI cable I don't have any great suggestions, unfortunately. Sorry.

EDIT: actually, are you trying to game or play movies? Through HDMI you can play 3D movies, but you have to use the dual-link DVI input if you want to drive the monitor at 120hz to do 3D games. It doesn't look your laptop has a dual-link DVI output or a dock that would provide one, so if you want to game you'll have to get a different computer, I think.

[Sebastian]

Burnett, on 26 November 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

Based on MSI specifications, NVidia 460M specifications and 3d Requirements your PC supports 3d. If you could make monitor output in 120Hz then your video/monitor combination should have been able to output 3d image.

Max output I could get was 75Hz I think. Which is super odd. Some fella I spoke to had a theory that the output signal was picking up from the integrated display driver instead of the Nvidia card in my laptop, which seem weird.

All outputs I have are VGA and HDMI to choose from.

[Kathy]

Sebastian, on 27 November 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

Max output I could get was 75Hz I think. Which is super odd.

Did you try it with that monitor? Then it is indeed strange and shouldn't be connected with a faulty IR.

Quote

Some fella I spoke to had a theory that the output signal was picking up from the integrated display driver instead of the Nvidia card in my laptop, which seem weird.

Huh? Isn't Nvidia card in a laptop supposed to be integrated?

[Sebastian]

Burnett, on 27 November 2012 - 12:51 PM, said:

Did you try it with that monitor? Then it is indeed strange and shouldn't be connected with a faulty IR.


Huh? Isn't Nvidia card in a laptop supposed to be integrated?

Those were my thoughts too.

I'm not an expert on the technical stuff, but it seem to have confounded alot of people as to why the output signal seem to be limited to 75Hz (honestly I can't remember how I managed it to get to 75, all the other times it was just 60Hz).
Even the company whom I returned the monitor to declared it DOA. And they test it on their hardware too. I wasn't about to question their verdict or I might risk not getting my money back for it.

Still scratching my head on this. I spoke back and forth for over a week with the Nvidia support and they couldn't figure it out either.

[Plagman]

Did you read what I said? You can't do 120hz over HDMI. You need to use the dual-link DVI input of the monitor to do 3D gaming, which isn't possible on your laptop.

[Plagman]

Or you can use 1280x720 (aka 720p) at 120hz if your monitor lets you.

[Sebastian]

Plagman, on 27 November 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

Did you read what I said? You can't do 120hz over HDMI. You need to use the dual-link DVI input of the monitor to do 3D gaming, which isn't possible on your laptop.

Ah, sorry man.

I tried going for 720p and increasing the hertz on the output. No dice.
Don't understand why the manual tells you to use DVI or HDMI for 3D effect. If you can't do 120Hz on HDMI, then it's pointless to even try, right?

[Kathy]

Seems that way. I only knew about this hdmi limitation once I read a review before buying my own monitor. You can still watch 3d movies, though, since they don't need 120Hz.

[Sebastian]

You sure? Because not even the 3D video player test doohickeys worked that came with it on the CD. The IR transmitter should light up even when you don't have the 3D active, or so I've read.

[Kathy]

Okay, I am not sure. But my monitor's manual says you can use hdmi to watch 3d movies. Besides, you still might have had a faulty IR transmitter.

[Sebastian]

Burnett, on 29 November 2012 - 02:37 PM, said:

Besides, you still might have had a faulty IR transmitter.

Yeah. Three times.
But really, seems alot of people have had problems with that products just because of that. I figured three's the charm, you know? Nothing's like in the fairy tales anymore.

[Plagman]

I don't know much about when the SW part decides to activate 3D, but at the HW level dual link DVI essentially lets you have twice the clock as HDMI. With one link, you can do 3D movies and 3D gaming at 720p, with two links you can do 3D gaming at 1080p, or just 2560x1600 without 3D. Your laptop doesn't have a way to output two links at all, however.

HDMI 2.0 compatible devices (you'll need new graphics cards) will be able to blast twice the clock over a single link, essentially letting you do what you can do with dual-link DVI now.

Now, when you tried 1280x720 at 120Hz, did you turn off any "GPU scaling" options from the control panel? You want to make sure that what's being scanned out is actually 720p and not just 720p content upscaled at 1080p, or it won't be able to do 120Hz either. You can probably confirm that from your monitor's OSD, as it will tell you what mode it's currently receiving.

[Sebastian]

Plagman, on 29 November 2012 - 07:53 PM, said:

Now, when you tried 1280x720 at 120Hz, did you turn off any "GPU scaling" options from the control panel? You want to make sure that what's being scanned out is actually 720p and not just 720p content upscaled at 1080p, or it won't be able to do 120Hz either. You can probably confirm that from your monitor's OSD, as it will tell you what mode it's currently receiving.

No I did not. Could that be it?

[Plagman]

It could; it's possible you need to get 3DTV Play to get any kind of 3D working over HDMI. I don't know what the SW does, I only know that the only way to get 120Hz over HDMI is at 720p.