Zalman ZM-M240W Stereoscopic monitor review - Introduction

The ZM-M240W Stereoscopic monitor - 3D on a budget ?

Okay let's get the high word out first, 3D Stereoscopic technology is not exactly something new. Many attempts in the past, heck, 10 years ago it reared its head and then ended in a bit of a drama. 3D Stereoscopic technology seems to be an expertise that simply will not break through to a mainstream audience, even though, and anyone will agree on this,  its an incredible lot of fun.

In the past two years the industry picked up on 3D again though and it was decided by the technology gods to pitch it big-time, as lets face it, the technology industry has been a tad boring the past couple of years. We all upgraded to HD screens, Blu-ray and what not ... but with screens that last 10 years manufactures would love to get you back in the stores for something newer and better. LED TV anyone ? So the industry needed something new, an incentive to stimulate the consumers now in the hope they'd purchase their all new 3D technology based products.

While support for 3D gaming has been there for years, we've seen it ignite and receive a wider adoption rate due to companies like NVIDIA, who released 3D Vision a year ago. Big names in the TV industry such a Samsung, Philips, Panasonic and Sony also decided to give 3D television another go and as such you can spot 3D TV's massively advertised in the stores. Heck this Christmas they want you to watch Avatar in 3D at home.

It's however one big multi-dimensional mess ... there are too many standards and components needed to get that 3D experience going. With a TV you need proper 3D broadcast or a 3D DVD/Blu-Ray player to playback movies. If that does not suffice a 3D capable HTPC will do the job fine as well.  But  yeah, the television manufacturers all have different standards, a good example of this is that some use Polarizing glasses, others use shutter glasses and IF you spend two maybe three thousand dollars on a 3DTV, you probably will get only one set of 3D glasses to go along with it, so they make you pay another 150 bucks with a second. Next to that investment you probably want a 3D capable Blu-ray player as the regular one you bought last year will not suffice, and if preferred sure ... the AV-Receiver needs an upgrade with HDMI 1.4 compatibility as well .. supporting 3D Television.

Now that's just the TV industry, I have not even mentioned the PC platform here, which we'll be checking out today. Zalman released a new 24" 3D monitor tagged as ZM-M240W. This Stereoscopic 3D LCD Monitor is at a convenient size of 24" / 60cm allowing you to use it perfectly fine as desktop monitor, and it's not too small to watch a 3D movie on either ... with a supported Full HD monitor resolution at 1920x1080 that is.

A very complete monitor with pretty nice 3D capability. Included you'll receive a set of 3D Glasses and a set of clip on 3D Glasses, both polarizing glasses by the way.

So today we'll be having a deeper look at this monitor and what is needed to get 3D movies and games going.  Next page please.