By now you’ve heard that the ST1080 is finally shipping out to pre-order customers. The company has posted photos of the final packaging and final design which gives the ST1080 a needed sprucing-up! Support for additional 3D formats has also been revealed.

Though it is the first consumer-available 1080p HMD, the ST1080 — as we’d seen it prior to launch — did look a bit like it was out of the 80’s! Silicon Micro Display has made some subtle but aesthetically pleasing changes which help it feel more modern.

Both the ‘jet black’ and ‘pearl white’ colors of the ST1080 now have a streamlined silver accent that runs along the front and to the sides, as well as some sporty looking tips at the end of the ear supports. Further there is small text denoting ‘Native 1080p’ on the side. I definitely think these small changes had big impact on the overall look of the ST1080; what do you think?

Silicon Micro Display has also revealed additional 3D format support, much to the delight of customers. Here’s the full list of 2D and 3D formats that the ST1080 HMD supports:

2D

  • 1920x1080p_60hz
  • 1280x720p_60hz
  • 1920x1080i_60hz
  • 1920x1080p_24hz
  • 720x480p_60hz
  • 640x480p_60hz
  • 720x576p_50hz
  • 1280x720p_50hz
  • 1920x1080i_50hz
  • 1920x1080p_50hz

3D

  • 1920x1080p_24hz    Frame-packed (full resolution)
  • 1920x1080p_24hz   Top-Bottom (half  resolution)
  • 1920x1080i_60hz   Side-by-Side (half  resolution)
  • 1280x720p_60hz   Frame-packed (full resolution)
  • 1280x720p_60hz   Top-Bottom (half  resolution)
  • 1920x1080p_60hz    Side-by-Side (half  resolution)
  • 1920x1080p_60hz   Top-Bottom (half  resolution)
  • 1920x1080p_30hz   Top-Bottom (full  resolution)
  • 1920x1080i_50hz   Side-by-Side (half  resolution)
  • 1280x720p_50hz   Frame-packed (full resolution)
  • 1280x720p_50hz   Top-Bottom (half  resolution)
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!The company also promises to update the ST1080 firmware in the future to support more formats if possible.

And with that update, I bid you adieu (have a great weekend)

P.S. I’m still scanning for reviews of the ST1080 and will be collecting them here as soon as I find them!

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Just waiting for some reviews to pop up online to make a decision. There’s a blog posting their experience although their english is pretty bad so it’s a hard read.

  • Khozib

    Dear every one
    Hi how are you doing i hop all are fine :) i have a very important question
    i am so totally confused between the Sony HMZT1 and the ST1080 the big problem is that in the country that i am they don’t have St1080 they only have Sony HMZT1 and both are same price except if i need to buy the ST1080 i have to pay extra because of DHL shipment to my country so this is why i have some important questions before i decide which one to finally buy especially if i choose to buy ST1080 i will pay extra for shipment!! OK my questions is i need one of them to watch movies mostly!! and not for video games i like to watch high quality movies and i don’t care to much honestly about 3D movies so 3D and games are not important to me!!
    and i have OSN HD Receiver they have nice movies like action HD and Movies HD and discovery HD and NetGeo HD so i can connect my OSN receiver to watch it in higher resolution so which one is best for watching movies?

    i also have some extra questions

    1: can you connect iphone 4s and ipade to Sony HMZ1?
    2: can you connect Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 to it?
    3: can you insert SD card or USB disk to watch Videos contents from it?
    4: The Sony HMT1 play 720P but if you play 1080P Videos will it hang? or Freeze? or it will work but in 720P mode?
    5: can you connect external HDD hard disk drive and watch HD contents from it ?
    6: Can you connect Wii console to it and play Wii games like call of duty ?
    7 : last question does it work with Android TV box so you will see the android system on it?

    • Khozib:

      I think the HMZ-T1 would be best for movie watching. It has OLED displays which have great color and contrast ratio (here’s my brief hands-on notes: https://www.roadtovr.com/2011/11/30/sony-hmz-t1-hands-on-test-crystal-clear-image-with-little-to-no-crosstalk/). I haven’t tried the ST1080 myself. It is 1080p while the HMZ-T1 is 720p, but the contrast ratio and colors are not as go as the HMZ-T1 (according to reports that I’ve read). The ST1080 uses LCoS display technology which has the novel function of being 10% transparent. It does come with a light blocker to make it 0% transparent but the HMZ-T1 will still beat it out on contrast ratio and colors.

      Most of your questions can be answered by acknowledging that the HMZ-T1 functions like an HDTV with an HDMI input:

      1) Yes, if you buy an HDMI adapter.
      2) Yes, if you buy an HDMI adapter.
      3) No, the HMZ-T1 does not have an SD slot or USB port.
      4) I do believe that the HMZ-T1 can accept 1080p content, it will scale it down to 720p with no issues (double check with Sony on this, but I’m fairly certain)
      5) No, the HMZ-T1 does not have any ports which could connect an HDD. You’d need to connect the HDD to a computer, and connect the computer to the HMZ-T1 via HDMI.
      6) Yes, if you get an HDMI adapter.
      7) I think you’re talking about Google TV — if so, then yes, as long as you buy a Google TV unit with HDMI, you should be able to connect it to the HMZ-T1.

      Hope this helps, good luck with your purchase!