The HMZ-T1, Sony’s upcoming 3D HD head mounted display, has been pushed back in US availability from what Sony originally stated on their US site. Though Sony’s site originally showed that the HD 3D head mounted display would be available “on or about 10/26/11”, that date came and went while Sony continued to list HMZ-T1 as available for pre-order.

Checking in on the HMZ-T1 product page today (11/1), we can see that Sony moved the “available on or about” date back to 11/4. This is still a week ahead of the international launch of 11/11, but delayed still from the initially presented 10/26 date. I’m hoping that they won’t continue to push the date back to match (or surpass) the internationally advertised release.

Though the HMD isn’t out yet, the product page has a bunch of reviews on it. Most are just people expressing excitement, but a few are experiences form people who have had the opportunity to try the device on for themselves. Here is one of those reviews:

Guys, here’s my personal take of this item thus far from (total) of 3 hours playing with the unit at the Sony Store:
  • It’s VERY EXTREMELY EASY to put this unit on, take it off and putting it on again.
  • Playing 2D materials, both 16:9 and 21:9, the screen appears to be slightly larger than when they’re playing 3D. Why? I don’t know
  • Using QTEC FPD blu-ray, it shows no visible colour shift between 0 IRE to 100 IRE test pattern
  • There is slight red push but not the point of distraction.
  • I played 24p movies, and the display seems to play it properly, there is no OSD shown on the prototype HMZ-T1 so I don’t know whether it’s doing 2:3 pulldown properly or doing 5:5 or 3:3.
  • For the demo HMZ-T1, it seems like there is no MotioFlow/CineFlow activated, no video-look at all
  • Both static and motion resolution shows approx 700 lines (according to the QTEC FPD blu-ray).
  • The black level is amazing although I can still see that it’s not completely black. With brightness control I’m pretty sure that the black level can be brought down a bit more.
  • White is very close to calibrated white (warm-ish white) without noticable clipping.
And from questions I’ve been asked around the internet:
  • 3D format supported are side-by-side, frame packed, top-and-bottom. So you can watch 3D from blu-ray and cable TV
  • There is no flicker at all because you’re looking at 2 images simultaneously. There are two OLED displays inside, one for each eye.
  • The picture quality is HD with amazing colour and contrast.
  • The image looks like a very large screen viewed from a distance. It is not like having a small screen viewed closely in front of the eyes.
  • From a total of 3 hours testing this unit. It doesn’t create eye fatigue at all
  • No eyestrain or headache experienced by me at all
  • Sound quality is very good but not great.
I’m disappointed to hear about the sound quality not being that good. I have a set of Astro Gaming A40’s, and it would be a shame if the audio in the HMZ-T1 wasn’t as good, for I wouldn’t be able to use the A40’s in place of the built-in audio because of the design of the HMD. I’m hoping my local Sony store will have the HMZ-T1 in stock at some point so I can give it a hands-on test. Stay tuned for that!
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Ben Lang
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."