Trioviz's Inficolor 3D glasses: Review (with pics)

     I recently picked up Wal-Mart's excellent Arkham City/ Arkham Asylum GOTY 2-pack for the PS3. Arkham City comes with 3D for 3D enhanced TVs and both versions come with anaglyph (2-color glasses) 3D options for gamers that lack an expensive 3D TV. The tech is by a company called Trioviz. There are paper glasses for their 3D implementation included in the GOTY Asylum pack, but in the Arkham City box, there is a catalog that shows a more robust plastic pair that can be ordered from their web page. 

     I was not entirely happy with the results I had gotten from the paper pair, so I decided (upon learning that Assassin's Creed may soon have the same 3D tech) to give their plastic glasses a shot. They are a bit on the pricey side at 30 dollars a pop.
     Having received them today in the mail, I thought I'd post my impressions. Were they worth the 30 bucks?  Short answer, yes.
     The website is nice enough to offer free shipping to Canada and the US and the shipping isn't that cheap Amazon-style super saver shipping. It's 3-day shipping. My glasses arrived in a nice white box in exactly three days time. They came packaged inside a ziploc-like bag inside of a small black fabric pull-string bag. Along with that there was a small leaflet explaining the glasses.
     The glasses immediately felt quite classy. They don't feel expensive, but, more importantly, they don't feel cheap. They feel like a quality product. Not only is the build quality above average, but Trioviz has taken quite a few things into account that make these glasses worth the asking price. To start with, the frames are a bit oversized. This means that I can wear them directly on top of my glasses without feeling like I'm smashing my seeing glasses into my face just to experience 3D gaming. Next, Trioviz was smart in giving the end pieces a wide foot to block out any excess light. Along the same lines, the rims of the glasses, come out (or in, really) to block excess light from the top. All of this ensures that the only light hitting your eyes is light that has been filtered through their colored lenses.
    Which brings me to their effectiveness. The quality of 3D that you get is not going to compare to a 3D TV or a 3D movie. It never will. However, when compared to traditional blue/red anaglyph, the difference in quality is instantly noticeable. The shades of green and magenta are strong enough to produce the 3D effect but subtle enough to not completely drown out the color. Even in a game with colors as subdued as Arkham City, I was still able to tell what color things were. It was not perfect, but it easily outperformed traditional red/blue 3D options.
      In comparison to Trioviz's paper alternatives, the quality of 3D given to the gamer is not really very noticeable. In fact, the difference in effect is probably due more to the plastic glasses's light-blocking construction than to the quality of the lenses. However, whatever the cause may be, the improvements seem to be a slightly (very slight) sharper image, and a slightly more subtle pronouncement of the green and magenta overlaying your view of the 3D image.
     So, should you buy them? That's really up to you. Do you want to play their supported games in 3D but want a better alternative to the cheap paper glasses? If so, then yes, definitely buy them. If you just want to see how the game runs in 3D only to quickly switch back to 2D, then I wouldn't recommend a purchase. This is for gamers that want well designed, comfortable, quality-made glasses for anaglyph 3D gaming without the discomfort of using paper glasses.

Pros:
• build quality
• comfortable
• free and fast shipping
• slight performance improvement
• comes with nice storage bag

Cons:
• performance improvement is slight
• 30 bucks is about 5-10 bucks too much

Here are some more pics:

The Inficolor 3D glasses solution!

Wide rims to block light

My glasses fit easily inside!