
Sony Personal 3D Viewer (HMZ-T1) head-mounted display
Strap this visor on your head to watch 3D movies or games close-up
Pros
- Excellent 3D effect
- Great colour and black levels
Cons
- Uncomfortable after half an hour
- Low resolution (720p)
- It’s hard to get the whole image in focus
Bottom Line
Sony’s Personal 3D Viewer is definitely a niche product. We can’t see many units selling -- it’s not a very sociable product, it can be uncomfortable and it really only appeals to 3D fans -- but if you can get it set up correctly it’s able to produce a good picture with excellent 3D depth.
-
Price
$ 899.00 (AUD)
The Sony Personal 3D Viewer (HMZ-T1) is a head-mounted display that uses a 720p OLED screen in front of each eye, creating a crosstalk-free 3D effect. It’s somewhat difficult to set up correctly and can be uncomfortable. If you get it right, though, it can display bright and contrasty images which have excellent 3D.
Sony Personal 3D Viewer (HMZ-T1): Design and setup
We have to get this out of the way early. The first thing we thought of when we saw the Sony Personal 3D Viewer was Nintendo’s unloved and unlovely Virtual Boy. The Personal 3D Viewer, or HMZ-T1, is a wearable headset which combines two 1.8-centimetre OLED screens with a set of stereo headphones.
There are two elements to the HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer: the head-mounted display itself, and a control box which has a single HDMI input. This box connects to your Blu-ray player, games console or PC and receives the 3D (or 2D) signal, decodes and delivers it to the headset through a 3.5 metre long cable. This long cable gives any wearer plenty of room to move, although if you’ve got a long or large living space with the video source at one end you might reach its limits.
There is a wide range of adjustment built into the Sony Personal 3D Viewer headset. You can move the headphones back and forwards and up and down, you can choose the most comfortable nose-piece, you can add or remove ‘light blockers’ that sit against your cheeks, and most importantly you can adjust the positioning of the OLED displays for the best possible convergence. Several cushions and accessories are included.
When you strap it on (looking like Geordi La Forge in Star Trek), the Personal 3D Viewer displays whatever 3D game or movie you’re watching in stereoscopic 3D. Since you’re looking at two screens instead of one, as you would be with a 3D TV or movie screen, the 3D effect is entirely created by your eyes: theoretically no cross-talk, blurriness or flickering between video frames.
Joining the two sliders that adjust these OLED screens on the bottom of the headset are three buttons for power, volume and menu navigation. You can only connect the HMZ-T1 to a single HDMI input, but four image presets with a small range of image quality tweaks are available in the menu.
The Personal 3D Viewer uses a telescoping headband that sits around the back and top of the wearer’s head. To get the headset to sit securely, it has to be quite tight, which does lead to a definite case of ‘hat hair’ after a few minutes. There’s enough adjustment to suit a wide range of head sizes, although we think the HMZ-T1 would be difficult to get comfortable on a small child or anyone with a particularly large head.
After around half an hour of each viewing session with the Personal 3D Viewer, we did find it uncomfortable. It presses on the wearer’s forehead and can be quite tight around the ears, so we’d definitely recommend potential buyers try it on for as long a time as possible. It’s also reasonably heavy at 420 grams. Wearing the Personal 3D Viewer for an entire movie, if it’s set up incorrectly, could be a rather uncomfortable experience.
Brand Post

Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Miofive 4K Dash Cam review: This friendly road watcher is ‘here for you!’
- 2 Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A review: This 4K monitor plays nice with consoles
- 3 Firewalla Gold review: Powerful home network security in a tiny box
- 4 Alienware AW3423DW review: Quantum dot OLED renders rival monitors obsolete
- 5 Acer Aspire 5 review: An affordable laptop that’s enjoyable to use
Latest News Articles
- HP to sponsor young Aussie with ocean-saving innovation
- Samsung launches new Galaxy A smartphones in Australia
- Samsung upgrade their Australian tablet range
- Dell launches its Rugged range
- Sony launches three new 4K HDR Home Cinema Projectors
Resources
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers

Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world

Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles

PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D

The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G

Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65

This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76

It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Best Click Frenzy mobile and Internet plan deals
- Microsoft’s iconic browser Internet Explorer is being killed off in June
- Best Unlimited Internet Deals in 2022
- Which flagship TV is best? Sony 4K HDR Bravia 2016 versus LG 4K HDR OLED 2016
- 10 Blu-ray movies / Best looking Blu-ray movies