The HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System delivers the next frontier in portable entertainment. Buy Now To Join the Revolution!
Need another A/C Adaptor for your HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System? Buy Now!
Take your HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System to the four corners of the world with the Headplay Battery. Click Here
HEADPLAY Ear Buds: high-performance, noise-reducing, in-ear sound system. Buy Now!
For Game consoles, DVD players, and set-top box connection - HEADPLAY S-Video / Composite AV RCA Adaptor.
The HEADPLAY Internationl Travel Kit makes it easy to take your Personal Cinema System with you to far-away lands. Buy Now!
Find all of the accessories you need for the HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System at headplay.com.
Buy the HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System and a battery together and receive $29 off of your order. Buy Now!
Receive a FREE battery with the purchase of HEADPLAY's Personal Cinema System. Buy Now!
Find HEADPLAY's Personal Cinema System and accessories at headplay.com.
Headplay
is probably every couch potato's dream. Imagine a TV. Now imagine being
able to take it anywhere and everywhere you go (except perhaps in the
shower), and being able to watch movies or play games on it anytime you
want. That's the concept for the new "Personal Cinema System" device,
Headplay.
Headplay
is a head-mounted device; a TV you wear on your head. You can connect
it to your gaming consoles, your DVD Player, your iPod, your PC, and
maybe your Betamax player if it hasn't choked on dust yet. If it has a
video out function, Headplay can most probably display it. You can also
plug in a memory stick and Headplay can run the media files - movies, videos, and images - with its own built-in player.
THE HARDWARE
The
whole unit is comprised of two main bodies: the Liberator and the
Visor. The Liberator is a small black box where every wire is connected
to. The Visor is made up of two parts: the hat itself and the optical
piece which looks like it was stolen from Scott Summers. There's also
the Navigator - it's the remote control - that connects the Visor to
the Liberator.
The Liberator
The
makers had simplicity in mind when they designed it, making sure all we
had to worry about was to sit back and enjoy. It operates on a
plug-and-play system and there's only one button on the Liberator; the
power button. Talk about simple: if a socket fits, then that's most
likely where it should be.
The
only real times you'll be prevented from moving around while you have
the gear on is if it's plugged into a wall to charge the batteries or
if it's plugged into another bulkier device like a console or a PC.
However, you can still walk around about a meter in radius from the
Liberator. Or you could just move the fridge beside the couch and be
done with it. If you can do the same for the toilet... well, godspeed.
If
you're connected to something portable though - like a USB memory
stick, or a portable DVD player - it's not hard to imagine bringing it
along on a road trip... It's probably best not to drive with it on
though. The batteries can last about six hours when it's fully charged
so that's enough for about three or four movies. Not bad if you're
taking a particularly long plane trip and you don't like the in-flight
movie.
The Navigator
You
know how some remotes look simple because they only have a few buttons,
but when you use them they're actually super complicated? That's not
the case with the remote. Navigation is simple with only seven buttons
that's perfectly button-mashable should all be lost. The worst you can
do is change the brightness.
The
menu itself is instinctive - much like iPod menus - and can easily
adjust video and audio settings with a few clicks. It isn't intrusive
either: the menu windows are translucent so you don't miss anything if
you're watching something.
The Visor
The
Visor unit looks and feels like a hat - but is not a hat, so don't wear
it outside lest you walk into a pole - and is comfortable enough to
wear for hours. It's lightweight and won't slip off easily. It's held
in place by some heavy duty velcro that's easily adjustable so go and
headbang all you want.
The
visor can adjust to anything from the size of your head to the grade of
your eye. It has a separate lens for each eye, and both can be adjusted
for focus and alignment. The optical piece on the hat can also be
adjusted to go up or down so you don't have to constantly move the hat
piece.
One
disadvantage of giving a large room for adjustability is that it needs
a lot of adjustments, and therefore more room for error. If the
alignment or the focus isn't adjusted well, you might notice some blind
spots here and there.
As
adjustable as it is though, the lenses have their limits. While the
focus can be configured for those with weaker eyes, it can only go so
far. This is easily remedied by wearing contact lenses or glasses.
PERSONAL CINEMA SYSTEM
Once
the adjustments are done it's pretty much all sitting back. Once you're
behind the lenses of Headplay, it's pretty easy to just relax and go
dead to the world around you. It's nothing but you and the screen, with
the stereo sounds blocking off everything else. It's like your own
movie screen inside your living room.
The
video output is pretty sweet: first instinct says the display would be
too small to appreciate but it's actually just right. The display is
about the same size as a large TV set would look when viewed from a
safe distance - unless you watch TV with your nose to the screen - or
the big screen when viewed at eye level from a row in the middle of the
theater.
At
first try there was some motion sickness involved but that's just the
brain adjusting to having a TV following you instead of the other way
around. Once you get used to this fact, it's all hunky dory. In fact,
the best position seems to be lying down or laying back. Preferably on
a very comfortable bean bag.
You can hook up a lot of devices onto Headplay, and it can switch
between them quite easily even while all of them are turned on. Plug in
a console, a PC, and a USB memory card and with a few clicks you can
switch between playing Madden while waiting for a group in World of Warcraft, or watch some videos on your USB card while waiting for your downloads to finish.
HEADPLAY FOR STORAGE DEVICES
Headplay ability to run media files in USB memory sticks and compact flash cards is truly what makes the Headplay
device portable. The seven-button remote shines in the USB function as
well. The instinctive values of the simple layout requires little
thought to operate.
The
menu for watching videos are laid out in a logical hierarchy, and while
the music player requires a bit more clicking than a mouse-user is
accustomed to, it's still fool-proof. The image viewer can also
play slideshows with its own built-in player with Powerpoint-like
transitions: image functions to flip, rotate, and zoom are even
available.
HEADPLAY FOR VIDEOS AND MOVIES
Being able to watch movies on Headplay is one of its strongest features, since it was really designed to be a portable movie screen. Headplay can run the most common media formats, including mp3, mpeg, avi, and XviD. You can watch movies, listen to music, and browse through your jpg pictures anywhere you go.
Headplay with iPods
One of the general complaints about iPod Videos is that the screen's so small that some find it almost impossible to watch anything on it, but Headplay offers a solution by giving iPod videos get the blow up treatment on its screen. We've tried it: you'll just need a TV out cable for your iPod and connect it to the Headplay unit.
There's
a hitch with the quality of the video though, as some details are lost.
However, this can be easily remedied by changing your videos'
compression rates. This shouldn't worry you though, because whether you
broadcast your iPod videos on TV or PC, resolutions are always an iffy thing to deal with when enlarged.
Headplay with PCs and Macs
We got
the treat to watch TMNT on our laptop too. We fed a DVD of the
CG-animated movie into the computer and let it play: all we needed was
popcorn and we definitely would have been in our own virtual theaters.
As we
stated earlier, once you're watching a movie - a graphically pleasing
movie with blockbuster graphics to boot - and you can easily be
absorbed. No worries about folks behind you kicking your seat, no noisy
children running up and down the aisles, and most especially, no
cellphones ringing every five or so minutes from the crowd.
A minor
note of caution though. For movie goers who always have a soft spot
throbbing in their hearts, you might want to steer clear away from
movies that could reduce you to tears: Schindler's List, Bambi, the
works. Getting teary eyed while using Headplay might prove to be an
inconvenience.
HEADPLAY FOR GAMES
The visuals are pretty stunning as it doesn't lose any detail from
the source. Minute details are just as clear as the humongous ones and
color doesn't suffer.
Headplay with the next-gen consoles
In the Xbox 360's demo for Beautiful Katamari
for example, you get to appreciate the size of your Katamari and also
be able to snicker at the plight of the struggling golfer stuck between
the duck and the cow. And in XBLA's Boom Boom Rocket,
no color is lost and you can clearly see each individual flare streak
off. But above all, nothing beats seeing Big Daddy make its first
appearance in BioShock when nothing else can avert your eyes from the screen.
Shooters
may actually be one of the best genres for Headplay. You get to
experience and immerse yourself in the game more because all you see is
the screen. You get to be more into your character, seeing behind their
eyes. And with that it has to be said that we can't wait to try this
baby out on Halo 3. In the meantime, Headplay on the Wii's Elebits and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is more than enough to fill the void while we wait.
Though
the Nintendo Wii might have its fair share of games oriented more
toward "family fun," we're not entirely sure if the same concept adapts
well with the Headplay unit. Since only one Headplay set can be enjoyed
by one person at a given time (for, err, obvious reasons), this is when
single-player titles like Zelda: Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4 shine.
Headplay works just as well with the Sony PlayStation 3. Each lock of Nariko's hair is still in place in Heavenly Sword,
and the chains of her gargantuan weapon are visible as she dances her
death whirls. Meanwhile, you won't have any problems aiming your
crosshairs at Triad goons while running down the streets - and tables,
and rails, and walls - of Hong Kong in Stranglehold.
Headplay with PC and Mac OS X platforms
Although Headplay works just as well with the PC and Mac,
the resolution only goes up to 1024x768. If you insist on working with
a larger resolution, the device will accommodate but the screen will
crop out what can't fit. This is not advisable while playing FPS games
like Medal of Honor.
It's bad enough when you get fragged while the whole screen is visible
but with that handicap, you're just askin' for a whoopin'.
Playing MMORPGS games like World of Warcraft using Headplay
has one big pro: we must insist that you watch the cinematics. Throw in
a surround-sound system and you have CG nirvana. There were some issues
with reading during that game as some of us who've tried it found the
text a little blurry, but a customized UI took care of that.
HEADPLAY
Despite some minor technical obstacles, Headplay
achieves that which it was made for: a portable movie screen. As a
gadget which allows you to watch movies in a different way than what
you're used to, Headplay is definitely a revolution in portable home entertainment.
Considering this is a quick impression, you might want to come back and read our more in-depth reviews on using the Headplay in the future. We'll be getting a closer look at other MMORPGs - World of Warcraft included - and games on the next-gen consoles and the PSP. We can't wait to try it out on Halo 3 when it comes out.
Headplay is currently on sale and is priced at US$ 499.99.
It's definitely a cool thing to own and might even be a viable option
if you're planning to buy a TV. If you also travel a lot but find
yourself idle in transit, Headplay would fit well into your must-haves
list.
The HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System delivers the next frontier in portable entertainment. Buy Now To Join the Revolution!
Need another A/C Adaptor for your HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System? Buy Now!
Take your HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System to the four corners of the world with the Headplay Battery. Click Here
HEADPLAY Ear Buds: high-performance, noise-reducing, in-ear sound system. Buy Now!
For Game consoles, DVD players, and set-top box connection - HEADPLAY S-Video / Composite AV RCA Adaptor.
The HEADPLAY Internationl Travel Kit makes it easy to take your Personal Cinema System with you to far-away lands. Buy Now!
Find all of the accessories you need for the HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System at headplay.com.
Buy the HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System and a battery together and receive $29 off of your order. Buy Now! Receive a FREE battery with the purchase of HEADPLAY's Personal Cinema System. Buy Now!
Find HEADPLAY's Personal Cinema System and accessories at headplay.com.
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