Last week I endorsed the Planar displays a promising alternative to CRTs. Martin Montgomery (MRC-DUNN) was kind enough to provide some insightful feedback on both Planar and Omnia displays, so I have included his comments below (with permission) along with a link to an image showing the two displays juxtaposed:
http://pymol.sf.net/pmimag/dual_lcd_stereo.jpg It sounds like Omnia may have an edge on Planar in terms of comfort. Additional experiences and feedback are welcome! -- From: Martin Montgomery We've had these displays in use for over two years now (and a dual projector 3D system in our seminar room). We originally bought a MIMO screen from Omnia in Spain (on the right in the photo). This uses two samsung 20" LCDs and the images are really sharp. Looking at the screen in 3D mode for long periods of time is now very easy on the eye compared to shutter glasses. At the time, Planar only had a smaller screen available so we went with the Omnia. However, earlier this year we bought one of the new widescreen Planar screens to see if they were any better than the Omnia(on the left in the pic - ignore the SGIs they are now expensive paperweights!). Performance is much the same as the Omnia and the widescreen format is helpful when using Coot as you can have the menu box at the side. There are however, some drawbacks to the Planar chassis. The bottom screen is too close to the desk and the glass mirror is not long enough so you end up looking at the screen at a downward angle compared to the Omnia. As it is higher off the desk, you look straight at the screen so its more comfortable. We got both screens from Inition in London (www.inition.co.uk). Omnia now do 22, 24 and 42" screens and it may be that these have the screen closer to the desk to from the look of the pic on the Inition website. We have yet to try one. One thing to be aware of is that the polarisation is not in the same orientation in the Planar and Omnia so we need different glasses for each. Once you've used one of these, there's no going back to a CRT!
