It's a trend now that every month we get many gizmos of mind-boggling shapes and sizes that could perform unexpected tasks. But when we received this portable video player, we realised that imagination can have no bounds. A spawn of the science-fiction world, we had the Myvu Solo Edition, a portable video player with us for a review.

The Myvu are like glasses, very thin and black in colour. Wearing them,
you'll look like you've either joined an 80s techno band or are from a spaceship set out to save Earth from invading extra-terrestrials. Attached to the frame of the glasses are ear-buds that will pull you completely into the cinematic experience. The cable connecting to the iPod comes right out from one of the ends of the frame.

Technology
It takes a little more imagination and innovation than technology to come up with such a product, but technology it is in the end. With medical and military applications serving as the manufacturer's fundamental technology drivers, the Myvu has high¬class quality and durability attached or rather mounted on it. The design provides the most ergonomically designed viewer with attention to style that meets stringent eye safety requirements.





The Myvu incorporates its own SolidOptex optical technology. This unique optical system allows the user to maintain natural vision and awareness
of the environment under all lighting conditions. The images that you see
on the screen are of quarter VGA resolution thus the image is not diluted or pixilated. The ear buds are equipped with the noise cancelling feature and come with different sized ear-pads, which fit snugly over your ear. The control pod that comes alongwith the Myvu, monitors contrast and brightness of the image displayed. And as Myvu connects to the digital out of the iPod, the audio and video quality of the iPod is nowhere compromised.

There is an USB charge port on the connector, which you can charge as you watch your videos while you are near a PC, but while you are on the move, the player draws power from the iPod. A USB wall adaptor will be a good option if you charge your Myvu independently, but is not included in the package. The glasses are a bit heavier than regular sunglasses but don't worry, as extra nose-pads are provided for you to choose one which fits best to soften any presure on your nose-bridge.

Performance
Excited just with the concept of the Myvu video player, we were all set
to actually see how this little gizmo performed. We connected the player to our fully charged iPod and whoop .... it felt as if we were transported to a mini¬theatre with a big screen about 7-8 feet in front of us!

We played 'Casino Royale' and the experience was nothing less than watching it on a normal 26-inch LCD player with a good sound set-up. The picture was crisp and clear without any pixelation or patches. As the image was very good, we actually did not use the picture controls to rectify or correct the image. But just to see how it worked we tweaked it a little. Though the picture controls were workable, we did not find it very user friendly because the adjustments could only be executed at predetermined levels. we could not select a gradual level.
The sound was exceptionally good.

The ear buds were effective to a large extent at noise cancelling. There was no unnecessary boost to any of the frequencies and the vocals were as natural as they could be. We tried the player in different environments; from our dark studio to our bright office workspace. But that did not affect the performance of the screen at all. One good point was even though we pretty much felt as if we were sitting in a mini-theatre, the Myvu did not cut us completely from our environment or distract us either. The player drew its charge from the iPod. Although the iPods battery had to shell out a little extra energy, it lasted through two movies with still a little left over - the Myvu was one tireless marathon beast.

Conclusion

The concept and technology behind the video player in a set of goggles is probably in its infant stage, but as it will evolve and more manufacturers will enter this realm of entertainment, it is surely going to be a revolution in itself. For now, the Myvu is a good specimen to start with for its excellent picture quality, appealing sound production and an ergonomic stylish design. And it also does not cost you a bomb.