Making sense of the 1s and 0s
Eyetop DVD review: Equipment
The setup consists of two main components, the glasses and the portable DVD gear. The portable DVD player itself is stored in the backpack (it's more of a "side-pack" than a backpack, but you'll see that in the upcoming pictures), along with the video power and processing unit. This unit requires 4 AA batteries (not included), and provides power to the glasses. Despite the fact that the video power unit only has one button, I spent at least 10 minutes trying to figure out how to turn it on, but this was primarily my fault, as I had taken all the pieces out of the backpack to use at first. Had I left well enough alone, I would have clearly noticed the single button. Good thing I didn't pull out the screwdriver!
Aside from the comfort and practicality of the backpack, it is also quite useful in that the Eyetop team clearly spent a lot of time designing a system where the wires were elegantly hidden. I especially began to appreciate this after I took all the pieces out and saw how good a job they had done tidying it all up.
The backpack also provided sufficient access to the DVD player for me to control playback. If there was a front-loading portable DVD player on the market, you'd never have to remove the DVD unit from the backpack. My biggest critique of the system was the supplied Shinco DVD player (it was quite janky!). Fortunately, the Eyetop carrying case comes with a special attachment for the battery pack, just to make it a bit more convenient.
Here are a couple of pictures of the equipment (click on the image for a full-screen view):
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NEXT… Wearing it