Up until now I’ve had the impression that all Nvidia Tegra 3-based devices should have stereoscopic 3D support when connected through HDMI to an external 3D-capable TV set (or other display device supporting HDMI 1.4 3D). I’ve already played a bit and liked the stereoscopic 3D support on the Asus Transformer Pad (TF300) tablet a while ago and I’ve decided to try out another Tegra 3-based tablet that comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich pre-installed – the Acer Iconia Tab A510 tablet. I’ve tried connecting the tablet to multiple 3D-capable display devices such as a Panasonic 3D plasma HDTV, a 3D monitor from Acer and a 3D projector with HDMI 1.4 support, but no luck in being able to enable stereo 3D support or in seeing the HDMI menu with the settings appear. The external display works just fine and displays what is shown on the tablet’s screen, but only in normal 2D mode, so apparently the the Acer Iconia Tab A510 Tegra 3 tablet simply does not feature stereoscopic 3D support. I can say I’m a bit disappointed, though besides the lack of stereoscopic 3D support the tablet actually seems quite nice and comes at a good price…
There are probably other Tegra 3-based devices that may or may not support stereoscopic 3D output to a 3D-capable display device using HDMI, so if this is a feature that you want to have on your tablet, you better try it out or thoroughly check if it is really supported before deciding on the product. The thing that I’m not very happy about is that there is no clear information which Tegra 3 devices do support stereoscopic 3D output on an external device and though Nvidia has a list of all Tegra powered products released on the market, this list does not include that information (and device manufacturers not always make information about that support or the lack of such available). The Tegra dedicated website that Nvidia also has called Tegra Zone also does not contain a list of devices with clear information on the features they support such as stereoscopic 3D output, though you can check what Tegra-optimized games do support stereo 3D mode on it. And here I’m wondering am I the only one interested in the stereoscopic 3D features of Tegra 3-based devices, surely not, but it seems like if Nvidia does not care much about that feature that is apparently supported by Tegra 3, though not available on all Tegra 3-based devices. And stereoscopic 3D support is a feature that can really make a difference for some people when making a choice for a new tablet or a smartphone and they want to be able to connect it to a 3D HDTV and use in stereo 3D mode.
