HP Reverb Pro: Ask Me Anything!
- Thread starter Exigeous
- Start date
Could be the headset needs to be sent back all products have occasional duds.
No. I've owned DK1, DK2, Vive, Rift, PSVR , Lenovo Explorer, Odyssey+ and now a Reverb. I don't play room scale games so didn't see the point of spending £1k just to be able to give the middle finger in a game
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After coming from the Odyssey+, I 100% concur with wick on his review. Black levels, though good for an LED screen, are still somewhere around a dark grey. Colors look completely washed out in comparison. To be fair, even the colors of the rift look washed out next to the Odyssey+. Also, I have found these lenses to cause me a lot of eye strain, though I haven’t seen anyone else with this complaint. Comfort is a wash since the Odyssey+ can be made to be quite comfy with the aftermarket VRCover.
There are some undoubted advantages of the reverb. Resolution is unparalleled and I hardly notice any god rays (god rays in the Odyssey+ are quite distracting). Also, the reverb does not suffer from the ghosting that is evident with OLED panels when moving your head quickly.
All in all, the Reverb would be a solid upgrade from most headsets, but the price point is very high. I personally would not recommend folks to upgrade from the Odyssey+ if they already have one, but this is down to personal opinion since there are tradeoffs on both sides of the coin.
There are some undoubted advantages of the reverb. Resolution is unparalleled and I hardly notice any god rays (god rays in the Odyssey+ are quite distracting). Also, the reverb does not suffer from the ghosting that is evident with OLED panels when moving your head quickly.
All in all, the Reverb would be a solid upgrade from most headsets, but the price point is very high. I personally would not recommend folks to upgrade from the Odyssey+ if they already have one, but this is down to personal opinion since there are tradeoffs on both sides of the coin.
I guess I am just lucky then as I have said my blacks are very black. Using a RTX 2070 I could not be happier with this headset.
Audio is workable, as I said, basically a very cheap pair of headphones. They do press on your ear to give you some low end but it's not a good quality sound. It's mostly midrange with a rolled off treble.
1. His camera is compensating for the brightness of the image. As the image is bright the camera lowers the picture brightness so it doesn't blow out.
2. Black levels on bright images do actually look black due to how your eyes work, it's a contrast between the brightest point and the darkest point. A projectors black is actually a white screen yet it still looks black due to the brightness of the colours. When you go on a dark image - just like in space, you realise that black isn't actually black, it's grey, and that grey is close to you and not way out in the distance. I lost myself for hours on my Odyssey playing Elite, it felt like I was there. On the Reverb it feels more like you're just looking at a very large 3D TV taking up all your field of view. It's a different experience.
To explain it, imagine you get a really good TV to watch a horror film , you close the curtains and blinds so the room is dark , it's a scary experience. Now watch it again in the daylight with the colours being washed out with the daylight. It's a bit like that.
Going off that image you posted... In use the Odyssey is like the Centre picture and the Reverb is the Left picture
I really don't know what to do here. Lots of other little games which aren't dark look fine, better than the Odyssey, but I bought the headset to play Elite and it's just not that great for it apart from the resolution bump.
2. Black levels on bright images do actually look black due to how your eyes work, it's a contrast between the brightest point and the darkest point. A projectors black is actually a white screen yet it still looks black due to the brightness of the colours. When you go on a dark image - just like in space, you realise that black isn't actually black, it's grey, and that grey is close to you and not way out in the distance. I lost myself for hours on my Odyssey playing Elite, it felt like I was there. On the Reverb it feels more like you're just looking at a very large 3D TV taking up all your field of view. It's a different experience.
To explain it, imagine you get a really good TV to watch a horror film , you close the curtains and blinds so the room is dark , it's a scary experience. Now watch it again in the daylight with the colours being washed out with the daylight. It's a bit like that.
Going off that image you posted... In use the Odyssey is like the Centre picture and the Reverb is the Left picture
I really don't know what to do here. Lots of other little games which aren't dark look fine, better than the Odyssey, but I bought the headset to play Elite and it's just not that great for it apart from the resolution bump.
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I've got about a dozen hours in the Reverb now.
I do think the black level is good. I think it's a better than the Rift CV1, which is the only real VR headset comparison that I have. It's just not OLED good (the difference between a matte and semi-gloss black is how I would describe LED vs OLED).
Playing around with the settings with Dr. Kaii's EDProfiler may improve things for you, wickfut, although if the black level is the feature you are looking for, it's never going to be what you want it to be and I'd suggest going for the refund. If I recall, you bought from a third party site, and they may have sold you the older unit before the redesign which might be where some argument here is coming from. We can discuss checking that if you are interested.
I think the headphones are fine. They are comfortable and do their job, although as you say they do not have quite the range that a real professional headset will give you. I think that they are removable and can be replaced by a separate pair easily thanks to the extra audio wire, so if you already have a favorite pair of headphones, you might as well try that out since it's not a big deal to swap out.
For me the resolution bump is the real reason to get this headset. There are a few other bonuses that I mentioned in a previous review, like the very good light seal and lack of "VR face" after extended use. But my experience playing Elite has gone from "scuba diver with Vaseline over his goggles" to "scuba diver with clean goggles" and that's the biggest improvement I could ask for. It's important that we be realistic about flaws and downsides to the Reverb, even while we gush about the benefits. Truth is that there will never be the perfect VR headset, but there are many that are top of one category.
I do think the black level is good. I think it's a better than the Rift CV1, which is the only real VR headset comparison that I have. It's just not OLED good (the difference between a matte and semi-gloss black is how I would describe LED vs OLED).
Playing around with the settings with Dr. Kaii's EDProfiler may improve things for you, wickfut, although if the black level is the feature you are looking for, it's never going to be what you want it to be and I'd suggest going for the refund. If I recall, you bought from a third party site, and they may have sold you the older unit before the redesign which might be where some argument here is coming from. We can discuss checking that if you are interested.
I think the headphones are fine. They are comfortable and do their job, although as you say they do not have quite the range that a real professional headset will give you. I think that they are removable and can be replaced by a separate pair easily thanks to the extra audio wire, so if you already have a favorite pair of headphones, you might as well try that out since it's not a big deal to swap out.
For me the resolution bump is the real reason to get this headset. There are a few other bonuses that I mentioned in a previous review, like the very good light seal and lack of "VR face" after extended use. But my experience playing Elite has gone from "scuba diver with Vaseline over his goggles" to "scuba diver with clean goggles" and that's the biggest improvement I could ask for. It's important that we be realistic about flaws and downsides to the Reverb, even while we gush about the benefits. Truth is that there will never be the perfect VR headset, but there are many that are top of one category.
I believe it to be the new version. Comes with the plastic cable clip and serial 6KP43EA#ABB
Seeing as nowhere sold reverbs in the UK other than the HP website until after the new version. I doubt they'd have old stock of the old recalled version.
Seeing as nowhere sold reverbs in the UK other than the HP website until after the new version. I doubt they'd have old stock of the old recalled version.
That sounds right, just wanted to make sure! Like I said, EDProfiler is your best bet to make the black levels and colors workable for you, but you'll most likely never be happy compared to an OLED screen if that's what you care about most. I'm a bit surprised that the resolution increase doesn't more than make up for the downsides for you, but to each their own.
I think the CV1 had better audio by a small margin, but I do feel fully immersed with the audio presented with the Reverb. Changing out the headphones for a professional set would be a really cool small upgrade if someone is an audiophile and needs to hear a more full range of bass and treble. I'd give the audio a 7.5/10. Good and comfortable, not perfect, but that's totally okay.
Just played Project Cars, it stuttered a fair bit but looked amazing, same with Solus Project. Space Pirate Trainer was unreal. I never lost tracking once with it, a huge improvement there.
My PC is in a server case rack mounted in a large studio desk so the cable length isn't too hot after it's come around all the back of my stuff. Ordered a small DP 1m extension being dropped off later thanks to amazon same day delivery. They do work with this don't they?
Steam strangely sets my resolution as 3000x3000 by default. How odd.
My PC is in a server case rack mounted in a large studio desk so the cable length isn't too hot after it's come around all the back of my stuff. Ordered a small DP 1m extension being dropped off later thanks to amazon same day delivery. They do work with this don't they?
Steam strangely sets my resolution as 3000x3000 by default. How odd.
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After reading more of this thread, and that other linked review. I'm gonna stick with the Rift S ... for now.
I like to equate VR headsets to old computer/console generations. I started with the PSVR. It's great, but it's very early tech, so for me the Playstation VR is the Commodore 64 equivalent of VR gaming. There are loads of great C64 games (Elite!), but does anyone remember the jump from a Commodore 64 to a Commodore Amiga? For me that's the leap from PSVR to the Oculus Rift S.
I played Skyrim VR extensively on PSVR, and loved it. All of it. But CDKEYS were recently (maybe still) selling Steam keys for Skyrim VR for £15.99, so I bought it on a whim. It's all I've played since. The leap in quality is amazing. Just like the leap from the C64 to an Amiga.
Now, the Index and Reverb? In fairness I don't have experience of those, but they appear to be in that odd period between the Amiga/SNES/Megadrive, and the leap to proper 3D geometry in mainstream gaming which came with the PS1 and, a little later, the N64. So right now I'd put the Valve Index and HP Reverb in the Amiga CD-32/Sega 32-X territory - very expensive for not that much of a leap in quality, and we're likely to see even better tech (maybe Pimax will get their act together?) in as little as 18 months to two years.
I'm gonna wait for the proper next generation of headsets. Right now the Rift S ticks all the boxes, even for Elite Dangerous.
I like to equate VR headsets to old computer/console generations. I started with the PSVR. It's great, but it's very early tech, so for me the Playstation VR is the Commodore 64 equivalent of VR gaming. There are loads of great C64 games (Elite!), but does anyone remember the jump from a Commodore 64 to a Commodore Amiga? For me that's the leap from PSVR to the Oculus Rift S.
I played Skyrim VR extensively on PSVR, and loved it. All of it. But CDKEYS were recently (maybe still) selling Steam keys for Skyrim VR for £15.99, so I bought it on a whim. It's all I've played since. The leap in quality is amazing. Just like the leap from the C64 to an Amiga.
Now, the Index and Reverb? In fairness I don't have experience of those, but they appear to be in that odd period between the Amiga/SNES/Megadrive, and the leap to proper 3D geometry in mainstream gaming which came with the PS1 and, a little later, the N64. So right now I'd put the Valve Index and HP Reverb in the Amiga CD-32/Sega 32-X territory - very expensive for not that much of a leap in quality, and we're likely to see even better tech (maybe Pimax will get their act together?) in as little as 18 months to two years.
I'm gonna wait for the proper next generation of headsets. Right now the Rift S ticks all the boxes, even for Elite Dangerous.
Probably not a bad idea.
its a comparison with the other Visors in the same conditions, and in the same conditions, Reverb is far better than Oculus S and even the acclaimed Index and it has even the best colors.