I know a lot of people don’t want to spend 2 hours watching this video, but because it has so much awesome info that you can’t find anywhere else, I have summarized all the interesting points.
You can watch the full video on Sebastian’s channel here:
Summary of MRTV LIVE SPECIAL with Kevin Henderson, Pimax Head Of US Operations - Live Q and A - Pimax A.M.A
It has been a few days, so I believe this shouldn’t be too detrimental to Sebastian’s channel views … ie. most everyone who would watch it has watched it.
Thank you so much to Kevin and Sebastian. Very good listen and gives a lot better picture of things.
SORRY if there are any inaccuracies, I was listening at 2x. [Words in brackets like this are my own thoughts/notes]
Customer Support Related
- Regarding support SUPEN tickets being unanswered: This is due to the huge amount of tickets accumulated during CNY. Once new US local offices are up in 3 weeks it will help spread the load and also Pimax China are increasing support staff.
- EU Service Center For EU still finding people and may hire existing company that has support and logistics capability already.
- Kevin seems to have a lot of experience related to customer support, so looks like US at least will be very well served.
QA and Quality Issues
- White sparkles due to faulty cables: Before CNY they didn’t check the cables but now they do. Problem is faulty shielding of the cables. They will send new cables for people with this problem.
- QA Process has been improved around CNY: They are more thorough now. They have also sent people to station at supplier factories to do QA on the components right there.
- Cracked housing: Was due to thin and brittle plastic. Now they have fixed that. If anyone has cracks can get a new one.
- Black Dots issue: After their testing, they found that there is a wide difference between the panels regarding how bad it is. (Eg. 5 panels in same batch only one had them really bad.) For panels where it is really obvious Kevin said they were badly calibrated. This will be handled on case by case basis. So some cases will be allowed to exchange, but not all.
- Headphone Jack: It is a manufacturing defect. Once local offices open, then can send it in to repair.
PiTool Related
- Change Logs: Kevin acknowledged that they were too short. Kevin wants to also have ‘known issues’ included. [I guess the change logs will be improved.]
- Why 103 was taken down and GPU Manufacturer Involvement: Now GPU manufacturers are involved in reviewing PiTool drivers. PiTool (at least 103) was using some deprecated functions which GPU manufacturer was planning to remove/no longer support. Partner agreement with them says can’t use deprecated functions in drivers, so is why 103 has been taken down. They’ve switched to using new supported function (same functionality) now.
- In order to get wide FOV to work, they had to create PiTool. (No other way.) Which is why they have compatibility with thousands of games.
Delivery Issues
- Alibaba: They just used old pictures to put up on Alibaba. The products don’t exist yet, they are just “eager to sell” more.
- Korea Allip: It was a while back and a “pretty small number”. “was it a wise plan? No.” There were only 25 units involved.
- Pre-Orders getting units before backers: The units were sent from Pimax in the same shipment. Then the freight-forwarder handled the delivery. Pimax doesn’t have control of the delivery order at that point.
- 8K Manufacturing: After CNY they produced 8Ks until panels ran out. Then due to panel quality issue, they have sent engineers to the panel supplier for onsite QA which has resolved the panel quality issues. All 8Ks should be shipped by March 8th.
- If you order 5K+ now: You should get it no later than 3 weeks. By April, in US it will be a lot faster. You should be able to get it like the day after tomorrow.
- By May, Pimax 5K+ orders in US will be shipped in one day.
- In future, Kevin wants to implement EDI in the shopping cart so that customers can see when they might receive a unit. (It will check in real-time inventories at freight-forwarders to find available units.) Also once you place order, system should be able to tell when it will be shipped and give tracking no.
Other Models
- 5K BE (OLED version): Larger scale production will begin after March 1st. Panels have arrived. 1000+ units will be produced in March.
- Upgrading to 5K BE if you are a 5K+/8K Backer: If your unit has been manufactured and sent to freight forwarder, then no. So 5K+ now can’t. [But that means 8K backers who haven’t had their 8K manufactured can still switch to 5K BE.]
Wireless Module
- Wireless module: “we’re working on [it]”. “This is the hardest hill we have to climb. We have 3x the pixels as the next HMD.” “It is being worked on on a daily basis”
- They actually have tested prototypes of wireless module. It works, but it isn’t working good yet. There are two different vendors they are working with.
- Kevin thinks in 2nd half of 2019 the wireless module should be polished enough to sell.
- The wireless module vendors are doing the majority of development work on it. They are big companies.
Controllers
- Also being worked on on a daily basis.
- Currently, they don’t look anything like what they did at CES.
- They heard feedback about the big rings being too big.
- Also took in a lot of other feedback from people at CES who tried them.
- When will they be available?: They will probably wait until “other similar controllers” become available, so they can ensure that theirs are fully compatibility.
- In the next month [March] or so they should be able to start showing them more and small quantity production in April.
- In Summer time they should be available in large quantities.
- Pricing “is going to be designed to be cheaper than the next guy”. “More than competitive.” “Our plan is to sell a lot of them”
Rigid Headstrap
- Kevin said “I got to try more than one version of it. It worked great for me”
- There was one PSVR style, and another with “flexible and hard pieces with removable headphones”.
- They have their pluses and minuses.
- “Looks like DAS a little bit.” It has some features that the DAS doesn’t have that he can’t reveal yet. “Pretty signficant things that I thought were really slick”. “It has foams you can change out.”
- Was comfortable for Kevin, but not for everyone yet.
- Goal is to show them off at GTC (which is the same time as GDC).
Lighthouses
- There is a good chance they will have a module for inside-out tracking.
- Lighthouse 2.0 just don’t have wide availability yet.
- In the next few months they “should” have this completely resolved where they’re available in quantity, but right now they aren’t.
- “The manufacturer of the lighthouses have to manufacture them in quantity for us to buy” [at a low enough price]
- They are working to make it happen.
- Once supply of lighthouse is resolved, they will have full bundles (HMD + controllers + lighthouses) for sale
Other Accessories
- Face foam options They will have 4-5 different ones to show at GTC. They also have a one with a very nice material [PEX?] that has been made so it fits very good.
- Prescription Inserts He’s seen them. It does work and it does exist. But he doesn’t know much about when they will be ready.
- $100 Voucher for 8K → 5K+ downgrade: There will be a mass email sending of the vouchers once there are accessories to buy.
Misc
- Transparency: Kevin is trying to help instill improved communication culture regarding transparency and releasing information both good and bad.
- Pimax will be at GTC Will have content partners with them which they will announce. It is a B2B show, so they will show more B2B related stuff. This B2B stuff will also become available to consumers as accessories later.
- 8K X is the primary future device but right now most engineers are assigned to reducing all faults in manufacturing for a solid manufacturing process.
- Talking about whether Pimaxes would be available to buy on Amazon, Kevin said they are working to be available in multiple mass channels.
- Pimax are PC VR focused for now as they are going for maximum immersion rather than being lightweight/portable/battery efficient [which would be contradictory goals].
Additionally, there is a new Podcast from MRTV where Kevin and Sebastian talk more about behind the scenes of how Kevin is helping Pimax. There are also some juicy bits about 8K X which makes it sound pretty exciting:
This post has been brought to you by the following message:
@anon84525399 I’m backer #2466, where is my 8K!?
