planar stereoscopic glass vs acryllic

[vrekks]

im looking into building a planar stereo setup. i will be recieving a s2309w from dell in mid march (if anyone knows the polorization angle of that monitor shout it out). acyrillic is cheaper than glass from what i have seen. anyone with personal experience care to share? i would think that the acrylic would be coated with something to give it half transmissive properites. i have these piece from the board game khet that split a laser beam with a semi clear piece of plastic or acrlic. the coating on the piece looks kind of like the stick-on-tint you see on cars except its clear mainly and only speckled with reflective dots letting some light pass and some light bounce off the dots. the only problem is one beam is visible dimmer than the other.

[zazoo]

I have read about acrylic mirrors "sagging" over time, which may distort the reflected image, and possibly the refracted image, as well (and the larger the acrylic panel, the greater the tendency to sag for a given thickness). I have a glass mirror, and it is very rigid. I also read a post stating how, in one instance, the reflective coating on an acrylic mirror was removed when tape was peeled from its edges (I do not know if the same thing would happen to a glass one, and I'm not going to try ). You may want to check the "Do It Yourself" forum for some other posts about planar-type system ideas:

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=136 (and its sister post on the nVidia forums: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=32547 )

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2606

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2741

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1948

[StereoGaming4Me]

If you're going to spend the money on this project, would recommend avoiding acryllic for the mirror if at all possible. It warps/bends, if you clean it with anything but water, it will still scratch. It also has a chance of discoloring.

I've built a 20" planar, and spent about $150 on teleprompter professional half mirrored glass and do not regret it.