3-D TVs With Blu-ray Could Boost Home Theaters

By: Jennifer Hong
Staff Writer
Published: Mar 10, 2010

Future home theater TVs could involved 3-D viewing with glasses and Blu-ray DVD.

Three major television manufacturers are now introducing new 3-D TVs. Panasonic Corp. will partner with Best Buy Co. to place special displays promoting its new televisions. In fact, some of the retail stores will discount the models by up to 50 percent off.

The high-tech televisions are expensive and the manufacturers are hoping that consumers will adopt the new technology. Samsung will begin rolling out the first 3-D units this week. The price tag will start at around $3000 that include a 46-inch television, a Blu-Ray DVD player, and 3D glasses.

3-D TVs will have limited content because the market is still very new. However, the Samsung TV models will come with a special copy of "Monsters vs. Aliens" and DreamWorks is planning to release "Shrek" titles in 3D later this year. ESPN is also launching a new cable channel in June with complete three-dimension viewing.

"We continue to see this amazing level of enthusiasm and excitement for 3-D. The rate of adoption for this into the cinema has been a rocket ship these last couple of months," DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said in a statement.

TVs are equipped with bulky glasses that need to be recharged occasionally. These glasses are the key to provide the effects. However, when you wear the TV glasses, lights in the room as well as computer screens may look like they're flickering that could make it to watch with other household activities.

Sony Corp is also getting into the market and plans to boost shipments by 70 percent. The company hopes to drive sales by shipping 25 million units this year. Sony's 3D television will be launched in Japan in June.

High-Tech TVs Market

The market might be ready for this new high-tech era because 3-D movie theaters are widely successful. Panasonic's 3-D televisions are a critical part of the Japanese electronics giant's strategy to reverse TV losses. It suffered financial losses and was in the red last year.

The push to bring three-dimension viewing into the living room comes the wave of 3-D movie theaters. Last weekend, "Alice in Wonderland" grossed an estimated $116.2 million at the box office, beating the first-weekend receipts of "Avatar."

Television Techniques Used For Special Viewing Glasses

A 3D television is a television that employs techniques of 3D presentation. These techniques include stereoscopic capture, multi-view capture, and full 3-D display. It is also known as a special viewing device to project a program into a realistic three-dimensional field.

3D-ready TV sets are those that can operate in 3D mode in conjunction with LCD shutter glasses. The TV tells the glasses which eye should see the image being exhibited at any given moment. It does this by creating a stereoscopic image.

The TV sets usually support HDMI 1.4 and a minimum refresh rate of 120Hz. In fact, Mitsubishi and Samsung utilize DLP technology from Texas Instruments. As of January 2010, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and LG all had plans to introduce the capabilities in a variety of TV sets that will soon come to market. In addition, 3-D Blu-Ray players and DirecTV broadcasts are also expected later this year.