Panasonic's 3DTV to be first to market this year?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 19 February 2010 13:17

Your IT - Entertainment

Although Samsung had a 3DTV on the market in Australia a couple of years ago, a new crop of 3DTV's is racing to market following the success of 3D movies in cinemas, and despite calls from some over the safety 3D broadcasts watched on a regular basis, 3DTV will soon be coming to a screen near ye!

It's all over the news - it looks like Panasonic will be the first to bring a modern 3DTV to buy - a plasma model in 50-inch and 65-inch sizes, and coming two with sets of 3D glasses, meaning more will be required should there be more than two people in your family.

Of course, Samsung, Sony, LG and other manufacturers are all racing to ready 3DTVs to take advantage of the expected boom in 3D content, following the success of Avatar, the world's most successful 3D movie to date, and despite Panasonic's claim that it will be first, the race is on to make good on that claim and bask in all the three dimensional glory. 

3D capable Blu-ray players are also racing to retail, with both the whole 3D phenomenon possibly extremely annoying to anyone that has recently purchased a regular HDTV and Blu-ray player, but with the rapidly falling prices of HDTVs and Blu-ray players, the rush to fill stores with 3DTVs can only see the same thing happening - eventually.

You see, 3DTVs won't start off cheap. Sure, I don't know the exact prices, but new technologies are almost always expensive, and we've certainly seen how long it has taken for Blu-ray prices to fall, and they are still at levels that are much more expensive that DVD players.

However, Blu-ray prices have indeed fallen, and now that 3D Blu-ray players will soon be available to buy, they'll likely fall even further, because who in their right mind will want an old fashioned 2D Blu-ray player when 3D models will be available - unless initial prices are simply too high?

While Panasonic's 3DTVs will be plasma sets, Sony's will be based on LCD technology, thus continuing the battle between the two most successful physical screen technologies since CRTs ruled the roost.

Continued on page two, please read on...