Archive for the ‘3DTV News’ Category

Best Buy Will Sell 3DTVs For 50% Cheaper

Best Buy will be joining Panasonic to promote 3D television sets this quarter, as flat panel televisions continue selling at an atypical pace.

Panasonic will discount the prices of the 3D models by 50% as it creates demand for the new category using pricing as its positioning point. Best Buy will release and expand Panasonic’s new category to over 1,000 stores. Pricing for a 3D 50-inch model will start at around $2,500, and that’s after the near-50% discount. A standard 50″ LCD television goes for about half of $2,500 right now from several brands on Best Buy’s website.

Forecasts have 3D television becoming a 15.6 million-unit business in 2013 after a 500,000-unit business last year.

3DTV Prices Will Likely Drop Within 2 Years

Insight Media have released a report that says 3D television will rapidly grow from sales of about 3.4 million sets this year, to 49.6 million by 2015 and by then representing about 20% of all sales.

“We expect to see stereo 3-D in flagship products with a modest premium of 20% or so over 2-D products,” says Chris Chinnock, principal of Insight Media. “Like any new feature, we think the premium pretty much disappears in two to four years depending on the technology and the brand,” he added. Chinnock told trade newspaper that 3D units would revitalize the plasma TV market.

iSupply, in its study, suggests typical selling prices for 3D sets will tumble from around $1770 this year to just $825 by 2015. Another report from iSupply places forecasts at an even higher level, and talks about 78m 3D sets being sold by 2015 and valuing the 3D market at being worth $64.4 billion.

Samsung 3D LED TV Active Shutter Glasses

Amazon and a couple other retailers are selling Samsung 55-inch 3D LED HDTV television sets with a price tag of around $3,000. Naturally, the sets don’t come with 3D glasses, you’ll need to buy those separately in order to view the 3D content on the Samsung screen.

Samsung’s 3D active glasses (model SSG-2100AB) will cost $150 each. Not cheap, especially since you’ll likely need more than one pair.

The liquid crystal lenses in these Active Shutter glasses change from dark to light several hundreds of times per second while communicating wirelessly with the television set. The glasses will also be able to communicate with Samsung-branded Blu-ray players and a Home Theater in Box.

3D Matches At 2010 World Cup

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be filmed in 3D for the first time, it has been announced. Up to 25 of the games will be captured using 3D cameras, football’s governing body FIFA said.

FIFA has no definite plans to broadcast the matches live in 3D, FIFA said it was a possibility and would be decided in “the coming months”. Initially, it said, footage will also be shown at public events in seven cities around the world. Sony technology will be used to film the games, although the firm has not confirmed details of the specific technology it will use.

Where to Get 3D Glasses for Super Bowl Commercials

As reported, at the Super Bowl 2009 you will be able to see two 3D commercials. DreamWorks’ Monsters vs. Aliens and PepsiCo’s SoBe Lifewater will be featured in 3D on Super Bowl Sunday.

The 3D glasses you need to see the 3D action are distributed for free at SoBe displays in super markets. The list of shops where you will be able to find the Super Bowl 3D glasses include: Safeway/Vons, K-Mart, Ralphs, Kroger, A&P, Frys, Supervalu, Food Lion, Pathmark, Coburn, Fairway, Fresh Brands, Hy Vee, Nash Finch, Dollar General and Winnie Dixie.

Target and Meijers will have the 3D glasses only on January 31st. 125 million pairs of 3D glasses will be distributed at 25,000 locations. If you still cannot get a pair you are supposed to be able to call 1-800-646-2904 in order to obtain a pair.

3DTV – Without Glasses?

At CES, several tech companies, including Samsung and TCL were displaying TVs that didn’t need glasses for the 3D to work. Unfortunately, this technology is in its infancy, so the effect was not the best. To optimize your viewing, you have to stand in exactly the right position to get a good effect.

Glasses-free 3D technology works by using a physical layer that separates what your left and right eye sees. It does this using a long, thin lens that runs over the surface of the TV. This process is identical to those 3D cards you move to generate an image that either moves, or changes.

Producing television or video games that works on 3DTVs would be a difficult undertaking at this stage of the game, because if the image you are looking at isn’t properly aligned with the lenses, it simply won’t work. Which is why there are several companies investing a lot of money into developing this technology.

Download HDMI 3D Specs

The group which oversees the specifications for the now familiar High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) has released details of the next version of the format.

HDMI Specification 1.4a which is now available for public download includes developer information for the forthcoming 3D functionality of the interface standard commonly used by TV, PC and graphics card manufacturers .

“As the mainstream adoption of 3D is gaining momentum and content providers define and expand their 3D roadmaps, HDMI is ready to support this major market development,” said president of HDMI Licensing Steve Venuti.

The HDMI specification combines uncompressed high-definition video, multi-channel audio, and data in a single digital interface to provide crystal-clear digital quality over a single cable.

The purpose of this document is to provide public access to the 3D portion of version 1.4 of the HDMI Specification for those companies and organizations that require access to this portion of the Specification but have not executed an HDMI Adopter Agreement.

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