Among the dazzling displays of big screen TVs at Fresno's Best Buy store, some really stand out. Shoppers pause ... and wonder if they're seeing straight. Then a pair of glasses opens a whole new world.
3-Dimensional High Definition Televisions are the latest product sweeping the home entertainment market.
Manufacturers can thank recent 3D big screen blockbusters like Avatar, Alice and Wonderland, and Toy Story 3 for that.
The concept of 3D has been around for decades; remember those funky blue and red glasses in the theater? Well, these have active shutter lenses. The technology's come a long way.
Nick Liscano with Best Buy explains, "So there's lenses inside opening and closing very fast so that code is specific to the glasses they've been sent to. The important thing is that the glasses have to be the same brand as the television. So you can't take a pair of Panasonic glasses and use them for a Sony television. It's not gonna work that way."
Consumer Reports has been busy testing the first 3D TVs - Panasonic's 50-inch plasma and 46-inch LCDs from Samsung, including the newly released Samsung 8000 series.
Jim Willcox with Consumer Reports said, "Both the Samsung and Panasonic 3D sets do an impressive job at delivering compelling three-dimensional images, but our testers are starting to see some differences."
With the Panasonic, when you put the glasses on you get crisp, clean images. But with the Samsung, even with glasses you still see ghosting around some of the images. Of course both TVs also serve as conventional 2D sets and testers found some performance differences there, too.
"With the Samsung the black levels weren't quite as deep and we did see some cloudiness in areas that should be black," said Willcox.
At this point, testers say the Panasonic comes out on top, but stay tuned. Consumer Reports will be testing more 3D TVs as they go on sale.
These first 3D TV's cost $300 to $400 more than HD televisions with similar features. And be aware on top of the cost of the TV you'll also have to spring for a 3D ready Blu-Ray Player, which runs around $350, and glasses, which cost about $150 a pair ... plus, a high-speed HDMI cable that can pass 3D. That's another $45.
For now, available 3D content is limited to a few TV channels, movies, and video games. But industry experts say the possibilities are endless.
