The 3rd Dimension is Here

The 3rd dimension has invaded the consumer tech market almost like it was planned by some army general, with 3D glasses on. This CES saw brands big and small jumping on the bandwagon, some offering source material in the form of Blu-rays, some offering recording material in the form of 3D camcorders and of course the HDTVs. All biggies came out with their flagship range sporting 3D support.

So what does 3D mean again? Simply put it adds the 3rd dimension missing in video watching, and that is depth. How does it do that? Well the human eye does most of the work. All the playback technology has to do is provide different images to each eye. That means double the refresh rate, and the aid of the shutter glasses, which sync with the TV, and then alternately shut off and on their lens, to coordinate each eyeball receiving the appropriate image. The minimum refresh rate required is 120 Hz, and of course the 3D glasses and transmitters are required. With these accessories, TVs can offer 3D. So lets check out which major brands came out with what.

Sony announced plans to "accelerate initiatives to deliver an array of 3D entertainment for the home in 2010, leveraging all its diverse business assets to create a 3D world encompassing electronics and games, to movie content." As for products unveiled, we have the LX900 series which include 3D functionality and also Wi-Fi, Internet Video, USB and DLNA photo/music/video playback, four HDMI 1.4 inputs and now my head is spinning. As for PS3 owners, this quote from Sony seems mighty interesting " For PlayStation3: All PlayStation3 units will become available to play 3D stereoscopic games through a firmware update, scheduled to be available in summer of 2010 (previously announced on November 19th, 2009). Playback of 3D content on "Blu-ray" discs will also be possible by upgrading PlayStation3 with a further firmware update." Nice.

�Panasonic dropped some bombs too. It developed the world's largest 152-inch Full HD 3D Plasma Display. It features a new plasma display panel (PDP) developed with its quadruple luminous efficiency technology. The technology enhances PDP's unique advantages as self-illuminating device, and yes, the 152-inch monster creates a true Full HD 3D world by faithfully reproducing 3D content such as Hollywood 3D movie titles. By employing the newly-developed ultra high-speed 3D drive technology, which adopts the super-efficient quadruple luminous efficiency technology, the new panel achieves a higher illuminating speed, about one fourth the speed of conventional Full HD panels. This technology enables Full HD 3D display on the 152-inch 4K x 2K (4,096 x 2,160 pixels) panel. And yes, Panasonic also released a 3D Full HD camcorder, mainly for the "pro market" though.