New 3D TVs by Samsung Launched – Available In Canada This Month
Early adopters can buy a new 3D TV by the end of the month, Samsung said Wednesday, although it remains to be seen how many consumers will be willing to pay a premium for a technology in its infancy.
Samsung is the first major manufacturer to announce plans to launch the new technology in Canada and will sell five LED models of 3D TVs starting on March 26. LED TVs are thinner and more energy efficient than the LCD and plasma models most consumers are familiar with, Samsung says.
The first wave of TVs range in size from 40 to 55 inches and in price from $2,500 to $4,000.
About a week after the LED launch, Samsung will start selling 3D plasmas, including a 50″ for $2,400 and a 63″ for $4,100. By May, Samsung expects to have two 3D LCD models on the market, a 46″ for $1,900 and a 55″ for $2,800.
But the costs go up from there. Samsung’s 3D glasses retail for as much as $250 a piece, plus consumers need a 3D-compatible Blu-ray player (Samsung’s is $400) and a new cable.
Despite the costly initial outlay, Samsung’s director of marketing for consumer electronics says he’s confident about the products’ launch.
“Our original expectation was that this would be a fairly modest launch, just because the retail price points we were talking about … generally makes it a smaller market,” said Robert Gumiela.
“But the response we’ve received from our retailers, the orders we’ve received, have greatly exceeded our expectations and I think a lot of that has been based upon (retailers’) communication with their own customers and clientele saying, ‘This is what I want.”‘
While the lack of 3D content currently available is another challenge for TV manufacturers – Future Shop and Best Buy currently only offer two 3D Blu-ray titles, “My Bloody Valentine 3D” for $35 and “Under the Sea 3D” for $38 – Gumiela said the Samsung TV’s can convert any image into a 3D version.
“It won’t be the same quality as a native 3D-authored Blu-ray image but we’ve demonstrated it and it is a very exciting visual impact,” he said.
Future Shop said it’s also optimistic that consumers are eager to buy 3D products.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty broad spectrum of customers who will ultimately buy these things, they are ultimately at a higher price point but we’ve got to remember these TVs are in their own right premium televisions, they’re top of the line TVs,” said Eric Stockner, director of home theatre merchandising.
He expects prices will come down as more competition hits the market. He said a few more models, made by different manufacturers, should be in stores by June.
Sony was the first major manufacturer to announce its global plans for 3D TV but has only set June as a target date for the sale of units in Japan. A Sony spokeswoman could only say that the 3D TVs will be available in Canada sometime this summer.
Panasonic announced a partnership with Best Buy to start selling its 3D TVs in the United States starting Wednesday. No Canadian plans have been revealed.
As far as TV broadcasters jumping on the 3D bandwagon, Gumiela isn’t too optimistic due to technical limitations.
The amount of bandwidth needed to transmit a high-definition 3D signal into the home is “virtually impossible to do at this time until a new compression architecture is developed,” he said.
David Purdy, vice-president of Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B), is more confident that 3D programming can be beamed into home but concedes it’ll only be in “half-resolution” and not full HD to start.
Purdy said he’s been following 3D technology for about three years and is a believer.
“We don’t have specific timing yet although we absolutely want to make sure our customers get the latest and greatest television entertainment products as soon as they come on the market,” he said.
“I believe 3D is going to revolutionize the way people watch movies and sports at home, it’s going to be a really compelling experience … and I think customers are going to be blown away.”
Polarized 3D Glasses and Sky TV
At the end of last year, BSkyB demoed what could well be a big part of the way forward for sports broadcasting : the transmission of sports events in 3D, employing a pair of circular polarized 3d glasses.
The system, which is at present being developed, uses the standard Sky+ box to decode the 2 separate photographs needed to create the three dimensional effect. Users then simply view the screen thru 2 circular polarized 3D glasses.
3D technology has been adopted in Hollywood, with a number of films being filmed and released in 3D where the user in the theatre uses 2 circular polarized 3D Glasses. However, makers believe that new 3D Televisions will cost not more than the standard HD-ready plasma set. The Brit broadcaster described ‘Sky+ 3D’ as “a vision of the future” as the company continues to develop the system, which would involve Sky having to use conform or upgrade their cameras for 3D at live events.
“What we are having a look at today is firstly that we are going to do it, and we think we’re going to be able to do it and at a quality level that makes it engaging to begin to have a look at whether there’s a liking for it from the consumer.” the achievement of 3D television in viewers’ homes is obviously still some years away, however as Sky have demonstrated through the trials, watching your favorite team in three dimensions from the comfort of the settee may actually be a common-or-garden occurrence in the reasonably near future.
However, whether spectators will be lured to fork out on a new television set certainly relies on the standard of the final product on offer.
How 3D Glasses Work
Since 3D TV will be huge this year, it’s fitting to learn a little bit about 3D glasses. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen an incredible push towards 3-D technology in movies. Of course, the concept has been around for decades, but it had been largely abandoned until recent hits, such as Avatar and Up, showed everyone just how innovative the technology could be. This article examines the history of 3-D glasses, and how they work to create those lifelike images that keep you coming back to the theater.
How do 3D glasses work?
The entire concept of inducing 3-D vision is based around your capacity for binocular vision. Basically, your two eyes work together to gauge the distance between you and the object that they’re focusing on. This works due to the placement of the eye, and how far each object is perceived according to each eye, creating a triangulation effect that allows things that are within 20 feet of you to have a very tangible three-dimensional look. Each eye looks at the object at a slightly different angle, and your brain uses these two distinct images to figure out your distance from it. You can still perceive distance to an extent when you only see with one eye, but you definitely don’t get the accuracy that you have with both eyes and the binocular vision that comes with it.
How do red and blue 3D glasses work?
Due to the distinct signal you get from a television screen, a unique form of 3D has to be utilized, where there are two images placed on the screen, one in blue or green, and the other in red. You then use certain glasses that have a red filter on one eye, and a blue filter on the other. Viewing the image through both these filters will remove one of the colors from each eye, only leaving the other. Thanks to the aforementioned binocular vision, the brain will fill in the perceived gaps in the image, leaving you with an image that appears to pop out from the screen. Keep in mind, however, that since there’s such a limited color spectrum to this particular method of 3D, it’s hard to have very distinct colors in your 3D movie. This was the favored method of 3D moviemaking when it had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, but has since fallen out of favor now that more innovative and quality technologies have been developed.
How do polarized 3D glasses work?
Polarized 3D glasses are the wave of the future, and have been used at theme parks for many years before being put into widespread use in current and recent features. Polarization occurs when a lens is oriented or created in a way that will only let certain types of light through, via microscopic slits in the lens. This form of 3D uses two different projectors to transmit the film onto a screen – both of those projectors possess a different polarization. You are then given a pair of polarized 3D glasses that are meant to interpret the images the projector provides you. When these two are played at the same time, your polarized 3D glasses only let in the particular image with the polarization that matches the lens. Thanks to this innovative technology, you can have a more vivid color image, dramatically improving the picture quality of most motion pictures.
3D Glasses For 3D TV Not Being Standardized Yet
The good news about the 3D TVs coming out this spring and summer is that they’ll come packed with two pairs of 3D lenses. The bad news? Those plastic glasses work only with the brand of TV with which they’re shipped.
That means that if you buy a Panasonic 3D TV, you can’t use the accompanying lenses with your neighbor’s Sony 3D TV, should you want to get together to watch the World Cup in 3D this summer. That’s because each TV brand has a sensor that picks up a signal from the corresponding brand of glasses.
If that seems backwards, it’s because it is. But it’s also the sign of a new technology that hasn’t yet worked out all of its kinks. Thankfully, the burgeoning 3D industry knows that this is a shortcoming and is concocting a fix.
One company that makes 3D eyewear, XpanD, has staked its claim to be the vendor of choice for brand-agnostic 3D glasses. The company has been manufacturing 3D glasses for movie theaters in Europe and Asia for years, and it is now moving to make the glasses work for people’s homes as well.
XpanD has been contracted to produce the lenses that will ship with Panasonic and Vizio’s 3D sets, but the company is also aiming more broadly: to be the provider of one pair of glasses that people buy once and use everywhere. XpanD’s glasses will be available for between $125 and $150, starting June 1 at retailers such as Best Buy and Sears.
“The goal of the glasses is to work with every (size of) 3D display, from laptops to cinema,” said Ami Dror, XpanD’s chief strategy officer.
Dror says that would include all 3D televisions using infrared to communicate between the TV and the active-shutter 3D glasses. (“Active” glasses have battery-powered shuttering to allow the eyes to see 3D images, while “passive” glasses are the polarized lenses you get at the movie theater.) All major manufacturers–such as Sony, Samsung Electronics, and Panasonic–and most 3D-capable computer monitors and laptop screens–which gamers are expected to gravitate toward–use active-shutter glasses.
Dror anticipates the glasses being for sale in theaters or in retail stores alongside 3D displays. The way he sees it, people will want the option to choose their own glasses, especially if 3D-watching parties become popular.
Besides consumers being limited in how and when they can use their 3D glasses, XpanD believes that retailers can’t be expected to stock glasses from every possible manufacturer on their shelves.
“At Best Buy, they carry 15, 20 models of TVs,” Dror said. “We can’t expect them to carry 15 types of 3D glasses. That doesn’t make sense.”
Sony Announces New 3D Glasses
Sony 3D Glasses: Sony unveiled today when their 3DTVs will be released to the consumer market in June. The problem though is that they will only come with two glasses per TV. However, Sony has also announced that they will also be releasing individual 3D glasses, the TDG-BR100 and TDG-BR50.
The glasses come in three different colors and you have your choice between Blue, Pink, or Grey. The glasses use the active shutter technique and require an infrared emitter to use them. The bad news about them though is their price. Sony plans to sell both models for about $133 a pair. The IR emitter will only cost $55, but Sony’s 3DTV comes with one as part of the package. However, this means that if you buy one of the 3DTVs that don’t have glasses, and you are a family of four, then you can look to spend an extra $587 in order to see 3D at home.
Review 3D TV Launches
Everyone wants to know more about 3D TV and how it’s going to change the way we watch television. Will it make watching television more exciting? Will it make old televisions obsolete? How much does this new technology cost? The answer to these questions and many more will be explored at Review 3D TV.
As an evolutionary step, 3D TV will serve us as the most influential mass media on the market when it is fully deployed, much like regular television did in the past. The major difference for consumers will be experiencing 3D at home instead of having to go to the theatre.
The popularity of the movie Avatar shows the publics’ appetite for quality 3D entertainment. While Avatar is not the first movie in 3D to capture the publics’ attention, it is one of the best examples of the level of interest out there.
Retrevo Inc. anticipated that the new Avatar 3D movie was the perfect test bed to gauge the publics’ interest in 3D TV. They asked consumers questions such as; their 3D TV awareness and purchase considerations both before and after they saw the movie Avatar. The Retrevo Inc. study concluded that there was a considerable increase in awareness and willingness to purchase a 3D TV after viewing the Avatar movie.
Prior to watching the movie Avatar, consumers who were polled indicated 39 percent awareness that they would be able to watch 3DTV in the near future. After watching the movie Avatar, the same demographic indicated a 60 percent awareness level. Between advertisements, blogs, news, and other popular broadcast mediums, it appears that awareness of 3D TV technology is on the rise. Adding to the surge of 3D TV awareness was its debut at the CES 2010 in Las Vegas early this year.
The new interest in 3D TV is great news for TV manufacturers. With awareness on the rise, this will set the stage for many product roll-outs. TV manufacturers who can adopt producing 3D TV’s with the same efficiency they do with their other television lines will likely find the new market very profitable. With strong sales in HDTV sets, whether it’s plasma or LCD, it appears the market is ready for 3D TV.
Other interesting data that came from the Retrevo Inc. study indicated that the majority consumers will only pay twenty five dollars or less for their 3D glasses to watch 3D TV at home. Additionally, sixty-five percent of the consumers polled indicated that ten dollars would be their limit. With proper marketing of benefits and features that various manufacturers will introduce into the 3D glasses market, we expect the median price for glasses will likely exceed thirty dollars in a couple of years. There’s even been speculation that 3D glasses could become obsolete as some television manufacturers plan on producing 3D TV’s that do not require them.
Although 3D TV is a relatively new term, even for 2010, it’s already clear that the idea is a winner with consumers. As this year progresses, you can expect to hear much more about 3DTV and everything that comes with it. Always check back at www.review3dtv.com for the most up-to-date information, articles, and reviews about everything that is 3D TV.
Will 3D TV Flop or Not?
There’s always an abundance of scepticism when it comes to accepting new technology into our lives. With the emergence of 3D TV on the horizons, it appears that some are predicting it will be a flop. At Review 3D TV, we think calling it a flop at this point is not only disappointing, but even disturbing.
3D TV is the buzz word of 2010 as television manufacturers roll out several models capable of displaying 3D content. While not everyone will rush out to purchase a 3D Television immediately, they will be evaluating what’s available. As television manufacturers battle for top position, only the early adopters will dish out the high price in the beginning.
When the general public finally understands how to determine 3D TV quality, we predict there will be a surge in purchases. Our research suggests that pricing for a 3D TV will only be slightly more than a typical flat screen HDTV. The public is not going to wait ten years for the price to come down like they did with the introduction of flat screens when they first came out.
One major hurdle that television manufacturers are facing before 3D Television sales will take off is content. Consumers simply won’t purchase a 3D TV until they are guaranteed to be able to watch the content they want on it. Several inroads are being made to produce content to match the anticipated demand for 3D TV, but will it be enough?
This summer ESPN will launch an entire station exclusively dedicated to broadcasting in 3D. The scheduled launch is June 11, 2010, and is being touted as the first all 3D television network. This extremely bold gamble by ESPN may or may not pay off. With limited broadcasting available, it’s really hard to say if this will inspire sports fans to run out and purchase a 3D Television. They plan on only airing new content on the new channel which means there will be plenty of blackout periods.
Another point of contention towards assuming 3D TV will flop is the fact that 3D Glasses are required to watch content. We believe that having a set of 3D Glasses on hand to watch 3D TV won’t be a big deal. Sure they will cost a little money and they might be awkward at first, but everyone will become accustom to wearing them. There will be a variety of styles available to suit every taste and size at a price you can afford.
3D TV will be big this year and will continue to grow in popularity every year thereafter. Some folks have prejudged 3D TV too early and have based their harsh criticism on early models that will be obsolete in six months. As 3D TV evolves, so will the interest and acceptance of this new medium. When content becomes available in 3D you will insist on seeing it the way it was meant to be seen. In fact, watching television the old way will probably seem boring.
For those who are saying 3D TV will flop, perhaps they should re-evaluate where they stand. 3D TV is the next big thing in television and the public is eager to learn more. As the technology evolves, it will become a “must have” for consumers globally.
