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Panasonic Full HD 3D experience eyes-on
It's been less than a year since we first entered Panasonic's demo trailer, the main difference at CEDIA this year was the addition of a trailer for James Cameron's Avatar. We were lucky enough to get an early look at the footage shown, while it shared much with the trailer released a few weeks ago, you haven't seen the Terminator and Titanic director's latest effort unless you've seen it in 3D. Check after the break for the rest of our thoughts on the 3D demo, and what the future has to hold for this display tech in the home.
Panasonic taking 3D, Avatar on world tour this fall
Instead of offering a tour of its 3D lab as we hoped, Panasonic is bringing 103-inch plasmas and 3D capable Blu-ray players to you, planning to send around tractor trailers to promote its technology and the new James Cameron flick, Avatar. IFA and CES will also get the full 3D experience, with the company still planning to put hardware on shelves in 2010. It expects HDMI 1.4 and Blu-ray 3D spec standardization to have the market primed and ready, and while 3D may not be for everyone, we're sure those interested are just waiting to toss those silly two-color glasses in the trash to get with this stereoscopic solution.
Can 3D push customers to Blu-ray faster than HD?
While we're trying to figure out if this is the time 3D technology will stick, after a demo at NAB 2009, ZD's Robin Harris is convinced that not only is it the future, but a possible way to save Blu-ray. Moving aside for a moment the question of whether Blu-ray needs saving, his point is that the crisp Panasonic demo eclipses previous tech shows why 3D represents enough of a jump over standard definition to convince customers to pay for new displays, players and discs, and HD 3D needs Blu-ray's capacity and bandwidth even more than just 1080p. Recent 3D exhibitions have impressed us too, and between unified standards in the works, compatible displays coming on the market and Hollywood studios chipping in with new 3D flicks and remastered old ones it may have a future in the home someday, but still-extravagant costs, inelegant glasses and infighting have us thinking Blu-ray will have to stand on its own even beyond 2010.
Panasonic sets out to bring "3D Full HD" to Blu-ray by 2010
Panasonic was already well on board the 3D bandwagon when we caught up with them at CES, and it looks like the company is now set to really blow things out, with it today announcing the opening of a new 3D authoring laboratory at its Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory in California. That, it says, will help it bring so-called "3D Full HD" to Blu-ray by 2010, and it'll apparently be working directly with various studios to ensure that 3D FHD (as the company seems to be calling it) becomes an actual standard of some sort for high-def 3D. In terms of actual products, it looks we could be seeing some of the systems that were on display at CES, including a Plasma 3D Full HD home theater system, as well as a 3D-ready digital projector with a 380-inch screen, although that is apparently intended solely 3D FHD picture evaluation at the lab. Let's all just hope they offer tours.[Via About Projectors]
