Panasonic Introduces 3D TV, Explains Details

Feb 10, 2010 21:13 Shinya Saeki, Nikkei Electronics

Panasonic Corp announced a PDP (plasma display panel) TV that can display three-dimensional (3D) images Feb 9, 2010.

The PDP TV, "3D Viera VT2," will hit the Japanese market April 23, 2010, along with a Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder and a BD player that support 3D video.

"We will change the way people enjoy watching TVs," Panasonic said. "We would like to provide living rooms with a sensation of being dragged into a screen."

The 3D Viera VT2 comes in two screen sizes, 54 and 50 inches, and their expected street prices are ¥530,000 (approx US$5,895) and 430,000, respectively. The BD recorder will be available in three models whose HDDs (hard disk drive) have capacities of 2 Tbytes, 1 Tbyte and 750 Gbytes, respectively. Their expected street prices are ¥300,000, 200,000 and 160,000. The price of the BD player is expected to be about ¥130,000.

"The price premiums for the 3D TV and the 3D BD recorder are ¥70,000 and 20,000, respectively," Panasonic said. "We would like to expand the 3D world with affordable prices."

Crosstalk reduced by improving luminous efficiency of PDP

Panasonic employed a "time-sharing method" that combines a PDP with a drive frequency of 120Hz, a BD player and active liquid crystal shutter glasses. In this method, images for the right and left eyes are alternately displayed by each frame, and the liquid crystal shutters open and close in synchronism with those images so that the right and left eyes receive different images.

The time-sharing method enables to view 3D images with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (full HD). Since CEATEC JAPAN 2008, a trade show that took place in 2008 in Japan, Panasonic has demonstrated 3D TVs using this method at all of the exhibitions it participated in (See related article).

The 3D TV will come with a pair of the special glasses, which can also be purchased separately for an expected street price of ¥10,000. As for the contents for the 3D TV, firms such as film companies plan to release Blu-ray discs. And trial software will be included in a limited number of the new BD recorders and players for a sales campaign.

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