3-D TVs Hit Market This Week

By ABC-7 Reporter Abe Lubetkin

EL PASO, Texas – Three-dimensional televisions hit stores across the country this week, including stores here in El Paso.

The sets cost roughly $3,000, about $500 more than a comparable, standard TV.

“People are getting very excited about it,” said Cory Janowski, a home theater specialist at West El Paso’s Best Buy.

Samsung and Panasonic are releasing their sets this week, as the 3-D smash-hit ‘Avatar’ continues its run in movie theaters, and as last weekend, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ grossed $116 million at the box office.

Home 3-D viewing options are limited right now to a handful of Blu-ray discs, although more 3-D Blu-rays are expected to be released.

As for television programming, ESPN will broadcast the World Cup in 3-D in June and launch a 3-D channel.

To view 3-D movies, consumers will need to buy 3-D compatible Blu-ray players, which cost about $300.

To view 3-D television, consumers will presumably need converters boxes and a programming package.

Right now the TVs come with glasses similar to the ones moviegoers get in theaters.

Janowski said more sophisticated 3-D glasses are on the way, which will allow viewers to see “reverse 3-D, so looking down hallways, into jars.”

The 3-D television play non-3-D programming with HD quality, but 3-D programming without glasses looks blurry.