Electronics manufacturers are on a constant quest for the next big thing: products that will keep factories humming and consumers buying, after today's latest and greatest becomes tomorrow's old hat.

For the past few years, the biggest thing in consumer electronics has been flat-panel high-definition TV. But LCD and plasma technologies are showing signs of maturity. Looking at the best LED-backlit LCDs and the best plasmas (a couple of which will be Gear of the Year picks in the next issue of Here's How), it's hard to imagine how HDTV can get better.

There's only one thing missing on today's best HDTVs: depth. With their inky blacks and subtle dark colours and tones, the best TVs can create a good illusion of depth; but in the end, what they deliver are compelling two-dimensional pictures.

Which brings us to TV's next big thing: 3D. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January, several companies demonstrated their versions of 3D TV. The best by far was Panasonic's 3D Theatre. Attendees queued up and donned special 3D glasses to watch spectacular images on a huge 103-inch plasma, which was kitted out for 3D.

Olympic Undertaking: In mid-November, Panasonic brought its 3D HDTV show to Toronto, as part of a presentation on its plans for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Panasonic is an Olympic sponsor; it's the official HDTV and the official digital camera of the Vancouver Games.

The games will be broadcast entirely in HD. In addition to providing broadcast equipment, Panasonic will have a wide array of technology on-site that will be used by both visitors and athletes. This will include 29 gigantic LED displays at 17 Olympic venues and a sophisticated HDTV videoconferencing system linking the Olympic villages in Vancouver and Whistler.

At its corporate pavilion in Vancouver's David Lam Park, Panasonic will install a 3D Theatre, which will feature prototype 50" and 54" 3D high-definition plasma displays showing Olympic events that are being shot in 3D.

This isn't a demonstration of expensive technology that's arriving at some unspecified date in the distant future. At the Toronto presentation, Eisuke Tsuyuzaki, Chief Technology Officer of Panasonic Corporation of North America, said Panasonic will introduce 3D products in 2010 "at reasonable mass-market pricing."

These products will include a 50" 3D plasma and 3D Blu-ray player. According to Tsuyuzaki, new standard specifications for Blu-ray players and discs, and for HDMI connectivity, will be finalized "within a few months," allowing for 3D playback and transmission. 3D Blu-ray players will be able to send a signal along an HDMI cable to a 3D display, informing it when a 3D title is being played so that the display can switch into 3D mode. 3D Blu-ray discs will be backward-compatible with standard 2D Blu-ray players, Tsuyuzaki stated.

Eye Wear: Panasonic's 3D system employs special LCD glasses that are controlled by infrared transmitters on the front of the TV. The control signals cause liquid-crystal shutters in the left lens to close when a right-eye image is being shown by the display, and vice-versa. Unlike purely passive glasses that used coloured or polarized lenses, the active system developed by Panasonic delivers a full high-definition image to each eye; hence Panasonic's designation "Full HD 3D."

Tsuyuzaki cited two major developments that make the time ripe for 3D. One is the availability of compact 3D HD video cameras. The other is the availability of 3D content. Every new Disney and DreamWorks animated feature is now being shot in 3D, Tsuyuzaki noted. Games are another fertile source of 3D content. Sony has stated that a downloadable firmware update will add 3D capability to its Blu-ray-based PlayStation 3 game console.

I have no doubt that many early adopters who see 3D HDTV will just have to have it, especially if, as Tsuyuzaki promised, it's sold at "mass-market pricing." Panasonic's Toronto presentation included 3D clips from two recent Disney animated titles: A Christmas Carol and G-Force, as well as James Cameron's forthcoming Avatar. There were also some 3D clips of the Grand Canyon and the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Eye of the Beholder: Some of the footage looked amazingly natural, as if you could dive into the picture. The scenes I found most effective were those where the camera just took a natural position and stayed there. Other scenes were almost surreal, for example wide-angle scenes of large vistas (the Grand Canyon for example) that included a strong object in the very near foreground. Including a dramatic foreground object is very effective with wide-angle 2D photography; with 3D, I think it creates an artificial ViewMaster-ish effect. Perhaps, that's because that's not how we take a large scene in real life: our eyes don't simultaneously focus on something very close and something very far away. That said, the person next to me in Panasonic's 3D Theatre thought the Grand Canyon scenes were the most effective in the presentation. The clips from the three feature movies were amazing.

Tsuyuzaki acknowledged that there will be a learning curve with 3D cinematography and videography. In areas such as composition, camera angle, frequency of camera cuts, and selective focus, practices that work well in 2D may be less effective in 3D.

Another big question concerns the glasses. There's no question that 3D is compelling and cool. But will enough people be willing to wear special glasses for 3D to enter the home-entertainment mainstream? We'll start finding out the answer to all these questions next year.

Photo: Ian Vatcher, President of Panasonic Canada Inc., exchanges a virtual handshake with John Furlong, Chief Executive Offier of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). Furlong addressed Panasonic's Toronto presenentation on its Olympic plans via a high-definition videoconference link.

Article Tags:  panasonic, tsuyuzaki, glasses, olympic, plasma, theatre, definition, vancouver, whistler, 3D, HDTV, dreamworks, disney, carrey, avatar, cameron, vatcher, furlong, vanoc