Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Special to the Director's Cut Blog By Mike Snider, USA TODAY The race is on to get new 3D TVs into stores - and homes. Panasonic plans to have its first 3D HDTVs in stores next week. (Model and pricing information have not yet been released.) Samsung's first 3D models - 46-inch and 55-inch flat panels starting at $2,340 - are available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Sears.com for shipment as early as this week. Mitsubishi today brings to market $129 XpanD 3D glasses that will turn many of its existing televisions into 3D sets. The TVs include models sold during the past two years that were marked "3D-ready." 3D TVs from Sony and other competitors are close behind. "Our belief is that the American consumer has experienced 3D and thinks it is pretty cool," says Bob Perry, Panasonic senior vice president. "There is a great opportunity to create a different (3D) experience in homes and in theaters." 3D Blu-ray movie discs and broadcasts a...

By Frank Macek The digital revolution has not only given us high definition television, but has also opened up the possibility of 3DTV just as fast. If you think HD is good, wait until you see stereoscropic content come alive in your own living room. And, it will all begin THIS year. Like HDTV, early broadcast adopters will be sports television. ESPN will be credited as the sports leader in the technology when it launches its new 3D network on June 11th. The sports network will begin with a 3D telecast of the World Cup soccer championship between Mexico and South Africa. By the end of its first year, ESPN plans to offer viewers a target of 85 live events in 3D. In July, Direct TV will jump on the bandwagon as it teams up with Fox Sports to air a 3D broadcast of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Dallas at the equally high tech, new Cowboys' stadium in Arlington. And later this year, Discovery will be involved in several productio...

CHIBA, Japan -- Japan's big name electronic manufacturers are readying flat-screen TVs that can show high-definition movies and video games in 3D for launch next year. At the country's biggest consumer electronics show that opened Tuesday just outside of Tokyo all the major makers displayed 3D prototypes. Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. said they would bring their first models to market next year. The companies are plowing ahead even before there is much content available, with corporate spokesmen saying only that preparation is under way. Demonstrations at the exhibitions were mainly short clips of movies, nature scenes and sports. Source: The Associated Press

You knew this one was coming... If you have a new flat screen television, you know it goes up on a wall someplace in your living room or bedroom. But what if you could put a tv in the middle of the room and watch it from any angle? A man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has come up with the solution - 3D TV. And it's even better than HDTV. He's been an attorney, businessman, and a governor's big brother, but Martin Keating's latest technological venture began all the way back at Guttenberg's press. Keating wrote a book several years ago and got to wondering how he could tell the story in a more modern way. "I was thinking what if we could create these scenes in people's homes and they could actually live the book and of course there was no way to do that," he recalled. Doctors James Sluss and Hakki Refai didn't know it at the time, but they were about to begin a collaboration that might change the way we watch electronic entertainment. Keating's idea was a ...