Panasonic is proposing taking Blu-ray into the third dimension with a new standard to bring 3D content into the home. 3D content seems to be the next generation of theatrical productions, with more and more theaters installing systems from companies like RealD, and more films being shot in 3D. I’ve seen several RealD films in my local theater, and I have to say they really look great. A far cry from the old anaglyphic 3D systems with colored glasses.

Of course, the next step is bringing that content home. Several consumer electronics companies are working on systems for 3D in the home. The polarized glasses used in modern theater systems aren’t feasible in the home, they require a polarized image source. The leading candidate right now are LCD shutter glasses which flicker on and off in sync with the on-screen image, providing each eye with its own perspective. With 120Hz refresh screens each eye gets a full 60Hz refresh rate. And there are other systems, including some which provide 3D viewing without any glasses.

But we still need a way to get that 3D content into the home, and that’s where Panasonic’s proposal comes in. What they’re proposing is a modification to Blu-ray to provide 3D playback. And it is based on existing standards with relatively simple modifications. The content would be encoded using an existing two-channel encoding system already included in H.264. Instead of encoding each ‘eye’ individually as two channels, there is one primary channel and the second channel only has to encode the delta, or differences, from the primary. That means instead of 2x the data the result is only about 1.5x as large. Because the primary channel is still a full, viewable 2D version of the content this system could theoretically be backwards compatible. While 3D viewing would require newer, 3D capable players, older Blu-ray players could potentially play back the standard 2D version.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is hoping to officially consider the proposal before the end of the year, which could lead to adoption in 2010. 3D content would also require an updated HDMI standard to carry the content to the display, and Panasonic is also considering a proposal for that.

Through November 17th, Amazon is running another Blu-ray related promotion. Buy a Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ800U 46″ 1080p Plasma HDTV for $1,799.98 ($2,499.99 MSRP) and get a Panasonic DMP-BD35K 1080p Blu-Ray Player free. The DMP-DB35K normally sells for $258.99 with an $299.95 MSRP. Several earlier Blu-ray promotions are still running.

Just recently certified by CableLabs, Panasonic’s first tru2way-enabled HDTVs are now available at retail. The first VIERA HDTVs with tru2way support are available from Abt Electronics in Glenview, IL, and tru2way support is officially available from Comcast in Chicago and Denver. The sets will also soon be available at Ultimate Electronics and Circuit City stores.

The cable industry is aggressively rolling out tru2way support and all of the MSOs, except for Charter, have promised to have it available by July 1, 2009. Charter says they’ll have completed roll-out by July 1, 2010. So the territory where tru2way TVs will be usable will be rapidly growing in the coming months.

This is clearly a very limited roll-out that is more about bragging rights, I don’t think they’ll be selling a huge number of these sets just yet. The 42″ TH-42PZ80Q plasma has an MSRP of $1,599.95 and the 50″ TH-50PZ80Q plasma has an MSRP of $2,299.95. It is great to see the technology hitting the streets, it is a good sign for the future. We’ll certain to see a lot of tru2way products come CES in January.

The press release has more details:
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CableLabs has certified two tru2way-enabled CableCARD HDTVs from Panasonic, paving the way for them to be available to consumers this holiday season. The two models sport 42″ and 50″ HD displays. This is an important turn around from June, when Panasonic reportedly failed in their first tru2way certification attempt.

However, even if consumers can get their hands on the sets, there is no guarantee that they’ll be able to access tru2way content immediately. The cable industry has pledged to implement tru2way across their networks by July 1, 2009 - except for Charter which has until July 1, 2010. So early adopters may wish to check with their local MSO to see if tru2way support is available before jumping on these sets, or they may find themselves stuck with unidirectional CableCARD features until tru2way support is rolled out.

From Light Reading’s Cable Digital News.

As announced back in January, today marks the end of Matsushita. The giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd today changed its name to Panasonic Corporation, the retail brand for which they are best known. Established in 1918 as the Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works, renamed Matsushita Electric Manufacturing Works in 1929, and then Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd in 1935, they used the Matsushita, National, and Panasonic brands for years, but began to focus solely on the Panasonic brand in 2003.

Press release:
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Amazon is running a few Blu-ray sales currently.

The Get Three for the Price of Two sale has been extended, with 36 titles to choose from.

Then you can save up to 55% off a selection of 95 titles.

If you have a PS3 but you don’t yet have the DVD/Blu-ray remote to go with it (using the SixAxis to control movies is fairly crappy), buy three Warner Blu-ray movies and get the PS3 remote free.

And last but not least, buy a Blu-ray player and three Warner Blu-ray movies and save $50. It looks like the players on offer include the Sony BDP-S300 Profile 1.0 for $199.98, the Sony BDP-S350 Profile 1.1 for $295.00, the Samsung BD-P1500 Profile 2.0 for $279.99, and the Panasonic DMP-BD30K Profile 1.1 for $274.81. (Personally I’d pick the Samsung.) On the movie side there are 122 titles to select from.

Panasonic has announced a new uber-box for the Japanese market. It is a combination 320GB DVR and Blu-ray & DVD recorder. But that’s not all, it also has a built in VHS deck. So you can dump your fuzzy VHS tapes to DVD, or Blu-ray to really capture the fuzziness in high quality. It isn’t completely clear from the translated AV Watch Japanese text, but it sounds like you can also record to VHS - though not from the tuner. You can also dump content to the hard drive, and then transfer from the drive to media. All this can be yours October 1st for the equivalent of $1,450 - only in Japan of course.

We need an HD DVD and Betamax combo deck just for the Epic Fail factor that would represent. (This system supports Digital Audio Tape, Digital Compact Cassette, and MiniDisc - it can’t fail!)

Picked up via Gizmodo.

This week’s “sale events” at BestBuy.com have a few deals worth mentioning. (When did a ’sale’ become a ’sale event’? Isn’t a sale by definitely an event? Anyway…) If you buy one of three Insignia 1080p HDTVs (42″ LCD $899.99, 47″ LCD $1,199.99, or 50″ plasma $1,399.99) you’ll get the Insignia NS-BRDVD Blu-ray player for just $149.99. That’s $130 off their standard $279.99 price. The NS-BRDVD is one of the many rebadged variants of the Funai NB500 unit, and it is a BonusView / Profile 1.1 player, not BD-Live / Profile 2.0.

You can also save 5% to 15% on four other Blu-ray decks. The LG BH200, which handles Blu-ray and HD DVD discs (for those of you who made the mistake of investing in HD DVD media), normally $599.99 is now $509.99. The Panasonic DMP-DB30K Blu-ray deck, normally $399.99, is $359.99. The Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray deck, also normally $399.99, is $339.99. And finally the Sharp AQUOS BD-HP20U, yet again normally $399.99, is $379.99.

Personally I can’t recommend the LH BH200 to anyone who doesn’t have a number of HD DVD discs they still need to play. It just isn’t a good value as a Blu-ray player, and it is BonusView / Profile 1.1 only, despite having an Ethernet port and supporting Internet connectivity for HD DVD. While the Ethernet port means it is possible it could be upgraded to BD-Live someday, it doesn’t seem likely as LG has really stopped work on this family with the death of HD DVD.

The Sharp unit is not only the most expensive of the remaining three, but also the least capable, being just Basic Profile / Profile 1.0, and not even BonusView. Give it a pass. The Panasonic DMP-BD30K is a nice player, but it is also only BonusView and as it lacks an Ethernet port it will never be updated to support it. The one recommendation for the Panasonic is that it has 5.1 analog audio output.

The real pick here is the Samsung. Not only is it the least expensive, but it is the most advanced of the lot. It is ‘BD-Live Ready’, which means that while it is BonusView-only today, Samsung plans to add BD-Live support via a firmware update.

While tru2way is gaining increasing support from the consumer electronics industry, a post over at IP Democracy indicates things aren’t as rosy on the implementation side. They report that people close to CableLabs claim that tru2way certification testing on Pansonic’s first tru2way-enabled TV sets was a “disaster of spectacular proportions.” Panasonic has claimed that they’ll have tru2way-enabled sets in stores this September. However:

Panasonic failed the tests, with observers reporting “dozens and dozens” of bugs, so many that they doubt a Panasonic Tru2Way TV set will be available by Christmas, much less September.

There is more in the IP Democracy post.

After Sony and six major cable MSOs recently came to an agreement on tru2way, other consumer electronics companies were invited to sign the same agreement. And now it seems others have, the signatories now include ADB, Digeo, Intel, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony. As more vendors sign on to the agreement we’ll start seeing more options in two-way cable devices.

Their press release:
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