Panasonic has announce that its Full HD 3D Home Entertainment System will be available exclusively at Best Buy’s Magnolia Home Theater department.  The system consist of a number of individual components, which include the following:

• Panasonic VIERA VT20 50″ Plasma 3D HDTV (model # TC-P50VT20)
• One pair of Panasonic 3D Active Shutter Lens Eyewear (model # TY-EW3D10U)
• BDT300 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

The glasses are actually included with the 3D TV, and additional pairs of glasses are available for $150 retail.

Of course, you can buy any of these components separately at other retailers.

Panasonic Press Release

SECAUCUS, NJ / RICHFIELD, MN (March 10, 2010) – Panasonic and Best Buy today continued their commitment to bringing 3D technology into American homes with the world’s first consumer purchase and retail availability of Panasonic’s Full HD 3D¹ home entertainment system certified² under the new Blu-ray Disc^TM Association (BDA) 3D standard, sold exclusively at select Best Buy stores via Magnolia Home Theater.

The new range of Full HD 3D capable VIERA Plasma HDTVs and a fully-featured 3D Blu-ray Disc³ player will bring a new era of immersive visual entertainment into consumers’ homes, by creating a 3D experience that easily rivals the best that can be seen in cinemas. By delivering a full 1080p-resolution image to each eye, Panasonic’s Full HD 3D technology offers consumers the highest possible visual experience. To enjoy Full HD 3D programming, users wear a stylish and lightweight pair of active-shutter eyewear.  The sets are also Full HD TVs that display pristine 1080p content in two dimensions (2D) for conventional HD viewing.

“Television has successfully moved from black and white, to color, to High Definition. But immersive, totally realistic 3D imagery has been the final frontier and beginning today, Panasonic has conquered that as well,” said Bob Perry, Senior Vice President, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “Best Buy has been a proactive and important partner in bringing 3D into the living rooms of America and we are happy to share this milestone with them.”

“The demand for 3D technology in the home is just beginning for consumers”, said Michael Vitelli, President, Americas, Best Buy, “and Best Buy is uniquely positioned to bring this experience to life for our customers through our Blue Shirts and Geek Squad Agents.  We are thrilled to partner with Panasonic as it allows us to be the first retailer to offer this complete 3D home theater solution and underscores our promise to always deliver on the latest and greatest technology.”

Beginning today, Panasonic’s Full HD 3D Home Theater System will be exclusively available at select Best Buy Stores via Magnolia Home Theater. The total combined SRP of the Panasonic Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theater System components is $2899.99.  The system consists of a 50-inch class (49.9” measured diagonally) Panasonic VIERA VT20 Plasma 3D HDTV (TC-P50VT20 – SRP $2,499.95) which includes one pair of Panasonic 3D Active Shutter Lens Eyewear (TY-EW3D10U), and the Panasonic BDT300 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (DMP-BDT300 – SRP 399.95).   Additional pairs of 3D eyewear will be available with an SRP of $149.95. The individual components of the system will also be sold separately.

The VT20 is a Best Buy exclusive model and is equivalent to the VT25 series that was voted “Best of Show” at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.  The BDT300 is also a Best Buy exclusive model and is equivalent to the BDT350 which received the Consumer Electronics Association’s esteemed Innovations Award for its innovative 3D technology.

In addition to the 50-inch class size, the Panasonic Full HD 3D Home Theater System will also be available in a 54-inch class (54” measured diagonally), 58” class (58” measured diagonally) and 65” class (64.8” measured diagonally) screen sizes with suggested retail pricing and availability to be announced at a later date.

To create the best possible 3D picture, Panasonic has developed new, faster screen phosphors; coupled with its 600Hz sub-field drive, the new displays output alternating imagery at 60 frames per second to each eye. The brain then combines the images and interprets them as 3D.

The BDT300 outputs stunning, rock-solid, and immersive Full HD 3D imagery to compatible displays.  It also handles a wide variety of audio standards, and up converts all standard definition video formats. The BDT300 utilizes groundbreaking technologies incorporated in Panasonic’s proprietary UniPhier LSI chip, enabling the player to flawlessly process the large quantity of visual information necessary to create a Full HD 3D image in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Adaptive Chroma Upsampling insures that colors will be faithfully reproduced; and all native digital DVD formats are up scaled to 1080p resolution quality.

Panasonic’s Full HD 3D products meet the recently announced Blu-ray 3D™ specification standard.  This standard, which represents the work of leading Hollywood studios and consumer electronic and computer manufacturers, enables the home entertainment industry to bring the 3D experience into consumers’ living rooms on Blu-ray Disc, the most capable high definition home entertainment platform. Individual manufacturers and content providers will now be able to provide the technical information and guidelines necessary to develop and bring products to market.

In January, DIRECTV and Panasonic announced a strategic relationship that will make it possible to bring 3D TV into the homes of millions for the first time. DIRECTV’s HD 3D channels, powered by Panasonic, will offer a 24/7 3D DIRECTV Cinema and pay per view event channel focused on movies, documentaries and other programming, a 24/7 3D DIRECTV on Demand channel and a free 3D entertainment channel featuring event programming such as sports, music and other content. In addition, to celebrate the launch of Panasonic’s Full HD 3D Home Theater System, DIRECTV is giving the first customer to purchase the system at today’s Best Buy launch event in New York one year of free programming, including its upcoming HD 3D service, which will be available this June.

“The superior quality of the HD 3D programming that DIRECTV will debut in June will be unlike anything that is available in the television market today,” said Eric Shanks, executive vice president of DIRECTV Entertainment.  “Being able to experience that quality through Panasonic’s Full HD 3D home theater system will make our customers feel like their living room is a 3D movie theater. We have had a long- time relationship with both Panasonic and Best Buy and we are proud to be partnering with these industry leaders to make the next frontier of television a reality.”

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has been the leader in the 3D revolution taking place in the entertainment industry.  The company has consistently supported efforts to bring consumers the benefits of 3D entertainment as quickly as possible.  In particular, Fox has distinguished itself by partnering with companies from other industries, including Panasonic, to make Full HD 3D TV a reality in the home.

“3D has invigorated the theater experience and it will be the same for the living room,” said Mary Daily, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.  “Panasonic has announced amazing new products today and along with Best Buy’s commitment to the format, 3D will become a game changer for the home entertainment industry.  We are thrilled to have Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs as our debut title in the Blu-ray 3D format.  The Ice Age franchise has grossed nearly $2 billion in worldwide box office and sold more than 75 million units in home entertainment.  Blu-ray offers the premiere high definition viewing experience for the home, and Blu-ray 3D uses the advanced quality to bring the movie theater 3D experience to your home.”

In addition to its new 3D technologies, each Full HD 3D Plasma model incorporates a rich set of advanced features. VIERA CAST™, Panasonic’s innovative Internet programming package, gives viewers the ability to access  feature films plus information and communication offerings including Amazon Video on Demand™, Bloomberg News, Fox Sports, Netflix™, and Skype™ on Your VIERA TV, among others.

To bring the excitement of Full HD 3D and Panasonic’s range of home entertainment solutions to consumers, Panasonic will launch a 15-city, Panasonic Touch The Future nationwide tour next week.  The tour will kick off in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles beginning March 15 and then visit Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Phoenix, Seattle, Detroit, Minneapolis, Dallas and Houston in March and April.  For more information on Panasonic’s Full HD 3D technology as well as product images, please visit www.panasonic.com/3D.

In 2010, Panasonic is set to launch a line of 3D products for consumers in the US, Europe and Japan.  Panasonic’s 50-inch Full HD 3D PDP and High-Precision Active Shutter Glasses will be shown off at CEATEC Japan 2009.  Panasonic is betting that the 50-inch size with be just about right for most people looking to move up to the 3D experience.

The new prototype 50-inch Panasonic features Full HD at 1080p x 2.  In other words, each eye is getting a full resolution frame of the movie, which is how most theatrical releases get the polished 3D effect that has previously just not translated that well to the living room.  The new active shutter glasses are also a big deal in reducing crosstalk that often degrades image resolution in 3D displays.

Many more details on Panasonic’s latest developments can be found in the news release below.

Panasonic 50-inch Full HD 3D PDP and High-Precision Active Shutter Glasses News Release

Osaka, Japan – Panasonic Corporation, a leader in high definition TV technology, has developed a 50-inch Full HD 3D compatible plasma display panel (PDP) and high-precision active shutter glasses that enable the viewing of theater-quality, true-to-life 3D images in the living rooms. Aiming to bring Full HD 3D TVs to the market in 2010, the company steps up its efforts in developing the related technology. Prototype Full HD 3D TV and glasses will be displayed at CEATEC JAPAN 2009 to be held from October 6 to 10 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, east of Tokyo.

The new PDP and glasses evolved from Panasonic’s world-first Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theater System1 that was developed in 2008 and comprised of a 103-inch PDP and a Blu-ray Disc player. The prototype PDP has a 50-inch screen, which is expected to become the most popular size for home theaters.

This 50-inch PDP uses Panasonic’s newly-developed high-speed 3D drive technology that enables rapid illumination of pixels while maintaining brightness. The panel also incorporates a crosstalk reduction technology allowing for minimizing double-image (ghosting) that occurs when left- and right-eye images are alternately displayed. PDPs have excellent video response with full moving picture resolution2. The new panel offers even improved performance, achieving clear, high-quality and high-resolution images in 3D. The high-precision active shutter glasses incorporate Panasonic’s technology that precisely controls the active shutters with the left- and right-eye images shown on the PDP.

All these technologies work in tandem with each other to create Full HD 3D images that deliver an immersive, movie-theater-like experience in which the viewers can feel as if they were part of the scene. They represent Panasonic’s concept of 3D products: “Bringing the movie theater experience into the living rooms.”

Panasonic has been working to develop its original Full HD 3D technology3 to create synergy between PDPs, which excel in moving picture resolution and color reproduction, and Blu-ray Disc players, which are able to faithfully reproduce high quality Hollywood 3D movies. Panasonic continues to work on developing 3D products to allow its customers to enjoy the immersive 3D world in their living rooms, targeting to launch the products in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. in 2010. (Subject to approval of the 3D Expanded Standard4.)

To describe further about the technologies involved with the new panel, Panasonic newly developed the high-speed 3D drive and crosstalk reduction technologies to improve plasma’s unique properties to deliver crisp and clear Full HD 3D images. As PDPs are self-illuminating device with full motion-picture resolution, they offer fast response time and are suitable to display fast-moving images. The high-speed 3D drive technology involves the development of new panel materials and LSIs that accelerate the pixel illumination while maintaining brightness. Panasonic also developed the crosstalk reduction technology using newly-developed phosphors with short luminescence decay time and illumination control technology to reduce double-images that occur when left- and right-eye image are alternated on the panel. This technology contributes to achieving high-quality clear pictures with high-contrast and accurate color reproduction. As the new technologies can also be applied to improve the quality of 2D images, they have expanded PDP’s potentials for further evolution.

To reproduce 3D images, Panasonic uses the Full HD x 2 frame5 sequential method that displays time sequential images, alternately reproducing discrete 1920 x 1080 pixel images for the left and right eyes on the display frame by frame. The frame sequential method is widely used in showing Hollywood 3D movies in theaters. The new panel elevates home entertainment to a whole new level with theater-quality 3D images.

The high-precision active shutter glasses employ Panasonic’s technology that precisely controls the timing of opening and closing the shutter in synchronization with the left- and right-eye images alternately shown on the PDP. This technology enables significant reduction of crosstalk that degrades the image resolution in 3D display. The glasses are designed to fit for a wide range of users from children to the elderly.

Notes:

1) World’s first system to create high quality, true-to-life 3D images by distributing full HD images to the left eye and right eye.

2) Moving picture resolution indicates the motion display performance by number of lines which human eyes can recognize. (Measured by Advanced PDP Development Center Corporation Method). Full moving picture resolution has 1080 lines.

3) Full HD x 2 frame sequential method displays time sequential images, alternately reproducing discrete 1920 x 1080 pixel images for the left and right eyes on the screen frame by frame. In combination with the full HD PDP, the method reproduces high-quality, true-to-life full HD 3D images.

4) The 3D Expanded Standard is currently under review by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).

5) A unit of pictures in a video signal. In digital high-definition broadcasts in Japan, 30 frames are transmitted per second.