Three-dimensional TV came into the living room near you. But the technology will spur consumer spending, such as digital and high-definition TV to do before that? Or 3D will end up being the next big failures?

One thing is clear, TV producers need something new to get people to buy a TV. Over the last few years, TV manufacturers have been experiencing booming sales as consumers upgrade to digital TV in anticipation of the government mandated switch to digital TV broadcasting in February 2009. Eager shoppers also have to upgrade to high-definition TV as movie studios, cable and satellite operators and TV broadcasters have started to offer more programming in HD.

But when the economy worsened, the forecast for the TV market looks grim. LCD TV market is only expected to grow about 17 percent in terms of units delivered in the year 2009, according to research firm DisplaySearch. This is down from growth of about 29 percent in 2008. Growth of plasma TV is also expected to suffer with the market only expected to grow about 5 percent in 2009 compared with a 24 percent increase in 2008, DisplaySearch said.

As a result, the TV makers are looking for the next hot thing to attract new customers. And some hope to 3D TV.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, four from the sale of TV producers – Samsung Electronics, Sony, LG Electronics and Panasonic – show off their latest version of 3D TV. Panasonic set up a mini home theater where the 103-inch, 3D plasma screens showing clips from New Line Cinema’s Journey to the Center for Earth and Walt Disney Pictures’ animated film Bolt. They also show high-definition 3D footage from the NBC broadcast the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

While some manufacturers, including Mitsubishi, Phillips, Samsung, and Sharp, began selling 3D-ready TV, the top four manufacturers plan to have a new, advanced 3D TV on sale towards the end of 2009 and into 2010.

But the big question is whether consumers, particularly American consumers, will be willing to upgrade to a new TV just because it has 3D. Prices for 3D ready today comparable to the other flat-screen TV HDTV. Samsung and Mitsubishi was selling 3D-ready television for between $ 1000 and $ 2800, depending on the function. The price is in line with the average price that does not offer HDTV 3D readiness.

Suetsugi Keisuke, an audiovisual center manager at Panasonic, believes that even the newer, more advanced 3D TV will not cost much more than the TV without the 3D. So for consumers who are in the market for TV, adding 3D readiness may not increase costs much. But 3D will be enough to force consumers to replace the front 2 – or 3-year TV? That’s what the TV produces hope.

Three-dimensional film has been around since the 1950s. And for most of the technological age has been seen more as an instrument of something that really improve the movie-going experience. However, newer technology and sophisticated 3D special effects film helped into the mainstream.

TV makers believe that a lot of demand for 3D will come from Hollywood, which encourages the 3D in a big way. Last year, DreamWorks announced that all films will be produced for 3D production began in 2009. The company has partnered with chipmaker Intel to build processors that will help create a 3D in the home become a reality.
Sports leagues have also experimented with 3D technology. Both the National Basketball Association and National Football League has been broadcasting the events and games in 3D for the movie theater.

From the technical point of view, the technology is available and mature enough today to make 3D TV is available at a reasonable cost to consumers. But there are still some weaknesses that could prevent the 3D TV from becoming the next big thing in home entertainment.

For one, to get a really cool, immersive 3D experience without getting a big head pain, the consumer must wear special glasses when they were watching TV in 3D. The glass is required for 3D imaging needs to send a different image to each eye. And glass to help combine images in the mind and tricks the brain into thinking that it is seeing a 3D image.

I checked the Panasonic home theater in 3D. I must admit, the experience was phenomenal. I felt like I was on the floor at the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing on the right side of hundreds of dancers and drummers. But without his glasses, the picture was blurred.

Panasonic Suetsugi admit that in a perfect world, consumers must be able to have a deep 3D experience without wearing glasses. But he said that it would be at least 10 years before the technology advanced enough to provide the same experience strong without the 3D glasses.

“Glassless 3D would be ideal,” he said. “But that’s just not possible to do that now and get the same quality experience. You’ll need at least 50 times more pixels to get the same view to provide 3D experiences that we provide with our TV. We’re still 10 years away from technology like that. ”

Taesoo Park, a chief research engineer at Motorola, which makes 3D display monitors and digital signage advertising, agreed. Motorola plans to start selling TV 3D, which need glasses, the end of 2009 or in early 2010. Glassless digital signal which is also on display at CES.

“Glassless 3D is available now for digital signage and advertising,” Park explained. “But technology is not ready for TV, because it would hurt people’s eyes or gives them headaches to look at the current 3D view for a long time. This will be at least a decade before we can get the technology to make glassless reality TV.”

That said, some manufacturers claim that they have developed technology that does not need glasses. Phillips uses it calls WOWvx technology. 3M and Toshiba also glassless screen 3D display at CES. 3M has created a thin film technology that can be used to selectively light beam to the viewers left and right eye.

But glass is not the only thing that could hold 3D adoption. Currently, there is no standard way to get a 3D film footage from the studio or from live broadcast to the house. Companies, such as Panasonic, has started to develop a standard. But industry observers worry that competing standards may emerge and stimulate other “format” war pitted as HD DVD and Blu-ray against each other.

Panasonic Suetsugi said he hoped that the general standard for 3D Blu-ray hardware, software, and the TV will sometimes come this year, opening the way for sales to pick up 3D TV in 2010.

In addition to the standard issue, another hurdle for 3D TV related to the high cost of film production and shooting in 3D, and also, the high cost of transporting the entire video network. Three dimensions requires a video camera to take pictures. And it also requires several high definition video stream for transport over a network operator.

Ordinary standard definition television broadcasting capacity consumes more bandwidth than other traffic types such as audio or text. High-definition video takes more. And it will likely take at least two high-definition channels to broadcast full live only one game in 3D.

This means that service providers, such as cable or satellite operator, must upgrade infrastructure to handle the high bandwidth demands. Verizon, which is deploying fiber directly to consumers’ homes for Fios service, is in good condition. But others such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable, are difficult to carve out enough bandwidth for HD video and Internet video used in their networks.

“Carriage of live, high-definition 3D river is very expensive,” said Steve Hellmuth, Executive Vice President of technology and operations for the NBA. “So there must be sufficient demand and a pool of content before satellite and cable operators will devote resources to provide it. I really think that Hollywood will encourage early adoption of 3D in the home.”