Coming soon to a home screen: Pop-out TV

TV makers show off high-definition 3-D screens at Vegas show

IMAGINE TV and even video game characters that are so vivid that you can almost reach out and touch them.

NOW SHOWING: Samsung's PDP 450 TV 3D.
High-definition (HD) TV manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Panasonic showcased new 3-D (three-dimensional) television systems at the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. These screens display images with depth, for that 'eye-popping' effect.
Stereoscopic, or 3-D, imaging works by allowing the human brain to combine two separate images into one with the help of special glasses.
So you can 'see' bullets coming out of the TV and heading straight for you.
At the Vegas event, Panasonic unveiled its 3-D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System. It consisted of a 103-inch plasma screen, a dedicated Blu-ray player that can process two full HD images at the same time and a pair of special glasses.
But it wasn't just HDTVs doing the 3-D tricks at CES, which closed on 10Jan.
Viewsonic, for example, showed off its FuHzion PJD6220-3D DLP projector, which costs US$1,499 ($2,260).

Panasonic's 3-D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System, complete with special glasses and a 103-inch screen.
Gamers eager to transform existing PC games and even photos into 3-D showcases can do so with the Nvidia 3D Vision for GeForce (US$199) - as long as you already own a compatible GeForce graphics card and a compatible LCD monitor like Viewsonic's new FuHzion VX2265wm (US$399).
On the game console front, Sony's PlayStation3 demonstrated video footage of games like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 3-D - but it was more to show that the console has 3-D capability.
But TV buffs expecting 3-D content to flood the market soon shouldn't get their hopes up. Forget about The Little Nyonya in 3-D, for example.
Japan is the only country right now that has an existing 3-D TV broadcast satellite channel. Sky TV in the UK may launch a similar service this year.
3-D fix now
Still, if you need your fix of 3-D content right now, there are ways to do so.
You can use the Samsung Series4 plasma screens (from $2,599) to play selected PC games in 3-D - as long as you have the right computer hardware and game to start with.
Or hunt down DVDs or Blu-ray titles like Journey To The Centre Of The Earth that conjure traditional 3-D visuals - using old-fashioned red and blue glasses - on existing HDTVs.
But by 2010, you can expect more advanced 3-D content, coupled with special glasses that won't induce a headache.
The Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory Advanced Authoring Center in Hollywood will be working with studios to develop and produce Blu-ray 3-D movies under a new format labelled as 3D Full HD (3D FHD).
So hopefully it won't be too long before there are more 3-D movies in Full-HD quality, coming right at you in the living room.