50-inch PDP enables 3D viewing

Panasonic Corp., a leader in HD TV technology, has prototyped a 50-inch Full HD 3D compatible plasma display panel (PDP) and matching high-precision active shutter glasses. Together the two products enable the viewing of theatre-quality, true-to-life 3D images in the living rooms. The company aims to bring Full HD 3DTVs to the market in 2010. The prototypes will be displayed at CEATEC JAPAN 2009.

The new PDP and glasses evolved from Panasonic's world-first Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theatre System 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 theatres.

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 minimising double-image (ghosting) that occurs when left- and right-eye images are alternately displayed. PDPs have excellent video response with full moving picture resolution. 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-theatre-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 theatre experience into the living rooms."

Panasonic has been working to develop its original Full HD 3D technology to create synergy between PDPs, which excel in moving picture resolution and colour 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 United States in 2010, subject to approval of the 3D Expanded Standard.