Is 3D the new HDTV?

Is 3D the "next big thing" in home theater, and will it make all those shiny LCD and plasma sets on retailers shelves obsolete?

That's what some pundits, such as DVICE's Stewart Wolpin are speculating, though I'm not so sure.

Without a doubt, several manufacturers, most notably Panasonic, are taking 3D seriously The company recently announced a promotional partnership with movie maker James Cameron (of "Titanic" fame) for "AVATAR," a sci-fi film shot completely in 3D (using Panasonic equipment in part) and set to debut this December. In Panasonic's announcement, Cameron said "I believe 3D is how we will experience movies, gaming, and computing in the near future."

Panasonic says that it will be introducing consumer 3D plasma TVs and Blu-ray players in 2010. I had a chance to audition Panasonic's 3D technology (on the company's enormous 103-inch plasma TV) and came away mostly impressed, though I thought some parts of the specially rendered demo worked better than others, and there's still the issue of the glasses. Speaking of issues, no one is publicly talking about how much a 3D feature will add to the cost of a TV or Blu-ray player. And while Panasonic is pushing its own 3D standard, others are also doing standards development and might have their own ideas. Can you say format war?

Panasonic isn't the only company hitching its star to 3D. For example, Mitsubishi already boasts about the "3D ready" feature in its projection TVs (see our report for more information on those) and the company's director of product development, David Naranjo, speculates in an article in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that we could see a channel dedicated to 3D programming in the U.S. as soon as 2010. Though that's probably overambitious, 3D broadcasting is already happening in Japan and England's British Sky Broadcasting is expected to debut a 3D channel sometime next year.

But while 3D has caught the imagination of some, there's still too much to overcome for me to consider it a mainstream alternative for the foreseeable future, if ever. None of the hurdles are insurmountable, of course, so if gobs of content become available, 3D broadcasting (or cablecasting) becomes a reality, standards are settled without too much bloodshed, the cost of adding 3D to TVs and Blu-ray players is not prohibitive, and someone figures out a way to get rid of the glasses, your future TV could have a picture that literally jumps out at you. Until then, however, I see no real reason to wait for 3D TV.