Watch Out! 3-D Samsung HDTVs Coming at Ya

Samsung is in New York City this week showing off its latest TVs, cell phones, MP3 players and various other cool gadgets, but one item in particular reached out and grabbed me—literally.

The electronics giant is rolling out its new line of rear-projection DLP HDTVs, and the latest sets have some interesting tricks up their sleeves. First, Samsung's high-end DLP sets now use LED technology instead of the older rear-projection lamps and color wheels, which should help to deliver more solid colors and cut down on the distracting "rainbow" artifacts that have plagued previous DLP HDTVs.

Even better, though, is the news that Samsung's entire line of 2007 DLP sets will be 3-D-ready. You'll have to wear a special pair of glasses for the 3-D effect to work (sold separately, $100 gets you two pairs)—but these aren't the old cardboard red-and-blue glasses that the ushers passed around for "Jaws 3-D." No, these guys have what's called LCD shutters, which turn on and off in sync with the TV's refresh rate; the idea is to reduce flicker on the 3-D images. The TV and glasses will give you a subtle 3-D effect on standard 2-D programming, but they'll really shine when you watch a movie or a game that's been optimized for 3-D. I watched a clip from "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D," and the bubbles floating out the screen looked so real, I wanted to reach out and touch them. Even the Paramount Pictures logo with the snow-covered mountains and flying halo of stars looked cool. Of course, the three-dimensional effect doesn't do much for standard, 2-D material, so you're pretty much talking about 3-D-produced kids and IMAX movies, along with 3-D optimized games—and something tells me that 3-D gaming could be the big draw here.

Samsung's 3-D-ready DLP HDTVs are available now, with the LED-backlit models selling for $3,200 for the high-end 61-inch set to about $2,300 for the mid-range 50-inch HDTV.

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Product page [Samsung]