3DTV made a big splash at CES this year, followed by a few 3DTV announcements by Panasonic, Samsung and Sony - all of which allowed for viewing of these sets under fairly well controlled situations. What happens when these new-fangled gizmos arrive at the local retailer and are offered up to the masses? How does the technology look in the real world? We got our first look at 3DTV in a retail setting this past weekend when we visited the Best Buy in Gilroy, CA (nickname: "Garlic Capital of the World").

Dale Maunu
Insight Media Consultant

We checked out the showroom that is next to the entrance, where the high-end sets are usually found, but did not find any 3DTVs. So we asked the department manager when Best Buy would be carrying 3DTVs and found out they were already there. The empty display stand next to us was reserved for the Panasonic Plasma 3DTV that had not yet arrived, and the Samsung 3DTV was in an area set-aside in the regular TV display area. The Panasonic Plasma 3DTV is expected to arrive in the next few weeks and one Best Buy in Northern California (San Jose on Tully Road) has a Panasonic 3DTV; it is only a demo, no product to sell. The Best Buy staff will be attending 3DTV training from Panasonic in the next few weeks, which should coincide with the arrival of product.

We went over to the Samsung 3DTV demo to see the performance and chat some; here is what we learned:

The Best Buy (Magnolia) ad in the Sunday paper devoted a full page to the Panasonic Viera 50" 3D Plasma HDTV. The first line of the disclaimers at the bottom of the pages states that "some products may not be displayed or physically available at some stores" which certainly was the case on Sunday, but at least we get to compare street pricing for LCD and PDP 3DTVs. The Panasonic 50" 3DTV will be priced at $2499.98 (incl. one pair of glasses) with the Panasonic 3D Blu-ray play at $399.98 and additional Panasonic 3D Shutter-Glasses at $149/pr.

The Panasonic solution is a bit less expensive at $50 per diagonal inch vs. $54 for the Samsung. You can get out the door with the Samsung solution for $3369.98 (plus tax), this includes glasses for two people, while the Panasonic will only set you back $3049.94 (plus tax) - of course you will have to wait a couple of weeks. We forgot to ask when they would receive more of the Samsung units, so it’s possible that this store already sold their one unit in stock and there could be a wait for more.

For those folks that are in the 3DTV business, the good news is that Best Buy (at least in Gilroy) has knowledgeable staff that has taken the time to learn about 3DTV. They presented the product very well - the demo looked good - and they were able to carry on an intelligent conversation about the technology based not only on their training, but also on actual experience from watching some content. All of the talk we have heard from the brands about needing to educate people about 3DTV actually seems to be happening. The question that remains is what to enjoy with your 3D TV - garlic wine or garlic ice cream?