Coming up at CES will be the first shots of the struggle to shift 3D TV consumers from shutter glasses 3DTV systems to film-type patterned retarder (FPR) polarized glasses 3D panels.
A press conference in Beijng held by LG Display marshaled support from a number of makers, industry associations and state-run research institutes.
Chinese and some global LCD-TV makers plan to offer a full lineup of LCD 3D-TV sets featuring FPR panels in early 201. Present at the conference were Skyworth, Konka, Hisense, Haier, Changhong and TCL ó and global LCD-TV companies LG Electronics, Vizio and Toshiba.
Global TV leaders like Sony, Sharp, Samsung, and PDP-TV leader Panasonic so far will remain with SG (shutter glass) technology as this war lines up challengers against incumbents.
The plan, as usual in China, is to leverage national manufacturer support and impressive national sales volume to coerce the international markets into alignment with Chinese production. China 3D LCD market could be over 8 million units next year.
At this conference, Chinese retail giants Gome and Suning had their executives stand up and praise the new FPR 3D TVs as resolving consumer issues. This would be like dragging MediaMarkt in Europe or Best Buy in USA into a manufacturer's war to take sides.
The technical justification exists: LGD says FPR can deliver full HD picture quality while eliminating problems associated with SG 3D and it addresses the higher cost of panels by using film instead of glass substrate. A third argument, adds LG, is that "lightweight and comfortable polarized glasses that emit no electromagnetic waves will allow consumers to enjoy long hours of viewing without any discomfort in their homes."
Yet FPR is not without its own critics. The battle may not be as obvious as Blu-ray vs HD but the manufacturers are nonetheless taking sides in technology to fight a commercial war.
