Panasonic and Best Buy have teamed up in an exclusive partnership to sell Full HD 3DTV systems in the U.S. market. At a press event in New York City this morning, Best Buy and Panasonic executives were on-hand to describe the system, the partnership and to celebrate the first sale of a complete 3DTV system, complete with 3D-enabled 1080p plasma display, Blu-ray 3D player and Active Shutter 3-D glasses.
New Yorkers Brad and Ashley Katsuyama became the proud first owners of this new technology although they will have to wait a little longer before there's any real 3D content (other than the Blu-ray 3D demo disc from Panasonic, included in the package). Executives from Twentieth Century Fox and DirecTV were also present to confirm their commitment to 3D content. Fox announced that their animated film, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" will be coming to the Blu-ray 3D format some time in April. DirecTV has previously announced plans to offer three 3D channels to their customers in June, using existing set-top boxes which will be compatible with the Panasonic 3DTV models.
The system sold today was comprised of a previously unannounced Blu-ray 3D player, the DMP-BDT300 ($399.99), and the 50-inch TC-P50VT20 3D-enabled 1080p plasma HDTV ($2499.99). The TV comes with one pair of the active shutter 3D glasses. Additional glasses can be purchased at $149.99 each. Shortly after the sale, Best Buy sold out their remaining stock of the 3D systems - all five of them. Stock will be continuing to come in through the month eventually making it out to over 300 Best Buy stores where they will be featured in prominent displays in Best Buy's Magnolia "store within a store." The VT20 3DTV and DMP-BDT300 player will be Best Buy/Magnolia exclusives and will only be available at stores, not online on the Best Buy web site.
According to Panasonic's Senior VP of marketing Bob Perry, Panasonic feels that the customer's first impression of Full HD 3D is crucial, which is why they're partnering with Best Buy, making a significant investment in store displays and training Best Buy employees on how to demonstrate and sell the products. Stores with Brick and Mortar operations will be allowed to post information about the systems on their web sites but they cannot accept online orders. This policy may change when Panasonic feels the consumers have been properly educated, but they would not get specific as to when their 3D products would make it to the virtual shelves of Amazon and other e-tailers.
The 50-inch VT20 will be followed later this Spring with a VT25 series, in sizes ranging from 50 to 65 inches also only available at retail. The DMP-BDT300 will be joined this Spring by a DMP-BDT350 player ($449.99), previously announced at CES and not exclusive to Best Buy. Feature-wise the BDT300 and BDT350 are similar, with Panasonic's VIERACast platform for streaming Netflix, Amazon, Pandora and YouTube, BD-Live support and an included 802.11b/g/n WiFi adapter so you won't need to run a network cable to your player. The DMP-BDT350 will add DLNA networking capabilities so it can access media files (photos, music and video content) from within your home network.
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