A lot of people are overlooking or ignoring a very simple truth: current tech 3D HDTVs (that rely on shutter glasses) are dropping rapidly in price to the point where it won't be a major premium feature (ie adds less than $200 to the HDTV itself) for HDTVs in less than two years.
I'll even do a crystal ball prediction and say that in less than 12 months (before holiday 2011), you will be able to pick up a 46" 3D HDTV for under $1,000.
Last week Buy.com had a Samsung 46" 3D plasma HDTV for under $1,300.
Will the majority of consumers in the market for a big panel HDTV complain about the price under this scenario to the point that it prevents them from buying a 3D ready HDTV? I say no.
That's not what I'd consider to be a prohibitive cost for those shopping for big panel HDTVs. Generally when you cut well under the $1,000 price point today you're either buying a budget brand display, or a budget, cut feature model from the big brand names in electronics.
Adding extra pairs of shutter glasses will be the only real added cost to home 3D viewing (which is not neglible at $150 per pair).
A lot of these arguments against current tech 3D HDTVs are also overlooking the fact that over 90% of all content being viewed on these 3D panels, will in fact be regular 2D content, meaning you won't be wearing shutter glasses to watch your HDTV over 90% of the time (unless you insist on watching your handful of 3D movies over and over and only playing 3D enabled games on your PS3).
That's right; when you buy a 3D HDTV, you get a bonus. It's called a regular, glasses free 2D HDTV compatible with all current media and TV programming.
I'll even go a step further in my crystal ball predictions in saying that there will be plenty of 3D ready HDTVs in homes (the kind that require shutter glasses to work) that don't even have more than a pair of shutter glasses (or none at all if they didn't come with the HDTV) within the next 2 years. By then, 3D ready will just be a standard feature for HDTVs.
