3D

While Panasonic plasmas traditionally excel on the picture-quality front, they’ve lagged a bit behind other flat-panel TVs when it comes to style. Take last year’s VT25 series. The picture on those sets was hard to fault (the 50-incher we reviewed won our 2010 Video Product of the Year award), but when positioned alongside new, ultra-slim plasmas from companies like Samsung, the Panasonic’s 3-inch panel depth and thick gloss-black bezel rendered it caveman-like by comparison.

Doing its part to bring cutting-edge theatrical digital projection technology to a price point that's still hazy but should at least be less thanstratospheric, Sony announced the VPL-VW1000ES projector — the first of its 4K capable SXRD units to be aimed at the home market.

A couple of weeks ago, I dropped by an active/passive 3D TV shootout held by LG as part of their effort to publicize the benefits of their passive 3D approach over competing active-shutter systems. LG has survey research data showing that some 80 percent of viewers choose their passive 3D system over any of their competitors' active sets, when asked about color, picture quality, brightness, and comfort of glasses. Format war over?

While 3D movies haven’t totally taken over the multiplex, the format remains a force to be reckoned with. Michael Bay just released a new Transformers installment in 3D (Transformers: Dark of the Moon), James Cameron is at work on Avatar sequels, and the entire Star Wars saga is being formatted for 3D release.