Almost exactly a year after 3D@Home was created and proclaimed its field of action, JVC (not a member) is at the point of launching its first HDTV LCD with 3D support.

The GD-463D10 is a 46-inch LCD HDTV with a native 1,920 x 1080 resolution, 2,000:1 contrast ratio and integrated twin ten-watt speakers. It will be shipped in Japan early next month, for a painfully high price of $7,000 (¥700,000).

The screen uses the Arisawa Xpol technology to obtain the 3D visualisation effect, and will be bundled with (only!) two pairs of polarized glasses. Arisawa doesn't provide details about Xpol, but here is a short description from Tom's Hardware :

… it's quite possible that there are two light filters still in play, with each micro-polarizer projecting one filtered portion of the image, and the identical polarized lens picking up on the projection as before. The overall image is still broken into two, with one horizontal scan line displaying one line of the image (1), and the next scanned line below displaying a line of the offset image (2); the pattern repeats (1,2) throughout the entire screen. As a result, the 3D effect is the result of a line by line distortion, and not an image on image compilation.

Given its price, size and existence of serious consumer-oriented competition, this device will probably be directed towards medical institutions, research facilities and other businesses that require 3D imagery. In any case, the race has begun, it won't be (too) long before 3D TVs become a must-have!

[ via Engadget, Tom's Hardware ]