Panasonic's World's First 3D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System* Makes U.S. Debut at CES 2009

Panasonic's World's First 3D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System* Makes U.S. Debut at CES 2009

Panasonic's 103-inch Plasma HDTV and Blu-ray Disc Player Combine to Deliver True Full High Definition 3D Home Theater Experience

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Panasonic, the market and technology leader in HDTV, announced today the U.S. debut of its world's first 3D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System (3D FHD) this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2009. The system made its world debut at CEATEC JAPAN 2008 in October 2008 to very strong reviews.

Panasonic's 3D Full HD Plasma Home Theater System enables the viewing of true-to-life 3D FHD images by using a Panasonic 103-inch Plasma HDTV and a Panasonic Blu-ray Disc (BD) player, capable of distributing full High Definition (1920 x 1080 pixels) images to the left eye and right eye.

"This goes well beyond conventional 3D and Panasonic is fully committed to making it a reality, and soon," said Bob Perry, Executive Vice President, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. "Plasma is currently the only TV capable of delivering a 3D Full HD experience due in great part to its ability to refresh at a speed which enables multiple image display without loss of resolution. The integration of Hollywood's 3D content with Panasonic's industry leading Plasma, Blu-ray and 3D FHD technologies deliver a truly immersive experience which will elevate home entertainment to a whole new level of excitement. You will no longer just be watching a movie, you'll be experiencing the realism of Hollywood film."

Realizing 3D Full HD

The 3D experience occurs because the left and right eyes recognize different images. Panasonic's 3D FHD system comprises a 103-inch Plasma HDTV and a Blu-ray Disc player that plays back Blu-ray Discs onto which 3D video (consisting of left- and right-sided 1080p Full HD images) are recorded. Full HD processing occurs on both the left- and right-sided 3D image in every single process - from recording, playback and display. With a special pair of active shutter glasses that work in synchronization with the Plasma HDTV, the viewer is able to experience 3D images formed with twice the volume of information as regular full HD images, and enjoy them together with high quality surround sound.

Previous consumer 3D entertainment encountered many different problems including the inability to deliver true High Definition picture quality in 3D due to the lack of bandwidth in transport and the limited capacity of the storage. Previous systems also suffered from reduced vertical resolution caused by a 3D display method that divides the scanning lines between the left and right eyes, and picture quality degradation caused by pixel skipping that results from the squeezing of two (left and right) screens' worth of full HD images into one screen of data capacity for image storage and transmission. Until now, there has not been a system capable of displaying the equivalent quality to the original Hollywood 3D master.

Plasma and Blu-ray Deliver 3D FHD

Panasonic's 3D FHD Plasma Home Theater System on display at CES 2009 integrates a wide range of technologies which eliminate the issues earlier systems encountered.

   1. Plasma Display: The performance of Panasonic's Plasma panels, whose      self-illumination allows for excellent video response, has been brought      out to the fullest extent in the development of a 3D driving system      that displays the left and right images together as full HD images with      no resolution degradation.   2. Blu-ray Disc: Using the optical disc technology developed by Panasonic      over many years, and the authoring technology developed by Panasonic      Hollywood Laboratory (PHL), it has been possible to record 3D images --      consisting of respective left and right 1080p full HD images - onto a      single, standard Blu-ray Disc.   3. Blu-ray Disc Player: Panasonic has developed a technology to decode and      play back the left and right full HD image data recorded to the Blu-ray      Disc in real time.   4. 3D Images: Panasonic has produced 3D content that allows the viewers to      experience fascinating 3D images, including dynamic images of athletes      at the Olympic Games, and animated movies from Hollywood.    

*World's first system to create true-to-life 3D Full HD images by providing full HD images to left-eye and right-eye, as of September 22, 2008

About Panasonic

Based in Secaucus, NJ, Panasonic Corporation of North America markets a broad line of digital and other electronics products for consumer, business and industrial use. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation (NYSE:PC) , and the hub of Panasonic's U.S. branding, marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. Information about Panasonic and its products is available at www.panasonic.com. Additional company information for journalists is available at www.panasonic.com/pressroom.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: Jamie_Hodin@nyc.cohnwolfe.com
http://www.panasonic.com/pressroom

Source: Panasonic

CONTACT: Chris De Maria, +1-201-348-7182, demariac@us.panasonic.com; or
Jim Reilly, +1-201-392-6067, reillyj@us.panasonic.com, both of Panasonic; or
Alix Dunn of Cohn & Wolfe for Panasonic, +1-212-798-9795,
Alix.dunn@cohnwolfe.com

Web Site: http://www.panasonic.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment