Panasonic has undertaken a U-turn on its stance towards 2D to 3D conversion technology by including it in two of its new 3D televisions to be released in the US market in 2010. In the past Panasonic has spoken out against using the technology citing its inferior quality against native 3D and worried about how conversion may confuse consumers.
Analysis
It is unclear why Panasonic has changed its mind, but it is likely to centre around the conversion technology improving and the fact that the 3D content gap needs filling anyway possible. Panasonic is betting a lot on 3D with interests in 3D production, 3D Blu ray authoring, 3D consumer products including video cameras and televisions and Panasonic have sponsored 3D films, 3D broadcast channels and 3D sporting events. Along with Sony, Panasonic is one of the biggest stake holders in the 3D ecosystem.
Panasonic's previous reliance on native 3D content has proved frustrating with only 22 3D Blu-ray titles confrimed for release in 2010 with around 30 possible titles if rumoured release dates come to fruition. They have now followed in the footsteps of all the other major 3D television manufacturing with the addition of 2D to 3D conversion technology with the TV sets. While Panasonic will surely prefer native 3D content to be shown on their televisions, their inclusion of dimentionalisation technology will be a nod to the fact that the current content offering for the home is lacking.
In addition, while content may be lower in quality from live 3D conversion in the TV, it seems unlikely that consumers will be confused by the fact that they can opt to make their TV do the conversion. 2D to 3D conversion in the broadcaster or in the studio where the process is invisible to consumers must take more responsibility for being high quality since it will not be clear to consumers that the content isn't natively 3D.
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