Horiuchi: 3DTV will cost you a bundle

Horiuchi: 3DTV will cost you a bundle

TV even if you have a widescreen HDTV already: Panasonic's entry-level, 50-inch 3D TV costs $2500, while Samsung's 46-inch model costs a suggested retail ...

The more I look into it, the more I realize that 3-D television, which arrives in stores this month whether we like it or not, will be a luxury only for the super-rich.

Granted, emerging technology is always like that, but this is going to be ridiculous. To enter the third dimension in television could initially cost a household $3,000 or more. That's a lot of money to feel like you're getting whacked in the face by Jay Leno's chin. This is the future of television?

New 3-D TVs from Samsung and Panasonic started going on sale this month. And Sony has announced the pricing for its sets for later this year.

So this is what it will cost to step into the 3-D world, which will require you buy a whole new

Wait, that's not all. To watch a movie on Blu-ray in 3-D (only Blu-ray can do 3-D because it takes so much data to create that three-dimensional image), you will need a specific Blu-ray player, which will cost $400.

We're still not done yet. You will need those annoying shutter glasses to see the images properly. And these aren't ordinary red-and-blue 3-D glasses of yore or the simple polarized glasses you may have used watching "Avatar" or "Alice in Wonderland." These special glasses are mechanical, with blinds that open and shut over the lenses many

They will cost anywhere from $100 to $300 a pair. Imagine how expensive it would be if a whole room of people want to see a 3-D movie.

And in the case of Sony's technology, you will need to fork over another $60 for a "synchro transmitter" to make sure the glasses are synchronized with the television.

Here's the kicker to all this high-priced gadgetry: You'll be paying thousands of dollars to see no more than maybe a demo disc and the Masters golf tournament in 3-D before the summer (the PGA announced it would broadcast part of April's tournament in 3-D).

Only a couple of 3-D Blu-ray movies, such as "Monsters vs. Aliens," will come out this summer, and DirecTV and ESPN won't be introducing their 3-D channels until June.

"Avatar," the biggest-grossing movie of all time that helped popularize 3-D in theaters, won't even be coming out in 3-D Blu-ray until sometime next year. This season's big 3-D hit "Alice in Wonderland" likely will come out in a 2-D Blu-ray long before it comes out in 3-D.

Meanwhile, not one extra cent is spent making better TV shows and movies.

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