Are you thinking about buying a 3D TV, but are worried you'll have little or nothing to watch? Amidst the fanfare at Panasonic's 3D launch at Best Buy yesterday was an announcement by DirecTV that it would start offering high-def 3D channels beginning in June.

At the event in New York City, which drew executives from Panasonic, Best Buy, DirecTV, and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, DirecTV said it will offer, in partnership with Panasonic, three dedicated high-def 3D channels to its subscribers starting in June. Current DirecTV customers will be able to update their satellite receivers via a software download that will make their existing receiver 3D-capable.

ESPN has also said it will launch a 3D channel this summer, and Discovery has said it will partner with Sony and IMAX to launch a 3D network sometime next year.

News about 3D Blu-ray movie titles is also starting to trickle out. Twentieth Century Fox, for example, was on hand to announce that its first 3D Blu-Ray title, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, will be available starting in April.

Of course, 3D TVs work just like a regular set when you're watching normal 2D content, sans glasses, so it's not as if you can use the TV only with 3D fare. And the amount of 3D content is certain to grow, so there'll be plenty of opportunities to don the glasses and enter the third dimension as time goes on.

—Michael Rosato

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• Dell : Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Playstation 3 Game for $39.99 w/ Free Shipping

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Now that Panasonic and Samsung have announced prices for their 3D TV lineups, we’re happy to report that 3D models start as low as $1,700, though bigger sets loaded with bells and whistles could run as high as $6,000 or $7,000.

Those prices seems reasonable for a set with the latest technology, likely about what many of us spent for a new flat-panel TV a year or two ago.

But unlike those earlier sets, you’ll have to buy some additional gear, such as a 3D Blu-ray player and 3D LCD shutter glasses, if you want to enjoy the 3D experience. Right now you can expect to pay about $400 for a 3D-enabled Blu-ray player, and around $150 for each set of additional glasses beyond the one or two pairs that may come with your TV.

So what’s the real cost of getting set up for 3D in the home? Let’s do the math: Right now, Samsung’s least expensive model now on sale is a $2,600 46-inch LCD model with an LED backlight and 240Hz technology (UN46C7000). If you also buy the company’s new $400 3D Blu-ray player (model BD-C6900) in conjunction with the TV, you’ll get a free pair of 3D shutter glasses as part of a promotional bundle. That brings the total to $3,000. But a family of four will have to buy two more sets of 3D glasses at $149 a pop, raising the total system price to $3,300. The least expensive Samsung models announced are a conventionally backlit 46-inch LCD with
240Hz technology for $1,700, and a
50-inch $1,800 3D plasma set, but they don't arrive until May.

Panasonic is offering a $2,900 bundle at Best Buy’s Magnolia stores that combines its 50-inch 3D 1080p plasma TV (TC-P50VT20), which comes with one pair of active 3D shutter glasses, with its $400 3D Blu-ray player (model DMP-BDT300). But the TV is listed separately for $2,500, so there’s really no savings for purchasing the bundle now (except for the lucky first customer who got a year of free DirecTV as part of a first-sale promotion). If you add on the additional $450 for the three extra 3D glasses needed for a family of four, the total price is $3,350.

So, is $3,300 too much to pay for an in-home 3D experience? I guess it’s all relative. I paid $3,500 for the 50-inch Pioneer plasma in my living room just a few years ago, and it’s a 720p set. Still, $3,000 in this economy is a lot of money for most of us. If I was in the market for a new TV right now, I would definitely consider getting a 3D model—the premium isn’t outrageous, and it would be a way of future-proofing my purchase for the day when 3D content was more readily available and I was willing to spring for a 3D Blu-ray player. Let us know what you think about 3D TV pricing, and how it will affect what you buy this year.

—James K. Willcox

Combing through hundreds of blog posts and news articles daily, Dirk Klingner, our technology-trend watcher, sifts through the noise to bring you the tech news most important to consumers. If you have a tip on a story you want to share, leave a comment below.

It's 2010 - finally my jet pack is here! (Gizmag)

Only $86,000 will get you the first commercially available jet pack (right).

Kyte Now Offering Broadcast-Quality Live Video Streaming Backpack (TechCrunch)

…LivePro is a computer in a backpack connected to six data cards all uploading live video at the same time, balancing the load across three different carriers (Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon).

Biking directions added to Google Maps (Official Google Blog)

…Today we've added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S. My team has been keeping close tabs on all the public support for biking directions that’s been steadily coming in, but we knew that when we added the feature, we wanted to do it right: we wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes. So that's exactly what we've done.

How Ars Technica’s “experiment” with ad-blocking readers built on its community’s affection for the site (Nieman Journalism Lab)

…On Friday evening, Ars tried an experiment: Readers running ad blockers got a blank page instead of the story they intended to read. The move was a technical success, but caused an uproar (and confusion) among users. In hindsight, Fisher told me, the site’s experiment in retribution was the “wrong approach,” causing confusion among many readers.

Lighter side: THE NEW DORK - Entrepreneur State of Mind [Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys Spoof] (PantlessKnights)

If you’ve been following the news, you may have heard that 3D TV is finally here—and based on our very early experiences, it appears well worth the wait. We're now testing the first 3D sets to hit the market, and the preliminary results are impressive. These TVs produce compelling, realistic three-dimensional images that can duplicate the excitement you’d get in a movie theater.

In fact, though we’re still in the midst of our first tests of new 3D TV from Panasonic and Samsung, we can unequivocally say that these TVs produce the best 3D effects we’ve ever experienced from a consumer television, and represent a significant leap in the capability of a home TV set.

In our labs, we’re testing two 46-inch (7000- and 8000-series) Samsung LCD sets, which include LED backlights and 240Hz technology. These TVs are paired with Samsung’s new BD-C6900 Blu-ray player. Also in our TV Lab is Panasonic’s VT20-series 1080p plasma TV, a 50-inch model, connected to its new DMP-BDT300 Blu-ray player. 3D content is being viewed with the 3D shutter glasses currently being offered by each manufacturer.

During our initial testing, both sets were able to produce high-definition, 1080p images with excellent three-dimensional depth, color and detail. While 3D is not meant to completely replace standard 2D programming—and many of us may not be overly fond of wearing the required 3D, glasses—there’s no denying that this new 3D capability literally adds a new dimension to TV viewing when playing special 3D programs, producing 3D images that are visually compelling and often fun to watch.

We’ll be following up this post with a comprehensive review of each set’s strengths and weaknesses. In addition to testing each set with standard programs and 3D materials, we’ll be seeing how effectively Samsung’s TV can convert 2D shows to 3D on the fly, a feature currently unique to its models. So keep checking back with this blog for our full First Look test report on these new 3D TVs.

—Claudio Ciacci and James K. Willcox