3D magic now on TV

MANILA, Philippines - Can you imagine John Lloyd Cruz so close to you, you can actually feel his eyes boring through yours? Or Sarah Geronimo’s lips actually touching yours in a moment of sweet surrender? What about dancing a storm with Katrina Halili in Party Pilipinas or smiling back at Nikki Gil as she flashes those pearly whites on A.s.a.p. XV?

Go ahead, let your imagination run wild. Leading appliance store Abenson has just unveiled its newest gift to star-crazy Pinoys: The 3D TV.

Launched recently at Avant, Greenbelt 4, exclusively for The STAR, the Samsung 3d TV can convert your favorite TV show into a three-dimensional feast of sight and sound. Needless to say, it also lets you to watch movies in 3D right in the comfort of your own home.

Samsung executives led by Jay Ha, Consumer Electronics-AV Business Manager, showed us just what his company is so proud of. He gathered all his guests at the second floor of Avant and screened the hit animated film Monsters vs. Aliens in a Samsung 3D LED TV set.

The monsters looked larger than life; the chase scenes loomed scary and real. You can even picture yourself running as fast as your legs can take you — along with the rest of the aliens — to flee from the enemy.

“If the room is dark, you can see that black is really black; white is really white,” crows one of the Samsung executives.

Fine. But do all these come at a steep price?

“The 40”-inch series costs P169,000 while the 46” TV set fetches at P199,000,” Ranj Basi, AVP for Marketing of the Abenson Group, announces. But before you cry “foul!,” she adds that this is the same amount buyers in Singapore and other countries shell out for the products.

Considering how much a two-way plane fare costs this peak season in the travel industry, that’s not as bad as it seems.

The package is a home entertainment showcase in itself. It comes with a 3D-capable Blu-ray player, a 3D disc and two pairs of goggles that enlarge images on screen many times over.

If Junior whines that he can’t watch cartoons on 3D TV, mom or dad can buy him another set of goggles from the family’s friendly neighborhood Abenson store.

Stocks will be available mid-May. But Basi and her staff are already pre-selling the units for video aficionados,

It’s still too early to tell whether this will inspire TV networks will convert to the new technology and come up with 3D shows and programs. But who knows? With Samsung’s 3D TV there for the taking, our children and our children’s children might see the day when almost all — if not all TV programs — come in full 3D glory.

When that day comes, let’s just hope we, their parents, are still around to enjoy this exciting new era in home TV viewing.