The 3D HDTV era is about to begin in Canada. Speaking from a dealer event in California, Robert Gumiela, Director of Marketing for Samsung Electronics Canada Inc., told us that 3D-capable flat panels and Blu-ray players will begin arriving in the company's warehouse in mid-March. "We will start shipping to dealers as soon as the product arrives," Gumiela added.

At CES, Samsung announced three series of LED-edgelit LCD televisions. The C7000 series, which feature 3D support and 240Hz processing, and the C8000 series, which adds "seamless dimming" of blocks of LEDs for deeper blacks, will be the first to arrive. The ultra-thin flagship C9000 series will follow. Samsung will also have two series of 3D-capable plasmas.

To complement the new displays, Samsung will offer a 3D-capable Blu-ray player, the BD-C6900 (shown here). Speaking to Marketnews, Gumiela was quick to dismiss reports circulating on the Internet that this player is not fully compliant with the Blu-ray Disc Association's (BDA) specification for 3D discs and players. He said the only issue has been utilization of a 3D logo on the outside of the player. These trademark issues hadn't been finalized when the players were manufactured, Gumiela explained. Players have already been shipped to U.S. retailers, and are on their way to Canada. Internally, all these players are fully compliant with the BDA's 3D Blu-ray specification, Gumiela said, and will not require any modification.

Article Tags:  samsung, 3D, LED, LCD, plasma, TV, television, C7000, C8000, C9000, blu-ray, compatibility, disc, bd-c6900, BDA, specification, standard, compliant, player