Home Checklist: Super Bowl won't be in 3D, but Olympics will

Put away the funny glasses; Super Bowl XLVI won't be in 3-D. Besides, you don't have enough specs for your whole party.

NBC (Channel 3 in Sacramento) will broadcast the big game at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and will stick to high definition for this mega-sports event.

But consumers who rushed out to purchase 3-D televisions will have something to look forward to: This summer's 2012 Olympics. NBC and Panasonic recently announced that they'll team up to present more than 200 hours of 3-D coverage of the London Games from 10 venues, showcasing the opening and closing ceremonies, swimming, diving and gymnastics.

NBC revealed its Olympic plans at last month's International Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. That show also debuted Toshiba's "glasses-free" 3-D TV that doesn't need special shutter glasses for viewing. To arrive on the market later this year, this 3-D set does have its own drawbacks. It requires fairly specific viewing angles to see the three-dimensional effect.

"They had footprints on the floor to show you where to stand to see the 3-D (effect)," said Sacramento's Leon Soohoo, owner of Paradyme Vision & Sound, who attended the show.

Soohoo was more impressed by the OLED TVs – organic light-emitting diode televisions – from LG and Sony.

"Those OLED flat panels are less than a quarter-inch thick," Soohoo said. "They're really striking with saturated color, and (have) very good energy efficiency."

Also on the horizon is 4K TV, super high definition with almost four times the pixels used by most HDTVs. The 4K refers to its resolution – about 4,000 pixels wide and about 2,000 pixels high. Also called Quad HD, it's expected to replace the current 1080p HDTV standard, which uses 1,920 by 1,080 pixels.

"There's a lot of buzz about 4K right now," Soohoo said. "But the resolution is impressive, like what you see in a movie theater."

These new technologies come with huge price tags, especially for a TV with a larger screen. But one old idea has been much improved: The video projector.

Like your grandfather's home movie projector, the video projector shoots its picture against a big screen on the opposite wall.

"It's really advanced," Soohoo said. "You don't have to turn off the lights. The projection is much more powerful and looks good even in a lit room. It's really coming right now. You can have a 70-, 80-, 100-inch screen, and it's much less expensive than a flat panel that size. If you're a really big sports fan, you can get a really big screen."

Maybe by some future big game.

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