If yo are assembling a 3D home theater, in addition to a 3D compatible HDTV and Blu-ray 3D player, you will need shutter glasses and other components. Starter kits provide the additional components that you need to help assure that your installation will work as expected.
Liquid crystal shutter glasses, also called active shutter glasses, are special glasses required in order to experience the 3D effects with Blu-ray 3D movies. When selecting your 3D home theater components, watch for special deals, such as promotions for free starter kits from manufacturers. That can save you several hundred dollars due to the current high cost for shutter glasses. A single pair of brand name shutter glasses will cost $150 to $200. Several compatible brands are entering the market that cost between $100 and $150. Starter kits usually bundle two sets of shutter glasses with other components and/or 3D movies.
Beware of Compatibility Issues
Shutter glasses need to be matched up with the 3D HDTV that you purchase. This is because the emitter that provides the synchronization signal to the shutter glasses is typically built into the HDTV. Some manufacturers use an external emitter box that is connected to the HDTV. The synchronization signal matches the left-eye, right-eye images displayed on the screen to the left-eye, right-eye shuttering effect of the glasses.
We recommend that match the same brand for your first few sets of shutter glasses to the brand for your HDTV. If you buy other brands makes sure that they are compatible with your particular 3D HDTV. Why? Because the synchronization signals for some emitters are out of phase with the signals from other brands. For example, Panasonic and Samsung shutter glasses are not compatible with each other’s HDTVs. They are examples of shutter glasses that use a different synchronization methods. It does not appear that manufacturers did this intentionally; it’s just a matter of one standard that was not set for displaying 3D images.
One bonus with many 3D starter kits is that most manufacturers have managed to lock in exclusive rights for some of the most popular 3D movies, such as Avatar. This means that some of the most popular 3D movies may not be available for sale as a separate item for six months to a year. While this is great for Avatar fans who purchase a Panasonic 3D HDTV, it sucks for people who purchased a Samsung HDTV.
Here is a list of the starter kits available from major manufacturers of 3D HDTVs.
| Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Samsung & Sony Blu-ray 3D™ Starter Kits | |
| Title | Details |
| Mitsubishi 3DC-1000 3D HDTV Starter Pack – Includes 3D Adapter with remote, Two Pairs of Active 3D Shutter Glasses with Emitter & HDMI cable | Starter Kit |
| Panasonic TY-EW3D10MK1 3D Starter Kit – Includes Coraline 3D And Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs 3D, Two Pairs Of Active-shutter 3D Glasses | Starter Kit |
| Panasonic TY-EW3D2MMK2 Ultimate 3D Starter Kit – Includes Avatar 3D, 2 Rechargeable Shutter Glasses | Starter Kit |
| Samsung 3D Starter Kit SSG-P2100T – Includes Monsters vs. Aliens #D, 2 pairs of Battery-Operated 3D Glasses | Starter Kit |
| Samsung 3D Starter Kit SSG-P2100X/ZA – IMAX Blu-ray 3D Kit, 2 Pairs of Active Shutter 3D Glasses, Mail-in Voucher for How to Train Your Dragon Blu-ray 3D Disc | Starter Kit |
| Sony 3DBNDL/Alice 3D Deluxe Starter Kit – Includes Alice in Wonderland, 2 pairs of Shutter 3D Glasses, a 3D Sync Transmitter & High-Speed HDMI cable | Starter Kit |