It wasn't the first to show us its technology, but Samsung is the first to get products to the shops. You can buy a Samsung 3D TV now, while Sony and Panasonic have scheduled June releases for their offerings.

The Samsung system has much in common with the other 3D tech we've seen, in that you wear a pair of active glasses that turn the left and right lenses off and on in synch with the image being portayed onscreen. Samsung is currently including two pairs of glasses with each TV sold.

Samsung also had one trick up its sleeve that its competitors had not shown at their demonstrations, although Sony says it does have the technology. It will convert 2D video to 3D on the fly. Just hit a button on the remote and the 2D source signal coming into your TV is processed by the TV's video chip to produce a 3D image. Interestingly, you can also vary the depth of the resulting image on a sliding scale from one to 10. If you love a full-on 3D effect you'll bump it to 10 but if that messes with your head too much you can back it off so the effect is much less pronounced. In demonstration I found this technology a little hard to come to terms with when watching a soccer game, but couldn't quite pinpoint why. It seemed to add some kind of lag to fast motion so that it appeared almost blurred.
The same 2D to 3D effect can be applied to your photographs too. And here it was rather nice. landscapes really popped with the added depth.

Vieiwng other 3D material delivered via a hard drive and Samsung's own 3D Blu-ray player ($699), I found it to be the usual mixed bag. The animated movie Monsters Vs Aliens looked superb (and Samsung will give you a copy of this movie if you buy one of their TVs). Crystal clear and some great in-your-face effects.
Live action was variable depending on the amount of lens zoom applied to the footage. A Black Eyed Peas concert looked brilliant except that the zoom compressed the image to create a sort of layered look. Elsewhere, where zoom was not applied as in some wildlife footage, the 3D effect was mesmerising.
It seems to me that the quality of 3Dviewing is going to come down to the quality of the source material. Live footage shot originally in 3Dlooks excellent, footage converted to 3D after the fact looks not so great. Animation and games look awesome.

Samsung is covering all bases with 3D, offering it on bog-standard LCD, LED backlit LCD and plasma.
The 7000 series LED backlit units are priced at $3,999 for 40-inch, $4,799 for 46-inch and $5,499 for 55-inch. Plasmas are available in 50 ($3,499), 58 ($4,499)and 63-inch ($5,499) versions. Ordinary LCDs come in 46 and 55-inches but pricing was not provided.
Glasses retail at $199 for the USB rechargeable version and $149 for the CR2025 lithium battery version . They also come in adult and child sizes.