Jing blog

Don’t hold your breath for stand-alone 3-D Blu-ray of ‘Avatar’

Almost a year after its theatrical debut, "Avatar" is due to arrive December 1 as a 3-D Blu-ray disc, butto go along with it-and according to the movie's producer, it could be a long time before you can order the 3-D Blu-ray of James Cameron's blockbuster on its own.

"Avatar" producer Jon Landau says that the 3-D Blu-ray for "Avatar" will eventually become available as a stand-alone disc, but only once there are more viewers out there with 3-D TVs in their living rooms.

"We were ahead of the curve on DVD with 'Titanic' and we don't want to make that mistake again," Landau recently . Landau added that when "Titanic" was initially released on DVD, in 1999, DVD players were only in about 500,000 U.S. households, resulting in "disappointing" sales.

There's already a best-selling Blu-ray disc of "Avatar" on the market, and the predictable "extended collector's edition" (chock-full of extras missing from the initial bare-bones release) is due next week-but those discs are the 2-D version of the movie.

Of course, 3-D in your den isn't just a matter of having a 3-D Blu-ray player-or a PlayStation 3, now that the .

You'll also need a 3-D-capable TV set (not to mention pricey 3-D glasses), and according to industry analysts, .

Bundling the 3-D Blu-ray of "Avatar" with Panasonic 3-D TVs-and only Panasonic 3-D TVs, given that this is an exclusive deal-could be a "great way" to jump-start the number of 3-D TV sets in U.S. homes, Landau argues.

But as Hollywood in HiDef's Hettrick points out, there's a "chicken-or-egg" phenomenon at work here. After all, part of the reason that 3-D TV sales have been so slow is that there's so little 3-D content to watch.

Indeed, home video executives are touting next Tuesday as "Blu-ray 3-D Day" because 10 more 3-D Blu-ray discs-including "Clash of the Titans," "The Polar Express," "A Christmas Carol" and IMAX titles like "Deep Sea 3D" and "Space Station 3D"-will be hitting the market (along with one racy 3-D video, "Erotek Dimensions 3D"), .

By the end of the year, the number of 3-D Blu-ray movies available is expected to hit a grant total of ... 24, or 36 if you count the movies that are bundled with TVs (like "Avatar").

So, when will James Cameron & Co. decide that there are enough 3-D TV and Blu-ray owners out there to justify a stand-alone release of the 3-D "Avatar" Blu-ray? Hard to say, although Hettrick notes that Panasonic's exclusivity deal with 20th Century Fox might last as long as a year.

Hollywood in HiDef:

- Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.