Calcutta, March 25: Makers of television sets feel it is time to liberate 3D from the confines of movie theatres and bring it to living rooms.

Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic have all geared up to launch 3D sets in India, a key market because of its population and huge consumer-spending trend.

However, experts feel there is very little or no 3D content available for viewers in India. Content suited for a global audience will appeal to a negligible section in the country, they said.

Samsung today launched 10 models of 3D sets in India across the LED, LCD and Plasma platforms.

Sony, which will launch the sets in Japan on June 10, will start selling them in India by July, Sunil Nayyar, GM (sales) of Sony India, said.

LG, which plans to sell 3D TVs in Korea from next week, will launch them in India through a partnership with Valuable Group in May.

Panasonic is yet to announce the dates for its 3D foray.

“TV manufacturers are always looking for new ways to sell more to the same set of people. They might flood the market with the hardware but we still have a long way to go for genuine 3D content development in India,” said a senior official of a reputed production house, which develops content for television channels.

Not many Indian content developers are planning any investment in this. India is also a minor player in the high -definition content segment. The country got its first high-definition channel early this month when Discovery Communications unveiled Discovery HD.

According to experts, creating content for 3D is 50 per cent more expensive as it involves costly cameras and post-production equipment.

Walt Disney-owned sports network ESPN plans to launch a 3D channel this year.

According to Sony, a 3D television will be about 52 per cent costlier than regular flatscreens.

“As a global market leader in colour televisions, we will be the first in deploying new categories of entertainment such as full high definition 3D TV for consumers in India as in other parts of the world,” Jung Soo Shin, president & CEO of Samsung South West Asia, said.

“We expect our 3D sets to constitute 10 per cent of our total LED television sales this year,” said Ravinder Zutshi, deputy managing director of Samsung India.

LG vice-president Havis Kwon said the company hoped to sell nearly 1 million 3D sets globally this year, which is 25 per cent of the market.