It is CES time again, and this year, Samsung is going all out with several firsts, a lot of ICES Innovation awards (23 actually!), and a commitment to creating the future of home entertainment.
              
Home entertainment continues to get increasingly exciting with slimmer and cooler televisions and blu-ray players, but the basic experience of watching a movie from your couch hasn’t changed much in many years. Not to worry, in 2010, the 3D experience will make its way from theaters to your homes.

While the first 3D film premiered back in 1922, the technology that is used today is much more advanced and has finally made in-roads to work with the content Hollywood is producing. With widely distributed and popular 3D movies and a lot of curiosity around the idea of in-home 3D viewing, Samsung will deliver a complete 3D home entertainment solution to bring a truly immersive and memorable experience to consumers.

Samsung is not a stranger to 3D; it actually introduced 3D DLPs beginning in 2007 and 3D flat-panel Plasma HDTVs in 2008. At this CES, Samsung in partnership with DreamWorks Animation and Technicolor, announced that it will soon offer a complete out-of-box 3D experience including 3D HDTVs (not just LCD and Plasma, but also LED!), a 3D blu-ray player, and an exclusive promotion that includes a first-time feature-length, 3D Blu-ray version of DreamWorks Animation’s 2009 release, “Monsters vs. Aliens,” created and produced by Technicolor. So, just for a second, imagine watching “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 1080p, at home with your whole family, in 3D, on a very cool looking LED HDTV. And then just imagine all the great content that will come out in the coming year, and you get the picture. Home entertainment. Transformed.

Of course there are some challenges for 3D. I bet you can’t think of many 3D movies (I can’t either), and I doubt anyone will want to watch only 3D. Samsung knows this so it is going to take it a step further by allowing you watch 2D content in 3D through its auto-conversion technology. This will add some excitement to your old movies.

Samsung also announced Samsung Apps, the world’s first multi-device app store. That means apps for your phone, your TV, your blu-ray player, and in the future, all kinds of devices. Samsung Apps is featured as part of the upgraded Internet@TV – Content Service, and provides consumers with an expanded, easy to navigate selection of content and applications from leading services like Accedo Broadband, AccuWeather.com, The Associated Press, Blockbuster, Fashion TV, Netflix, Picasa, Pandora, Rovi, Travel Channel, Twitter, USA TODAY, and Vudu. Samsung will also allow developers to create innovative apps that we will be able to experience with ease and speed. You can expect the first batch of apps to launch in the Spring and premium apps to launch in the Summer of 2010.

Oh, and did I mention that Samsung is also launching a premium touch screen remote control with a QWERTY keyboard in the LED 9000 series that lets you watch TV on it? Well, now you know. Very fun indeed.

And for those people that would like to watch TV anywhere on-the-go, a new iteration of the Samsung Moment will be the first phone with Mobile DTV, a new free-to-air mobile TV standard that’s launching later this year (with an initial soft-launch in Baltimore and Washington, DC). Let me say that again: Free TV. Anywhere. On your Android-powered phone.

Samsung truly wants to transform home entertainment and that is going to take an actual commitment to what people can only dream of today. 3D TV is around the corner and it’s only the beginning. Samsung intends to inspire the world and create the future. Starting this year at CES.

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[Editor’s Note: Estaban just joined Samsung as Social Media Manager. The views expressed in the post are his, and don’t necessarily reflect the views of his employer. –mrh]