Update: we've now published our full and in-depth Panasonic TX-P50VT20B review

The Panasonic Viera TX-P50VT20 will be the very first 3D TV to hit UK shores and it's a masterpiece.

We got our first look at the £2,000 3D TV at Panasonic's annual launch event in Munich this week - it's certainly a great-looking set, and well-specified too.

Panasonic struck a panel-sharing deal with Pioneer at the beginning of last year – a deal which included a Pioneer promise to hand over the patents protecting its own market-leading but now extinct Kuro plasmas.

Rumour has it that these new 2010 NeoPDP plasmas are the first Panasonic TVs to come sprinkled with that Pioneer magic. Certainly, the 'Infinite Black Pro' label and a 5,000,000:1 native contrast ratio would indicate this.

3D TV features

The VT20 series, which also includes the super-expensive 65-inch TX-P65VT20 3D TV, comes with the already-established 600Hz sub-field drive 'Intelligent Frame Creation Pro' tech which uses interpolation to smooth over the motion judder that comes from most source material.

And other assorted features include a generous helping of HDMI inputs, DNLA-network access and Viera Cast web TV, as well as two USB slots which can be used to attach external storage not only for playing back videos and viewing pictures, but also for recording TV.

It goes without saying then, that this is a leviathan in the TV world – a genuine world-beating televisual monster. We haven't yet been able to view the TV in test conditions, but the pre-production samples at the brightly lit show oozed class.

Playback of high-definition video was beautiful as expected, but, of course, it's the 3D aspect which makes this TV so interesting.

The third dimension

If you spend the (minimum, maybe more than) £2,000 required to bag yourself one of these TVs, included in the box will be two pairs of IR battery-powered 3D specs. Panasonic's 3D TVs use a different 3D system to that you've probably experienced at the cinema.

Consequently, the 3D glasses will cost possibly as much as £100 each if you want to buy additional pairs.

Click to see full-res version

We found the 3D specs fairly uncomfortable, actually, and while they look stylish, the amount of light that creeps in from the sides can be distracting. And this is by no means our biggest complaint about 3D on the small screen.

We find watching 3D pictures, through 3D glasses, on TVs extremely awkward and uncomfortable. The novelty value of watching 3D on a TV is certainly compelling – but after a while it's just distracting, and it's punishing on the eyes.

If you suffer from eyestrain, you just won't like it. It's that simple.

What's more, our reaction was echoed amongst a good proportion of the other tech journalists who made the trip to Munich.

We were able to watch various sports in 3D, we played Avatar: The Game in 3D, we watched film and TV clips in 3D. But our opinion didn't really change – if we had owned this TV, we'd spend most of the time watching in crystal-clear 2D – it's just a lot more relaxing that way.

Other drawbacks, of course, include the fact that to actually make use of the 3D features, you'll need to drop more cash on either a 3D Blu-ray player, or pay for a subscription to Sky 3D (no word on how much of a premium will be added to this service yet).

In conclusion then, there's no denying that this TV is exciting. The consensus was one of admiration across the board.

However, our opinion about 3D TV is still one of scepticism. It would be unfair to criticise Panasonic for this though – the same applies to Samsung and LG and all the other TV manufacturers who've been experimenting with 3D.

Panasonic says that its 3D-ready sets carry a premium of around £350, so we'll be very interested to see just how many people think early adoption of 3D is a worthwhile investment.