CONSUMERS will still have to watch 3D television sets using special spectacles in the next three to five years because naked-eye 3D TV technology is expensive and not mature enough for widespread use, industry officials said during a 3D forum yesterday in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, 3D spectacles makers are developing new models to make them lighter and suitable for the near-sighted.

TV makers such as Changhong, Panasonic and Haier offer 3D TV models that are viewed with glasses. Others like Toshiba and TCL offer several 3D TV models that can be viewed without them, speakers said at the 6th China International 3D World Forum which opened yesterday.

The 3D TV models which need the spectacles to view will become main-stream products in households while the naked-eye 3D image technology, which is more expensive and with limited viewing angle, will be used in outdoors on advertising or at exhibitions like the recently-ended Shanghai World Expo, said Hao Yabin, vice president of China Video Industry Association.

The naked-eye 3D image technology "won't become mature enough in households in five years," said Golden Tiao, president of 3D Interaction & Display Alliance (3DIDA).

The cost of 3D spectacles will dramatically drop from "several hundred yuan" to "dozens of yuan" when 3D TVs account for 40 percent of the total TV market, probably in 2013, said Zhang Xuenong, marketing director of Estar Displaytech Co.

Changhong, one of China's leading TV makers, displayed the latest 3D TV models ranging from 50 inches to 63 inches during the China Electronics Fair, the country's No. 1 fair in the industry, which opened yesterday.