The first wave of 3D-capable notebook and desktop PCs have been hampered by high prices and a do-it-yourself approach to assembling a system, Phil Eisler, general manager of Nvidia’s 3D Vision group, told us in an interview Wednesday. But with the arrival in the second half of some 3D emitter-equipped notebook PCs and increased bundling with 3D glasses and monitors, the market will expand rapidly, Eisler said.

"We continue to deal with product shortages” on the PS3, GameStop interim Chief Financial Officer Robert Lloyd said on a Thursday earnings call. The problem was so bad in Q1 ended May 1 that the retailer, “on an average daily basis,” was out of stock on Sony’s console “80 percent of the time” at its U.S. stores, Chief Operating Officer Paul Raines said.

BSkyB’s campaign, begun in April, to broadcast weekly soccer matches in 3D to 1,000 pubs in the U.K. has been a success, Chris Johns, BSkyB’s chief engineer, told the Broadcast & Beyond conference in London Wednesday. “People who want to be ‘alcostereoscopics,’ and watch 3D TV with glasses over their eyes and a glass in their hand can go to our Pub Finder website (http://3d.sky.com/pubfinder) and find their nearest 3D pub,” Johns said.

Target won’t resume rapid-fire store expansion for “a long time” as it focuses on remodeling existing locations, CEO Gregg Steinhafel said in an earnings call. The chain plans to open 10 net new stores this year, down from 60 a year ago and remodel 336, company officials said.

After first vowing that its first-generation VT series of 3D plasma TVs won’t sport 2D-to-3D conversion chips, Panasonic now says it will play wait-and-see before deciding whether to build those chips into future models. Panasonic wants to keep an open mind on the issue because it doesn’t want to be caught at a “competitive disadvantage” with other CE makers that opt to include the chips in their 3D TVs, Henry Hauser, Panasonic vice president of merchandising for display products, told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Days after a federal judge in California threw out the EcoDisc lawsuit that alleged DVD format licensors had conspired to put the green DVD developer out of business (CED April 29 p4), EcoDisc has resurfaced in the U.K. under a new British subsidiary. That subsidiary, EcoDisc U.K., says a British replicator, Software Logistics in High Wycombe, northwest of London, has begun taking orders for the half-thickness disc, which holds the same amount of data as a DVD5.

Most BJ’s Wholesale Club customers probably won’t be among the first buyers of 3D TVs, CEO Laura Sen said Wednesday on an earnings call. “Our members are not early adopters, so I think it really rests on how popular new technology becomes and how widely accepted and desirable it becomes,” she said. “Do they really want 3D this year?” Sen asked. “I kind of doubt it.” They may want a 3D TV, but they won’t be willing to pay extra for one yet, she said. On the other hand, she said, LED and “Blu-ray will do very well.”

The EPA released draft criteria for labs picked to test for Energy Star qualifications, as the agency moved to strengthen qualification and verification rules for the program. The requirements include those for in-house labs that the agency is considering allowing for certain product categories. Comments on the Draft Conditions and Criteria for Recognition of Laboratories are due May 28, the agency said.

Ten or maybe even 15 to 20 percent of games released next year for current-generation videogame consoles will be in stereoscopic 3D, and that percentage will soar to “at least 50 percent” the following year, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot predicted in a Tuesday earnings call. The publisher is hoping 3D, as well as the new Sony PlayStation Move and Microsoft “Project Natal” motion control systems, will help sales rebound after a difficult 2009.

LOS ANGELES -- Although cable operators can offer 3D TV pictures to viewers in a “frame compatible” mode today, much work remains to boost the viewing quality and experience of stereoscopic video images beamed to the home, according to industry experts on an NCTA convention panel last week.