Nice explanation on how 3D HDTV's work, Tron.dll.
To expand a little on the theater portion, I know the theaters around here where I live utilize the RealD 3D projection system. It's usually a single projector with something called a Zscreen directly in front of it. The system uses circular polarization to achieve the 3D effect.
The projector alternately projects left and right eye frames, and the Zscreen alternately polarizes each frame, clockwise for the right eye, and counterclockwise polarization for the left eye. The glasses you wear have the opposite polarization so that each eye sees only the correct frame.
And as you pointed out, it alternates so quickly (about 144 times per second), your eyes see what your brain interprets as a single fused stereo image with depth.
For more details, see this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealD_Cinema
By the way, the prices of 3D HDTV's are steadily coming down. I lucked out and got my 60 inch DLP Mitsubishi 3D HDTV in June 2011 for $599 as an open box special. Yes, I know, that's still a lot of money. When you include the Blu-ray 5.1 Home Theater system, the 2 pairs of 3D glasses, and the speaker stands so that I could put the speakers at ear level, it came to about $1200 or $1300 total. But it was totally worth it, as I now have a pretty cool home theater in my living room. I hardly go to movies anymore. Me and the $1.50 Redbox Blu-rays are great friends now! LOL!
I would highly recommend saving up for a 3D HDTV. And check places like TigerDirect and Amazon for the 3D DLP televisions, and look for open box specials. The DLP TV's are not flat, so you can't hang them on a wall, but if that's not an issue for you, they're great TV's! Especially, if you're going to watch TRON: Legacy!

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