Mitsubishi laser TV unveiled

Tonight at the Moon Room on the top floor of the The Palms Hotel & Casino overlooking Las Vegas, Mitsubishi unveiled its laser HDTV. As expected, Mitsubishi kicked off the event with a few execs expressing their love for lasers -- and Mitsubishi in general. They explained that Mitsubishi is a leader in laser technology and owns 75% of the led laser market, so bringing them together with big screen TVs made perfect sense. Then the event went from execs to night club as the curtain was dropped and there were three 65-inch laser HDTVs on display. At first glance the colors were sensational and the contrast was extremely intense; and although we were hard pressed to see anything that struck us as groundbreaking, we'll need to see this side by side with a traditional set to really know what we're looking at. Unfortunately, the event was short on details, such as price or availability, but during 2008 is the time frame Mitsubishi is aiming for.

Gallery: Mitsubishi laser TV unveiled

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[Mork @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:25PM]

Mitsubishi trademarks LAZR and LAZRTV for Laser TVs:
http://www.trademork.com/lazr/

[erich.strasser @ Feb 13th 2008 4:08PM]

A very good introduction with pictures, videos and detail technology informations about Laser-Television at
http://www.oled-display.info/what-is-laser-tv

[Miah @ Jan 8th 2008 1:29AM]

They are also 3D capable!
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS54220+08-Jan-2008+BW20080108

[GreezyG @ Jan 8th 2008 1:32AM]

yay for lasers

[Dustin @ Jan 8th 2008 1:35AM]

I wonder what the color range is. Also, they would need to account for specialized display surfaces, since laser light tends to scatter and bleed on the wrong materials.

[Jeebus @ Jan 8th 2008 1:23PM]

Looks red to me.

[Wonder Warthog @ Jan 12th 2008 7:56AM]

Since this is a REAR-SCREEN projector, that's not an issue, as the screen is included. Your issue would only BE an issue for front-projector home theater type systems (I haven't seen any of those cited anywhere yet).

[locke6854 @ Jan 8th 2008 1:42AM]

i always thought it was "seeing is believing"

[Ross @ Jan 8th 2008 1:46AM]

And in this case "seeing is hazardous to your vision" as well

[Laser-TV.org @ Jan 8th 2008 1:43AM]

Absolutely amazing pictures. If it looks as good in person and the price is competitive with other HDTV sets, laser will become the new standard.

http://laser-tv.org

[RikF @ Jan 8th 2008 2:10AM]

How can you tell? Are you viewing the engadget pictures of a laser tv on a laser tv?

[Randavance @ Jan 9th 2008 7:55PM]

Uh, boy, this comment/account sure doesn't look like an advertisement for a laser-TV centric news blog.

No siree, not in the slightest.

[farnarkle @ Jan 8th 2008 1:44AM]

Frickin' lasers!

[Rik @ Jan 8th 2008 1:58AM]

I wanted to say that!

[uShak @ Jan 8th 2008 1:49AM]

am I the only one who thought VIRTUAL BOY the second I saw this?

[mac @ Jan 8th 2008 2:03AM]

Virtual boy was so much fun...in about half hour intervals. Any longer, and my eyes went batty.

[shanoboy @ Jan 8th 2008 9:48AM]

Haha, for a second there I had Virtual Boy flashbacks too! I may have to dig that old thing out of the closet and play it some tonight!

[Max @ Jan 8th 2008 2:06AM]

First generation of a new video display technology, eh? I think I'll sit this one out for the time being.

[Paris @ Jan 8th 2008 3:03AM]

Are these LCD thin though or are we going back to CRT size TVs?

[jivetrky @ Jan 8th 2008 3:15AM]

How much will it cost for the mounts to put these TVs on the heads of sharks?

[EQC @ Jan 8th 2008 3:49AM]

When I first heard of this tech, it was supposed to be Rear projection, but about as thick (~4") as an early plasma/LCD, while offering superb colors and also being very cheap relative to plasma/LCD.

If that's the case when they come out, and they come out soon, I'll be happy.

[Mobius_1 @ Jan 8th 2008 4:36AM]

Price? Try buying 1000 of those laser pointers! lol

[Steven Sinski @ Jan 8th 2008 8:01AM]

this is based on the Australian Novalux design. it was due to be announced for Fall 2007. guess they waited for CES and decided Christmas wasn't ready for it.
http://www.novalux.com/

[Dan Z @ Jan 8th 2008 8:05AM]

I guess I didn't realize Mitsubishi had a monolopy(?), strong hold for sure, in the laser market

Good for them

[Adam Wroblaski @ Jan 8th 2008 8:40AM]

As long as the other specs are up to par, my only concern is the viewing angles. If it's anything like other rear projection technologies, it's going to have a little trouble keeping up with LCD and plasma.

hopefully these have a wider viewing angle, then i'm sold

[jrgrade @ Jan 8th 2008 9:39AM]

My understanding is that a "laser TV" is nothing more than a DLP engine with a laser as the light source going through a PCAOM. Granted thats a feat in itself, but with advances in LED luminance I think this may be a fad; albeit a very cool one.

[numlok @ Jan 8th 2008 12:55PM]

Actually, there's more benefit to these laser displays than just luminance.

Laser-based displays not only have amazing contrast, but also have wider color range, lower power consumption, no color shift/loss over time, and lower production costs (which will HOPEFULLY be passed along to consumers).

http://www.necsel.com/

[Jeebus @ Jan 8th 2008 1:25PM]

@numlok: Like LED

[locke6854 @ Jan 9th 2008 6:10AM]

Its got more shades of red than any other display technology

[Hollywood5 @ Jan 16th 2008 10:11AM]

This is my understanding as well. The laser television will be very similar to the LED DLP's now. They will also have the same benefits. LED DLP's provide a wider range of colors while using much less energy than other technologies. They are also very reliable as well.

[gumby @ Jan 8th 2008 9:44AM]

"Believing is Seeing" ... not when you're looking at a crappy camera phone pic of the new laser TV's image.

[Andre Friend @ Jan 8th 2008 10:07AM]

um this has been in the works for a while,

MIT's Technology Review had an article awhile back about it,

http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/17651/

[JosephMohmed @ Jan 8th 2008 12:02PM]

Oh, it has? I thought they just recently started working on it, and were only showing off a concept with a Plasma inside saying "it's going to be totally better than this."

[George @ Jan 8th 2008 1:37PM]

Damn, I wish the camera shots weren't so blurry. I understand though, it is a pain trying to get good shots in a dark environment.

[iamsancho @ Jan 8th 2008 1:58PM]

do I need to wear my foil hat when watching this TV?

[Edward Camuffo @ Jan 9th 2008 9:15AM]

As one who was ready to bite the bullet and drop two to three grand on a flat panel LCD HDTV, I am so happy that the news of this new and revolutionary laser HD TV technology has surfaced. Guess I'll wait some more....

[OneLove @ Jan 9th 2008 5:03PM]

you go blind after 5 minutes.

[loomis2 @ Jan 10th 2008 7:02PM]

Mits has been showing bits and pieces of this technology for the past two years at least. It was supposed to be available to the public by last Christmas, but I don't think anyone really expected them to meet that timeframe. Last year they also said that it would be comparable in price to current lcd/plasma sets, which made me think it would be sold everywhere. If it is only being sold through high-end home theater retailers then I wonder what the actual price point will be. I'm even more skeptical since they aren't even mentioning price right now.

But it should be awesome. If it all pans out the way Mits said it would last year I will be buying one. If they come out and cost 5-6 thousand and are hard to find then maybe not. If they seriously want to compete with lcd's and plasmas then the price better not be over 3 grand.

[Michael @ Jan 10th 2008 5:07PM]

Why is it only red???

Doesn't green and blue work???

I mean really now, if you going to show off a laser display with a banner page announcing "Laser TV", why monochromatic? It's mighty odd and I think they have some issues and they're not saying.

[macona @ Jan 11th 2008 12:01PM]

Look at the rest of the gallery and there are pics of the screens in color. It seems many digital cameras are overly sensitive to red so I dont think the pics are good because of that.

Question is though is there and "speckle" like you get with any other monochromatic light source?

[gokada @ Jan 24th 2008 7:24AM]

where is laser tv? all of those are mit. where is laser tv!!!!!