Status of Laser TV via HDI, Mitsubishi and AUO?

[oopslcnyc.rr]

What is the status of Laser TV via HDI, Mitsubishi Laservue & AUO? Are either of these near production & at lower rates than the $7000 Laservue intro?

[alfredpoor]

As far as I know, only the Mitsubishi Laservue is shipping. Amazon shows it as in stock from 6th Ave for $5,000.

I have not seen the Laservue lately; Mitsubishi is having a press event in NYC that I may get to, but it's on the same day as the CEA summer line show and the summer NYC Digital Experience. The other times that I've seen it demo'd (including its launch) it look great with reds but less impressive in the rest of the spectrum. I also saw strong contouring at the launch, but I believe that has been fixed.

The problem is that American consumers don't want rear projection TVs, no matter what they cost. For some reason, they want thin TVs. The laser light source is interesting and helps simplify some of the optical problems, but the fact is that we've had solid-state lighting for rear projection sets for many years now. Samsung used PhlatLight high brightness LEDs and Panasonic had the Luxim LiFi micro-wave induced plasma lamp, but neither made any difference in terms of attracting buyers.

The laser rear-projection HDTV is solving the problem of a decade ago, and I don't expect it to ever get much traction.

Alfred

[lcaillo]

It seems to me that for people that want a larger image size without going to a projector, it might have a reasonable solution. Mitsubishi is happy to have a small niche where they are the only player. I see it as another viable option, just like projectors or some of the very high end products with a similar small part of the market. It is obviously not aimed at the larger part of the mass market.

[alfredpoor]

Mitsubishi was in fact at the Digital Experience event this week, so I did get to see one of their displays and speak with their top folks. The fact is that DLP without lasers are still a viable solution, especially in the larger sizes. Their 82" DLP set lists for just $4,499. And their 60" model lists for $1,199. That's what you'd pay for some 42" flat screen models.

Mitsubishi has been selling 3D-ready rear-projection models since 2007, and now is offering a $100 adapter to make them ready for current 3D signals.

Frankly, I think any of the front-projection technologies could work just fine as a rear projection engine. The biggest hurdle is that American consumers clearly don't want rear projection, no matter how much money they can save.

Alfred

[danielpower]

The laser TV is way too expensive.

[Richard]

Yes it is... and the lamp based DLP line does not have the sparkly artifact (especially red) of laser...

Samsung used PhlatLight high brightness LEDs and Panasonic had the Luxim LiFi micro-wave induced plasma lamp, but neither made any difference in terms of attracting buyers.

The Samsung LED system was plagued with constantly shifting color temp and that seemed to play a huge role in not being able to gain any traction within the videophile community to rave about or promote it. Lamp based Samsung remained the recommended choice.

Dunno a thing about the plasma lamp Panasonic used. I do know their LCD RP line never even made it to the performance radar screen; again, nothing to rave about or promote.

Getting back to laser, we think of laser light being perfect yet it has one major flaw, uniformity. It seems this had never come up over all these years until somebody tried to use it as a light source.