Mitsubishi announces laser HDTV

Mitsubishi demonstrated prototype displays based on laser technology at CES 2008 in January, and has now announced that the ‘LaserVue’ displays will be available in stores this autumn.

Pricing details and detailed specs will not be available until June, but it’s likely that the LaserVue sets, which are the first ever laser powered televisions, will be at the higher end of the HDTV range.

Compared with similar sized plasma and LCD model, LaserVue is designed to provide higher levels of contrast, black level and colour saturation.

This is achieved through the purity of laser light illumination, which is said to produce twice the colour range of either LCD or Plasma TVs.

LaserVue should also provide good 3D performance when used with properly encoded media and stereoscopic glasses.

The LaserVue TVs will employ TI’s HD4 or HD5 DLP chipsets, and do not require the colour wheel and lamp used on conventional DLP HDTVs.

The sets are also energy-efficient, using only half the power of LCD TVs and a third of the power of plasma TVs.

Mitsubishi has also announced new DLP displays, including three new 73-inch models, together with a new range of LCDs with 10% thinner frames.