http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7178288.stm

Alongside a raft of new high definition LCD displays was the world's largest plasma display - a 150in behemoth from Panasonic - the world's thinnest commercial screen - just 3mm thick - and the world's first laser television.

The latter was debuted by Mitsubishi, a company that has claimed a number of television firsts including the first true high definition sets.

The firm's describes its laser technology as a "new category" of screen, in addition to the likes of LCD and plasma displays.

The Japanese company claims that current high-definition televisions only display 40% of the colour spectrum the eye can see. Lasers, they say, offer double that.

"Laser is all about light source," said Frank DeMartin of the firm. "It's the purest light source on the planet; it's the most intense light source on the planet."

The 65in sets use three lasers - red, green and blue - that project the image from the rear of the television. The result is vivid colour and crisp images.

"Laser is the very best solution for big screen entertainment," said the firm's president, introducing the new sets.

The firm has not revealed how much the screens will cost but said it will start to ship them to retailers later this year.

laser tv demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS6wsJRGqnQ

I have been looking forward to laser tv. It will be interesting to see what price range they come in at, there was talk that they are suppose to be cheaper than plasmas and lcds to produce. If the 65" is less than £1000 i would be very tempted to bea beta tester

I can't help thinking it's just an advertising ploy - anything with 'laser' in the name seems to excite the public!

Quite the opposite for me, it sounds god damn dangerous
I never worried about an electron beam slicing it's way out the tube but a laser well we all know from popular culture what they can do...

A genuine new technology is certainly a good thing but I don't think the UK consumer need worry or get excited about it's impact for a couple of years at least both in availability and price but this and OLED could be the long term future.

And how old is OLED now?, it strikes me as it's pretty well failed before it's ever gotten started?.

Have you seen how FAT the demo TV's are!! - LCD and Plasma annndd OLED are making the step into the inch or less Zone in terms of thickness - "Eventually Laser TV's will be the size of current flat panels" - ie 10cm ish - which will be thick by the time they come out. there currently going on 20 -30

All this Vivid colour - look around you people the World isnt in a vivid over saturated colour- one review compared the colour to a Watermelon flavored sweet compared to a watermelon - ie fake and overpowerfull.

OLED and thin Plasma will be the best for pic quality and all roundness!

It's rear projection, it has to be fairly fat.

Does it really matter how long it's been in the R&D stage after all Laser has been in development just as along and already missed one launch date

What is important is that it now OLED has an actual retail product and now just like LCD and Plasma before it the technology and manufacturing process has to provide large screen sizes at prices point at least equal to what current tech is sold for. SONY and Samsung are fully behind OLED but have said it may be a couple of years before they can compete on size and price with LCD.
Laser on the other hand has started big and has to scale down which I suspect will bring it's own problems and at this time saying you will offer a retail product later in the year and no pointer to price smacks of pure PR pretty much in the same style as SED a little over a year ago

They seem more interested in demonstrating their stuff than producing it for the consumer.

Like all those motor shows and their 'concept' cars.

Yep.
The fact is that even LCD rear projection sets (not the deep when compared to CRT) are being pulled by their main producer SONY as the market dries up but price wise they offer excellent value for money considering the amount of HD screen you get.
The market really has moved into the ultra flat panel direction when even 4" is considered quite deep

Yep, even Pioneer not a company the brags about what it will be doing is using CES to demo their next gen concept Kuro which they say when it's Black it really is black since there is zero radiance so contrast measuring becomes redundant.


For a lot of the companies CES is just as much about attracting investment from the big boys and showing the public what they could be buying at a later date.
Things like SED and OLED and now Laser are all looking for support beyond the core developers and inturn take away investment from potential rivals.

Yes, but they aren't that good a picture, and they don't last very long either - the picture gets gradually worse and worse.

Indeed, my old CRT rear projection wasn't impressive at 8 years old and in a way quite pleased it was uneconomical to repair however the way western consumer markets are at this time is even 5 years excessive for the turnaround time for a TV?

As for the overall quality well as you know the majority buy at price points and quality be damned which is one reason so many threads appear bemoaning their performance, after the fact.
It's almost as if the idea that while paying more doesn't mean you will always get better quality that paying more has no relevance at all and a £1000 50" LG/Sammy/Philips Plasma is as good as a Kuro costing 3 times as much

I'm not saying the Kuro is worth an extra £2k but just using it as an extreme example.

Many people just look for buzzwords like "1080p" and think if it has that then it must be good.

hehehe yeah, didn't that all start with Amstrad putting the word 'Digital' onto the front of all their crap all those years ago?