Audio Video News

Last week, Mitsubishi invited its dealers and members of the press to see this year's TVs at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach, California. Front and center were the company's laser-illuminated DLP rear-pros, first unveiled at CES last January. Dubbed LaserVue, these sets are intended to rekindle the flagging RPTV market with twice the color range of today's HDTVs and larger screen sizes than any reasonably priced flat panel.

Among the demos was a face-off between a 65-inch Sharp LCD (left), a 65-inch LaserVue set (center), and a 60-inch Pioneer Elite Kuro plasma (right). All were said to be in their out-of-the-box condition, which means overly bright and contrasty, making the comparison somewhat meaningless in my view. The differences were not subtle—the reds on the Mitsubishi were far "redder" than the LCD and even the plasma, and the Mitsubishi's blues bordered on violet. The LaserVue's blacks were comparable to the Pioneer's and far better than the Sharp's, while the Sharp and Mits were both brighter than the Pioneer. The shadow detail in a clip from Sunshine was better on the Mits than either of the other sets. I would have preferred to see a direct comparison with the user controls on all three sets optimized, which would have made the demonstration more meaningful.

In an effort to address the "green" market, the LaserVue sets are said to consume about half the power of today's LCD TVs and a third the power required by plasmas. Another "feature" is the depth of the cabinet, which is just under 10 inches; in fact, two of these sets were mounted on a wall. It was announced they would be available in the third quarter of this year, though no prices were revealed.

Also on display were three new lines of DLP rear-pros with conventional illumination. The 735 series will be available in 60", 65", and 73" sizes, while the 736 and Diamond 835 series will have 65" and 73" models. Pricing will range from $1799 to $4699, and all sets will be available this month. All have the ability to display 3D content from suitably encoded sources; active shutter glasses synchronize with the display using IR signals from an emitter on the TV to a receiver in the glasses. The demo was impressive, but it still felt a bit gimmicky to me, and I suspect I would have gotten a headache if I had watched an entire movie that way.

Despite its emphasis on DLP rear-pros, Mitsubishi has no intention of abandoning LCD flat panels. The company introduced seven new models in three lines, all with "Ultra Thin" bezels under one inch in size. In addition, they all operate at 120Hz with Smooth Motion de-juddering (frame interpolation) for film-based content. Another interesting feature is GalleryPlayer, which lets you display high-res photos on a USB storage device from GalleryPlayer's comprehensive library of licensed fine-art reproductions.

The 148 series will be available in 40", 46", and 52" sizes, while the 149 and Diamond 246 lines will have 46" and 52" models. Prices range from $2499 to $4499, and all will be available in May.