Well, at first I was angry. After my first post, I swore never to trust those yo-yos at news.com.au again. Then I re-read the article. The author does briefly mention the laser TV is a projection technology, and the only fact he got blatantly wrong was the television depth being thinner than a Plasma TV. Mostly, It's just a case of writing for the lowest common denominator, and leaving out any of the big words or acronyms they find confusing.

This is as much developer Arasor's fault as anybodies. Their web site is totally ambiguous, and their only diagram would lead you to believe Laser TV is in the same category as Plasma TV. A lot of the facts, while true, are just market speak developed by their PR department.

So now that I have had a chance to collect myself, lets do this.

Laser TV Revealed:Redux

The New York times has an interesting writeup of Mitsubishi Electronics new Laser projected DLP HDTV. The new technology offers many advancements over standard DLP sets. The Lasers make some DLP parts like lamps and color wheels obsolete, decreasing the overall depth of the set. Lasers should also last the life of the product, eliminating the need to replace costly projection lamps.

The Laser driven DLP even has a few benefits over the supposed king of HDTV, the Plasma Screen. For one, Plasma TVs must be made of glass, whereas DLP is made of advanced plastics. Mitsubishi claims an overall weight much lighter than a Plasma of the same screen size.

The real advantage over Plasma, or any other HDTV for that matter, is the greater color range, and intensity. Laser technology is capable of creating a more vibrant picture, and giving the viewer a true sense of black and white tones. It does all of this while consuming up to a third less power than plasma.

While not technically thinner than Plasma, Mitsubishi claims a smaller footprint in scenarios where a large flat-screen is mounted to a pedestal. I personally have a hard time imagining a Plasma that isn't mounted to a wall, but I'm sure it happens more than I think. even still, the Laser DLP is very thin for a projection HDTV. It's definitely a technology to watch.