Mitsubishi's laser HDTV to debut

Does this mean no rainbows?

Thanks for the link!

Anyone from AVS going to be there? I'd love to learn more about this. I know TI put out some whitepapers on LED usage w/ DLP but nothing on lasers yet.

Dixon: No color wheel, no rainbows. (IMHO) My guess will be that the image will be "painted" by rapidly turning the R G and B lasers on and off in rapid succession against the DMD. This should be much faster than shining the reflected light thru the color wheel and thus reduce (eliminate) the rainbow effect for those that see it.

I've heard some discuss LED's inability to produce as wide a color gamut vs. bulbs. I've also read (from TI) that LED's should produce a wider gamut than bulbs. Confusing. Any technical opinions on where Lasers will fall out in terms of their ability to cover a wide gamut?

Also, I'd love an educated opinion about this:
Wouldn't this imply giant leaps forward in black levels? How could this improve greyscale performance on the DLP sets? Could we see CRT-level black performance? If the Laser's on/off state performance is so incredible, why do we need the DMD? Or is he simply implying an all-black screen will result in the Lasers "turning off"? *big wup if that's the case*

I know the true technical sages among us hesitate to speak up for fear of trolling flames, but I'd love to hear how folks think this could work and what the market potential for DLP/Laser light engines might look like.

Freakin' lasers... I couldn't resist ;-)

I don't know if they are using this company's tech, but it is a good bet. The gamut is supposed to be huge. It is compatible with DLP, LCD and LCOS, making each one simpler to implement (less optics and mechanisms).

Novalux Link

Keith

Awesome link! Fascinating stuff. I hope this isn't all fluff, because it has real promise.

"The screens will be so lightweight that the need for frames will be significantly lessened, Mr. DeMartin added. This will give the television a cleaner, practically all-screen look."

"Its lighter weight, about half that of plasma models with comparable screen sizes, will also have a smaller footprint, he said. For example, a 50-inch plasma or L.C.D. television requires stands up to 17 inches deep to rest securely, Mr. DeMartin said."

"These solid-state lasers, he added, will greatly outlast lamps. As a light source, he said, they are practically "permanent," meaning that the lasers should last for the set's lifetime."
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Sounds like they have solved all the major problems associated with micro-device rear projection. But what about brightness? Will it have a 5 gain screen and be dim, or will it have a 2 gain screen, be bright, and have a wide viewing angle?
If it is a bright set, then SED may be in trouble in a price driven market.

IB

Ohlson!!!! Where's Ohlson!!!

Now we can finally get around to mounting these frickin' solid state lasers on sharks' foreheads.

Saw this link on Blue News and was gonna post it... but beaten.

The Novalux people are claiming 200 percent color scale... so hopefully it'll be similiar.

I just love the easy blacks, massive color scale, no bulb replacements, and VASTLY reduced power consumption (Which beyond electricity, provides unwanted heat if you live in the south... not to mention it can't be good for longevitiy of all the electronics).

Since they're "claiming" end of 2007 and mention comparable prices to a 52-inch plasma, I hope they're making that statement with what they think plasmas will be costing almost 2 years from now.

I am fashionably a little late to the party
I doubt Mitsubishi is dealing with Novalux since ...
http://www.novalux.com/company/press.php?release=9

1 lasers + lcd = true, Epson
2 lasers + dlp = true, Mitsubishi
3 lasers + sxrd = true but when?

I don't get the "math" above. The Epson system is a 3 LCD system, so they will be using 3 LASERs. Instead of color filtering on any of the LCDs it will just use the color of each of the 3 LASERs.

The same for DLP. But with DLP, they will all point at the same chip, just fire in rapid sequence, much like a colorwheel, but significantly faster, enough so to eliminate rainbows. Probably limited only in how fast the micro-mirrors are.

LCOS (or SXRD) is like a combination of the above 2, in that it uses LCDs, but they are reflective. Here it will be 3 lasers again, one for each chip.

With this, the iris (maybe), special lensing and filters should all go away. The thing I would need to know, is if the laser hits the whole chip at once, or is it indexed to every pixel. If it is indexed, then you could control the brightness with the laser and wouldn't need help from an iris control.

Although, thinking about it, even if it hits the whole chip at once, you could modulate the laser in much the same way as an iris would, so the iris still wouldn't be needed. In this way, more complex iris type clamping could occur, say a scene with very little blue in it, the blue laser could be nearly shut down.

Keith

This is a really interesting link and promising technology. Just what I need another reason to delay buying the current generation of HDTV 'cause I just know I'll have to have one with a laser light engine

So ... this tech is compatible with pretty much everything, and in the long run will cost less, run more effeciently, be lighter/smaller, produce less visual artifacts (no rainbows in DLP case, etc), better color gamut, improved black level, improved contrast ...


... **** ... I'm holding off the purchase of a new TV.

Jeez, so now what.. Something that'll blow away LED DLP? Late 2007 if I read the article right? This is getting ridiculous. I'm holding off to get an LED one. I really don't want to drop $4k or so for something that could be totally beaten in a year.

Please Stand By.... oh my gawd! my Eyes!!! The lasers burned them out!!!

News Flash!

Fires erupt in expensive neighborhoods! The cause; laser(blast)TV sets!

Do I have to wear the red glasses that came with my laser level?

Ok ok. just having fun.

This really sounds incredible. Wide gamut. lightweight housing? Lifespan light source! Can it also double as a printer?

This is great news. Mitsubishi not to be outdone by Samsung, they now come out with a DLP that uses lasers to get rid of the bulb issue. They both must be under contract to only use DLP. This is rediculous. They should just s**t can the DLP garbage and get with the 21st century and impliment LCOS!
On a good note, they will probably charge 30% more for the laser based DLP!

will lasers eliminate sse?

DLP's a pure digital signal, I think cleaner than LCOS. Otherwise, who cares? LCOS needs a light source as well. Sure, it doesn't need the switching of colors, but it would still benefit from a long lasting, low power source such as LED or laser.

Sounds interesting. I just wonder what black levels are going to be like and how much these sets are going to cost. It says the cost will be comparable to plasma. I'm sure the 52" set wil be reasonable but when you go 60" on a plasma the cost is really going to go up. An 80" set or larger sounds nice .

all
In my first post I should have listed as
A lasers + lcd =true
B lasers + dlp =true
C lasers + sxrd =true but when

xb1032
My bet is that you will have to pay like for a really good plasma of equal size. The black level should be excellent for an all black frame, lasers off (read the article). For normal video I assume that the laser can have a levels in between off and standard brightness. If that is the case expect better contrast in dark scenes.

Around the same time as SED:

and SED?
About time. I guess my letters might of hit home with their corporate moto of making products more energy effecient.

Yep, I would say so;

Best news yet........

JUST WHAT WE ALL NEED, ANOTHER REASON TO WAIT!

Is this set really different then the new Sammy 56" LED DLP........all companies seem to be throwing around the term LED and Laser as the "same thing". Many forum members have "debated" in the past that LED and Laser are the same thing OR are not the same thing - seems everyone has their own opinion?

Thinner cabinets and frames, they are beautiful; but Mit's already has a terrible track record of getting their products delivered without damage.....100% all attributable to the thin frames, and lack of strength in chasses structure now.

Who cares/hopefully never.

3 lasers + D-ILA= when?

Sorry to go ot. But will the laser tech work for FP? Also, when they say late next year are they meaning late 2007?

Tucked this post from ddisplay regarding laser safety into my Notepad URL file. Spotted a CIE diagram recently showing the wider color gamut of lasers, but can't locate it now. No doubt a google search would uncover CIE comparison diagrams. -- John

There is a big difference between solid state laser light and "normal" LEDs from an optical standpoint. The biggest factor for microdisplays is that LEDs produce a dispersed light with the light rays over a wide angle while Lasers produce a tight beam. Lasers with their tight beam have nearly zero "etendue" (a measure of the dispersion of the light rays). This has huge optical implications.

With LED and white lamps, there is a large loss of light efficiency when illuminating microdisplays and the smaller the microdisplay the more light is loss. With lasers and nearly zero etendue there is essentially no loss in collection of the light no matter with smaller microdisplays. Thus smaller cheaper microdisplay can be used with laser light.

The other factor in the light collection efficiency is the F-number of the optics. Typically RPTV are using F2.2 to F2.6 optics to try and collect as much light as possible (this ties to the size of the microdisplay and the etendue of the light source). With lasers there is no need to go to low F-numbers for light collection so cheaper/smaller and high image quality optics can be used. This also means that it will be easier to bend the light faster and the focus range will be very wide making it easier to build thinner cabinets.

Laser illumination of microdisplays could totally change the game for microdisplays from one of staving off LCD/PDP/SED from invading the large screen space to one of taking ground over a wider range of screen sizes.

videobruce
Why would you care if
A lasers + d-ila =true
or
B lasers + sxrd =true

I wouldn´t mind if we get A and B.

On point one: LED = Light Emitting Diode (not LASER). For the LASER based systems, you will see acronyms like SEL for Surface Emitting LASER. You could call it and LED, for LASER Emitting Diode, but they don't mean that when they refer to LED type lighting. They would only do that to hope to confuse the mass market. A company wouldn't come out and directly say it, but a salesman might.

This is not an opinion type thing. Anyone who says the LED = LASER in this context is wrong.

On point two: These sets would be a lot lighter, and so that is why the frames would not have to be so bulky.


Keith