Forget OLED - What ever happened to my Laser TV?

Not sure if many people remember the big buzz surrounding laser TVs a few years ago (coming out of Australia) but recently after realizing I need a new TV, I thought about the laser TV and where the heck it is.

It's been a couple years since the buzz first surfaced.







Mitsubishi LaserVue

LaserVUE homepage



"MARCH/APRIL 2008"

Mitsubishi's new TV is the first to use laser light, which produces exceptionally vivid color.

Like some existing TVs, Mitsubishi's uses an array of tiny, movable mirrors; red, blue, and green light beams strike the mirrors and are reflected onto the screen in different combinations.

But because laser light is so pure--all its photons have exactly the same wavelength--the color combinations can be much more precise. The TV will be on the market by the end of the year.

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Mitsubishi announced last week that it is restructuring the company through a plan that will see a reduced workforce, and a refocus to the production and sales of large-screen visual displays in both its commercial and consumer business units.

The home model of its laser-powered Laservue (less than 73 inches) will be discontinued, but the company is determined to concentrate on micro display rear and front-projection systems measuring 73 inches and larger.

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And the Australians?

In other news, sources are reporting the Australian based Arasor International is close to folding. This claim comes nearly three years after the company allegedly reported false statements about key laser tv patents it held and its alliance with Mitsubishi’s marketing of the Laservue.

$3,500 -75"

So the only Laster TV that has availability is 65" or up. (That I can see). Which is great if you have somewhere to put such a big TV (and the money to pay for it).

While the new OLED are crisp in color and are much better than the old plasmas and low quality LCDs, I want to know where my Laser TV is!

I was so excited a few years ago from the buzz. Maybe that is the lesson here?

More on Laser TVs

reply to post by boncho


Yeah, laser TV sounds awesome, seems like they could do a lot with that in the 3D realm, and surprisingly (unintuitive to my original thought) is laser TV is actually very low power consumption, not as low as OLED but definitely better than LCD/plasma.

I think there is still some ongoing debate though, on long term effect on your eyes from laser TVs, something to consider and keep track of.

The reason why it isn't out, it's because they haven't found anything better yet. Once they find the better, they will bring out laser tv's. They invented 3d tv's without glasses first and created ones with glasses to not jump in technology too fast to sell more future obsolete products.

Yep, it's Capitalism's fault.

Because as soon as they make laser TVs and the price goes down, people will have cheap high power lasers that can blind people (a weapon). People might try to use clouds as big TV sets in the sky and project a big mother ship above a city.

reply to post by XL5


You can buy a laser pointer at most dollar discount stores. I highly doubt them being weapons is a reason for anything....

Yes you can buy the cheapo laser pointers, but those are 1-3mW, the laser in those TVs are probably anywhere from 1000mW - 15000mW (1-15 Watts). At 1 watt, you can light stuff on fire from a distance and burn yer eye out. Just like those projectors that use an array of 1 watt blue lasers.

reply to post by XL5


No.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has released the ML520G54, a high output power laser diode, offering 110mW CW radiation at 638nm in stable lateral single-mode. The diode is ideal for use in mobile projectors, laser show equipment, and instrumentation applications, as well as in the biomedical fields.

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"We took costs into consideration for commercialization," it said. "And we found that the red color laser is more effective than the other lasers." The laser is manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric. Its emission wavelength is 638nm.

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From your second link
techon.nikkeibp.co.jp...

"The backlight of the prototyped 46-inch LCD TV is the edge-lit type. It uses several tens of the red laser diode and several hundreds of the cyan LED. Because a laser and an LED have different divergent angles, Mitsubishi Electric developed an optical system for evenly mixing lights from them. As a result, the unevenness of color was mitigated, the company said."

Which means this TV has 10-30 red lasers and going by your first link, each one is 110mW and each one can blind. Then again, your link on the laser diode its self didn't say laser TV as an app it would work well in and the link you gave about the TV didn't say that the 110mW laser diode was the one used in that TV, unless I missed it.

Also, that TV you linked to only uses red lasers and not red, blue and green lasers, which is possible now granted they would use a frequency doubled 808nm laser diode for green.

techon.nikkeibp.co.jp...
Third, despite its large size of 75 inches, the rated power consumption of the Laservue is 305W (160W when the TV is actually used).

So how much of that 160W is going to sound, heat and the LEDs/lasers that are in there. My guess, 40-60watts to sound, 40watts to heat, 30watts to the blue/green LEDs and 30watts to the lasers, The energy is not just destroyed.

The first youtube video link you gave showed one giant laser that looked a "bit" bigger then a 1-3mW dollar store laser. Its at the 1:00 mark and has a giant heatsink on it. Other laser TVs may be made with a red/blue laser thats over 9000mW in a single beam and a bunch of green LEDs but really, there are no eye safe lasers in laser TVs.

reply to post by XL5


I know you really want to run with your idea here that laser TVs aren't on the market because they can be turned into laser weapons, but.... It simply isn't true:

Lasers are extremely bright and can obviously be harmful to your eyes, but there will be several layers of safety. Among the options are filters and interlocks, making it virtually impossible for one to be exposed to the harmful laser components. Because laser light is so perfectly focused, there is the illusion of speckling when a laser is viewed on a surface. However, this will easily be remedied by a de-speckling modulator or passing the light through some other filter, breaking up the light before its viewed on the screen.

I already showed where you can purchase large laser TV's, anyone, as in you or me (consumers). You can go buy one right now if you wish (and you have the $).

Your point is moot.

Um, yeah they have safety features on "some" lasers, like this one: www.wickedlasers.com...
It doesn't really make it less dangerous

How ever, a 1watt pencil thin beam is still 1watt and will still burn things. If you make it safe to stare directly into the beam with filters, its not 1watt anymore and you may as well use a 1mW laser instead. Just because some lasers have safety stuff on them, doesn't mean people will not remove the safety stuff.

Just like people remove anti-piracy protection to get free stuff or remove the child lock on their cig lighter.

reply to post by XL5


Your not getting it.

You can buy these laser displays RIGHT NOW. If people making weapons out of them were an issue, why would they allow them to be sold? The issue is that they aren't selling smaller versions.

They are not keeping these off the market because they fear weapons makers, because they are not keeping them off the market. Like the other poster said, anybody can go out and buy one right now.

James1982, I know they are on the market right now. I am also wondering why laser TV isn't more wide spread and my guess it that they see lasers that can instantly blind many people as a weapon. They should be selling laser TVs with blue and red lasers as the blue laser diodes exist now but its either the weapon and outside pressures or like another poster said: they don't have the next step read after laser tvs. IMO the powers that be probably don't like the fact that people can buy 1watt lasers for $300 or less.

www.abovetopsecret.com... They already have enough people knowingly or unknowingly using them as weapons.

So if you have a guess as to why laser TVs are not wide spread like they should have been, lets hear it.

reply to post by XL5


I'm speculating here, but my best guess would be it has something to do with Mitsubishi not willing to license its patents.

Of course, I haven't looked into the issue enough to make a solid statement. That was the point of this thread, to show that I erred in judgement a few years ago getting my hopes up off a couple YouTube videos I saw.

To be honest, I'm not even much of a TV watcher. I don't think this issue you even warrants enough time to see what really happened behind the scenes. But if you'd like to search, feel free.



Somehow I don't think it has to do with 'lasers of death' though. Considering there are laser enthusiasts all over that buy high powered lasers. And there are plenty of industries that use them.

Your microwave is dangerous, so are many other household items, the key is that most consumers do not disassemble their appliances to make weapons. And if they were to, the laser in the TV's would be highly ineffective as weapons compared to other readily available items.