Mitsubishi finished its week with word it would bow out of the LCD TV business. The company will focus on 73-inch and larger sets and should include both projection sets as well as LaserVue TVs. The goal is to retake the top spot as the "'large screen' company," Senior VP Cayce Blanchard said.
Electronics maker Mitsubishi has temporarily halted production of its flagship line of LaserVue HDTVs, a Wednesday Engadget report maintains. Mitsubishi says the delay is due to a problem with the manufacturing equipment used in the build of the HDTVs, though does not give any additional details. The company is, however, making all the efforts to resume production of the high-end TVs and is taking steps to ensure quality of the products and their reliability are not negatively affected.
After a small delay, Mitsubishi says it has begun shipping the LaserVue, said to be the world's first commercial laser TV. The technology is claimed to reproduce up to two times the color of most current HDTVs, and at the same time consume significantly less power. Power use in the LaserVue is 135W, said to be a third of the amount used in an equivalent LCD, or a fourth of that used in a similar plasma set.
Mitsubishi today committed to the final launch of its LaserVue sets. The world's first production laser-based HDTVs should be available in the summer and will be split into 65-inch and 73-inch screen sizes; by using laser light in place of normal lamps, either screen is much more accurate and can generate 200 percent of the normal NTSC color gamut while also consuming much less power. The 200 watts used by a LaserVue is said to be half that of a same-size LCD and a third that of an equivalent plasma set.
Mitsubishi on Monday took advantage of the gap between electronics shows to firm up its HDTV lineup, including the first-ever laser TVs. Originally shown at CES, the laser-based range is now to be called LaserVue and should be available sometime during the summer. While most details of sets themselves are unknown, the news makes laser TV only the second next-generation HDTV technology after OLED to ship and will reportedly eliminate most of the problems of both LCDs and plasma: the screen jumps from showing just 40 percent of the visible color range to 200 percent and consumes half the power of an LCD. It can also display 3D imagery with the right support.
