Laser-beam TVs are coming to CES 2008

By Ian Morris on 26 June 2007, 11:48am

Anyone who's ever seen an LCD TV will know that the backlights are a bit cack. The uniform lump of light they produce shines through the whole screen, meaning you can never really get a nice deep black. Plasmas, on the other hand, can produce a lovely deep black, but it's harder to lay your hands on a 'Full HD' 1080p screen.

Crave is exceptionally happy to see that LCDs could soon be getting a kick up the backlight. Samsung has already committed to producing LCDs with LED backlights in the very near future, a move which should increase the contrast of LCD TVs and hopefully make blacks significantly blacker.

The most exciting news of all though is that Mitsubishi is claming it will be showing off laser televisions at CES 2008. Lasers are always exciting, even when used in a television -- after all, you never know when a deadly beam of light is going to burst out of the screen and annihilate everyone within viewing distance of the TV.

Mitsubishi seems to focus less on the destructive power of the laser beam and more on its ability to produce a bright, colourful image with vibrant reds. Which we suppose is understandable, considering the considerable legal costs that would surround killing innocent TV viewers with beams of light.

The only real problem we can see is that the Mitsubishi TV uses rear projection, a technology that hasn't really been a hit in the UK, probably because our living rooms tend to be a little bit smaller than those of our cross-Atlantic cousins.

Some people are even claiming laser televisions could kill off plasma. We're not so sure about that -- plasma TV is quite well established and people are very fond of their wall-mountable thin screens. Crave is reluctant to hedge our bets after the crushing disappointment we've experienced at the lack of SED TVs recently, despite promises we'd be able to buy one by now. -Ian Morris