Mitsubishi will be the first to commercialize Laser HDTV technology, and at a special unveiling party at the top of the Palms hotel, just offered the press the first look at three 65-inch prototypes. The displays are rear-projection and are consequently about as deep as similarly sized DLP displays (we’d guess around 9-inches). Where they differ dramatically from DLP, however, is brightness and contrast. The prototypes were by far the brightest displays we’ve yet seen, and colors were extremely vibrant. Blacks were exceedingly dark, though we got the feeling there was a degree of texture somehow lost in the darkest areas, evidenced by the lack of detail on clothing in clips from Sin City that were part of the demo loops.

Mitsubishi executives focused on the fact that lasers are the most pure form of light, but wouldn’t give us any hard specifications on contrast ratio. We did manage to get a promise of retail release sometime in 2008, and comment that pricing would be equivalent to flat panel displays of the same size, which means around $5k to $7k. That’s a far cry from previous comments from Novalux (designer of the RGB lasers in the displays) that the technology would cost only half as much as alternate HDTV technologies. Mitsubishi is apparently banking on the high end for the initial launch of Laser HDTV, though it’ll be interesting to see what traction the company can gain in a market that is increasingly favoring hang on the wall flat panels.

Source gear.ign