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The shape of things to come

Wednesday, 5th December 2007

Mitsubishi looks to the past for the future of television, says Peter Taylor

It is a case of back to the future at the Mitsubishi Group as it seeks to become the leader in the “next generation” of television technology, laser TV.

The Japanese conglomerate is one of few electronics giants openly investing in the technology, which uses laser light to improve brightness and the colour palette.

The concept involves replacing the traditional tubes or bulbs, still used in even the most sophisticated high-definition television sets, with lasers.

While traditional tubes and bulbs use white light filtered into primary colours and then remixed, lasers can beam the three colours directly on to the same spot, with varying intensities, to create a brilliant picture with a wider range of colours. The cost, at least from an aesthetic and practicality perspective, is that the televisions are rear-projection models – a market that has steadily lost ground to plasma and liquid crystal display (LCD) screens and is largely unloved by consumers.

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