Brightness, color, low wattage, and no need for a mercury lamp = awesome front/rear projectors. For those that have been following some of my projector threads, the biggest drawback of front projectors is the cost of replacement lamps and a washed out image with a brightly lit room. A laser based system would solve all of these problems.
It looks like they're a year away, but if you own an HDTV now or aren't looking to get one for a year, I'd target a laser based HDTV with your next purchase, probably starting in the early part of 2008. I rotate HDTVs every two years much like my PCs so that's perfect for me!
Another nice development is projectors starting to use LED light sources:Are Laser HDTVs on the Horizon?
By Bryan Gardiner
Lasers – the TV of tomorrow?
High-definition laser televisions have been popping up at various trade shows and industry events for more than a year. Now, on the heels of yet another prototype appearance -- this time at an event for Arasor International, an Australian company that produces a key component for the semiconductor lasers -- it would appear that laser HDTV is only a little more than a year away from entering the commercial market.
According to Greg Niven, vice president of marketing at Novalux, the Silicon Valley-based company that developed the Necsel semiconductor laser technology used in these televisions, consumers can expect to see the first generation of laser HDTVs by December of 2007.
While he was unable to confirm precisely which manufacturers would be releasing them, Niven did say that Novalux has been working closely with Mitsubishi and others.
The news comes at a time when industry statistics indicate that American consumers are now buying close to five million high-definition televisions per year. As such, it is probable that companies like Samsung and Sony will want in on the laser-based technology as well.
"The biggest thing people will notice is the brightness and color," Niven said of laser HDTVs.
"If you look at the screen of today's plasma or LDC televisions, you're actually only seeing 40-45 percent of the color content the human eye can pick up," Niven said. "With a laser-based display, that number jumps to 90 percent."
It should be noted that laser television technology is actually not all that new. Engineers have been trying to come up with various ways of using lasers to illuminate television images for years. Because of their wide color gamut and high light energy efficiency, lasers are also seen as a viable illumination source for other projection applications.
Until recently, the problem with most lasers was that they lacked the power, the small form factor and the cost performance to be utilized in rear projection TVs. The new Necsel technology addresses those problems by providing a more cost effective, energy efficient and lightweight alternative to previous semiconductor laser platforms, said Niven.
In today's existing rear-projection TVs, light from a mercury lamp located in the rear section of the unit is split up into red, blue and green to create the images on the front screen. In lieu of white-light mercury lamps, a laser TV uses red, blue and green lasers to generate those images; only the laser produces much brighter and deeper colors.
Furthermore, they use about a third of the power of conventional, large-screen displays that typically rely on high-powered lamps, according to Novalux.
"When compared to the 850 watts a 50-inch plasma television can gobble up, that's a big deal," Niven said.
Of course all of this means that in addition to the myriad display technologies already available or in development -- plasma, LCD, S.E.D. (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) and Carbon nanotube -- consumers will have yet another option when shopping for a flat-panel, high-definition television next Christmas.
That's huge in reducing lamp replacement costs (~300/lamp for most projectors) and heat related issues.) Right now, the LED based front projectors aren't very bright so they aren't ready for prime time yet.the Toshiba TDP-FF1AU is built with an energy-efficient LED (light emitting diode) light source that can last for up to 10,000 hours of use, which the company says is much longer than a conventional projector lamp. The LED light source does not heat up the projector, eliminating powering up or cool down time, and increasing battery life. A fan isn’t required either, enabling quiet operation.
