CES 2009

Last night, Mitsubishi took the Moon nightclub on the roof of the Palms Casino and turned it into a discothque to premier their long in development laser TV. Using fanfare fitting the unveiling of a major work of art (which in a way, it was), Mitsubishi lit up three of their rear projector laser engine TVs. They were at least 65" in diagonal, though we weren't told an exact size. Each was also about as thin as the thinnest DLP or LCD rear project TVs.

In a marketplace that is fast abandoning rear projection in favor of flat panels, introducing a new technology in an old wrapper is a gutsy move. It has to fly on the strength of its picture quality if it is to succeed. With statements like "existing TVs only show 40% of the colors visible to the human eye" and "the Mitsubishi will show up to double the number of colors of existing TVs," they were off to the races with colorful clips from "Sin City" and "Hero." I'm going to be very cautious here because until we can get the Mitsubishi in for review, we'll never know how well it looks when it adheres to standards, but last night, the picture was off the hook with sharp, over saturated images that were dreamlike in their intensity.