Last week, Mitsubishi invited its dealers and members of the press to see this year's TVs at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach, California. Front and center were the company's laser-illuminated DLP rear-pros, first unveiled at CES last January. Dubbed LaserVue, these sets are intended to rekindle the flagging RPTV market with twice the color range of today's HDTVs and larger screen sizes than any reasonably priced flat panel.

Although it was first introduced at CEDIA last September, I missed seeing the Mitsubishi HC-7800D DLP projector at that show. This 3D-capable single-chip model uses IR-sync'd active glasses that boast a much shorter inter-eye blackout time (when both lenses are closed) than most active glasses—0.2 milliseconds compared with about 3ms—which means they let more light through for a brighter 3D image. The HC-7800D provides 2D-to-3D conversion and vertical lens shift with manual zoom and focus. It is available now for $3000, including the IR emitter but no glasses (except now through the end of February, when you get one pair in a special promotion—which is a good deal, since the glasses cost $200 each!).

I saw a demo on a 110-inch (diagonal) Vutec Silver Star screen using a clip from Yogi Bear, an awful movie that nonetheless has great 3D, and it looked quite good with no discernable crosstalk. But even with the reduced inter-eye blackout time, the image was still pretty dim.

In a strong design departure from its previous projectors, Mitsubishi is introducing the Diamond Series, which dovetails nicely with the company's rear-pro and LCD top-of-the-line series of the same name. The HD6500 (pictured, $2500) claims a dynamic contrast ratio of 15,000:1, while the HC7000 ($4000) boasts an incredible 72,000:1 thanks to a new iris. Of course, I'll believe it when I see it for myself, but the demo in a semi-dark environment looked pretty good, and from past experience, I expect it to look great in a more controlled environment.

Anyone who has read my TV reviews knows I'm not a big fan of the audio systems built into most models. They usually sound thin and closed in, and there's not much stereo separation, to say nothing of surround sound. So when Mitsubishi announced a new line of LCD TVs with an integrated sound bar, I sat up and took notice.