It's not just Sharp that's planning to take on Panasonic and Sony in the tussle for the Japanese 3D TV market: Mitsubishi is all set to to go 3D later this year, using its laser-lit TVs already on sale in the USA.
The company plans to launch a 75in Laservue TV in Japan, having sold this model and a smaller 65in screen in the States since 2008.
The L75A91 series set on sale there claims twice the colour rendition capability of conventional flat-panel TVs, while only consuming 25-35% of the energy used by a normal TV of a similar size. It has also been designed to be 3D ready.
It uses an RGB laser array and a DLP engine in a back-projection configuration, and thanks to the novel illumination is much slimmer than the portly rear-projection sets of the past: the L75A91 currently in US shops is 38cm deep, if rather heavy at 70kg.
The technology is also expensive compared to conventional LCD and plasma screens – the US 75in model sells for around $6000, about twice the price of a comparable Panasonic 65in plasma, and three times as much as a conventional 73in Mitsubishi back-projection set.