A Laser TV (also known as laser video display unit) is a rear-projection television that employs three laser beams (one each for red, green, and blue) to produce the image on the screen.  The image is created like a traditional rear-projection TV - by scanning the laser beams across the screen from the rear through the use of optoelectronics.

The idea of using lasers in TV is not new, having been proposed as early as 1966.  However, the high cost and poor performance of lasers in the early years did not make them commercially viable for consumer products.  The first commercial laser TV's have started appearing in 2006.

Semiconductor lasers (laser diodes) that can produce the red laser beams required by laser TV's are available commercially.  However,  as of this writing, the green and blue laser beams required by laser TV's can not be provided by off-the-shelf green and blue laser diodes without power, thermal, or lifetime issues.  As such, the green and blue lasers need to be produced by frequency-doubling lasers produced by other sources such as fibre lasers, inter-cavity doubled lasers, external cavity doubled lasers, optically pumped semiconductor lasers, etc.  

Figure 1.   Examples of Laser TV

Laser beams are more focused and have purer colors, so they can create images on a TV screen that are richer and more vibrant than conventional CRT, plasma, or LCD TVs.  Advantages offered by laser TV's are as follows:

- half the weight and cost of Plasma or LCD displays;
- less power consumption (just around 25% of the power required by plasma TV's);

- can be as thin as plasma LCD displays;

- a much wider color palette (twice the colors available in present-day HDTV's and about 90% of all the colors visible to the human eye);
- a 50,000-hour lifespan;

- no progressive degradation of the TV image with age (unlike LCD, CRT, and plasma TV's) since the full power output of the laser is maintained throughout its lifetime.

One reported disadvantage of laser TV is the probable safety risk posed by its use of high-power laser beams.