if you haven't already heard the term laser TV well you're probably going to be hearing
about it plenty in the coming months and years but what is a laser TV really maybe
you think you know the answer well what if I told you that there's no official standard for
a laser TV right now and that one of the complicating factors is a really old rule
that the usfcc made up decades ago sounds crazy right so yeah let's talk about laser TV [Music]
I'm Caleb Dennison and even though the definition of a laser TV is in flux right now we can still
paint a picture of the laser TV in Broad Strokes to get you familiar with the concept but also
there's this developing story around who coined the term laser TV who determines the standards for
what a laser TV should be and why an ancient FCC rule may end up being a factor in decisions or a
factor in delays oh and hey this seems like a good time to ask you to kindly click some buttons if
you end up liking this video subscribe if you want to see more and most importantly I really need to
hear from you on this would you like to see me review laser TV slash UST projectors on this
channel let me know down in the comments to help me decide thanks as always for helping shape this
channel also shout out Eddie Bauer who sent me some cool guides really appreciate it if you like
this we'll have a link to that below as well all right let's talk laser TV okay to get into this I
want to tell a little story let's travel back in time a few years the city is San Diego California
the date is September 4 2017. the show is cedia I'm wandering the floor in search of cool stuff
and run into this the Hisense laser TV now this is the first time I've heard the term laser TV
in modern parlance and what I saw didn't fit what I had in mind for a so-called laser TV I guess I
was thinking of some kind of conventional TV that somehow used lasers as a light source which I mean
that idea sounds kind of cool but I'm pretty sure it's also technically not feasible anyway that
concept I had not what laser TV is or at least what it's become known to be what Hisense was
showing was an ultra short throw projector which was I think it's fair to say it was emerging Tech
at the time but certainly not unheard of we'd seen Ultra short throw or UST projectors before this
however was the first UST projector I'd run across that used a laser light source so laser check but
that didn't explain the TV part at first blush this just looked like a projector and a screen
probably not what most folks would visualize when thinking of a laser TV well Hisense arrived at
the term laser TV primarily for marketing purposes the idea is that this Ultra short throw projector
would be sold with a wall mounted projection screen an ALR screen by the way which I'll talk
more about in a second also the projector would have built-in speakers and it had a TV tuner
built in as well and because all the cool kids were doing it it had streaming apps built in too
so for the very lofty price of ten thousand dollars at the time you'd get everything you
needed to watch TV in one package hence the term TV no it wasn't a one piece solution but it was a
one purchase solution everything working together to act just like a TV only at screen sizes a fair
bit larger than you could get from a TV at the time keep in mind that getting anything over an
85 inch TV back then was nearly impossible so we therefore now have high senses marketing term for
this package laser TV and for a very short time Hisense was the only game in town but then others
jumped on the field and started using the term laser TV the problem is not everyone had the same
take on what laser TV should be Epson offered a pretty similar package that it called laser
projection TV but then you've got companies like vava over here selling a laser UST projector with
no screen and no TV tuner built in and calling it a laser TV I've even seen some other creators
here calling like the new four movie UST projector a laser TV but is it I mean at a certain point a
term is just going to get co-opted and the public will run away with it and do what they want it's
like the instant pot right you may own a Cuisinart computerized pressure cooker thingy but I bet you
call it an instant pot anyway right sorry insta pot which by the way that's not a thing there is
no instapot brand so in a way the public just kind of ran away with instant pots brand and tweaked it
for their own use not only did the brand name morph to instapot to apply to pressure cookers
more generally but it's also now applied to the wears made by instant pots competitors but you
know what ask instant pot if they're mad I mean I'm not sure I would be even though everyone
is butchering their name it's still kind of a household name and everyone including instant
pot knows where it came from they are very well known to be the modern pressure cooker OG and
that's good Legacy right there anyway the same thing could be happening with laser tv nobody has
a trademark on the term laser TV and also there's no standards organization that's popped up and
declared yeah this new product category is getting big enough that we need to get all official with
things so here then is the official definition of laser TV you can imagine the kind of problems
this wild wild west of so-called laser TV could produce or maybe it could end up not being a big
deal at all like the instapot god it hurts me to say that wrong folks it's instant pot okay I got
that off my chest I won't say it anyway before I go on I want to be absolutely crystal clear about
something here Hisense is in no way involved with this video no sponsorship or underwriting of any
sort they don't even know I'm making this video and they'll learn about it when it posts just
like you did what I'm about to tell you is 100 my personal opinion and with that out of the way
I think Hisense mostly has it right I think what they have decided internally for their products
what should or should not be labeled as a laser TV is more or less what the industry should adopt and
make official couple of Exceptions there but for the most part I like hisense's tape so here's what
that breaks down to you've got a laser-powered Ultra short throw projector I don't care if it
has one laser two lasers or three lasers as long as it's light source is laser we're good
now Hisense would like for these products to be sold in specific sizes and that part makes sense
but part of their take is that the UST projector has just one maybe two fixed focal lengths meaning
it's capable of a 100 inch image and that's it or maybe 120 inches or maybe at best it can do 100
and 120 but nothing in between and I'm not sure that has to be part of the rules but considering
this next part kind of makes sense and the next part is that the whole kit has to include an ALR
screen ALR stands for ambient light rejection and what that means is that the screen is designed to
accept light from a specific Direction in this case from down below and reflect it straight
out away from itself any light coming from above or off to the sides is basically rejected or at
least tamped down on so there's really two parts there the kit has to come with a screen and it
has to be an ALR screen this preserves the whole one package proposal thing and it also means that
the system should offer good enough brightness to be usable during the day when there may be
daylight coming into the home it doesn't have to be operated in a darkened room to be usable the
idea is you can put it anywhere a TV would go and it'll work for you so we we can just call it a TV
it also needs to have built-in sound speakers at least as good as the most basic TV that's
requirement three and the fourth requirement is well it's debatable the fourth requirement
might need to be a TV tuner and at least for now it technically would have to be as sold in the
United States that's because anything sold as a TV in the US according to a very old FCC rule
must have a TV tuner for receiving over-the-air broadcasts and it's supposed to be billed right
in and as far as I'm concerned that's it for the requirements have lasers have an ALR screen have
speakers and in the US at least have a TV tuner built-in Android Google TV Roku whatever that's
optional I suppose but let's be honest who's going to skip that in this day and age but does it have
to be that way I mean can't we just call any UST projector with lasers or laser TV and have that
be okay I mean like I said some companies and even reviewers are already doing that well in
my opinion we need the stand entered look and I say this as someone who is not a huge fan of
red tape or arbitrary standards but I don't think you can call just anything a laser TV let's not
dilute the term TV until it doesn't mean anything anymore there are gaming monitors and then there
are TVs there are projection systems and then there are TVs I really feel like the term TV
needs to describe an experience that you get and that means usable versatile Sight and Sound in
one package without any other purchase needed to enjoy the content that's my stance and it just so
happens that Hisense and Epson seem to have the same position while other brands very respective
Brands might beg to differ and I understand why Hisense has kind of claimed this term
but where Hisense wants to use it as a branding and marketing term what we need is for the whole
industry to agree that we'll use it to describe a product category a much more broad use that
I think will benefit both consumers and makers of laser TVs this will not be a popular opinion
though specifically with some big name brands I don't have to tell you that companies like Samsung
LG and others aren't too keen on using a term for which a competing brand has already staked
a claim so we'll see how things play out but for now just know that a laser TV is a really great
way to get a large screen experience much like a TV in places that conventional TVs just can't go
I mean for folks who live in places where there's no shot of getting an 85 inch TV up the stairs and
around corners and there are a lot of places like that just in New York City alone a laser TV is
the only way to get that large screen experience outside of having to go with a more conventional
and hassle prone rear projection system thanks as always for watching everyone I hope you found
this video helpful and entertaining slap it with a like And subscribe if you did I'll see
you on the next one and until then here's two other videos I think you might like