I bought one of the first sets available last fall through a highly reputable dealer. It worked beautifully for about three weeks, then suddenly started shutting itself down after being on for only a few minutes. I thought maybe it was some sort of sleep timer that I didn’t know about. The Mitsu techs have no in-home service capability on the set because of the lasers, but there is a diagnostic tool in the form of the way some lights flash when the set is turned on. And they were able to know from the Morse-code like sequence flashed out by my set that the problem was fatal.

Weeks later another a replacement set arrived, and I noticed rather quickly into routine viewing that there was a strange and annoying glow that extended up in a semi-circular arc from the bottom edge through about the lower third of the screen. It was completely unnoticable during a regular full screen image of a daylight scene, but in any sort of extreme letterboxed production intended to have black bands at the top and bottom or anything with dark/nighttime scenes it was very noticable. I compared it to headlights on a screen at a drive-in movie. I e-mailed Mitsu screengrabs of the problem from a high-def camcorder. They acknowledged it as an aberation and sent another replacement set, assuring me it had been checked out by the California techs. It arrived damaged at the facility in Delaware, which declined to accept it. So Mitsu shipped out a fourth set which techs dutifully set up and turned on. They were about to leave, when I pointed out it had a similar glow problem which they immediately acknowledged and noted on the paperwork. Mitsu then offered, and I accepted, a full refund. So after about a nine-month experience with LaserVue I’m now waiting for better luck with a Panasonic Plasma.

The bottom line for me is that two out of three LaserVues that I used in my living room had a very annoying glow that prevented the set from showing a black image. It would morph from black to gray depending on which part of the screen was involved. To me it was unacceptable.

The person I dealt with at Mitsubishi was extremely courteous and apologetic but the techs were never able to explain the problem to me or explain why it could not be corrected. They did at least acknowledge that it existed.

For others interested in the set, it might be something worth checking out. (I did not notice the problem on the first copy of the set I had. It’s problem, as I said, was simply that it wouldn’t play more than three minutes at a time.)

Thanks, regards and happy viewing. Larry

I own a floor model Laservue. Actually it’s my 2nd. The first one had what I believed was a fault in that the screen had a dull white blur at the bottom center with a secondary dot of light off to the left. Mits. claimed that this was perfectly normal. I had it swapped anyway for another floor model Laservue. The problem was exactly the same. This light source definitely interferes with dark scenes from programs such as Lost, and movies like 3:10 to Yuma, (Apache attack) With no video source, the screen is definitely not jet black. Contrast and brightness can be turned down to zero and the light remains.

So what is the deal. Are floor models just severely punished by being on all day?