For about two years I’ve been steadily following Mitsubishi’s progress toward a laser TV—a DLP rear projection TV that uses lasers rather than lamps to produce light and color.
So it was a bit of a surprise at a recent electronics industry trade show to see an innovation even more interesting that that. The TV in question is the 52-inch (also available in 46-inch model ) LT-52149 integrated sound projector model. While it’s a mostly-conventional LCD TV, what makes it stand out is the built-in sound bar that really works.
The LT-52149 is a full 1080p LCD TV with standard backlighting (CCFL not LED), a 6ms response time, 120Hz anti-judder feature, 4 HDMI inputs and a fairly wide 178-degree viewing angle. All that alone would make it a TV worth paying attention to. What really gets attention is the feature found under the screen—the speakers.
Most flat panel TVs these days go out of their way to hide the speakers. In fact a lot of manufacturers assume buyers won’t be using the built-in speakers anyway, opting instead for a full home theater system. While I agree that’s the best audio option, If my friends and relatives are a representative sample, there are a lot of people who just don’t want the hassle of placing 6 speakers around a room. Several speaker companies offer single-cabinet speaker bars as alternatives to separate surround systems. The Mitsubishi iSP TVs include just such a speaker bar built-into the TV.
The “sound projector” on the Mits TV is made up of 16 individual 3-inch drives with crossovers separating them into five discrete channels (front R/L, center, rear R/L). Each channel is designed to use timing and reflection to create an accurate surround experience while sound technically comes from the front. There’s also a subwoofer output to add the .1 of a 5.1 system (which I found necessary to the setup). A virtual surround option is not unheard-of in a flat panel TV, but the control and performance if this one makes it unique.
Cosmetically, this is an attractive TV, with a glossy black finish and minimally thin bezel surrounding the screen. The speakers are not hidden the way some recent Samsung and Hitachi TVs hide their speakers. When you’ve got 16 drives, it’s difficult to hide them. However, they’re not objectionably large. The TV is also a bit deeper than others we’ve had in here recently, measuring close to 5-inches deep.
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