We've covered several prototypes of the LaserVue set, and Gary says it blows all of them away, and "rates in the stratosphere of top displays" of the very best sets like Pioneer's Kuro Gen 2, Pansonic's 65VX100U plasma and LED-backlit LCDs. The major issue conquered in the final version over the prototypes is speckling, the sparkles you see when you reflect a laser off of a flat surface (try it with a laser pointer). There are none.

To dive into the nittier gritter, it has the widest color gamut of any set Gary's ever tested, far beyond the HDTV Rec. 709 broadcast standard: "Reds are so intense and crimson they’re indescribable. Ditto for yellows, purples and other colors and hues."

And brightness against the brightest LCDs is like the sun against the moon: 110.88-foot lamberts, compared to 70 for the most eyeball-pounding LCDs, when they aren't calibrated to show deep blacksthen they usually drop to about 30. Yet the LaserVue produces "jet black" blacks. Yet the power consumption is positively green: A mere 94 watts on average drive its intense 65-inch screen. LCDs and plasmas use 3x-4x that, and often more.

There's a lot more intensely detailed numbers and specs over at HD Guru if you really want to dive deep into this thing, but the bottom line is that it's worth seven grand, if you've got it, since I don't think there will be any holiday sales on this puppy. [HD Guru]

The Kuro still held strong with its deep, bottomless blacks, but the LaserVue is noticeably better on colors, especially reds. The LaserVue is also better able to handle scenes with tons of motion than the Kuro, especially during action scenes in Iron Man. You can see above that the Kuro, on the right, makes the red of Iron Man's suit look too simple, while the LaserVue on the left has all the dirt and scars of a real battle. Below, the LaserVue's reds really pop, able to show the difference between the hues in the woman's top and skirt much more clearly than the Kurowhich is even from Pioneer's demo disc.

We've seen the LaserVue reviewed before, but only while using Mitsubishi's hand-picked content, which doesn't necessarily make for the most accurate test. Kurtis and Cameron at The Tech Lounge got themselves a Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-Ray player and a copy of both Ice Age: Meltdown and Iron Man to test out color, clarity, and motion on the "normal" settings of both HDTVs. They came away impressed with the color, but not with the hefty $7000 price tag. Still, if you can afford it, and you don't mind its fatty rear-projection girth, the LaserVue is definitely the cream of the crop. [Tech Lounge]

Colors are "sensational and bright" and the reviewer goes so far as to describe the TV ""the best home-entertainment display in America." Strangely there's no mention of the TV's built-in 3D capabilities and still no pricing information for the fabled 73-inch model, but it's only a matter of time. Check to full review at Time, though it's of a distinctly non-technical flavor (prepare lots of overly descriptive asides about his neighbor's "man cave"). The important thing is that this TV apparently is as good as it sounds. [Time - Thanks, Josh!]

The foggy "sometime this year" release date has narrowed to Q3, so sometime late summer, though that's about all Mitsubishi is spilling aside from the fact the line's official name is LaserVue. Price and exact D-Day are coming in June, giving you a couple of months to scrounge some pennies together in anticipation. We're already drooling to do our own best TV ever side-by-side with this thing, 'cause whoever loses, we win. [HD Guru]