Fuji P50XHA40US vs Pio 506XDE

grand

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I'm about to buy my 1st plasma and have decided on either the Fuji or the Pio. I love the look of the Pio and its connectivity but saw the Fuji (ISF calibrated) and the picture was outstanding but connectivity is restricted to say the least.
Can anyone advise on which one I should go for?
Would there be much difference between them if both are ISF calibrated?
Thanks
 
The Fuji is in a different league. Once calibrated this will be even more apparent.
 
Not sure that I agree Giz, but on thin ice here. I calibrated the 2 Fujitsus that were on display at the Glasgow show (guessing that that may have been where you saw them Grand - if not ignore me!) I had about an hour on each on Friday - the 50" was good, the 55" wasn't right on Saturday, another hour on Saturday night and it was looking a heap better on the Sunday.

I still haven't calibrated a 506 for a customer but I have set one up with the latest software at the ISF course in Newbury (actually a 43" but no difference in terms of calibration). The ISF day and ISF night menus are an attraction to the end user - the ability to calibrate these modes "automatically" with the new software is an attraction to me - big cost for the software, hoping for a return on my money. End result should be the same as a manual calibration, except that the auto version does it in 10 minutes that would otherwise take me 3 hours.

Don't write off the 506 though the Fuji is seriously good.
 
But then I think the 50" Fuji gets so much right, where as the Pioneer still gets a fair bit wrong, not for everyone, but for some.
But we all look for different things in a screen, and nothing has ever beaten the XDE for looks and useability, as in the media box and only one cable etc.
 
Hi All.

Just how good is the Fuji 50"?

Just sold my 42" Panny PWD5 and looking to replace it with an ISF Calibrated 50" HD Panny or the Fujitsu possibly fed via scaler.

Wondering which is best choice and why. :confused:

Any info appreciated.

Regards, Gerald. :)
 
gizlaroc said:
But then I think the 50" Fuji gets so much right, where as the Pioneer still gets a fair bit wrong, not for everyone, but for some.
But we all look for different things in a screen, and nothing has ever beaten the XDE for looks and useability, as in the media box and only one cable etc.

Gizlaroc, I've bought a 506XDE (yet to be delivered) mainly for DVD'S and XBOX360 games. Do you think as a first time plasma buyer I'll be disappointed?
 
Buy a PDP on looks alone (switched off) and my advice may well be very different. Switched on, best connections - forgetting scalers - the Fuji is good - but lack of film detection is a problem for me.
 
Piers said:
Buy a PDP on looks alone (switched off) and my advice may well be very different. Switched on, best connections - forgetting scalers - the Fuji is good - but lack of film detection is a problem for me.

How do you mean - your advice may be very different?
 
Panzer22 said:
Gizlaroc, I've bought a 506XDE (yet to be delivered) mainly for DVD'S and XBOX360 games. Do you think as a first time plasma buyer I'll be disappointed?


No, not at all.
 
I would have thought that anyone who buys a panel would also add a scaler.

I would personally take a PHD8 with a scaler over a Fuji on its own and you would be looking at similare prices.
 
gizlaroc said:
No, not at all.

What about compared to my current Philips 36PW9607 CRT? ;)
 
gizlaroc said:
I would have thought that anyone who buys a panel would also add a scaler.

I would personally take a PHD8 with a scaler over a Fuji on its own and you would be looking at similare prices.

very few of us even know what a scaler is. can't think of a shop who even sells them

also, about to buy a 50" plasma and think the 2 best on the market are the pioneer and fujitsu. trick now is to choose one :)

julie
 
There's meant to be a new Fuji (XTS40 I think), with all the connectivity you need via a media box (tuner, scarts, component, HDMI etc).

SRP was said to be £4200 I think.

I still don't see anything special about the Fuji picture mind...
 
alpina said:
very few of us even know what a scaler is. can't think of a shop who even sells them

also, about to buy a 50" plasma and think the 2 best on the market are the pioneer and fujitsu. trick now is to choose one :)

julie

Think of a scaler like the Pioneer media box, but rather than a £100 box it is a £1000-5000 box.

It switches all your sources, deinterlaces your incoming signals and scales them back to the native resolution of your screen. It also gives you complete controlf of colour, black level, white level, greyscale and then picture tweaks etc.
They tend to have a very clean signal on the outputs that you can't really describe, but this gives real depth to the image you just don't get without one.
The other thing is you get to use connections like SDI, SDI take the raw component signal straight from the Mpeg decoder, so you bypass everything that can degrade an image on a dvd player or Sky box and let the scaler do its stuff with raw untarnished infomation, for a much, much sharper image.

Julie, I would definitely look at the Panasonic and a scaler, that will beat the 506 and the Fuji without a scaler everytime.
 
gizlaroc said:
Julie, I would definitely look at the Panasonic and a scaler, that will beat the 506 and the Fuji without a scaler everytime.

What about a Fuji and a scaler - any improvement on a PHD8?
 
gizlaroc said:
Think of a scaler like the Pioneer media box, but rather than a £100 box it is a £1000-5000 box.

It switches all your sources, deinterlaces your incoming signals and scales them back to the native resolution of your screen. It also gives you complete controlf of colour, black level, white level, greyscale and then picture tweaks etc.
They tend to have a very clean signal on the outputs that you can't really describe, but this gives real depth to the image you just don't get without one.
The other thing is you get to use connections like SDI, SDI take the raw component signal straight from the Mpeg decoder, so you bypass everything that can degrade an image on a dvd player or Sky box and let the scaler do its stuff with raw untarnished infomation, for a much, much sharper image.

Julie, I would definitely look at the Panasonic and a scaler, that will beat the 506 and the Fuji without a scaler everytime.

Could a Hcpc do the job of the scaler also?
 
OK.. 2nd attempt.

Gerald, I have a number of issues with the Fuji but first I should mention that I am ULTRA critical. Everyone else who sees the screen generally goes "WOW!" and when I point out its 'failings' they think I am mad. ;)

Ok, with that said my issues are as follows:

KEY:
Rating - this is not a technical rating, it is purely a personal rating on well well I think the panel does based on my idea of 10 being perfect.
Annoyance - this is how annoying I find it when it does happen

1) De-Interlacing. The de-interlacing on the Fuji can occasionally get it wrong, e.g. when the two main characters in House of Flying Daggers are running across the field I can see some combing (e.g. look at the guys head in http://neuron2.net/LVG/interlacing.html for an example of combing). On DVD this doesn't happen very often but occasionally (e.g. on World Superbikes) it can happen enough for it to be really annoying.
Rating: 8/10
Annoyance factor: 9


2) Scaling. On occasion the scaling is really poor and there is visible pixellation. I do not see this at all with DVD material, only on low bitrate Sky+ channels. e.g. watching Britains Next Model last night was horrendous.
Rating: 9/10 (7 on low bitrate material)
Annoyance factor: 9


3) Posterisation/Banding. What should be smooth gradients of colour can show as stepped gradients instead (imagine a 256 colour .GIF as an extreme example or look at http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1755756#post1755756). Again this is most noticeable on Sky+ but is also noticeable on DVD as well as HD feeds from the PC @ Native Res (over DVI).
Rating: 7/10
Annoyance factor: 7


4) Rainbows/Motion artefacts. Hard one to describe this but on fast motion the image can look ropey, especially where there are areas of high contrast.
Rating 8/10.
Annoyance factor: 6


5) Fan noise. On very quiet scenes at 13' this is pretty noticeable.
Rating 8/10.
Annoyance factor: 4


Now... a Scaler should hopefully sort out 1 and 2 at least, and potentially will help a bit with 3 and 4. As such, if I could afford a scaler I would definitely buy one, and if buying new now would probably go for a PHD8+Scaler. (or Fuji+Scaler if I had the extra money)

Finally, I do love the Fuji screen, just that I would definitely be tempted to marry a panel with a scaler if doing it again.

Hope this helps,
Craig
 
Hi Craig.

Yup that helps a lot. Thanks very much.

I will go for the PHD8 and a scaler, most probably the Lumagen HDP although I am open to suggestions.

However....... I must admit to being concerned about the fan noise you mention. I am also fairly critical, particularly with noise coming from a panel. The first 42" PWD4 I demo'd years ago was unbearable with heavy buzzing, even on medium volume passages. :suicide: Luckily, when I took delivery of my 42" PWD5 it was almost silent :smashin: I have been spoilt by this over the last couple of years of ownership.

I am concerned that high Def panels (which have fans) will cause a problem. I suppose both the 42" and 50" Panny 8 series have fans? Anybody out there know how noisy they are during viewing???? It would drive me nuts if my panel was noisy after spending £3.5K!! :suicide:

Many thanks, Gerald. :)
 
My PHD8 is silent, you need to put your ear behind the screen to hear it.

I use a Crystalio scaler, I like the Lumagen though and don't think you can go wrong with either, but I use the scaler everyday for TV viewing and found the Faroudja deinterlacing on the Crystalio better for this, and I got that 3D snap with the Crystalio that I just couldn't get with the Lumagen.
 
You dont need to even look at any other comnbination if you have 7k to burn..if you have less tahn and only than would i even consider an HD8 plus Lumagen.

The Fujii is great naked ..but as pple have pointed out with a decent scaler its in another universe. Ask Liam or Gordon, they set up and calibrated my outfit and its Home Cinema perfection. I wont need to upgrade until for the next decadel. The Panel and video processing wehn High Defintion arrivs will see to that..

xxx
 
Piers said:
The ISF day and ISF night menus are an attraction to the end user - the ability to calibrate these modes "automatically" with the new software is an attraction to me - big cost for the software, hoping for a return on my money. End result should be the same as a manual calibration, except that the auto version does it in 10 minutes that would otherwise take me 3 hours.

Piers,

Will there be a separate ISF price structure for 10 min plasmas?

(although I appreciate your set-up cost etc and I am not trying to be rude)
 
dilsher said:
You dont need to even look at any other comnbination if you have 7k to burn..if you have less tahn and only than would i even consider an HD8 plus Lumagen.

The Fujii is great naked ..but as pple have pointed out with a decent scaler its in another universe. Ask Liam or Gordon, they set up and calibrated my outfit and its Home Cinema perfection. I wont need to upgrade until for the next decadel. The Panel and video processing wehn High Defintion arrivs will see to that..

xxx


Have you seen a Crystalio against a Lumagen? ;)
 
Im getting mine isf buy i Piers on friday it will be the first home 506xde he has done :)
ill let you all no how it goes
cant wait
 

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