A
AVS Brett
Guest
I guess the title says it all: the 10ES series Fujitsu P50 is sweet, and comes with DVI. Thanks to another AV Forums member I hooked up with a GREAT vendor, who in turn hooked me up with a zero hour P50 in A+ condition. Although Portables Direct ships regularly to professionals and private parties in the UK, recently shippers have been reluctant to insure plasma panels for overseas transit, so it meant picking it up in person, a fun trip and well worthwhile (ready to go fetch a second panel). 
It was as easy as renting a small van, once Andy confirmed the exact boxed shipping dimensions:
Then I booked a same day roundtrip ferry crossing:
Be forewarned: if you do this, get a weather report and if it is rough seas, take the chunnel. On the way over, the waves were very choppy, felt like when I was a kid hiding in a cardboard box and my friends started kicking the box all at once. At one point there was a huge shock and crash sound, I was sure that we'd been hit by another boat, but it was just a big wave hitting us port side the wrong way. I asked the friendly chap at the information desk if the weather that evening was expected to be much worst - he said he doubted it because it was already as bad as it ever gets. Little did he know it DID get worse, and the return boat was junior-sized. Mind you, I sort of enjoy being jostled on a boat, that is what the ocean is about. But glass panels may beg to disagree...
An uneventful motorway ride into London later and my "benefactor" (who was, rightly so, warmly recommended by Branxx) was awaiting me. Though he doesn't have a fancy Home Theater store in a ritzy neighborhood, he has a valuable opinion and informed insight, having followed each new generation of plasma displays with great interest.
One remark he made was quite interesting. He finds that some Plasma Manufacturers have been gradually "cheapening" their products, simplifying them and removing sometimes useful features to preserve profits while bringing down pricing (isn't this called having your cake and eating it too?). In the light of what Fujitsu General UK did this quarter, removing the DVI input, this rang a painful bell. To make up for the billions of colors lost (thanks Fujitsu UK!) Andy softened the blow and kept me in the Fujitsu fold by providing me both DVI input and picture perfect pricing for a P50.
Uncannily, he also felt, having had each successive generation in the shop, that the Fujitsu 50 inchers were better a couple of generations back. (For anyone interested, he has a very cheap low hour 5002). Thereupon I speculate that if substantial amounts of their panel's driving electronics have not been downgraded over the last generations, another explanation might be that the Fujitsu's default out-of-the-box set-up keeps getting worse? Or have the more recent AVM2 and AVM3 versions, while further improving performance with NTSC, made a catastrophic mess of Pal and SECAM signals?
We fired it up so I could confirm the inexistant hours, the flawless panel without any pixel damage, absence traces on or behind the glass. It was brand new, and the picture displayed with the same characteristics as seen in shops.
I completed the purchase, Andy had it boxed and loaded in the van lengthwise, at my request atop a mattress I had brought along. I then tied it down with half a dozen luggage straps. PRESTO - off to France. Before arriving at the ferry terminal, I improvised a curtain out of light absorbent black out fabric so that nobody could see the precious cargo.
Once on board I waited for the folks behind me to leave their car, and then backed up against their bumper to prevent unauthorized opening of the cargo door, aligning the sliding side door smack against an iron wall. I read a magazine inside the van until summoned to leave, as they closed down the parking area.
As we pulled away, the waves bumped and rattled the ferry, making it quake. Actually it is an appropriate term, as once offshore, there was a time where it really did quake, less smoothly in a more choppy sort a way, just like when I was in a 4.3 in San Francisco. Glass shelves lifting off their brackets and slamming back down, bottles in duty free isles rattling like a happening concert with thousands of xylophones playing at once. Lots of glass noises not exactly reassuring this boy.
Had my second traditional meal of the day (steak and kidney pie with beans), a pint of bitter, and it was time to go below: it was still in the van. A short 3 hour drive to Paris, and enough streets paved in cobblestones to make me regret the boat shudders, and voila! Easy to lift out of the van, it even fit in the tiny elevator standing on its side, and the moment of truth, Fujitsu does make one heck of a shipping box.
It needed a little bit of adjustment from its factory default zeroed settings - the main ones were dialing down the contrast (to remove the crawlies AVM adds when it is boosted too high) and putting it in "Static" mode to give the cleanest picture. Uncalibrated, it is already excellent at displaying high definition D-Theater tapes, and will surely gain further from tweaking with AVIA and a full calibration using Mark Hunter's Milori Colorfacts and a Swiss GretagMacbeth Eye-One Spectroradiometer.
For the purist wishing to tweak out the ultimate performance, the P50 is highly recommended. For the cost-conscious deal seeker, my vendor was equally satisfying.
Cheers,
It was as easy as renting a small van, once Andy confirmed the exact boxed shipping dimensions:
Then I booked a same day roundtrip ferry crossing:
Be forewarned: if you do this, get a weather report and if it is rough seas, take the chunnel. On the way over, the waves were very choppy, felt like when I was a kid hiding in a cardboard box and my friends started kicking the box all at once. At one point there was a huge shock and crash sound, I was sure that we'd been hit by another boat, but it was just a big wave hitting us port side the wrong way. I asked the friendly chap at the information desk if the weather that evening was expected to be much worst - he said he doubted it because it was already as bad as it ever gets. Little did he know it DID get worse, and the return boat was junior-sized. Mind you, I sort of enjoy being jostled on a boat, that is what the ocean is about. But glass panels may beg to disagree...
An uneventful motorway ride into London later and my "benefactor" (who was, rightly so, warmly recommended by Branxx) was awaiting me. Though he doesn't have a fancy Home Theater store in a ritzy neighborhood, he has a valuable opinion and informed insight, having followed each new generation of plasma displays with great interest.
One remark he made was quite interesting. He finds that some Plasma Manufacturers have been gradually "cheapening" their products, simplifying them and removing sometimes useful features to preserve profits while bringing down pricing (isn't this called having your cake and eating it too?). In the light of what Fujitsu General UK did this quarter, removing the DVI input, this rang a painful bell. To make up for the billions of colors lost (thanks Fujitsu UK!) Andy softened the blow and kept me in the Fujitsu fold by providing me both DVI input and picture perfect pricing for a P50.
Uncannily, he also felt, having had each successive generation in the shop, that the Fujitsu 50 inchers were better a couple of generations back. (For anyone interested, he has a very cheap low hour 5002). Thereupon I speculate that if substantial amounts of their panel's driving electronics have not been downgraded over the last generations, another explanation might be that the Fujitsu's default out-of-the-box set-up keeps getting worse? Or have the more recent AVM2 and AVM3 versions, while further improving performance with NTSC, made a catastrophic mess of Pal and SECAM signals?
We fired it up so I could confirm the inexistant hours, the flawless panel without any pixel damage, absence traces on or behind the glass. It was brand new, and the picture displayed with the same characteristics as seen in shops.
I completed the purchase, Andy had it boxed and loaded in the van lengthwise, at my request atop a mattress I had brought along. I then tied it down with half a dozen luggage straps. PRESTO - off to France. Before arriving at the ferry terminal, I improvised a curtain out of light absorbent black out fabric so that nobody could see the precious cargo.
Once on board I waited for the folks behind me to leave their car, and then backed up against their bumper to prevent unauthorized opening of the cargo door, aligning the sliding side door smack against an iron wall. I read a magazine inside the van until summoned to leave, as they closed down the parking area.
As we pulled away, the waves bumped and rattled the ferry, making it quake. Actually it is an appropriate term, as once offshore, there was a time where it really did quake, less smoothly in a more choppy sort a way, just like when I was in a 4.3 in San Francisco. Glass shelves lifting off their brackets and slamming back down, bottles in duty free isles rattling like a happening concert with thousands of xylophones playing at once. Lots of glass noises not exactly reassuring this boy.
Had my second traditional meal of the day (steak and kidney pie with beans), a pint of bitter, and it was time to go below: it was still in the van. A short 3 hour drive to Paris, and enough streets paved in cobblestones to make me regret the boat shudders, and voila! Easy to lift out of the van, it even fit in the tiny elevator standing on its side, and the moment of truth, Fujitsu does make one heck of a shipping box.
It needed a little bit of adjustment from its factory default zeroed settings - the main ones were dialing down the contrast (to remove the crawlies AVM adds when it is boosted too high) and putting it in "Static" mode to give the cleanest picture. Uncalibrated, it is already excellent at displaying high definition D-Theater tapes, and will surely gain further from tweaking with AVIA and a full calibration using Mark Hunter's Milori Colorfacts and a Swiss GretagMacbeth Eye-One Spectroradiometer.
For the purist wishing to tweak out the ultimate performance, the P50 is highly recommended. For the cost-conscious deal seeker, my vendor was equally satisfying.
Cheers,
