The propaganda
The Fujitsu P42XHA58EB weighs in at a hefty £2,700 and has clearly been designed to satisfy the needs of serious home cinema enthusiasts and custom A/V installers. It might not suit the needs (or budget) of the ordinary consumer, but Fujitsu hopes it will take pride of place at the heart of complete home cinema array.
Before we start, there are three obvious features that are lacking; you won’t find either a digital or analogue tuner, nor are there any old school SCART inputs. There aren’t even any inbuilt speakers – this screen is purely about the picture quality. Clearly though, these are things you can work around pretty easily if you already have an existing home cinema system.
What it does have, however, is a healthy array of HD inputs (2 x HDMI and 2 x Component) as well as interesting features such as the ‘ambient sensor’, which adjusts the picture settings in response to ambient light levels, and separate contrast adjustments for the signal and screen drive picture elements. Picture processing is handled by Fujitsu’s AVM II engine, which boasts four times the power of its predecessor and produces improved image scaling and de-interlacing, advanced motion correction, improved noise reduction and enhanced detail to Standard Definition sources.
The good
We started testing with a bit of apprehension, having been let down by a couple of lacklustre plasma efforts from Fujitsu before. Happily, our fears proved ill-founded and we were remarkably pleased with the results. Surprisingly, given the screen’s claimed 3000:1 contrast ratio, the black levels were downright impressive, adding an incredible level of depth to darker scenes and wonderfully subtle shadow details.
Colours were similarly impressive, proving to be rich and vibrant when viewing HD sources, but also with the capacity to display incredibly realistic tones that look especially good when displaying skin – a clear advantage of plasma technology.
Of course, this could all have been let down if the P42XHA58EB hadn’t been able to cut out the age old problem of screen artefacts. Luckily, it has. Motion noise has been a common problem for plasma displays, but Fujitsu seems to have all but completely eliminated this issue thanks to its pixel by pixel image processing. Even fast moving sources, especially those found on Sky Sports HD, are blissfully clear and precise, offering superb texturing and clarity.
The bad
Because Fujitsu is marketing the P42XHA58EB at a pretty niche market, some normally standard features are missing as I mentioned before. The lack of tuner is hardly a problem if you’re using something like a Sky HD box, but equally, it wouldn’t have cost Fujitsu an arm and a leg to add those features and the wider appeal it might have gained as a result could have helped drive down the exceptionally high price tag.
Picture-wise, the screen is only let down but its Standard Definition signal processing performance. It certainly isn’t the worst we’ve seen, but at this end of the market, we would have hoped to see just a little bit less noise in the picture. The colours also tend to come out looking rather subdued unless you tweak the settings carefully.
Geek Sheet
1024 x 768 native resolution
AVM II image processing
3000:1 claimed contrast ratio
Contrast ratio: 3000:1
Brightness: 1000cd/m2
Inputs: 2 HDMI, 2 component video, PC input, S-Video, composite video, RS-232C jack, Stereo audio,
External speaker outputs
Overview
With only minor gripes to be found, the Fujitsu P42XHA58EB lives up to its aim to be a videophile’s dream come true. There’s little to fault it in terms of picture quality, especially when it comes to HD sources, but unless you’re very much into your serious home cinema kit, the average user might find it a little intimidating. However, if you want the very best for your living room, you may have just found it.
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Erm, at the risk of sounding rude, don't you think it would be a good idea to mention if it's 1080p Full HD ? Almost certainly is but would like to know...
And as for a 5-star rating for a 42in plasma THAT COSTS £2700 AND DOESN'T HAVE A FREEVIEW TUNER... chap, have you actually been in a High Street store recently? £2700 buys you a storming top of the range 50incher these days.
That 5-star rating looks more and more ludicruous...
Sumo: Valid question, I should have included that info. This screen supports 720p and 1080i video. Sorry about that.
As for the rating - this is based on picture performance alone and doesn't take price into account. Admittedly, in this case there are probably several good reasons why it isn't fair to give it a rating at all. This isn't the kind of screen you can actually pick up in the high street - it is being distributed by specialist channels and mostly being sold to custom AV installers.
The lack of digital tuner and speakers is definitely an issue, but I tried to make it clear from the start that these had been omitted deliberately. Is it fair to mark the unit down as a result?
In the end the only aspect I could rate it on was the picture quality. As it only fell down slightly on SD performance and its HD performance was almost perfect, I stand by my verdict.
Am having a custom install done with Sky HD, amplifiers, subwoofer, surround sound speakers etc etc. Only problem is, I can't decide between the Fuhitsu P42XHA58EB and the Pioneer PDP4280XD. Any help you can provide in making my choice easier would be gratfully received!