[John Hsu]

Recently, I bought a Fujitsu P50 in Hong Kong, and much to my disappointment, discovered that a strip of the screen was covered by the black "mask" which borders the protective glass. What's the point of paying for a 1366 x 768 screen when a few thousand pixels are hiding behind a black "curtain"?


Fujitsu P50 owners - what do you see on your screen - is this a defect on my particular sample, or is this something that is common on ALL Fujitsu P50s?


To be more specific, the multi-coated protective glass has four strips of black "masking" strips - two long horizontal strips on the top and bottom, plus two shorter vertical strips on the left and the right. When the active plasma pixels are fully lit, these four black strips are NOT supposed be blocking any of pixels underneath, right?


On my P50, the vertical strip on the right COVERS about 6 rows of the pixels on the screen. That's the equivalent of about 6x768 = 4,608 pixels!!

 

[dswallow]

I just checked mine...


The left and right masks are exactly above the edge of the pixels. None are blocked when you look at it striaght-on.


The top mask is about a pixel row or two higher than the last pixels displayed. The bottom mask covers about 1/3rd of a pixel row.


I think there's a certain amount of inaccuracy you're going to get in the placement since it's a separate piece of glass where the mask is placed, however I think covering 6 whole rows of pixels is enough to be a manufacturing defect. I'd call your dealer or Fujitsu on it and get the unit replaced.


Any amount of off-angle viewing will of course block some pixels because of the depth between the mask and the pixels. But with your eyes within the box projected out from and perpendicular to the screen, you should be able to see them all.

 

[jrannison]

Anyone for a automated pixel counter.

 

[John Hsu]

Hi Doug,


Thanks for your response - squinting with one eye and matching its reflection in the glass is indeed the way to view the pixels from a perpendicular angle.


Sadly, your observation confirms that my P50 is defective.


I will call Fujitsu for a replacement, and report back what their response will be.

 

[John Hsu]

Good news - Fujitsu agreed to replace the screen.

 

[Ken Ross]

Good deal John. I looked at mine last night and the alignment was perfect. The black mask blocked no lit pixels when viewed straight on.

 

[John Hsu]

After getting my P50 replaced, I noticed the following:


1) Old screen had serial # xxxx158, new one had # xxxx160. Therefore, only two units apart in terms of production sequence. Both panels manufactured in Jan-2003.


2) Old unit was received with already about 140 hours of usage - new one was delivered spanking new, without even one minute of use. All time (usage) data was ZERO. Did the Fujitsu dealer deliberately "turn back the clock" by zapping the chips to make it "appear" to be brand new? It seems really odd to me that the panel did not have even one minute of usage - I had expected to dealer to at least test the unit for apparent defects, resulting in at least a few hours of usage!


3) Protective glass had black mask which "blocked" only about three pixels on the vertical right edge. Improvement over the original's six-pixel blockage, but not quite perfect...


4) In white-screen mode, the new panel had a very slight horizontal "line" roughly in the middle of the screen, where the brightness was slightly darker than the surrounding area. Is this trait common to all "brand new" screens, or is this a burn-in defect?


I'm left scratching my head wondering whether no two plasma screens are alike, each having its own unique quirks, temperaments, and defects...


Anyone out there with comments?

 

[dswallow]

Did your dealer handle the replacement? After that experience, I think I'd have checked the replacement at the dealers before letting them exchange it, just to make sure the new one didn't have the problem. That your new unit was so close in serial number, I'd guess it was just another unit in stock at your dealer.


I've seen some reference about people saying there was a thin line much like the trinitron picture tube wire that is visible with white screen mode. Never gone looking for it myself (and personally hope I never remember to go look for it!). Though it sounds like you're describing a dimmer region not just the visibility of what might be a line betweenplasma elements or some support wire.


Even if there were factory testing of each unit, were it my factory, I'd reset those counters before boxing up the unit, so maybe the oddity is the units that got out without being zeroed. I didn't check mine till about 2 weeks into it, so have no idea what it started out at. But I did look at the total plugged-in hours, and based on when I took delivery less the times I'm sure I had power to it off as I rewired things, I suspect mine was received darned close to zero.


My dealer asked my permission to open up and check the unit before delivering it to me, so while I am sure different dealers have different practices, I do appreciate the inference that they would definately not have opened up something I was buying unless they got my permission. Something good to know for future purchases from them.

 

[PooperScooper]

John,


The line in the middle of the white screen is normal. My serial number

has 4 significant digits after zeros and but the last 3 are 179 and

Jan 03 build date. I bought mine mid-February and I got it still in

crate/box, never been opened. Unit time was probably zero.


larry

 

[jrannison]

All this talk about masks and lines forced me to go look this morning at my P50.

The right mask covers about one pixel row looking straight on and the left mask is of course not covering anything...mask should be to the right by one row, and the upper and lower are aligned perfectly.

Of course when we are watching video from the side, as is the case sometimes or are seated looking up toward the display (unless tilted at the proper angle) there will always be a parallax issue.

As far as the fine horizontal line...it is there but at the normal viewing distance even with the white screen mode you will never see it. There is a very, very slight change of intensity at the line, but only with the white screen is it visible.


John

 

[jerryj]

Quote:

Old unit was received with already about 140 hours of usage - new one was delivered spanking new, without even one minute of use. All time (usage) data was ZERO. Did the Fujitsu dealer deliberately "turn back the clock" by zapping the chips to make it "appear" to be brand new?

I must be missing something. How do you access the usage clock?

 

[PooperScooper]

Jerry - hold down the "enter" button for a few seconds and the service

menu will appear. DO NOT press the "defaults" sub item in one

of the menus. It will reset the timers/counters of your panel. Well,

you can press it if you want.

 

[jerryj]

Larry,

Can you help explain what it says?

Under mode A I get:

RGB 0 h

Video 6 h

Total 45 h


Under mode B i get:

Present time 2711 min


Unfortutately, I did actually press "default" on Friday evening. And it reset ALL my settings. I've had a time setting everything back up since then. 2711 minutes is about 45 hours so maybe the Total 45 h is the same as the present time of 2711 min. I reset about 45 hours ago. Is video, then, the number of hours using video inputs since then? A little information can be very dangerous.

 

[dswallow]

Jerry, we sorted it out in this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=250302

 

[jerryj]

Thanks, Doug. I was out of town for a week and missed that thread.