The Fujitsu Plasmavision SlimScreen P50XHA10U can be mounted on a wall or on its own optional stand. All of its inputs are located on the bottom edge, just behind the frame. There are aspect-ratio settings for any commercial program material, plus a setting that stretches 4:3 material to fit the 16:9 screen with minimal distortion at the center of the image.

All input sources are converted to the Fujitsu's native resolution of 1366x768 pixels (progressive), using Fujitsu's Advanced Video Movement (AVM) processor-scaler. The P50 can also accommodate a wide range of computer sources.

All important functions are controlled from onscreen menus, including a 24-frame video mode that deals properly with 3:2 pulldown on film-based sources. There are also four levels of Video Noise Reduction, though I rarely used anything higher than the minimum setting. The set will not implement any setup change unless you press Enter before backing out of the menu. The controls can be individually adjusted for each input, and there are eight different memories for saving your most frequently used settings. Most of the picture adjustments have numbers assigned to them for accurate resetting, if needed.

Like most plasmas, the P50XHA10U is power-hungry. It uses a cooling fan to take care of the heat generated by the 4.9 amps it consumes (slightly improved from the PDS-5002's 5.7 amps). You can hear that fan if you get within a few feet of the display, but it never bothered me from my viewing position about 8 feet away, even with the sound off.

Plasmas are susceptible to phosphor burn, which can leave a permanent, ghostlike image on the screen from stationary pictures displayed too long. Widescreen "scope" films (i.e., wider than 1.85:1) that don't quite fill the screen from top to bottom did leave a very subtle after-shadow on the Fujitsu's screen after about an hour, but this disappeared with a few minutes of full-screen use. The P50's picture-orbiter function moves the image around by a few pixels (not enough to be clearly visible), but this functions only with an RGB input.

To minimize the risk of burn-in with any phosphor-based display, whether CRT or plasma, avoid excessive contrast settings, extended display of stationary images, or material with bright, stationary logos. Avoid spending an excessive amount of time watching aspect ratios that don't fill the screen–for example, day after day of watching standard 4:3 programming at high contrast levels. You don't need to be paranoid about this, only aware and cautious. The same cautions apply to a CRT set such as a rear-projection display.–TJN