£813 for 42" High Definition Plasma, top brand company (albeit not in Plasmas!)

gromituk

curtlyb wrote:

Which highly regarded AV magazine once declared 45p/metre 2.5mmsq Mains cable from B&Q gave a better sound than £13/meter QED professional speaker cable

The only surprising thing about this is that the magazine admitted it - after all it's there to make money from its advertisers.

Silly cables are the realm of the foolish. There is no engineering reason why overpriced cables would perform any better than standard, generic stuff which is electrically and mechanically rated to do the job. Moneysaving in Richer Sounds (and no doubt other places) is about not being bamboozled into buying their overpriced cables, just as it used to be about not buying overpriced extended warranties.

However, in the case of this television set, there are sound engineering reasons why it might not perform as well as the most expensive.

Disclaimer yet again: I am not saying that this set is not good value for money, ok?

MattWPBS

Roger_Rampant wrote:

It certainly wouldn't have satisfied this pedant. If you asked most people what the top consumer electronics companies in the world were, I think a lot of them would admit that they have never even heard of this company. Therefore (as someone else pointed out earlier) you would find it much harder to sell this product on than you would one with a well-recognised name, such as Panasonic

Actually, seeing as your talking about one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world who just aren't as well known in the UK, it's pretty justifiable to put 'top brand' in the title rather than Fujitsu-Siemens. IT market share for Fujitsu/Fujitsu-Siemens (the joint venture's Europe only, but shares products with Fujitsu in Japan/Americas) is larger than Apple, which you wouldn't dismiss as not being a top brand (actually wrote this before seeing your post using iPods as an example...!).

HankMcspank - don't make the mistake of saying that Fujitsu and Siemens are the same as Fujitsu-Siemens, there's no management link and it's purely a shareholder link. The company's made up of the two European computer arms of the respective companies, but does have links in a global respect to the non-European computer arms of Fujitsu.

Theo/Smashed - FSC make a lot of their own computer components, one of the few who make their own motherboards and the like. Major differentiator between them and tin-shifters like Dell. They also do a lot of customization work on the business side of things from BIOS level through to different manufacturing processes. Check out the 'green' Esprimo E series for an example.

As I said before, I think this is an employee purchase scheme URL that's made it out into the wider internet community. I don't know if the low price is due to WEEE regulations coming in, generosity towards employees, a decision to clear warehouse space or what, but I do not think this was meant to be an offer to the general public to begin with. Also as I said, FSC in the UK does not sell plasmas in the same way that FSC in Europe do.

I like this thread, it's a great way to waste some time at work.

curtlyb

gromituk wrote:

However, in the case of this television set, there are sound engineering reasons why it might not perform as well as the most expensive.

Exactly, facts not opinions, that's what people want to know so that they can make an objective decision.:T

HankMcSpank

MattWPBS wrote:

Actually, seeing as your talking about one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world who just aren't as well known in the UK, it's pretty justifiable to put 'top brand' in the title rather than Fujitsu-Siemens. IT market share for Fujitsu/Fujitsu-Siemens (the joint venture's Europe only, but shares products with Fujitsu in Japan/Americas) is larger than Apple, which you wouldn't dismiss as not being a top brand (actually wrote this before seeing your post using iPods as an example...!).

Vindicated (why wouldn't you just say a few posts ago....?)

MattWPBS wrote:

HankMcspank - don't make the mistake of saying that Fujitsu and Siemens are the same as Fujitsu-Siemens, there's no management link and it's purely a shareholder link. The company's made up of the two European computer arms of the respective companies, but does have links in a global respect to the non-European computer arms of Fujitsu.

MattWPBS wrote:

As I said before, I think this is an employee purchase scheme URL that's made it out into the wider internet community.

That'll be down to me. An employee stumbled on to AVfrums & asked if the TV was any good. He posted a link to the offer without realising he's posted an exclusive hidden link. At the time, Nice-PC didn't even have any Plasma links showing on their homepage...it was obviously meant for eyes other than the general public. I instantly ordered one.

Nice PC (who are fairly inept) didn't even bother having some way of confirming that the person ordering was an employee (eg employee number or special code). A few days later, I could see on the Nice PC homepage had changed & that a section called "Plasma" had appeared - *BUT* when you clicked on it the same plasma was a lot more expensive. My original order was for an older model P42-2H, but they were so slow to deliver & when I rechecked the link I could see an even better model on there (so I cancelled the original & ordered the PQ42-1). Delivery hassle ensued, but I got there in the end.

Once it was safely in my hands & I'd had a chance to review it, I posted here...that's when my troubles began.

Lesson learned...this place ain't necessairly full of bargain hunters, but there are a lot of "know it alls" (or so they think)

MattWPBS wrote:

I don't know if the low price is due to WEEE regulations coming in, generosity towards employees,

From what I've heard, the former...that said the user manual says it's compliant.

Who cares...I have a fantastic, well built, quiet, great looking Plasma, hightly spec'ed, 2 year courier/collect warranty.....AND to top it all - it's a top brand!:D

Howdie

Misprice has now been spotted, and item has 'SOLD OUT' so no further need for discussion I hope..........

Baz_2

The problem is that the original poster is trying to talk people into getting this set and by doing so is posting information and hype about the product that isn't true. He is using the brand name to justify his point when there is no evidence to support that.

Fujitsu-siemans are an IT company, not a TV company, they dont have any history with making plasma TV's. The comapny has nothing to do with fujitsu and nothing to do with siemans, its a red herring as neither companys strong points should be used to weigh up the merits of this set.

Now whilst my fellow "geeks" are probably well aware of that, the majority on here are not, and because of that us geeks are trying to inform them that the OP is slightly exaggerating the merits of the TV.

IT may be good, it may be better than orion, but its not a panasonic or a pioneer. So please dont rush out and buy this thinking thats what your getting because you certainly are not. If you want a normal set and dont want to pay for the benefits of a top end plasma then this will fit the bill nicely, but dont expect it to perform like a top end plasma. Whats the problem with eveyone acknowledging that.

You also have to understand that whilst the OP is saying its a top end plasma, this set is probably the only set he has seen, so how can he compare it against any other plasma.

The comedy comes from the OP blatantly ignoring the points us "geeks" are making because he cant stand his new toy being criticised.

Commonup

Three things are being argued over here:

1. Is this tv a decent 42" plasma tv?

2. Is this a good buy (however decent it may or may not be)?

3. Is FS a "top brand"?

Question 1 I'll leave to the experts.

Question 2 people are seemingly agreed on - it is value for money and a true money saver compared to equivalent models. Unfortunately the savastore option is the only one to get this tv now as nice pc have sold out.

Question 3 - fight it out amongst yourselves kids, but I need to correct a fundamental misunderstanding in some of the previous posts. If you believe the two companies Fujitsu and Siemens have nothing to do with Fujitsu-Siemens, you are wholly incorrect. As one poster has already stated, FS is owned by F and S jointly. They are the shareholders. It is not the same management - but who do you think appoints the management? The shareholders of course - so in effect, F and S ARE the management. Why are the shareholders involved in this joint venture? To make money! They invest money and expect a higher return. What money do they use for their original investment? Money they got as profit from their own business revenues. So, basically the two companies F and S, work together through FS in order to make more money, by sharing expertise etc.etc..

So I'm sorry, commercially (and legally) FS is intrinsically linked to F and S - when you say the parent companies have nothing to do with FS you could not be more wrong.

Howdie

Howdie wrote:

Misprice has now been spotted, and item has 'SOLD OUT' so no further need for discussion I hope..........

#


Guess not!!

Commonup

Just in case anyone still wants one....

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10289891&pid=44

Baz_2

Commonup wrote:

Three things are being argued over here:

Question 3 - fight it out amongst yourselves kids, but I need to correct a fundamental misunderstanding in some of the previous posts. If you believe the two companies Fujitsu and Siemens have nothing to do with Fujitsu-Siemens, you are wholly incorrect. As one poster has already stated, FS is owned by F and S jointly. They are the shareholders. It is not the same management - but who do you think appoints the management? The shareholders of course - so in effect, F and S ARE the management. Why are the shareholders involved in this joint venture? To make money! They invest money and expect a higher return. What money do they use for their original investment? Money they got as profit from their own business revenues. So, basically the two companies F and S, work together through FS in order to make more money, by sharing expertise etc.etc..

So I'm sorry, commercially (and legally) FS is intrinsicly linked to F and S - when you say the parent companies have nothing to do with FS you could not be more wrong.

Nope, FS are their own company, they have their own staff and their own assets and those assets/staff/expertise are different staff/assets/expertise to that of the parent company's.

Why would fujitsu allow this company to make a product that is a rival for its own plasma and then allow them to price it almost 3 times cheaper? Of course they wouldn't, this set is targetted at a different group of buyers than the market fujitsu themselves operate in.