Please vote YES
If you have personally seen a modern plasma display (> 3 years old) with real, actual, permanent, burn in. These burnt in images should not fade, or change in any way, even after repeated attempts to clear them.
Do not count temporary image retention, or persistent image retention that does fade and then returns quickly.
For the sake of accuracy please don't count hearsay accounts of others.

Please vote NO
If you haven't.


If you vote yes, please include model, brand, actions taken to remove the burn in, and if the manufacturer covered this under warranty. Thanks to all.

If yes, what did they do to cause it. what was viewed and how long over all/how new was the tv/etc.

If yes, what did they do to cause it. what was viewed and how long over all/how new was the tv/etc.

Good points.

hmmm one guy said yes put didn't care to share. A guy from the lcd section maybe :D

My uncle recently upgraded a LG50pc5d which did have a minor burn in problem. For some reason, all cable channels from their cable box gave a small grey line along the top of the image (i know it sounds stupid, but we have a similar problem with our comcast service) I say burn in, because I know they tried running only movies for an entire weekend to mix it up, but I saw the set and the 2 straight days of video did nothing or at least nothing noticeable to the line.

I think its hard to fault the plasma, b/c i know that tv spent alot of time on for normal viewing and cant imagine how many hours that bar just sat on screen constantly..

I only bring it up as a warning to anyone who may have bad cable service like us, and get those lines along the edge of the screen.

*edit: and to be fair, I don't think any break in or anything was done to the set, aka not treated that well..

Yes but qualified: I work for a bank that bought several Panny plasmas and the branches, rather than keeping them tuned to the HDMI ports running the ads that they were bought for, left them on CNN or whatever, so lots of image retention, at least. And I have friends who own plasmas that complain of "burn in" using PS3's and the like but, after banning the games from their TV's, that seems to clear up. I haven't actually seen permanant damage on a plasma yet, although most people I know own LCD's. (I own a 8G Kuro and mix up the content, so no issues here.)

Never seen it. I have seen some bad IR at best buy though. TV was stuck on the Prirates of Caribbean Blu Ray menu all day. I turned it off to see and it was all over the screen. Came back the following day and it was gone. It was an LG plasma.

my father-in-law has a 3 year old samsung 42" plasma. he watches a lot of old 4:3 movies and both sides of the screen have major burn-in. however: he has not tried using the built-in un-burner setting in the menu, nor anything else to get rid of it.

My uncle recently upgraded a LG50pc5d which did have a minor burn in problem. For some reason, all cable channels from their cable box gave a small grey line along the top of the image (i know it sounds stupid, but we have a similar problem with our comcast service) I say burn in, because I know they tried running only movies for an entire weekend to mix it up, but I saw the set and the 2 straight days of video did nothing or at least nothing noticeable to the line.

I think its hard to fault the plasma, b/c i know that tv spent alot of time on for normal viewing and cant imagine how many hours that bar just sat on screen constantly..

I only bring it up as a warning to anyone who may have bad cable service like us, and get those lines along the edge of the screen.

*edit: and to be fair, I don't think any break in or anything was done to the set, aka not treated that well..

Thanks for the info. Is this line clearly visible through the full screen video?

No, I have not, it must be quite an event with all the ruckus around here about it. :D

Our office has 65" Panasonic's that are left on a static website screen (with no animation or change) for 12 hours a day on average with the screen saver defeated. They are only occasionally used for other images. And still they have not had burn in after almost 2.5 years of that. Ironically, we had a few NEC 40" LCD's setup to the exact same webpage and they DID experience permanent burn-in, which I didn't even know was possible with LCD until it happened to us.

hmmm one guy said yes put didn't care to share. A guy from the lcd section maybe :D

Part of the secret LCD dis-information squad.

Our office has 65" Panasonic's that are left on a static website screen (with no animation or change) for 12 hours a day on average with the screen saver defeated. They are only occasionally used for other images. And still they have not had burn in after almost 2.5 years of that. Ironically, we had a few NEC 40" LCD's setup to the exact same webpage and they DID experience permanent burn-in, which I didn't even know was possible with LCD until it happened to us.

I just became aware of LCD "burn in" recently. Apparently it has something to do with the liquid crystals retaining their state.

I just became aware of LCD "burn in" recently. Apparently it has something to do with the liquid crystals retaining their state.

LCD's don't burn-in. Burn-in something akin to you looking straight at a total solar eclipse. What LCD's have is ghosting, something like looking at a bright light and then closing your eyes while looking away to see a fading image of it.

LCD's don't burn-in. Burn-in something akin to you looking straight at a total solar eclipse. What LCD's have is ghosting, something like looking at a bright light and then closing your eyes while looking away to see a fading image of it.

I hear that the actual term is image persistence, but I believe it is a different phenomenon than ghosting. I'm also sure that it is highly unlikely in any normal use of an lcd. The way I understand it, it is the twisted liquid crystals getting used to a state, and not returning to their static twisted state.
It is reversible or reducible in most cases to my limited understanding.

Part of the secret LCD dis-information squad.

You probably just provoked a bunch more to vote yes.

Yup, the 151fd at the store had burn in lines from widescreen movies. That's all they played was widescreen and on a all black screen you could easily see the lines and they did not go away, maybe with a all white screen displayed for hours they would of went away, but who knows.

It takes alot of abuse to burn in a pioneer and probably panasonic.

Other brands like samsung-lg-vizio etc you REALLY have to watch out because they are nowhere near as image retention resistant as pio-panny.

I have an Insignia NS-PDP50HD-09 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1041161&highlight=insignia) with mild burn-in in the lower left and lower right corners from playing too much Gran Turismo 5: Prologue without a break. The digits from the HUD speedometer on the bottom left and the HUD gear position indicator from the bottom right are burned in and look like "088" and "8" respectively.

Once I noticed it, I started running full screen break-in images (saved to the hard drive on the PS3 for quick and easy access) for at least five minutes after each gaming session, and I have not seen any further burn-in.

Have not attempted a warranty replacement because:
1) I'm very happy with the TV considering what I paid for it.
2) It is only noticeable under specific conditions.
3) It's my own damn fault.

You probably just provoked a bunch more to vote yes.

Just a joke guys.
Everyone knows that the LCD dis-information squad is no secret.

I have an Insignia NS-PDP50HD-09 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1041161&highlight=insignia) with mild burn-in in the lower left and lower right corners from playing too much Gran Turismo 5: Prologue without a break. The digits from the HUD speedometer on the bottom left and the HUD gear position indicator from the bottom right are burned in and look like "088" and "8" respectively.

Once I noticed it, I started running full screen break-in images (saved to the hard drive on the PS3 for quick and easy access) for at least five minutes after each gaming session, and I have not seen any further burn-in.

Have not attempted a warranty replacement because:
1) I'm very happy with the TV considering what I paid for it.
2) It is only noticeable under specific conditions.
3) It's my own damn fault.

Are these only visible on a black screen?
Have you ever tried running full screen video or a break in series overnight for a while to clear them?

They are most noticeable on any light or dark image with little color differentiation, and almost unnoticeable (unless you get up very close to the screen) otherwise.

When I first noticed them I ran the break-in images for over 24 hours but that had no effect.

They are most noticeable on any light or dark image with little color differentiation, and almost unnoticeable (unless you get up very close to the screen) otherwise.

When I first noticed them I ran the break-in images for over 24 hours but that had no effect.

Are you still playing this game daily?

LCD's don't burn-in. Burn-in something akin to you looking straight at a total solar eclipse. What LCD's have is ghosting, something like looking at a bright light and then closing your eyes while looking away to see a fading image of it.

Call it what you want, but what we got on these LCD's was a PERMANENT retained image. The AV company that provided them tried to address it with NEC and ended up having to replace them.

Are you still playing this game daily?

No. I've played it all the way through twice and am now waiting for the full version to be released. :)

No. I've played it all the way through twice and am now waiting for the full version to be released. :)

Is this section of your screen, with the image, typically black for normal tv watching? Like in the 4:3 border, if you watch that way.

I don't have cable or satellite; I only watch a little broadcast HD and a lot of Netflix, probably 80-90% of which has no black bars.

I know you're trying to find a reason for this to be IR and not burn-in, but I've been through everything the last few months and it will not go away. The image is burned in.

But again, I don't blame the set. I got cocky and thought the set was immune to burn-in, and tortured it, and paid the price. With just a slight amount of care, I believe the burn-in would not have happened.

I don't have cable or satellite; I only watch a little broadcast HD and a lot of Netflix, probably 80-90% of which has no black bars.

I know you're trying to find a reason for this to be IR and not burn-in, but I've been through everything the last few months and it will not go away. The image is burned in.

But again, I don't blame the set. I got cocky and thought the set was immune to burn-in, and tortured it, and paid the price. With just a slight amount of care, I believe the burn-in would not have happened.

It just seems that a few hundred hours of gaming should not be able to cause that under any circumstances that I'm aware of. Thanks for all the info.

If I had to make a semi-educated guess, I'd say that it's because the digits are pure white numbers on a black background, and that the bright white pixels wore just slightly more than the black ones surrounding them. That would explain why it is only visible (from a distance anyway) in light or dark scenes with uniform color.

It is my hope that someday, the pixels around the numbers will wear enough to make the burn-in go away.

And if I ever buy another plasma (and I would, over LCD, without question) I won't be so dumb. :)

If it's any consolation, I don't think your usage is the cause of this. It's more extreme than most peoples, but I don't think in other circumstances (another brand or even another unit of the same model) that you would get the same result.

I ahd an old computer crt that had burn in, but it was more like parts of the screen did not burn in, they just did not "burn" as much as much due to bar type issues---I was using it primarily for photos and photoshop---and where the area was almost always very dark, it seemed not to have "faded" as much, so i could see the difference when viewing certain things

on the 63b550, i sometimes see some ghosting like with Costners' wyatt earp in the dark bar scenes, but it is more a brief smear when there is movement, then it is gone

My friend has a Pioneer PDP-5060 that he watches 4:3 material mostly and has told me that the has lines at the side. He doesn't like the stretch modes. I explained to him how to clean it up, but he says it is bad enough to see on full white screens. Since I haven't personally seen it, I didn't vote.

About a year ago, I sold my PDP-503CMX which was about 6 years old with 11,000 hours on it. I always used stretch mode on 4:3 material and made sure I alternated full screen and 2.35:1 letterbox material to ensure that burn in didn't occur. When I sold it, there wasn't a hint of burn in anywhere. I only sold it because I needed an HDMI input and the people selling cards had discontinued them.

I currently have two Pioneer PDP-6010FDs and both are fine. I have had them ISF calibrated and view in a moderately dark room and run the contrast at 31, so they don't suffer issues with burn in. I bought one new and have about 3000 hours on it, and the other used, with 1700 hours (now about 2500).

The only plasmas that I have ever seen with extreme burn in were at airports where they had the arrival/departure flight information. Most have upgraded to LCDs now.

My uncle recently upgraded a LG50pc5d which did have a minor burn in problem. For some reason, all cable channels from their cable box gave a small grey line along the top of the image (i know it sounds stupid, but we have a similar problem with our comcast service) I say burn in, because I know they tried running only movies for an entire weekend to mix it up, but I saw the set and the 2 straight days of video did nothing or at least nothing noticeable to the line.

I think its hard to fault the plasma, b/c i know that tv spent alot of time on for normal viewing and cant imagine how many hours that bar just sat on screen constantly..

I only bring it up as a warning to anyone who may have bad cable service like us, and get those lines along the edge of the screen.

*edit: and to be fair, I don't think any break in or anything was done to the set, aka not treated that well..

Probably could have been fixed by adjusting the picture up or down or increasing the overscan just a bit.

The only plasmas that I have ever seen with extreme burn in were at airports where they had the arrival/departure flight information. Most have upgraded to LCDs now.

I guess that would qualify as extreme service.

I didn't vote, but I remember a few years ago seeing a college department's plasma with burn-in. I don't remember the make or model of it.

I am about ready to pull the trigger on a V10 or B series, but I do know I will buy it from Best Buy for a little bit more and drop the cash on an extended warranty. I know EWs are a ripoff, but Best Buy covers burn-in. I do a *lot* of gaming, so I want to err on the cautious side. To me, it's worth the extra money. And there's no way I am buying an LCD. :p

For years I have been asking for a photo of a plasma with burn-in. Have yet to receive one.

Larry

For years I have been asking for a photo of a plasma with burn-in. Have yet to receive one.

Larry

google it I saw a couple examples.

google it I saw a couple examples.

Those same three pictures have been around for the past four years and I expect they will be the only ones around in the next four years. I still have not received a photo of burn-in from a human user.

Larry

I had an open box Elite 111 from Best Buy that had ESPN ticker burn-in. I could clearly see the "ESPN" in the lower right hand corner on solid colors. Also, the bottom part of the screen where the ticker scrolled was brighter than the rest of the panel on a black screen due to the uneven phosphor. Wasn't pretty a sight...

Those same three pictures have been around for the past four years and I expect they will be the only ones around in the next four years. I still have not received a photo of burn-in from a human user.

Larry

That was what I thought, that real, uneven phosphor aged burn in, would be incredibly rare on new plasmas. When all is said and done, maybe we can vote on the positive responses, and see how many are possible real cases, in the opinion of the forum. As it stands, I would say a few are.

I had an open box Elite 111 from Best Buy that had ESPN ticker burn-in. I could clearly see the "ESPN" in the lower right hand corner on solid colors. Also, the bottom part of the screen where the ticker scrolled was brighter than the rest of the panel on a black screen due to the uneven phosphor. Wasn't pretty a sight...

Was this burn in or image retention? Were attempts made to clear the image?

I will say two things:

1. I've owned a Pio 6020 for 7 months now an see absolutely nothing resembling burn-in or anything else for that matter. I watch boatloads of 4:3 and lettterbox movies, too.

2. This doesn't mean however, that I don't believe in burn-in with plasma technology. I feel it is a completely realistic fear if the unit is used in a fashion where static images are left on it consistently, for extended periods of time.

Yes, if a white circle on a black background is displayed 12 hours a day, I can guarantee you the unit will eventually suffer from burn-in (a bit of a inaccurate term, IMO, BTW). It is a certainty based on the very nature of the technology. If you accept the scientific fact that phosphors "age" and consequently lose a % of their brightness over time, you must at least accept the possibility of burn-in. If you really want to get technical, you can be all but assured that EVERY PDP will take a hit from "burn-in" in at least a small form over a considerable amount of time because it is simply impossible to wear ALL of the pixels exactly uniformly throughout the life of the panel. Now, will this degree of burn-in be immediately discernable? Perhaps not. But again, you can rest assured it's there to one extent or another. It's akin to the uneven wear of tires on an automobile. Even if properly rotated, you can be assured that after 40,000 miles, they will not all be perfectly uniform. Now, will this be readily obvious? Probably not. But, even with "ordinary" use, it is there.

That said, through this massive distinction known as "ordinary" use though, I would be shocked to see burn-in develop on my kuro now, or 5 years down the road.

James

Have a 151 where I work. This TV is on about 10 to 12 hours a day and has a ticker running across the bottom of it. They've had the TV for a year and so far I don't see any Image retention.
Keep in mind that stationary items such as Logos would eventually cause burn in quicker.

If your using good judgement and a little care with you TV it's doubtful you will get any IR

Was this burn in or image retention? Were attempts made to clear the image?

I ran the break-in images along with normal viewing for 2-3 weeks to see if it was retention or burn-in. It lessened a little, but was definitely still there. I'm assuming they had the unit on the wall showing ESPN in vivid mode for a long, long time before switching to other content. It wasn't in your face burn-in, but anybody who is particular about their panel would have noticed it. Needless to say I returned it.

I have the much maligned Insignia NS-PDP42 (had it for about 18 months now). I get some IR from time to time as I suspect ALL plasmas do, but I don't have anything that even resembles burn-in. I'm running a PS2, HTPC, Verizon FiOS on the set as well. No service glitches, no screen issues, nothing!

I'm sure I could get blacker blacks (sounds like a Dethklok thing), but I paid about, oh, $50 of my own money out of pocket for it, the rest was a Christmas gift certificate. For the money I paid for it, it can't be beat!