I've posted this in another thread (with no response) so I'll post it here again: I have the Panasonic TH-42PV500A (42" HD Aussie version of the "500U" US set). I've heard it from someone in the industry on the DBA Forums that he was told by a panasonic exec that the latest G8 panas are run-in at the factory for 100 hours to prevent burn-in, and to also weed out bad displays.

Can anyone confirm if this is true? It would seem to explain the generally low level of returns and high quality of the pana displays.

I've posted this in another thread (with no response) so I'll post it here again: I have the Panasonic TH-42PV500A (42" HD Aussie version of the "500U" US set). I've heard it from someone in the industry on the DBA Forums that he was told by a panasonic exec that the latest G8 panas are run-in at the factory for 100 hours to prevent burn-in, and to also weed out bad displays.

Can anyone confirm if this is true? It would seem to explain the generally low level of returns and high quality of the pana displays.

Just having bought a TH-42PWD8UK, I'd be very interested to know this as well...

I've posted this in another thread (with no response) so I'll post it here again: I have the Panasonic TH-42PV500A (42" HD Aussie version of the "500U" US set). I've heard it from someone in the industry on the DBA Forums that he was told by a panasonic exec that the latest G8 panas are run-in at the factory for 100 hours to prevent burn-in, and to also weed out bad displays.

Can anyone confirm if this is true? It would seem to explain the generally low level of returns and high quality of the pana displays.
I can go into the service menu of my Fujitsu to see exactly how many hours is on the unit, both hours plugged in and hours actually displaying video. Can you do that on the Panny? If so, you might be able to judge whether there is an extra hundred hours on it over what you have used it.

Anybody know how to check hours on this Panny?

Unfortunately I've tried various methods to get into Service Menu 2 on my set and I just can't get into it to check the panel up-time. I can get into Service Menu 1, but not SM2. I've used Bruzzi's Plasma FAQ (for 'Foreign Model' Panasonics), I've tried other advice. No dice.

Hi,

I've been lurking around these forums for some time and have read this entire thread from beginning to end. I'm still trying to decide between plasma and LCD so obviously the issue of burn-in is of great interest to me.

What concerns me is that I've never had a problem with CRTs despite hours of watching programming with static images and playing games with static images. On the other hand, I have read plenty of accounts of people having issues with burn-in on plasma displays. Also, I've had the same CRT monitor for 6 years and it went through 5 years of being on almost all day throughout the college academic year and I don't have any burn-in where the windows taskbar is or anything else.

I'm just surprised that I've never seen issues with burn-in on CRT monitors where the windows taskbar is static and displayed for long periods of time. It seems that with plasmas it's all hocus pocus as to whether or not you will suffer burn-in. Being an engineer I don't feel comfortable with theories on how to avoid burn-in I guess, since that's all there seems to be.

I'm interested in any comments on the prevalence of burn-in in CRTs since I haven't witnessed any besides maybe one thread I ran across on these forums.

Thanks,

Rich

My new TH-42PX50U didn't have viewing hours accrued before I first turned it on. But maybe the factory is able to reset these values, so I don't see it as conclusive. Others here would know better if that can be done, but I don't see how it can't be.

IDC and the ISF were commissioned by Pioneer to do a study on Plasma image retention. I've pasted the conclusion below, but the entire PDF can be found on Pioneer's site in the plasma section under "plasma vs. LCD & micro display"



This posting is not an endorsement of plasmas or the white paper but for updated (Aug. 2005) information only. This white paper was sponsered by Pioneer

CONCLUSION
The commonly held beliefs about the viability and performance quality of plasma TVs turn out to be merely myths when held up to the discerning eye of quantifiable testing. In particular, concerns about plasma lifetimes and image retention ("burn in") are halftruths that may have been legitimate concerns for early generations of plasma displays, but are non-issues with today’s current generation products. Yes, plasmas may show signs of retention if still images are left on the display for very long periods of time (such as 24 hours or more), but even in this extreme example, the result is only temporary. Today’s plasma TVs essentially heal themselves with subsequent viewing of regular TV material. As a result, more common scenarios of 5 to 10 minute (or even several hour) image pauses will not cause permanent damage.

thank you kclc for proving my point.

Yep, thanks - very interesting. Obviously the white paper is going to be biased towards Plasma because of sponsorship by Pioneer. However the conclusion about burn-in seems right. Everything I've read recently indicates that the new high-end panels like the Pioneer, Panasonic and Fujitsus are virtually burn-in proof.

As long as we don't do anything silly like leave a static image on the screen for days on end, I don't think there's much to worry about.

I've probably racked up to 70 hours on this new Pana and now I think it's time for me to enjoy it at proper contrast/brightness settings with a wide range of material without worrying about it so much :)

I agree, with current plasma displays burnin isn't near the problem it used to be. Burnin has been with us ever since CRT's, it's why we originally had moving screen savers, so we have dealt with the problem for many years. I don't know why there was such a panic with plasmas other than the expense of course, replacing the display.

after one thousand hours do i need to worry about burn in. (ie: can i play 5 hours of xbox a day or watch tv with black bars a couple of hours a day)

after one thousand hours do i need to worry about burn in. (ie: can i play 5 hours of xbox a day or watch tv with black bars a couple of hours a day)

You should be fine. I play hours of xbox a day, and do some marathon sessions on weekends and have never had a problem.

I used to stress about black bars on 4:3 tv shows, but then I realized that I actually watch more hours of non 1:85:1 movies in a sitting than I do tv...so I stopped worrying about that.

You'll eventually just become more comfortable with your tv...I think it happens to most of us who purchase a plasma.

-JR

Looking at buying a new Pioneer 5060, and checked out BB since they have them in, and noticed that 4 days after installing the 50 and 43s, the 43 is already severly burned with the ESPN thin black/white bars they put in their HD signal when it is 4X3, as well as the ESPN "bug", then, 2 days later I went back and the the "INHD" comcast channel "bug" is also burned in, on top of the "ESPN". Of course its at OOTB settings, but none of the other sets in the store have been burned like that. It may be that the 43 is the only one running Comcast and not the "loop", however.

Still, you'd like to think it would be more resilient than this.

- Chris

The plasmas at BB are on the vivid setting which during the first 100 hrs of use the set is likely to experience more image retention. I have had my Pany 42" for a month set on the normal settings watching a ton of espn, inHD and discovery HD and have not had any image retention so far. The tv is on constantly and often on the same station for hour and hours. I have been told not to worry about it with the 8th genreation Panys.

I think the Panny's use pixel shift (but I could be wrong). I have had image retention lite... My wife doesn't mind leaving the TV in 4:3 for hours on end and when I finally come home and gain control of the TV the black bars persist. I have found 30 seconds of snow makes up for wifes unwillingness to change format to fit content. Clears the retention right up. I know it would go away with normal 16:9 viewing but I am one of the paranoid ones who wants instant fix.

Kind of new to this so I'd appreciate comments.
I just purchased this Panasonic and it will be delivered later this week. I have to admit that I'm a bit more concerned after reading this thread about the potential "burn-in" problem. But at the same time I'm thankful for all of the information.

I'd appreciate any comments on my planned approach.

First I will calibrate it and make sure the contrast is less than 50% (I guess this is a setting less than 0).

Since this unit will be used in my vacation home I'm anxious to get the first 100 to 200 hours in as it could take a year if I don't do something special. I plan to loop a full screen DVD (I'm not yet sure how to do this but someone here suggested it). I will run that over night, each night I'm at the vacation home.

In addition I will make sure that daytime viewing is all done without horizontal or vertical bars. I will also avoid more than an hour on the same station that has a bright logo.

Once I get beyond 150 hours or so I will begin normal viewing and not worry much about what I'm watching.

Any ideas on changes or additions? Thanks

If you do all that, you will have no worries......I think burn-in is overhyped absent some serious abuse. I have had image retention when watching 4:3 too long but it's easily fixed with watching 30 seconds of snow, and would actually fix itself by just watching full screen material.

I have no problems with plasma burn-in at my vacation home, the Holiday Inn..... :)

Hi, I had a question and hoped someone here could please help me. I have had a plasma tv for 4 months and it has burn in or uneven ageing from the black bars on the sides of 4:3 display. Now when we watch in wide screen it is lighter on the sides where the black bars were and now darker in the middle. My plasma tv does not have any white wash or other burn in prevention features. Is there anyway I can fix this? I heard about leaving a solid white image on the screen for a long time could help, is this true? I tried the snow effect for a little bit, like a minute but it's still the same, maybe I should leave it longer, is that safe? Thanks for your help. - newbieplasmatv owner

Unfortunately I've tried various methods to get into Service Menu 2 on my set and I just can't get into it to check the panel up-time. I can get into Service Menu 1, but not SM2. I've used Bruzzi's Plasma FAQ (for 'Foreign Model' Panasonics), I've tried other advice. No dice.

Just to let you know, I just did that on my TH-42PWD8UK and it's only got 30 hours (all of which are mine) so unless Panasonic is resetting the # of hours before sending them out and secretly breaking them in, I doubt what you heard is true. Oh well, I'm 30% of the way to my 100 hours...

Tristan2,
To play back a DVD loop, your instruction manual for your DVD player probably has a section titled something like "Playing a Certain Section Repeatedly (A-B Repeat Playback)".

Just follow the instructions, i.e. your remote probably has an "A-B" button. Press the button at the beginning of the movie to set the "A" point (start of the loop), and later on press the button again to set the "B" point (end of the loop). When you do this second button push, the player will immediately jump back to the "A" spot and start playing the section over again. When it gets to the "B" point, it will jump back to the "A" point on its own, all through the night. Pressing the "A-B" button a third time should kill the loop.

--Ernie

Hi, I had a question and hoped someone here could please help me. I have had a plasma tv for 4 months and it has burn in or uneven ageing from the black bars on the sides of 4:3 display. Now when we watch in wide screen it is lighter on the sides where the black bars were and now darker in the middle. My plasma tv does not have any white wash or other burn in prevention features. Is there anyway I can fix this? I heard about leaving a solid white image on the screen for a long time could help, is this true? I tried the snow effect for a little bit, like a minute but it's still the same, maybe I should leave it longer, is that safe? Thanks for your help. - newbieplasmatv owner

The very first post on this thread explains how to remedy this exact type of situation. You need to set your side bars to grey or white and then display a black screen in the middle. There are various ways to accomplish this. Go back to post #1.

Our Plasma won't let us change the color of the black bars. Any other suggestions? thanks

Newplasmausertv,

What make/model do you own? That may help us give you direction.

-JR

Newplasmausertv,

What make/model do you own? That may help us give you direction.

-JR


The plasma is Philips 42PF9966/37. thanks

Wow.......I'm am assured........and paranoid.

I'm super new to this and having recently purchased a Pany TH-42PD50U and having a 2 and a half year old Daughter that just loves to watch Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo and a host of other cartoons on the Boomerang network, the station bug has not been a cause of any retention. I was highly worried about this but have not seen any signs at all (and trust me, I'm looking closely).
I've followed all suggestions to the point that some might think I'm paranoid, but it's my investment and I'd like for it to last and perform at peak for as long as possible.

I'm super new to this and having recently purchased a Pany TH-42PD50U and having a 2 and a half year old Daughter that just loves to watch Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo and a host of other cartoons on the Boomerang network, the station bug has not been a cause of any retention. I was highly worried about this but have not seen any signs at all (and trust me, I'm looking closely).
I've followed all suggestions to the point that some might think I'm paranoid, but it's my investment and I'd like for it to last and perform at peak for as long as possible.

If I were you I would not watch stations with the bug for extended periods of time(which means daily even for a couple hours) as the bug can burn in as well, from what I've heard. Same as the tickers on MSNBC etc. If I would have known this burn in issue was going to happen so easily I would have gotten a rear projection TV that we were going to get instead of the plasma although they tend to burn bulbs quite frequently. I think that that the owners manual for the Plasma's should have in the manual TO PREVENT BURN IN VIEW AT LARGE SCREEN 99% OF THE TIME. as my manual had in small print "view at wide screen to prevent burn in" which was at the back of the manual not very visable to the normal reader. The warranty doesn't cover burn-in because they know that burn in is a major issue with Plasmas. I guess the only thing I can do is hope that the burn in fades since Ive been only viewing at wide screen since that happened.

Noticed the difference in brightness at the line of 4:3 black side bars few days ago while watching tv. In panic mode, quickly put in a DVD and after really carefully watching bright scenes - did not notice the "lines". Ahh, relief - especially after just completing a built-in cabinet to surround this pioneer 910HD. Next day, TV watching - same dreadful lines with relative dullness in between. DVD scrutinizing -no problems.

Is it burn-in if it's only visible when on tv input? We're careful to always stretch images when possible, but the cable guide and commercials alway pop into 4:3 w/black side bars.

You'll eventually just become more comfortable with your tv...I think it happens to most of us who purchase a plasma.

Words of wisdom. Honestly, now that I actually own a plasma, I realize what a dope I was acting like regarding burn-in. :eek:

My panel has over 500 hrs on it (Panny PX50U), I watch all kinds of material, I'm a hardcore gamer and even run my games in Vivid - absolutely zero image retention or burn-in - and trust me I'm looking for it.

I followed the break-in guidelines and calibrated, but other than that stop worrying. With the newest panels it's a non-issue.

It's funny, but I still see tons of posts - on this and many other forums, mostly gaming related, and everytime someone mentions plasma it's a guarantee that someone else will post - "Don't get a plasma and play games on it. It will burn-in." It's also a guarantee that it's the people who DO NOT actually own a plasma who generally post this doomsaying over and over....

At this point it's hilarious to see, since I now know for a fact that it's complete ********. You'd have to be a tremendous idiot and abuse the **** out of your panel to get serious burn-in these days (and when you do see someone who mentions a real case of burn-in, it's almost always a display that was abused). I've stopped trying to convince people that this issue is non-existent, because they simply don't listen. They just wring their hands with worry and whine... :D

My plasma might as well be a CRT for how well it's performed. I leave stations with logos on for hours and I don't see even a momentary HINT of image retention, much less burn-in. I treat my panel well and I'm cautious, but not paranoid.

If you get one you'll see that all the worrying is for absolutely nothing...

Is it burn-in if it's only visible when on tv input? We're careful to always stretch images when possible, but the cable guide and commercials alway pop into 4:3 w/black side bars.

No, if your display was really burned, you'd see it on all inputs.

I am so glad I was referred to this thread before I started my Plasma journey.

I am going to install a LG 50PX1D next weekend and was interested in what the recommended breakin period would be to help minimize the burn-in stress that I was feeling.

I read the manual and it states nothing about break in. I decided to send their customer service and email. Look at this response...

Plasma televisions do not require a "breaking in" period. You should be able to plug the unit in and have it operational. Burn-in should not be a worry with this television, as long as stationary images are not left on the screen for extended periods of time. Should an image be stuck on the screen, the TV has a few options to minimize the chances of burn-in. These will be labeled ISM (Image Sticking Minimization).

I'm not to sure if I trust/believe that.

Any comments?

See Page 3 of Panasonic's White Paper (http://www.fcw.com/vendorsolutions/panasonicplasma.pdf#search='white%20paper%20panasonic%20plas ma') for a different opinion about the necessity of a break-in period. They have guidelines not only for the first 100 hours but also the first 1000!

I am so glad I was referred to this thread before I started my Plasma journey.

I am going to install a LG 50PX1D next weekend and was interested in what the recommended breakin period would be to help minimize the burn-in stress that I was feeling.

I read the manual and it states nothing about break in. I decided to send their customer service and email. Look at this response...

Plasma televisions do not require a "breaking in" period. You should be able to plug the unit in and have it operational. Burn-in should not be a worry with this television, as long as stationary images are not left on the screen for extended periods of time. Should an image be stuck on the screen, the TV has a few options to minimize the chances of burn-in. These will be labeled ISM (Image Sticking Minimization).

I'm not to sure if I trust/believe that.

Any comments?

I am so glad I was referred to this thread before I started my Plasma journey.

I am going to install a LG 50PX1D next weekend and was interested in what the recommended breakin period would be to help minimize the burn-in stress that I was feeling.

I read the manual and it states nothing about break in. I decided to send their customer service and email. Look at this response...

Plasma televisions do not require a "breaking in" period. You should be able to plug the unit in and have it operational. Burn-in should not be a worry with this television, as long as stationary images are not left on the screen for extended periods of time. Should an image be stuck on the screen, the TV has a few options to minimize the chances of burn-in. These will be labeled ISM (Image Sticking Minimization).

I'm not to sure if I trust/believe that.

Any comments?
i have the vizio 50 inch which uses the new LG panel. i didnt do anything for the burn in period, and im way over 100 hours with no burn in at all. just adjust it to your eyes, watch it as youre going to watch it, and enjoy.

Words of wisdom. Honestly, now that I actually own a plasma, I realize what a dope I was acting like regarding burn-in. :eek:

My panel has over 500 hrs on it (Panny PX50U), I watch all kinds of material, I'm a hardcore gamer and even run my games in Vivid - absolutely zero image retention or burn-in - and trust me I'm looking for it.

I followed the break-in guidelines and calibrated, but other than that stop worrying. With the newest panels it's a non-issue.

It's funny, but I still see tons of posts - on this and many other forums, mostly gaming related, and everytime someone mentions plasma it's a guarantee that someone else will post - "Don't get a plasma and play games on it. It will burn-in." It's also a guarantee that it's the people who DO NOT actually own a plasma who generally post this doomsaying over and over....

At this point it's hilarious to see, since I now know for a fact that it's complete bulls***. You'd have to be a tremendous idiot and abuse the **** out of your panel to get serious burn-in these days (and when you do see someone who mentions a real case of burn-in, it's almost always a display that was abused). I've stopped trying to convince people that this issue is non-existent, because they simply don't listen. They just wring their hands with worry and whine... :D

My plasma might as well be a CRT for how well it's performed. I leave stations with logos on for hours and I don't see even a momentary HINT of image retention, much less burn-in. I treat my panel well and I'm cautious, but not paranoid.

If you get one you'll see that all the worrying is for absolutely nothing...

Yes I do have a Plasma and yes there is reason to worry since I have burn in when it is only 4 months old, you would be paranoid too. I am not a tremendous idiot, I WAS NOT TOLD TO NOT PUT THE SCREEN AT 4:3 IN ORDER TO AVOID BURN IN!

When looping a DVD to breakin the TV. Does it matter what is used? Is anything acceptable? I normally rent DVD's...the only one i actually own is Rounders. I guess that should be Ok..

Also, You just leave the TV on with the sound off?

Yes I do have a Plasma and yes there is reason to worry since I have burn in when it is only 4 months old, you would be paranoid too. I am not a tremendous idiot, I WAS NOT TOLD TO NOT PUT THE SCREEN AT 4:3 IN ORDER TO AVOID BURN IN!

Unfortunate for you.

I've had no problems whatsoever.

What brand and model PDP do you have?

It's not like all plasmas don't suffer from burn-in. The issue is that newer plasmas by the better manufacturers like Pioneer and Panasonic have a lot of technology built-in to prevent burn-in. That's not just the orbital pixel-shifting technology, it includes the entire composition of the panel. Low-end manufacturers like LG skips some of this tech to save money.

It is absolutely ridiculous to say that we can't run 4:3 material on our Plasmas. The point is not to watch this material for more than approximately 15% of the time (as my Pana manual says), and to constantly vary your usage so that the phosphors age evenly.

Otherwise not a trace of burn-in or image retention on my panel, and as the newer Pioneer white paper (see link further above) says, burn-in is not an issue for most recent plasmas as they 'heal themselves' after subsequent viewing of varied material.

UPDATE:

Just passed the 5000 hour mark on my Fujitsu P50. Picture still looks great. No burn in anywhere whatsoever. Went over screen very carefully.

It's not like all plasmas don't suffer from burn-in. The issue is that newer plasmas by the better manufacturers like Pioneer and Panasonic have a lot of technology built-in to prevent burn-in. That's not just the orbital pixel-shifting technology, it includes the entire composition of the panel. Low-end manufacturers like LG skips some of this tech to save money.

It is absolutely ridiculous to say that we can't run 4:3 material on our Plasmas. The point is not to watch this material for more than approximately 15% of the time (as my Pana manual says), and to constantly vary your usage so that the phosphors age evenly.

Otherwise not a trace of burn-in or image retention on my panel, and as the newer Pioneer white paper (see link further above) says, burn-in is not an issue for most recent plasmas as they 'heal themselves' after subsequent viewing of varied material.
im sorry i have such a "LOW END" pdp as the vizio p50 with its "LOW END" LG single scan panel, however i too have absolutely no burnin after about 200 hours, even without all the cutesy tricks of the "HIGH END" pannys and pios. however the vizio does have a burnin remover in the menu.

what is the new panny technology that is used to prevent burn in? the orbital think and something else right? Also on my cablebox it has the grey bars - but often there are thinner black bars... which sort of defeats the point don't you think.

Have the Pioneer PDP5050HD for about a 10 days now, viewing about 2-3 hours a day (so we're up to about 25 hours) and have experienced two incidents of image retention, first after leaving DVD menu up for 45 mins and the latest, last night while watching the baseball game on Fox HD. The first has since gone away by continued usage and the latest I'm sure will go too. Before I get to my questions, I should first state that the contrast is under 30 as is the brightness so first thing this evening, I'm making that adjustment down to zero.

My question is, should i wait until after the 100 hour break-in period to get it calibrated (professionally or do-it-youself) or can I do it now. And if I can do the calibration now, do I still need to adhere to the break-in recommendations after it's done?

Thanks.

wow, I am REALLY surprised that a couple of hours can cause this.. and concerned. I would imagine that if you calibrated now and the rightness and contrast were turned up - that you would want to turn them back doesn, so you may as well wait.

UPDATE:

Just passed the 5000 hour mark on my Fujitsu P50. Picture still looks great. No burn in anywhere whatsoever. Went over screen very carefully.
I would like you to do screen check-up each week.... Take your eyes close to the screen and check for any "burned" pixels..... Not only I'm a victim of image burn-in but also have one bad/burned pixel on my Panny. I'm especially concerned about this because I'm planning to buy Fujitsu P50 model early part of next year and I WANT a plasma that is less susceptable to "bad/burned pixel". I want to see how many people are getting this problem....


Burned pixels should also be mentioned in this thread I really think... This "can/possibly" be related with burn-in.


I "may" deal with burned-in image retentions(even the ones that take 3~ 4 months to get rid of)... I can cope with that....... but I CANNOT cope with burned "pixels".... ABSOLUTELY no way..... burned pixel/pixels really tick me off more than anything else in the world.... i've been depressed(severely) for 3 months.... and still am depressed. People, please report burned/dead pixels if you see one.

Will the Digital music channels cause burn-in? My wife is having a party and she wants to use the digital music channel for several hours. The screens on the music channels are gray in color which I think is a benefit(??) but for the most part the image looks static. I have a Panny TH-37PX50U which is suppose to be more resistant to burn-in. Also, Orbital shifting? Am I ruining a new TV? Can I turn the colors/brightness way down temporarily - any settings that may help?

PS I have a dead pixel but I can barely see it and does not bother me in the least

Will the Digital music channels cause burn-in? My wife is having a party and she wants to use the digital music channel for several hours. The screens on the music channels are gray in color which I think is a benefit(??) but for the most part the image looks static. I have a Panny TH-37PX50U which is suppose to be more resistant to burn-in. Also, Orbital shifting? Am I ruining a new TV? Can I turn the colors/brightness way down temporarily - any settings that may help?

PS I have a dead pixel but I can barely see it and does not bother me in the least

If you are just listening to music for the party, just turn the TV off and run the sound through a AV receiver.

you wont have any problems...the images will linger for a few hours then slowly go away. no big deal.

[QUOTE]
Since I dont have a video receiver hooked up to this system yet (I use the TV speakers). Would turning down the contrast all the way down and the brightness all the way down help?

how about just using the set the way youre going to use it at the settings youre going to use it? IT WILL BE FINE. just dont use it like that for a week.

Since I dont have a video receiver hooked up to this system yet (I use the TV speakers). Would turning down the contrast all the way down and the brightness all the way down help?

Yes, this will definitely help. I have DirecTV and on my system, the text part on the music channels basically shuts off after about an hour.

Do I have to worry about burn-in AFTER the first hundred hours or so?

Does it matter how many continuous hours I have the panel on or if the screen is 4:, 16:9, or ?

Do I have to worry about burn-in AFTER the first hundred hours or so?

Does it matter how many continuous hours I have the panel on or if the screen is 4:, 16:9, or ?
yes you need to worry after first 100 hours. The precaution procedure goes as long as 1000 hours and higher. The paper from Pioneer(IIRC) mentions this... it's in this thread half way back.


As long as you run the video at "full screen", running a stretched 4:3 or a wide 16:9 doesn't matter. just make sure your screen is fully filled up.

This doesn't mean you have to run movies straight 100 hours. Don't do that.... just run the movie "when" you want to watch it, at full screen, and at relaxed contrast/brightness ratio. Running any video at straight 100 hours is torturing... you don't want to torture the new plasma... i would not do it.

What do you mean by "full screen" mode? I have wide screen movies and it's showing two black bars on my screen. Is this not wise?? going on to 15 hours w/ my new plasma...

Also, i always run the screen saver on it after I watch movies/tv shows.. is this wise?? i have the Pioneer plasma and i select the full orbiter and click on the full white and leave it on for about 5 minutes.. although the manual says it will go back to normal picture after 20 minutes...

What do you mean by "full screen" mode? I have wide screen movies and it's showing two black bars on my screen. Is this not wise?? going on to 15 hours w/ my new plasma...

Also, i always run the screen saver on it after I watch movies/tv shows.. is this wise?? i have the Pioneer plasma and i select the full orbiter and click on the full white and leave it on for about 5 minutes.. although the manual says it will go back to normal picture after 20 minutes...
Yes... i would recommend you run the movies at full screen, not the widescreen movies with black bars on top and bottom of the screen.. You will want to use one of the stretch mode so entire screen is filled.. this is gonna look stretched vertically but after a while you'll get used to it and say emm..~~ i like it. :p

Yes... i would recommend you run the movies at full screen, not the widescreen movies with black bars on top and bottom of the screen.. You will want to use one of the stretch mode so entire screen is filled.. this is gonna look stretched vertically but after a while you'll get used to it and say emm..~~ i like it. :p

How exactly will I select a stretch mode? the only setting in which the movie will fit the entire screen is the zoom mode.. all others have either black bars at the bottom or black bars on the side...

How exactly will I select a stretch mode? the only setting in which the movie will fit the entire screen is the zoom mode.. all others have either black bars at the bottom or black bars on the side...
you will have to use "zoom" mode, probably..

i know with the panny's, "just" or "zoom" will do it. I use mostly zoom mode for DVD movies.


http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/7138/dsc000044ro.th.jpg (http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc000044ro.jpg)

I recently purchased the Pioneer 5060 on Monday, October 10. I have about 25 hours of viewing on this, and have been satisfied with the excellent picture quality.

However, last night I watched the Astros game on Fox HD for about 3.5 hours, and my TV now suffers from image retention. I can see the NLCS Fox logo in the upper right area of the screen, and can see a lesser image that describes the inning and outs, just like I am watching the game. This retention is visible while watching a show that has a bright background. I have had it on Discover HD for the past 15 hours to try and cure this problem, but it is still there. Is this normal for this TV?

I have not had a chance to calibrate the settings, so I had it on Standard mode with the contrast turned down to 35 when this occurred.

Is there a screen wipe function on this TV that will display a white screen or white bars to help make this retention disappear?

I turned the contrast to 28, but I wonder if lowering the contrast will slow the healing process of the image retention.

However, last night I watched the Astros game on Fox HD for about 3.5 hours, and my TV now suffers from image retention. I can see the NLCS Fox logo in the upper right area of the screen, and can see a lesser image that describes the inning and outs, just like I am watching the game. This retention is visible while watching a show that has a bright background. I have had it on Discover HD for the past 15 hours to try and cure this problem, but it is still there. Is this normal for this TV?

I have not had a chance to calibrate the settings, so I had it on Standard mode with the contrast turned down to 35 when this occurred.

Is there a screen wipe function on this TV that will display a white screen or white bars to help make this retention disappear?

I turned the contrast to 28, but I wonder if lowering the contrast will slow the healing process of the image retention.
you should've lowered the contrast/brightness setting before you ever started watching the videos, at least down to nominal 0 setting or lower. This is critical.

Yes the image retention can last longer. Some lasts an hour, a day, or months.

If I were you I would run DVD movies at full screen for a while. It should go away in days.

The zoom effects looks really wierd... but if I have to watch movies like that for a while so not to break my unit, i will.. my contrast ratio is set to 30 and the bright to 50..

I recently purchased the Pioneer 5060 on Monday, October 10. I have about 25 hours of viewing on this, and have been satisfied with the excellent picture quality.

However, last night I watched the Astros game on Fox HD for about 3.5 hours, and my TV now suffers from image retention. I can see the NLCS Fox logo in the upper right area of the screen, and can see a lesser image that describes the inning and outs, just like I am watching the game. This retention is visible while watching a show that has a bright background. I have had it on Discover HD for the past 15 hours to try and cure this problem, but it is still there. Is this normal for this TV?

I have not had a chance to calibrate the settings, so I had it on Standard mode with the contrast turned down to 35 when this occurred.

Is there a screen wipe function on this TV that will display a white screen or white bars to help make this retention disappear?

I turned the contrast to 28, but I wonder if lowering the contrast will slow the healing process of the image retention.

I'm having the exact same issue after watching the baseball games over the weekend. I have had my contrast turned down to 28 since I got the TV last week. Also looking for some advice.

I just got the 42 panny commercial plasma. I was wondering how often to run the screen saver. I try to watch everything full screen, but you've got station logos, tickers and anomorphic movies. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks

you will have to use "zoom" mode, probably..

i know with the panny's, "just" or "zoom" will do it. I use mostly zoom mode for DVD movies.


http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/7138/dsc000044ro.th.jpg (http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc000044ro.jpg)

That image looks really odd to me...perhaps it's because you have the camera at an angle from the screen, but that doesn't look like any of the settings I have on my Panny. That image of Crowe makes it look like the wide OAR squashed in and made everything tall and thin.

I thought that Gladiator is 1:85;1, so I'm not sure why you'd need to use anything but the OAR of the DVD. It should fit your 16:9 unit almost perfectly, with the exception of a bit of overscan that you wouldn't (and don't in that picture) see.

-JR

I'm having the exact same issue after watching the baseball games over the weekend. I have had my contrast turned down to 28 since I got the TV last week. Also looking for some advice.


The problem with the baseball games on Fox is that the NLCS logo in the upper right hand corner is on the screen 99% of the time. Even if they break to an instant replay, it is still there. Secondly, it is bright white which does not help.

I called Pioneer on monday, and I had a tech call me back within an hour. he said it is unusual for image retention to occur so quickly within 3.5 hours, but he said that it would most likely occur during the first 100 hours of viewing. He recommended to loop a DVD, or put the TV on a channel with out logos to remove the image. He was very courteous, and was willing to make a house call if the issue did not resolve. I have it my TV on Discover HD for about 35 hours since Sunday, and the image has 99.9% disappeared.

I am running my TV about 18 hours a day to speed the break in period. About 15 of those hours, I am not watching TV, so I have the contrast turned to 0. When I am watching TV, I have the contrast on 20, like it is in Game mode. By the end of the week I will have about 150 hours on the set, and will begin watching normal TV with the contrast at 30. I figure the standard mode on the set has the contrast at 40, and 30 is 25% less than Standard mode.

there is a white bar function on the set to clean the TV image, but it is only available through the service menu done by a tech.

Hi,

I have a JVC PD42WX84 which is now 2 years old. Of course, after a year when the warranty ran out, it failed to power up. $900 later, a JVC authorized shop replaced the main processor board. Then, after a couple months use, I started seeing what I call a "dirty screen" on startup; i.e., you can see the broadcast show but through lots of black pixels scattered randomnly about. I can clear this up by switching to an alternate video input, wait a bit and then return to normal viewing.

I called the shop and they don't have a clue what is causing this, but seem to know that it's not because of the main processor board..i.e., their work. I'm reticent return the unit for additional work at this shop.

I have a Comcast 6412 unit feeding the display through the JVC receiver. Any opinions on what may be causing this and what I need to do to both avoid it and keep it from destroying the display entirely?

I also get macroblocking from time to time, so am wondering if a strong signal is causing problems overall.

Many thanks!

What is the 100 hour??? in the first 100 hour is not good I play videogame in my plasma??? why??

What is the 100 hour??? in the first 100 hour is not good I play videogame in my plasma??? why??

Look earlier in this thread; there's a link to a Panasonic whitepaper that discusses burn-in and what to do during the break-in period.

Quick question. For standard 1.85:1 ratio DVD movies. What is the proper aspect setting on the Panasonic? Full, Just?? Thanks.

That image looks really odd to me...perhaps it's because you have the camera at an angle from the screen, but that doesn't look like any of the settings I have on my Panny. That image of Crowe makes it look like the wide OAR squashed in and made everything tall and thin.

I thought that Gladiator is 1:85;1, so I'm not sure why you'd need to use anything but the OAR of the DVD. It should fit your 16:9 unit almost perfectly, with the exception of a bit of overscan that you wouldn't (and don't in that picture) see.

-JR
that was on PC, playing DVD movie using PowerDVD.

all i did was just select "zoom" on my TV.. :)

that was on PC, playing DVD movie using PowerDVD.

all i did was just select "zoom" on my TV.. :)

Ah, ok. Do you watch 1:85 movies using zoom? You don't need to, they should fit your 16:9 screen without any distortion.

I don't zoom on any movie, no matter if it's 2:40, 2:35, 1:85, etc. I'd much rather watch the movie as the director wished it to be watched than zoom and crop out important imagery.

If you need help with adjusting your overscan, check out this great thread posted by Michaelangelo. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=257933)

-JR

Ah, ok. Do you watch 1:85 movies using zoom? You don't need to, they should fit your 16:9 screen without any distortion.

I don't zoom on any movie, no matter if it's 2:40, 2:35, 1:85, etc. I'd much rather watch the movie as the director wished it to be watched than zoom and crop out important imagery.

If you need help with adjusting your overscan, check out this great thread posted by Michaelangelo. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=257933)

-JR
wait a min..... the whole point I was getting at viewing full screen is "to show" stretched-look on video when set to Zoom mode playing DVD movies that are widescreen.. I posted the pic to show him that's one of the ways to get rid of the black bars.. I didn't post that pic to show off how good my pic is, trust me, it's "not" meant to look good.. that's was the whole point :) I was hinting him take a little hit on PQ and view the full screen during the breakin period, which was the main objective... to show "full screen".


another thing, maybe you are not having any problems viewing full screen because you have "very different" setup than mine. You're on Consumer Plasma with a dedicated DVD player. Maybe you have some features that came with the DVD player is allowing you view at nicely balanced full screen playing widescreen movies.. i don't know. Mine is strictly on PC, no exceptions.


I did post my messages in the thread you have linked... Waiting for their reply.. :D Thanks for the linkage though. :)


If you do have the secret on how to get my system to view at full screen without sacrificing the PQ, picture balance, and losing the viewing area(edges of the screen), then please do let me know. Even though I don't have any problems with the way I view movies(the pic I posted as an example), I certainly don't mind having a nicely proportioned full screen video on my setup. :D


however, if it is something has to do with "adjusting" V-POS/SIZE and H-POS/SIZE then i don't know if i wanna do that.... because some of other movies I run are in 16:9 Mastered in HD. It would look way off, wouldn't it? :confused: It seems what would happen is where I keep having to change the V-POS/SIZE and H-POS/SIZE everytime when I play different ratio type movies, once again, all this is on PC, not an external DVD player..


another thing I should mention... the "zoom" mode on my TH PHD7UY panel doesn't crop out any pictures. It bascially condenses entire video content to fit in my screen, basically stretch the picture vertically to remove the black bar. I've closely observed this from movie to movies and this claim holds true.. ;) ;)

is it to safe to use plasma as computer screen? i won't leave it on desktop mode. i want to use it for mce and games.

My 3 week old Sony KDE-50XS955 has this problem BIG TIME. :( I use standard mode and power saving light level, with brightness/contrast adjusted with AVIA DVD. Any image that lasts for more than 30sec burns in. For example, the ticking clock/frame at the beginning of the CBS program "60 Minutes" burns in. Or if I watch letterboxed "ER" and then they have a commercial break, I see the letterbox burn-in bars at top and bottom of the commercial. Even the TV14 rating logo burns in on programs that display it. Very disappointing but at least it goes away.


Im in the same boat as you sparkie001. I have my 50XS955 for about a week now. Within 5 mins of watching the World Series I started getting the Fox Logo on the upper right- hand corner. What I do is just go into the Screen Saver (White Screen) and within one min. the logo will disappear. I borrowing this TV from a friend of mines. Do you know how to find the hours on the TV? I've got into the SM but I cant seem to find it.

I received my Panny th-37px50u yesterday evening from DTV City.

I played portions of a DVD from my new Sony DVP-NS70H player & was very pleased. Gorgeous picture. Unfortunately this DVD player has the horizontal shifting issue that is addressed in another thread. A 3 /4” black bar shows up at the top of the screen when using the HDMI connection (Zoom function won’t eliminate it. It is not present w/ RCA cables however). I didn’t notice it until 15 minutes later. When I switched to TV viewing I could see the image retention of the black bar, but after an hour of changing channels, turning it off/on, it went away. Whew! (felt like I had dodged a bullet).

Further viewing was restricted to full screen, setting pic mode to Standard, & contrast/ brightness/ sharpness to -5 (approx. 60% reduction of full –30 to +30 scale).

Nowhere in the manual does it describe special care for burn-in issues other than a general statement about “Do not allow a still picture to be displayed for an extended period as this can cause permanent after-image to remain on the plasma TV. Examples of still pictures include logos, video games, computer images, teletext, & images displayed in 4:3 mode.”

I called Panasonic Customer Service this morning to discuss in more detail precautionary measures for “break-in” period & issues re: Sony DVD black bar temporary image rention.

They said the wobbler circuit in these newer panels reduces the burn-in concerns greatly. Rep said that permanent image retention would result from watching the same logo, 4:3 mode side bars, etc. if it was for WEEKS at a time (example he used was playing MSNBC for 2 weeks straight w/ the same logo & teletext should be avoided). They recommended for the 1st month or two, not to watch a DVD from the Sony player w/ the 3/ 4” black bar. Picture settings were said to be far less crucial than keeping a full screen w/ no bars. They said I could even watch in Vivid mode right out of the box if I wished too! (I don’t. I prefer the look resulting from lower settings).

So, should I run a solid image loop 24/7 for 4 days like I have seen recommend by some, or just keep it full screen w/ toned down setting for the 1st 100 hrs. or so? I’d be curious how other px50u/ 500u owners have fared that haven’t spoken in detail about this.

I'm at just around a thousand hours with my PX50U now.....

No need to go to extraordinary lengths, just vary your viewing material and watch as much "Just" mode TV as you can. Just let it run on MTV for a few hours every night.

I always set the sleep timer later in the evening for 90 minutes so I can be sure it will shut off, but other than that you don't need to go nuts.

Out of the box I played games, watched DVD's, SDTV, HDTV, 4:3 material and never even saw a hint of image retention.

The new Pannys are built right. Enjoy. :cool:

how do you determine if you have burn in. Do you blast a white screen or do you blast a black screen. Have been playing grand theft auto for a couple of hours and just wanted to know if the white hud's had burnt in.

Quick question, and I feel dumb asking it but here goes, when saying that brightness and picture should be turned down to less than 50%, does that mean they should be at 0 or less (because 0 is the halfway mark between the - settings and the + settings), or it should be at 50% between the 0 and the highest + setting the tv has?

When I called the panasonic technician they told me that the scale that counts is Zero to +30 and 50% of that is +15 max. They told me that the negative units do not count. Watching at "0" settings would barely be watchable anyways. For the newest generation Pannys they said hit the hundred hour mark and it should be EXTREMELY resistant to permanent burn-in. You may experience temporary image retention if forgetting the DVD logo for a couple of days. They kept stressing to me not to worry about the settings after that 100 hr break in. Go figure. I have 200hrs on my Panny and have now cranked up the screen to the settings I liked based on ISF calibration. I have not see any image retention and I watch the history channel all the time (10hrs a day)

[B]Personally, I think this issue of burn in is a little over hyped. I'm sure the potential for burn in exists, but some of the things I've been reading sound pretty outragerous to me.... I've seen comments that warn to turn the tv off every couple of hours, switch channels every couple of hours, change the aspect raito midway through a show, turn all the pictures in the room so they face the wall, (reflection off the glass might bounce back to the tv screen and burn it self in that way) etc....

I mean come on.. People buy TV's to watch. They want to watch their tv's more than 2 hours a day. They don't want to worry that hitting the Pause button during a movie so they can run in the kitchen and make a sandwich is going to toast a $2,000 set. It would seem to me that if this burn in issue was as big a deal as some make it out to be, you would have heard about it long ago. 60 Minutes would have done something on it. All those investigative report shows would have made mention to it, etc... But until I started to research the purchase of a wide screen tv, I have never even heard of burn it, expect as it applied to the old monochrome computer monitors of the early years of computing.

We use 23" plasma screen monitors in our 911 Control Center. These monitors are on 24/7 365. Not the slightest hint of burn in on any of them. Maybe they use a whole different plasma technology for plasma computer monitors than what is used for tv screens, I don't know.

If you have especially bad burn-in is this covered under most larger store's warranties? They sometimes mention they cover "wear and tear".

If so it would seem to be a good idea to get an extended warranty, so if you get burn-in after a few years you can just get it replaced.

Jayzen,
The only problem is, it's not you or us, but the manufacturer who will have to decide what wear and tear is. Do you really see them ruling against themselves in your favor? :)

I have read and (most likely misunderstood) the posts regarding reasons why ED has a "better" display image and due to pixel dimension does a better job on SDTV stretches SD better.

All that said and assuming I read correctly. Is there a larger or lesser possibility for burn in on an ED vs HD?

I won a used 37" HD 4:3 Hitachi I bought from a friend who rents AV equipt for $850. It is my first foray into the world of Plasma and believe me I do not baby that set. I leave it on FOX news all night sometimes. I have the levels up around 60% (probably because it is worn) It seems bullet proof.

I have not pulled the trigger on a replacement for a n old Tosh 50 RPCRT yet as I am still learning and waiting for the sweet spot where technology and price peak. Its pretty much close on the ED Panny.and the HD Maxent 42s. I will buy a 50" when they can be had for less then $1500. I expect in three years or sooner that may happen.

Whatever I buy will relegate the 42" to the bedroom. The 37" will be a computer monitor. There is some Vgame playing going on.

So I have decided on the PAnny ED or the MAxent HD within $100 of each other. Which if any would be more suceptable to Vgame burn in. I need a compelling reason to make this decision. Its been weeks of agonizing.

I recently learned the MAxent MX3 is in effect a rebadged Panasonic further complicating matters.

Insignificantly more.

looking through this forum the data suggests the panas are better at handling screen burn,and the pioneer not so . i have ordered the new pioneer 6 generation set. they have just arrived in aussie model number here is pdp436hd

looking through this forum the data suggests the panas are better at handling screen burn,and the pioneer not so . i have ordered the new pioneer 6 generation set. they have just arrived in aussie model number here is pdp436hd

I'm reading conflicting reports on this... some say that they have a panasonic with lots of image retention, and others say they play games with HUDs and watch 4:3 native content all day without ANY image retention. Who do I believe? I'm hearing the same from pioneer owners.

The only first-hand data I have on this is that I saw a 5060 in Best Buy, and a 1130 in Tweeter, and they both had espn retained in the lower corner when I switched to another channel. Both times, the sales rep said that it would go away, but that "they should really change the channel for the display".

What is that supposed to mean? That they are worried about burn-in, or they just wanted to dispell my concern at the time and they don't care at all?

The Plasmas in the store have from Day 1 been set to their most "vivid" setting and are kept on the same channel all day. Both of these are things you would not do when properly breaking in your new plasma. This is likely why both sets have real burn in. Of course the IDC white paper says this is only temporary image retention. To get rid of the image retention you would simply play full screen diverse programing for a day or two.

I broke my plasma in for 100 hours on low settings, have now cranked up the settings and watch anything I want. I am a history channel junkie and watch stocks all day. No burn yet and this has been for several months now. I am not worried about it after the break-in period. I have a Panny 37" plasma.

here is what the pioneer technical support dept in australia says about the questions i asked,

Thank you for your email, Unfortunately with any kind of plasma TV, although
rare no matter what brand or model there is a risk of burn in. Here at Pioneer
we recommend you do not keep a static image (espn, most foxtel channels etc) on
the screen for any longer then 30 minutes, to give your screen a rest we
recommend changing the channel and watching something else for a few minutes to
rest that section of the screen. 4 hours of continuously having ESPN on your
screen will possibly cause a problem but to eliminate this follow these
instructions and you hopefully shouldn't have any issues.

Kind Regards,

Pioneer Support
2211 Princes Highway, Mulgrave 3170
Helpline: 1800 988 268asked

I have two Panasonic plasmas, a 42PWD4UY and a 50PHD7UY. I have had the 42 incher for about for years and the 50 for about a year. I have never had any image retention let alone burn in. Both are carefully calibrated and I never watch any 4x3 material that is not stretrched but do watch plenty of 2:35:1 material. If you are careful at all, I do not see much of a risk of burn-in.

To everyone still erroneously terrified by burn-in nonsense - BUY AN LCD OR DLP.

Thank you and have a nice day. I'm not going to bother posting about my Panny PX50U with ZERO image retention or burn-in playing games, watching DVD's w/black bars and 4:3 material. I won't bother anymore, because once you actually own a plasma, this argument becomes - A) Laughable and B) Sad.... :rolleyes:

So I picked up a Panasonic PX-500U a few weeks ago in anticipation of the xbox 360 coming out...I already have played some Shadow of Collossus on it for a few hours and no burn in...When I get my new xbox I will be gaming like a mad man for a solid week...Possibly over 10 hours a day...I've been back logged with games I've been meaning to play and I finally am taking a week off for thanksgiving to just game! LOL...Nice vacation right?

here is what the pioneer technical support dept in australia says about the questions i asked,

Thank you for your email, Unfortunately with any kind of plasma TV, although
rare no matter what brand or model there is a risk of burn in. Here at Pioneer
we recommend you do not keep a static image (espn, most foxtel channels etc) on
the screen for any longer then 30 minutes, to give your screen a rest we
recommend changing the channel and watching something else for a few minutes to
rest that section of the screen. 4 hours of continuously having ESPN on your
screen will possibly cause a problem but to eliminate this follow these
instructions and you hopefully shouldn't have any issues.

Kind Regards,

Pioneer Support
2211 Princes Highway, Mulgrave 3170
Helpline: 1800 988 268asked

Good lord. This is Pioneer support? Nothing like having a support rep distribute such ridiculous advice.

Guess that means you, or anyone who owns a Pio plasma can't watch a single non 1:85:1 movie...ever. ;)

-JR

I believe the term is temporary burn-in, the shape of the middle section of my screen is similar to the 4:3 box. The outer edges are more black compared to this middle section. Additionally, I could make out the TV-Guide logo burn-in, again this is only obvious when the background is black or when switching inputs with no signal. By setting my power to 'reduce' the logo as well as this box like shape are gradually dissipating. I have seen within this forum discussion about the voltage being the reason for such an effect, if so, why the middle of the screen? Plasma is unlike CRT tube based display where lets say the concentration would be in the middle.

I have a Samsung 42' DLP set - I thin it's first or second generation. I bought it 2 years ago.

Anyway, I have Time Warner Cable, with HD service, and I seem to get the "menu burn" as well, when I'm changing channels. It goes away when the meny disappears - which is about 3-5 seconds. It seems to always be a channel stuck up in the HBO range, which is a higher channel number.
Very strange, though I can live with it I guess.
Any thoughts?

I have a Samsung 42' DLP set - I think it's first or second generation. I bought it 2 years ago.

Anyway, I have Time Warner Cable, with HD service, and I seem to get the "menu burn" as well, when I'm changing channels. It goes away when the menu disappears - which is about 3-5 seconds. It seems to always be a channel stuck up in the HBO range, which is a higher channel number.
Very strange, though I can live with it I guess.
Any thoughts?

Hey there adman. A DLP doesn't ignite any sort of phosphor, it's literally tossing light up onto the back of a screen. I'm not sure how you're seeing any sort of image retention. Definitely interesting, can you post a picture of it? Hopefully someone can help out.

wait a min..... the whole point I was getting at viewing full screen is "to show" stretched-look on video when set to Zoom mode playing DVD movies that are widescreen.. I posted the pic to show him that's one of the ways to get rid of the black bars.. I didn't post that pic to show off how good my pic is, trust me, it's "not" meant to look good.. that's was the whole point :) I was hinting him take a little hit on PQ and view the full screen during the breakin period, which was the main objective... to show "full screen".


another thing, maybe you are not having any problems viewing full screen because you have "very different" setup than mine. You're on Consumer Plasma with a dedicated DVD player. Maybe you have some features that came with the DVD player is allowing you view at nicely balanced full screen playing widescreen movies.. i don't know. Mine is strictly on PC, no exceptions.

If you do have the secret on how to get my system to view at full screen without sacrificing the PQ, picture balance, and losing the viewing area(edges of the screen), then please do let me know. Even though I don't have any problems with the way I view movies(the pic I posted as an example), I certainly don't mind having a nicely proportioned full screen video on my setup. :D


however, if it is something has to do with "adjusting" V-POS/SIZE and H-POS/SIZE then i don't know if i wanna do that.... because some of other movies I run are in 16:9 Mastered in HD. It would look way off, wouldn't it? :confused: It seems what would happen is where I keep having to change the V-POS/SIZE and H-POS/SIZE everytime when I play different ratio type movies, once again, all this is on PC, not an external DVD player..


another thing I should mention... the "zoom" mode on my TH PHD7UY panel doesn't crop out any pictures. It bascially condenses entire video content to fit in my screen, basically stretch the picture vertically to remove the black bar. I've closely observed this from movie to movies and this claim holds true..

Hey, sorry about that, little confusion on my end! :)

As you mentioned, I was confused since that aspect ratio is off, but I wasn't thinking (this happens often) and didn't think forward enough to postulate you might have a completely different set-up than I do (which you do).

It sounds like you'd like to have every movie, no matter what it's OAR is, to fit your 16x9 screen. Like you mentioned, the only way to do that would be have the image stretch to fit the screen. You've done that, and the Gladiator picture you posted shows it. I totally missed what you were going for!

On my commercial Panny, the modes stack up as follows, and you'll see right away why I was confused. Sorry these pictures are so small, I'd made these for a friend using some existing pictures I'd taken and some screen grabs taken from the net.

-JR

http://www.skullface.com/different_modes/43modes.jpg

http://www.skullface.com/different_modes/1781.jpg

http://www.skullface.com/different_modes/2351.jpg

Hi, I am new to the site & I had a question about burn-in… I want to purchase a Samsung LN-R329D, but I wanted to know if burn-in is possible on LCD TV’s? I will mainly use the set to play Xbox 360 & PS3 games when they are released. Some game’s like first person shooters tend to have the same data in the same area all the time & I tend to play for hours and hours! :) I been reading that technologies like DLP and LCD does not have burn-in but I also noticed that in the owners manual of the Samsung LN-R329D it mentions that burn-in is possible if you watch too much 4:3 material.

Thanks!

Hi all,

Just joined this forum so please forgive the (inevitable) stupid questions. I just picked up a new Pioneer HD Plasma yesterday. I'm running it with an older generation DVD player (waiting for the HD players to come out this spring before taking that plunge).

I have the DVD player connected via S-Video cable to my Plasma. When I attempted to play a wide-screen version of The Incredibles I noticed I had the 'black bands' along the top and bottom of my screen.

I tried re-sizing/zooming my screen so that it would fill in my entire screen but wasn't able to get rid of the black bands.

Is it possible that I won't be able to fully resize my screen since I'm using an analog (i.e. s-video) connection from my DVD player. Maybe I'm doing something else wrong?

Any advice would really be appreciated as I don't want to run the risk of burning in any black bars onto my new TV...especially since what I've read tells me the first couple of hundred hours are critical to the plasma.

Thanks in advance for your help!

That movie is 2:39:1 I think, meaning you are supposed to have black bands at the top and bottom of your screen.

Understandably you want to have it fit the screen in order to make sure you wear your phosphor evenly. Does your tv itself have zoom modes that will allow you to watch it without the black bars? Does it have a manual function to change your Horizontal and Vertical? Check your user manual, hopefully something in there will help out. :)

-JR

Hi JR

Thanks very much for the info. I know my tv (remote) has a button which I was able to use to resize some standard TV programming. I tried to use it to resize the Incredibles to full-screen but it didn't work.

Like you suggested I'll continue to scan my user manuals to see if I can find an alternative solution. It's quite possible that the movie was designed to display that way (I'm still pretty new to all this HD stuff); I'm just paranoid about ruining my brand spanking new 'toy'..

Thanks again,
John

No problem John. What specific units (your tv and dvd) do you have? We might be able to give you more direction that way. :)

-JR

Hi, I am new to the site & I had a question about burn-in… I want to purchase a Samsung LN-R329D, but I wanted to know if burn-in is possible on LCD TV’s? I will mainly use the set to play Xbox 360 & PS3 games when they are released. Some game’s like first person shooters tend to have the same data in the same area all the time & I tend to play for hours and hours! :) I been reading that technologies like DLP and LCD does not have burn-in but I also noticed that in the owners manual of the Samsung LN-R329D it mentions that burn-in is possible if you watch too much 4:3 material.

Thanks!My ViewSonic n2750w LCD has a 'slight' 4:3 image on it's widescreen, it's used primarily as a computer monitor, but 30% of the time it's a TV. I'm now using the AIW graphic card with software that colours the sidebars for TV viewing. It took about 8 months of heavy usage... It looks like die fade, over time.. I suspect the whole screen will fade down. Samsung wouldn't mention a caution for burn-in, unless they've already seen it.

I should note that the 'slight' fade is barely perceptable, but I do use it as a monitor and have a grey full screen background, so even the smallest imperfection shows up.

Hi JR,

Thanks for the info. My TV is a Pioneer PDP-HD43460 and it's connected to a (basic) Norcent DVD player (There wasn't a model number on the front of the machine - I'll look on the back to see if I can find a model number later tonight). It's what I'd consider an entry level DVD player. Works fine - no issues on that end. Would like to keep using it till the next generation of DVD players hit the market and sort themselves out (if possible).

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. So far am loving the TV (having a few teething issues but that's to be expected when you have to wire up 6 miles of cabling...lol).

Cheers,
John

Hey there John.

I don't know much about that dvd player, but check to make sure you've enabled it to output 16:9/widescreen. Most dvd players are set to a factory default of 4:3 for regular televisions. You should be able to find that option in the menu of your DVD player somewhere.

Your Pio has 5 settings, which are different than the ones I posted above in regards to the Panny.

I found the following info on page 83 of your owners manual.

Press your SCREEN SIZE button to cycle through different modes.

4:3 mode will display side bars on each side if broadcasting a 4:3 signal
FULL mode will squeeze your image to fit the 16:9 set
ZOOM is for 16:9 "pictures". Use this for any HD feed, or for all movies I'm guessing
CINEMA is for 14:9 "pictures"...perhaps Pio users can inform you about this mode, it's not present on the Panny (or at least, I don't know which Panny mode it relates to)
WIDE mode stretches the image to the sides of the screen.

I'm not sure if that helps, hopefully a Pio user can help out.

-JR

JR,

You are THE MAN!!!

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try tonight.

Cheers,
John

ooops... I saw this after I posted elsewhere, didnt know all burn-in Qs has to go here?!

Well, I am deciding between 8UK and PX50 and was wonderign if there's a difference in burn-in prevention on those two? Meaning, would one be better than the other?

When I look at manuals... 8UK has quite a few things, moving pixel protection, white scrolling bar, reducing brightness on stationary picture, etc...

Are those also implemented in PX50 but just not user adjustable? I do not see any of them in the menus... not even in the service menus (although I cant make sense of quite a few options).

I apprecite a quick response as I am about to put an order and this is the last point I am considering.

Newbie question: I have purchased a Toshiba 42HP84 plasma in August 05 from BB and am suffering from terrible image retention problems (same as described by another thread in this forum - same tv set, I assume the guy eventually returned his set - cannot paste thread link as I'm still a newbie to this forum). I used DVD Essentials to calibrate and got much better PQ but image retention problems persist. I notice evident image retention even after displaying the tv's menu (such as adjusting volume, etc.) for a few seconds. Switching from a bright image (such as daylight action in a movie) to a darker picture (such as indoor action or night scene) always leaves behind traces of the previous image that do not go away unless another bright image is displayed for a longer period of time. I am now way past the time I can return this thing (I was hoping it will go away or diminish once the break-in period is over).
Question: is this something that is covered under warranty? I understand burn-ins are not covered, but this is not a burn-in and in my opinion it is a manufacturing issue. I have been in several stores and and displayed the menu on several other plasma sets (Pioneer, Panasonic, Phillips) on a black screen and did not notice image retention. I have spent too much money on this set only to be upset everytime I watch it. Any suggestions are more than welcomed.

I happen to be in a lobby of a Hilton Resort where just recently a Viewsonic 50” plasma was installed (1 month ago). What I saw I was totally amazed. Here is what programming is put on the screen. Early morning from 4 AM to 8 AM CNN, 8 AM to 6 PM a Power Point presentation showing the menu for Starbuck’s, 6 PM to 11 PM ESPN.

To my amazement in the lower right corner ESPN was burned into the screen. I asked the person behind the counter if I could see the remote. I flipped through a number of channels and the letters of ESPN were still present. Next I went to the ESPN channel and saw what was causing the burn in. The ESPN letters were not your normal transparent logos that are normally associated with broadcast stations but solid text from ESPN. Upon further inspection the entire table that ESPN uses on the bottom of the telecast was present just not as noticeable as ESPN. Next I asked if I could watch another channel that did not show a logo that had a bright background and the gal said sure. I then went into the menu and looked at the brightness and contrast settings, both were set at 50%. After about one hour of viewing a bright channel the ESPN letters were still visible.

I suspect that the Viewsonic plasma is a lesser quality of plasma, but this sure has gotten my attention and will put changes in my viewing habits on my new plasma.

I happen to be in a lobby of a Hilton Resort where just recently a Viewsonic 50” plasma was installed (1 month ago). What I saw I was totally amazed. Here is what programming is put on the screen. Early morning from 4 AM to 8 AM CNN, 8 AM to 6 PM a Power Point presentation showing the menu for Starbuck’s, 6 PM to 11 PM ESPN.

To my amazement in the lower right corner ESPN was burned into the screen. I asked the person behind the counter if I could see the remote. I flipped through a number of channels and the letters of ESPN were still present. Next I went to the ESPN channel and saw what was causing the burn in. The ESPN letters were not your normal transparent logos that are normally associated with broadcast stations but solid text from ESPN. Upon further inspection the entire table that ESPN uses on the bottom of the telecast was present just not as noticeable as ESPN. Next I asked if I could watch another channel that did not show a logo that had a bright background and the gal said sure. I then went into the menu and looked at the brightness and contrast settings, both were set at 50%. After about one hour of viewing a bright channel the ESPN letters were still visible.

I suspect that the Viewsonic plasma is a lesser quality of plasma, but this sure has gotten my attention and will put changes in my viewing habits on my new plasma.



I wonder how long it was on ESPN?? I'm sure they didn't follow the 100 hour rule.

question about screen savers. I am using a HTPC with this with Sagetv. The default saver--like lots of them--is a black screen that shifts around the sage logo. Because of the black--this would be bad I presume?

thanks
JUC

I'm getting a new Plasma(philips) on saturday. How long can I watch football on sunday without worrying about burn-in. All the games have the scores graphics in the same spot.

I am very close to buying the 42" EDTV (Panasonic) at Costco. I am still concerned with "burn-in". Is there a decent thread that someone can point me to in this forum? I would like to avoid spending all day searching the thread--Thanks.

Hey Tucson Bob,

I live in Tucson as well. Do yourself a favor and head over to El Conquistador Resort. Go to the lobby lounge and look at their Viewsonic Plasma that has ESPN burned into the screen. All this burn in crap has now made me switch directions on a large screen HD TV. First I can not control the viewing in my home with the wife and kids, I know for a fact I will end up with BURN IN. I have now decided to either purchase a DLP or a JVC's D-ILA and not worry about BURN IN.

With the thought of spending thousands of dollars on a HD set and the risk of ending up with a screen that has burned in logo's or text boxes is just not worth it. The colors and sharpness of DLP technology makes this a simpler choice. The drawback for some may be the depth of such a display but for me it’s not. I will purchase one of these technologies and will be able to sleep with my decision.

Good Luck…..

Not to say that Vipers argument isn't valid, but be sure to do a good deal of research, check out the feedback, etc. Of all the plasma owners on this forum, a very small minority has ever had any issues with image retention or burn-in.

Remember that all phosphor displays can suffer from image retention.

Ever see a ghost of text or image on a CRT tube that is an ATM machine? It's the same issue that can happen regardless on whether or not the unit is a plasma, CRT, or LCD.

I sleep wonderfully after gaming for hours on my plasma, and watching non 1:85 movies on my plasma...etc. As long as the viewer takes easy to follow and precautions that actually cross the CRT, RPTV, LCD and plasma technologies (note in user manuals of all four technologies - warnings of image retention and burn-in are present) you should be good to go.

Oh, update, I took pictures of the modes including a ticker (used CNN), and I"ll post those soon. :)

-JR

Not to say that Vipers argument isn't valid, but be sure to do a good deal of research, check out the feedback, etc. Of all the plasma owners on this forum, a very small minority has ever had any issues with image retention or burn-in.

Remember that all phosphor displays can suffer from image retention.

Ever see a ghost of text or image on a CRT tube that is an ATM machine? It's the same issue that can happen regardless on whether or not the unit is a plasma, CRT, or LCD.

I sleep wonderfully after gaming for hours on my plasma, and watching non 1:85 movies on my plasma...etc. As long as the viewer takes easy to follow and precautions that actually cross the CRT, RPTV, LCD and plasma technologies (note in user manuals of all four technologies - warnings of image retention and burn-in are present) you should be good to go.

Oh, update, I took pictures of the modes including a ticker (used CNN), and I"ll post those soon. :)

-JR

I have spent the last hour going over various posts in this forum on "Burn-in". My conclusion is that if one follows the guidelines diligently "burn-in" should not be an issue. I found Bruzzi's site helpful as well. In fact I have printed up numerous pages of info to share with my wife before we take the leap to plasma. It appears, to me, that Panasonic is probably one of the best brands for safeguarding against "burn-in". I assume that the EDTV (42PM50U)we are looking at from Costco is at or near their current generation of plasma technology and should be no different that the other Panason EDTV (with tuners) or Panasonic HDTV's when it comes to the burn- in issue??? It seems to me that in the long run I will be much better off with plasma versus RPLCD and DLP with their frequent and costly bulb replacements( I assume over 15-20 years of use I would need to replace 8-10 lamps)??

I think I am on the righttrack. Thanks for all the help.

My ISF calibrator only recommends a 20 hour break in for newer plasmas before turning up the contrast. Is he right in saying this?

We are going to wait until 100 hours on my 1130, and I referred him to this thread.

I want to wait, I really do because I don't want to have burn-in issues, but I briefly turned up the contrast and it looks SOOO much better than what I have it set at now. It is going to be a long, hard road for me because I only have about 35 hours on it now.

I did read about the burn-in VCD, but I don't really like that idea either.

http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/pressroom/cont2.asp?Filter=12&cont_id=822

Not to say that Vipers argument isn't valid, but be sure to do a good deal of research, check out the feedback, etc. Of all the plasma owners on this forum, a very small minority has ever had any issues with image retention or burn-in.

Remember that all phosphor displays can suffer from image retention.

Ever see a ghost of text or image on a CRT tube that is an ATM machine? It's the same issue that can happen regardless on whether or not the unit is a plasma, CRT, or LCD.

I sleep wonderfully after gaming for hours on my plasma, and watching non 1:85 movies on my plasma...etc. As long as the viewer takes easy to follow and precautions that actually cross the CRT, RPTV, LCD and plasma technologies (note in user manuals of all four technologies - warnings of image retention and burn-in are present) you should be good to go.

Oh, update, I took pictures of the modes including a ticker (used CNN), and I"ll post those soon. :)

-JR

Well taken,

I just know what and will happen within my home. I have kids that will leave the DVD on untill the movie returns to the opening screen or leave an Xbox running. Its a chance I do not want to take. If I had a room deadicated to a home theater then I would not have a problem with a plasma, but I have to many issues that are out of my control...

Not to say that Vipers argument isn't valid, but be sure to do a good deal of research, check out the feedback, etc. Of all the plasma owners on this forum, a very small minority has ever had any issues with image retention or burn-in.

Remember that all phosphor displays can suffer from image retention.

Ever see a ghost of text or image on a CRT tube that is an ATM machine? It's the same issue that can happen regardless on whether or not the unit is a plasma, CRT, or LCD.
...
A noob question here... I thought LCD does not suffer from burn-in?

Of course LCD has lower response speed so they tend to have ghost image but that's different from burn-in. Right?

While I am at this thread, let me ask this (instead of trying to search through this giant thread)... with the latest gen of plasma (I just got the Panny 42PX500), is the break-in period procedure still necessary? 100 hours? 20 hours?

Does anybody use a Video Shift Device that moves the input signal slightly? I am talking about the device made by Extron model VS-200-SL. This device moves the video signal horizontally and vertically so slowly that it is not seen by your eyes, but allows the phospher to cool.

As you can see I have been looking at this BURN IN issue for some time. The quote above is from 03-27-04 with my concerns. I had responded the first week this thread began. Yea Yea Yea, I still have not made a move on buying a large screen HD. It's wishful thinking to think I would get any help from my family, hell my wife is just as happy listening an AM radio as to listening a $5000.00 sound system...

A noob question here... I thought LCD does not suffer from burn-in?

Of course LCD has lower response speed so they tend to have ghost image but that's different from burn-in. Right?

While I am at this thread, let me ask this (instead of trying to search through this giant thread)... with the latest gen of plasma (I just got the Panny 42PX500), is the break-in period procedure still necessary? 100 hours? 20 hours?

LCDs can suffer from "burn-in", or "non-reversible image retention". Myself and a few other forum regulars have reported this on our LCDs.

The break-in procedure is still recommended for roughly 100 hours. :)

-JR

LCDs can suffer from "burn-in", or "non-reversible image retention". Myself and a few other forum regulars have reported this on our LCDs.

The break-in procedure is still recommended for roughly 100 hours. :)

-JR
Oh wow... first time hearing about LCD burning-in... can you explain to me how is it possible from a technical perspective for a LCD display to burn in? Or kindly point me to posts that have previously explained it. Thanks.

Which is a better calibration set.....DVE or AVIA??? I have a panny 50PX50U...

I need to get one ASAP...PLEASE ADVISE...Thanks..

This site is incredibly huge, I keep posting in the wrong places.
Here's is a question I have on another thread that should have gone here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I recently purchased 3 PDP502MX 50" plasma monitors from an assets liquidation company.
I was told in advance to expect some burn because these are commercial monitors with continuous illumination of a repetitious color and were used by an airline for showing arrivals/departures.
On my darker colors you can't see anything at all, but on my brighter colors you can see the airline logo, the gate #, and some associated verbage.
My question is will they fade a little over time now that it's not the same dots being used on the same color all the time or can I adjust something in the picture menu to try and camouflage this somewhat?
On the Batman movie you never see them but on Frosty the Snowman it's painfully obvious.

If the answer is no I really can't bellyache because I was told in advance, and with what I paid for all 3 wouldn't have even made a 10% deposit on one of these if the price I saw on a website is correct. Did these monitors really sell for almost 20 thou brand new or was that a misprint?

All in all they're friggin unreal for what I gave for them.

See Ya,
Kelly

Due to room configuration limitation (depth of set), I decided on a plasma, in particular, a Panasonic 50" 500u. The plasma will be used a minimum of 10 hours per day. A stock/news scrolling ticker will be displayed on the bottom of the screen most of the time.

Question:

Will I get ticker/outline of ticker burn-in?

Due to room configuration limitation (depth of set), I decided on a plasma, in particular, a Panasonic 50" 500u. The plasma will be used a minimum of 10 hours per day. A stock/news scrolling ticker will be displayed on the bottom of the screen most of the time.

Question:

Will I get ticker/outline of ticker burn-in?
Yes, you will. Even with the advances in burn-in protection, this is just the situation that guarantees burn-in.

I just bought my first plasma a week ago (it has about 50 hours on it). Well, I warned everyone in my household about burn in and the "rules" they must follow. Well to my dismay I walk in after work an noticed the person watching had it tuned to a channel with black bars on the top and bottom. After I cooled down, I asked this person how long they had been watching the channel, the individual said 7min. Is there any possibility of damage to my set? (I'm probably just over paranoid, aren't I?). (I don't get it, is it so damn hard to follow simple instructions? Sorry I had to vent)

You will be fine. But you should "break-in" your plasma the first 100 hours. Avoid static images and black bars during this time. Current plasmas are very resistent to burn-in. They have the pixel-orbiter technology. :eek:

Wow. I have a low end Plasma a couple weeks now and have not given a second thought as to how its being used. I do know about 50 hours of Video games have been played on it and who know who was watching what. Just enjoy your TV. It's supposed to give your life pleasure...not anxiety!

I haven't been myself lately, with first silicon and all at work, I've been working 70+ hours a week. At the same time I've never owned a plasma and the burn in thread has been ingrained in my head. I just wanted to make sure my 3K investment was ok. Anyway, thanks for the replies.

My babysitter (idiot) left my Panny 42" on for over 10 hours with just the DVD logo from the player on the screen and it did not burn in...

She was about to owe me 400hours of babysitting if it did :D

BarnacleBill,

Thanks for the response related to ticker burn-in. I could have made a costly mistake.

Best Regards,

thesaurus

People simply overdo this burn in thing to the point of creating panic on this forum with some folks. Please Chill Out - do you really think they made these damn things that sensitive for the millions of customers around the world that will never read this info on this forum? Premature aging of pixels? Let the little buggers age so you get 19 years instead of 20 years use does anyone really plan on viewing these things for 20 years or do you really think the electronics will last 20+ yrs with the impact of humidity and dust? The panel may display for that long but the electronics may not, a fact rarely discussed here - ever see the dust bunnies in a 1 yr PC box or an 8 yr old CRT TV - it's unbelievable? Take that plus humidity for 20 years and truly see if the electronics will survive that long.

I'm not saying ignore the principles all together but these panels have been refined for 20+ yrs - enjoy your TV as I can assure you they've been tested in a lab environment without any such consideration for a break in period - testing is their to simulate the Joe Blow customer that may ignore reading the manual and could care less about forum speak - the Caveat's are placed at the recommendations of the lawyers and a disclaimer carries no weight in court where a hidden defect to the buyer occurs - like IR.

Sometimes the warnings on this forum border on the ABSURD! Do you really think any dealer that places them on display goes through this crap with their Demo models? They've popped these things up in airports for viewing 18 hours a day from day one in torch mode. The aging is a recommendation only and people only help foster the burn in myth by feeding into it with overkill on this. Enjoy and moderation is the rule but I'm confident these new sets would work just fine without following a rule book otherwise there are plenty of other panel choices that have no such rules.

Enjoy the panel instead of getting ulcers. :D

silvercans, I think it's ironic that you titled this thread "Burn in and ignorant people".

While it is a good idea to avoid watching stuff w/ static bars during the break in period, on my older plasma, I never paid much attention to this as I knew I would be watching a wide variety of material. Now, after close to 3 yrs of watching over a thousand hours of 2.35:1 aspect ratio DVDs w/ solid black bars on top and bottom, I still have no hint of burn-in whatsoever. And again, this is on my 3 yr old plasma which is about 2x more susceptible to burn-in than the plasmas that are currently available.

Also, EMSurfer, the pixel orbiter technology is not why current plasmas are less susceptible to burn-in. In fact, plasmas have had this pixel orbiter technology for a long time. The reason why today's plasmas are less susceptible to burn in is due to their much greater ability to retain their brightness over time. My 3 yr old plasma is rated at 30K hours to half life. The current plasmas have a half life of approximately 60K hours. Therefore, it will take 2x as long for a current plasma to reach 1/2 brightness as mine. This is why it is less susceptible to burn in.

westa6969 - I agree with your advice. However, I do feel that the overblown warnings re: burn-in are written by those who do not own a plasma TV or who are new to this technology like silvercans. People who have actually owned plasma TVs for a year or more know very well that plasma TVs are pretty hard to burn-in. I also agree completely w/ you regarding the lifespan of these TVs. If I can get a good 7 or so years of use out of my plasma TV, I'd be satisfied. In about 4 yrs, I'll be very ready to buy a brand new HDTV that would blow away my current plasma at about 1/10th the price.

I just bought my first plasma a week ago (it has about 50 hours on it). Well, I warned everyone in my household about burn in and the "rules" they must follow. Well to my dismay I walk in after work an noticed the person watching had it tuned to a channel with black bars on the top and bottom. After I cooled down, I asked this person how long they had been watching the channel, the individual said 7min. Is there any possibility of damage to my set? (I'm probably just over paranoid, aren't I?). (I don't get it, is it so damn hard to follow simple instructions? Sorry I had to vent)

There is a part of me that is convinced this post is meant to be a parody of the people who come in here knocking plasma for being sensitive to burn-in, especially with the subject "Burn in and ignorant people". After all, the person watching the movie in this case would not be ignorant at all, since he was made aware of the rules. Perhaps the ignorant label is meant for someone else?

I'm probably wrong though, in which case the subject line is terrifically ironic. Either way this was great for a laugh. :D

Are plasmas more susceptible than a direct view CRT to burn in? I have been watching CRTs all my life an I can't ever remember seeing burn in very often. With all the computer monitors I have seen, I don't remember burn in being an issue. I've seen 30 year old Pac-man arcade games that don't show signs of burn in. I've been playing video games since the mid 80s on my CRTs and have never gotten burn in.

I am starting getting the feeling that someone has to intentionally do something to a plasma TV to try to get burn in (Like taking a 500 mile road trip in your car with the oil light on.) Should someone worry about burn in more on a plasma than on a CRT?

Are plasmas more susceptible than a direct view CRT to burn in? I have been watching CRTs all my life an I can't ever remember seeing burn in very often. With all the computer monitors I have seen, I don't remember burn in being an issue. I've seen 30 year old Pac-man arcade games that don't show signs of burn in. I've been playing video games since the mid 80s on my CRTs and have never gotten burn in.

I am starting getting the feeling that someone has to intentionally do something to a plasma TV to try to get burn in (Like taking a 500 mile road trip in your car with the oil light on.) Should someone worry about burn in more on a plasma than on a CRT?

I have seen many a CRT computer monitor with the windows login logo burnt into it (due to idiot stick IT people..... but that is another story altogether).

It does happen, but I do not own a plasma so I cannot comment on those issues.

This should help reassure you:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3424/273087528Pioneer%20DTV%20White%20Paper%20-%20FINAL.pdf

You guys aren't being fair to the OP. A read of the plasma forum yields many mentions of following a rigid break-in procedure for the first 100 hours. He didn't say he beat the crap out of his kid (although "ignorant" might be a bit harsh in the title), he's just making sure it won't be a problem down the road.

Either the break-in is completely unnecessary, or there is some line as to how rigid it must be. The OP is simply asking if 7 minutes crosses that line (it doesn't).

Also, you could download a "breakin DVD" created here at AVS by Elangelo2:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=583089

This should help reassure you:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/images/portal/cit_3424/273087528Pioneer%20DTV%20White%20Paper%20-%20FINAL.pdf

Great paper. Thanks.

I just bought my first plasma a week ago (it has about 50 hours on it). Well, I warned everyone in my household about burn in and the "rules" they must follow. Well to my dismay I walk in after work an noticed the person watching had it tuned to a channel with black bars on the top and bottom. After I cooled down, I asked this person how long they had been watching the channel, the individual said 7min. Is there any possibility of damage to my set? (I'm probably just over paranoid, aren't I?). (I don't get it, is it so damn hard to follow simple instructions? Sorry I had to vent)

I have a 50" plasma and followed no rules from day one except I try to vary my programming (not hard to do), I have no burn-in issues at all.

We all 'go off' now and again over little things but I would apologize to the family and relax those rules a bit. :o

I just got a 42" philips plasma and my cable company has tried installing a cablecard 3 different times and has been unsuccessful. It gets to the point where it says "cablecard firmware upgrade in progress" on the screen and that never goes away, I just end up giving up on it and taking the card out and hooking the box back up.

So the last time this cablecard installation was attempted, I just turned off the TV and left the house for a few hours while the "firmware installation" was being attempted. There was nothing on the screen at all as the TV was off, so I thought nothing of it. When I came home I turned on the TV and sure enough the installation was still in progress so I said screw this, took out the card and hooked the box back up.

I almost lost it when I turned on the TV and that "firmware installation" box seemed to be burnt into the TV. It was very faint but I could still see it and I was so angry when I saw this. It wasn't noticeable at all while the TV was on with the cable box on, but when you turned the cable box off and the tv was still on you could see the image "burnt" in there.

The next day I examined the TV and it appeared to be gone. So my long drawn out question is in my case do you think this did any damage to my TV?

So my long drawn out question is in my case do you think this did any damage to my TV?
No.

MODs NOTE:

Please be thoughtful and mindful of other members concerns and issues.

Everybody learns something new everyday and that is what this forum is all about.

Its not a place to criticize and belittle people who only want to know something.

Thanks.

Dave

something im still not clear on is wether the causes of burn-in are accumulative - is a static image displayed for 3 hrs the same as three hours of non-continuous usage? when reading "do not have static images up for an extended period of time" it gives me the (erroneous?) impression that phosphors can "heal themselves" or something if usage is spread out. this doesnt make sense to me but i dont know much about it.

anyway, the assumption is significant in that, if true, you can completely avoid burn in with care. if false, burn in is just a matter of time if you use certain static images over the long term (like a particular game HUD).

hope i made that clear

If too much uneven wear of the phosphors is allowed to occur... eventually there has to be some difference that will become apparent on the display. Try to fill the entire display and vary your viewing habits as much as possible.

Ok...So burn is is true...LOL...I just got my plasma burned in from a circular meter being displayed on a video game, Shadow of Colossus for the PS2. I took the necessary precautions of dialing down the contrast and brightness as well as breaking in the TV for 100 or so hours. However, I think the burn-in was due to a mistake I made with the set...

About two weeks ago I posted to the forums asking about an overscan problem I had with my TV. No one responded so I called Panasonic to ask about it, the technician walked me through to reset the options to factory settings and the problem was still not fixed. We finally came to the conclusion that it was the HDTV converter box I was using with my Cable company and not the TV.

Now when we reset the TV it put back the image settings on "Torch" mode...I had to adjust the screen back to normal mode after the call. Last week I was on vacation and began playing the game on my plasma...I did not realize it at the time but the component input setting was on torch mode as well...I initially noticed that the screen was noticeably bright, but didn't think anything of it...After my gaming session I checked to see if there was any "burn-in" and surely enough there was. There were two cases of it, a big circle (where the life meter was) and a big square (which showed the item the character was holding at the time). I was like WTF! I quickly checked the settings and noticed that when I switched to one of the component inputs the TV was set back to "Torch" mode...After some cursing I realized it was partially my fault because of the ignorance...Oh wellz...It's been about a day now and the Circle has dissapeared, but the square still remains.

The good thing at least is that I don't notice the "burn-in" at all that much when watching normal TV or viewing movies, it only shows up (faintly at best) when watching something with a bright uniform background. When I go to the TV Guide setup for the TV and scroll down to where the burn-in has occurred you can clearly see the square outline at the bottom of the screen with the light blue TV guide background that is used for the menus.

So I'm a little peeved, but not distraught. I still love my plasma and don't think my "burn-in" would have been an issue had I remembered to dial down the settings for the component inputs after I had reset my TV. I was planning on buying an LCD for gaming sometime early next year, I guess I better speed that purchase up...LOL...Fortunately, I have a well paying job that allows me to be not that concerned about ruining a $3k TV, but it's still a little disconcerting...

BTW...I'm using a Panasonic 42px500u, it's an 8th Gen plasma...I'm still going to game on my plasma on the normal toned down brightness settings now and I'll comment on how those tests come along...

...Oh wellz...It's been about a day now and the Circle has dissapeared, but the square still remains.
Given some more time the square will vanish too.

Ok...So burn is is true...LOL...I just got my plasma burned in from a circular meter being displayed on a video game,
Don't worry. That is not burn-in, but image retention, which is temporary. It's okay to play video games, but don't play the same game all the time or you will eventually get burn-in, which does not go away.

My son played a video game for about 90 minutes the other day on my Panasonic with about 150 hours on it. It had slight image retention on the sides, but they went away after a few minutes of normal TV. I told him not to worry about it, but to just keep video game playing to about two hours or less at any one time. This is being a little over conservative, but it leaves room for "Oops, I forgot."

With today's plasmas you can get burn-in, but you have to seriously abuse the set to it. "Normal" use should be no problem. This is why the people in this thread saying, "Yes, you can get burn-in" and those saying, "Dpn't worry about it" are both right.

Given some more time the square will vanish too.

I hope it will...But I highly doubt it...I tried the "snow" setting for the passed twelve hours while at work and I definitely think it reduced the amount of burn-in, though you can still see it...I took some pics...

http://x4b.xanga.com/f9b86ae34633319115839/w13746821.jpg

I actually don't mind that much, since like I said before, my compensation will allow me to quickly replace the TV if something really starts to irritate me about it...This was actually sort of an experiment on my part to see if the myths proved true...Albeit an expensive one...LOL...

The good part is that the image burn in is NOT noticeable at all during normal TV viewing and even additional video gaming...

And as I said before I don't think that normal video gaming will hurt the screen or cause burn-in as long as the proper pre-cautions are taken (ie. 100 hours of break-in and no torch mode) It was an unfortunate sequence of events that led me down that path when I reset my TV to default factory settings...Little did I know that the setting I was using for the component input was full "torch" vivid mode...LOL...In fact during gameplay I began to realize "Damn this is bright..." When my character stared to look at the sky and sun in the game I felt like my eyes were about to burn out...A total of six hours in this mode...Hehe...

As a caveat: I am not a plasma basher...In fact I'm the opposite...I've already got five of my friends to buy plasmas, for HDTV the PQ simply can't be beat...And this little burn-in will not deter me...I'm just gonna get me an LCD specifically for gaming...Cuz I realize I do in fact game a lot, in spurts...I can go months without playing games, but when I get the spark I can play close to 10 hours at a time...

Don't worry. That is not burn-in, but image retention, which is temporary. It's okay to play video games, but don't play the same game all the time or you will eventually get burn-in, which does not go away.

My son played a video game for about 90 minutes the other day on my Panasonic with about 150 hours on it. It had slight image retention on the sides, but they went away after a few minutes of normal TV. I told him not to worry about it, but to just keep video game playing to about two hours or less at any one time. This is being a little over conservative, but it leaves room for "Oops, I forgot."

With today's plasmas you can get burn-in, but you have to seriously abuse the set to it. "Normal" use should be no problem. This is why the people in this thread saying, "Yes, you can get burn-in" and those saying, "Dpn't worry about it" are both right.


See my post above...I definitely think it is some sort of long term image retention because it has not gone away...Although it has lessoned a bit...The circle that was there has totally dissapeared...But this square one is a little more problematic...It's a little weird because the game I was playing the circle was the one I was actually worried about because it was a bright white and was always on screen...The square was actually transparent and would dissapear after a few moments of game play...

We'll see how it continues to go...And if the "image retention" dissapears...

(Forewarning: I'm a little freaked out, so if this comes across as hysterical, I apologize.)

I just picked up my first HD set yesterday, the Vizio P50HDM at Costco and I fell in love with it. The image is great, it makes my living room seem twice as big, and it's nice and quiet. I've been careful so far, making sure not to leave any images on and filling the entire screen with video (zooming in DVDs that don't fill the complete screen and avoiding 4:3 content entirely.) I've got maybe 10 hours of use out of the set.

I was watching Harry Potter tonight and I noticed the score from my 3 hour game of Kameo last night is still on top of the screen. I'm running the image cleanser now and it doesn't seem to be getting any better after 20 minutes. Am I already screwed? Should I take this back to Costco tomorrow and just pick up a DLP? If I can't even use my 360 for a few hours then a plasma certainly isn't the TV for me. I love the thing, but I need something that will give as much as it takes.

Any advice? Even a calming voice right now would do wonders for my state of mind.

I was watching Harry Potter tonight and I noticed the score from my 3 hour game of Kameo last night is still on top of the screen. I'm running the image cleanser now and it doesn't seem to be getting any better after 20 minutes. Am I already screwed? Should I take this back to Costco tomorrow and just pick up a DLP? If I can't even use my 360 for a few hours then a plasma certainly isn't the TV for me. I love the thing, but I need something that will give as much as it takes.

Any advice? Even a calming voice right now would do wonders for my state of mind.

Well I'm in the same pickle as you...I actually followed proper 100 hour break-in rules, sounds like you started gaming immediately, during that 100-200 time window when "burn-in" is supposed to be most susceptible...

As you can see from my previous post, I got burn in with a game too...Although people here claim it is image retention...I originally had two burn ins with my one game, the first was a circular outline the other is the square outline pictured in my previous post.

The mistake I made was leaving the settings on torch mode accidentally when I had reset the TV to factory settings...Did you properly turn down the contrast and birghtness before using your TV? As for me, I'm going to see what happens over the next two weeks to see if this image burn in dissapears...It has already seemed to fade away over the last two days, although it could just be my mind playing tricks on me...I did the whole "snow screen" wash and I think it helped a little...We will see how it goes from here...

I was just wondering if these 8th gen panels have ANY burn-in prevention features? Things like pixel orbiting, contrast reduction on static image, white bar cleaning of stuck pixel, etc...

I do not see anything like that in the menus... is it in the service menu? Also, what is CATS in PX500 (no available on other sets)?

No.

It has a sleep timer if that helps. Just don't leave static images on the screen for extended periods of time. Burn in has been covered many times. It's basically a non issue if you use common sense.

It's my understanding that the only Panny's to have burn-in reductions features are the commercial models...

dont they have it even in the service menu?

if not, it looks like it's only on commercial ones... while Hitachis and Samsungs have all those features built-in to their consumer lines!

dont they have it even in the service menu?

Nope.



.
Check Out the all-new BruZZi's Panasonic Plasma FAQ (http://www.glaucobruzzi.com/plasma-faq/index.php?)
The FAQ plus links to Plasma Stands, Wallmounts, Murals, Lifts, Speakers, Frames, Bezels & More.
Also links to Audio/Video Faqs, Comparisons, News, Reviews, Shootouts, Tutorials, Tweaks & Many More.

How can you avoid burn in if you use the plasma display for watching TV, when every TV channel has their logo either on the bottom or top right side corners??? Is there any way to eliminate the logos??
cheers

How can you avoid burn in if you use the plasma display for watching TV, when every TV channel has their logo either on the bottom or top right side corners??? Is there any way to eliminate the logos??
cheers

Excellent question!!!

That is my question exactly - - - If I watch the local news for an hour and that Channel 8 KGW logo is constantly being displayed for an hour should that be a concern?? If it is a concern then what should I do about it? Does anybody have a timeframe for how long a "static image" (logo, jpeg photo i am showing on my tv, etc) can safely stay on the screen?

Thanks all who reply to my post. :)

Nigel

I was just wondering if these 8th gen panels have ANY burn-in prevention features? Things like pixel orbiting, contrast reduction on static image, white bar cleaning of stuck pixel, etc...

I do not see anything like that in the menus... is it in the service menu? Also, what is CATS in PX500 (no available on other sets)?

I have an 8th gen panel and I don't see anything in the Panasonic settings...I wonder if other manufactuers include other things...I know that Pioneer has Pxel Orbiting stuff? And Hitachi may have a wipe mode? Not sure... I have no idea what CATS is...

How can you avoid burn in if you use the plasma display for watching TV, when every TV channel has their logo either on the bottom or top right side corners??? Is there any way to eliminate the logos??
cheers

That's the ultimate question...People say turn down your contrast/picture setting as well as birghtness...50% is the rule...But 50% of what...My TV goes from -30 to 30 so technically 50% is 0. Others say it is 50% of 0 to 30 which means 15. For me 0 is way too dim...So I have it on at 10.

I just noticed that here in NYC the channel 7 news cast has this bright 7 logo displayed in the lower right hand corner...I noticed it is still faintly there while I was checking out my "burn-in" issue on my previous post. One thing I must say is that I hardly see the image retention at all...The only time I can see it now is when I go into the TV guide setting and highlight the lower channels to where my burn in has occurred...And even then I have to look closely to find it. It never really shows up in broadcasts or watching movies...I plan on getting another TV sometime early next year and will keep experimenting with this one to see how bad the burn-in issue is and to what degree it goes away or never happens again...

By the way...I noticed that on on the study done about plasma myths they curiosly used the words:

"However, after running a movie loop on each plasma display for 24 hours, ISF testers could notperceive the previously retained images while watching video on the plasmas afterthe 24 hour "fix"."

So technically in my case, unless I'm viewing the burn-in directly with a constant static image such as the light background used in the TV Guide setup you never really see it...I still don't see it while playing movies, video games or watching TV. Nice selection of words on their part...I wonder if they had used a constant light colored background if they were still able to see the burn-in that occured...I think they would...

If have the "ESPN" logo on the bottom right of my screen (Maxent MX-50X3) that appeared last night after sportscenter. I'm hoping that after a few hours of movie viewing it'll go away.

I can only see it when I switch to a blue background on component 2 and the xbox 360 is turned off. For now, it's not visible during normal viewing but for piece of mind, I'd like to see it go away, period.

Been enjoying my 37" panny 8u for a few weeks now, but am wondering if anyone has an opinion on any negative screen issues while listening to DMX music through the tv.

Since I'm not using any receiver in my setup, I have to have the tv on to get my audio output through my speakers. The screen is black 95% of the time with occasional video flashes of what the artist and song title is during the song and of course when the song changes.

Anyone have any thoughts on whether I should have any kind of screen concerns with this issue?

listening to DMX music will definetely burn your screen. If you want to avoid burn in, I would suggest some Pink Floyd.

listening to DMX music will definetely burn your screen. If you want to avoid burn in, I would suggest some Pink Floyd.
That's too funny man!! :D

But seriously steve shisler, I would really suggest getting a "proper" sound system (even an "everything in a box") to enjoy music. I have the Panny PX500 and the speakers on that are pretty darn good but I would rather use my Sony "everything in a box" (yup, I know it's "garbage" to real audio ethusiests) for music. In addition, I am prety sure the 95% of the time black screen is not good.

I've had my Pioneer PDP-5060 50" plasma for 1 day. Already a black vertical line that's part of the bottom-of-screen show title box on my Comcast digital cable Scientific Atlanta 8300HD has apparently burnt into the screen - there's a slight light bar where the black bar appears at every channel change.

I've got brightness down -6 to -10. Does everyone with this screen and Comcast digital cable have this burn? It seems amazing that this would appear so fast - this never "stays" on the screen - just appears at each channel change. Have not played "musical channels" too much either.

Any thoughts? Thanks.



blakespot

(I made the last post about the burnt in line on my Pioneer.) It was gone the next day. I suppost it's "image retention" rather than burn.


blakespot

can someone help me i have just got my xbox 360 and i got a pioneer 43inc plasma HDTV to play it on i have only started playing games for 2 days on it and i am getting burning on the screen already how do i stop it from burning or get rid of the burn marks i keeps seeing pictures from need for speed most wanted please can someone help :)

Read this http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=608677

can someone help me i have just got my xbox 360 and i got a pioneer 43inc plasma HDTV to play it on i have only started playing games for 2 days on it and i am getting burning on the screen already how do i stop it from burning or get rid of the burn marks i keeps seeing pictures from need for speed most wanted please can someone help :)

What are you doing to get an image already burning into the display... Falling asleep on pause? :confused:

Here's a case where the much talked about "Break-In" period might have prevented this.

If this guy just recently bought the plasma and immediatley started playing games on it for many hours this could cause quick burn in.

Cronic05...Have you spent "normal viewing" time with the tv? Material that fills the screen? Many suggest 100 hours before playing games on a plasma.
I'd suggest to stop playing the games on it for just a couple of weeks.

Normal tv viewing should correct this image retention (hoping it's retention and not burn) with a little time.

I have a Pioneer and play xbox/x360 every single day. Zero burn in.
But I did "break it in" for about 75 hours...hey, I had to start playing Halo 2 so I didn't make it to the 100 hour mark.

Take a break from the games. You ahve many years to go, a couple weeks will mean nothing.

later

turn on 'regular TV' for a few weeks and everything will be fine, just gradually increase your game time over a period of a few months but start w/ 20% games/ 80% TV.

Or it could just be image retention, which will disappear soon, watching regular programs. If it's really a burn-in, which is unlikely, it will not go away.

Turn the contrast way down and keep it down for games. No more than a third of the way from the minimum.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

Yesterday I finally saw the first burn-in on a plasma. It was on a 63" Fujitsu. It was the Directv menu that was burned in. We just ran the demo and it was fine aftwards.

if you have a "all white" screen saver in the options (of the plasma), that is another quick way to address image retention. Set the display to white for a few minutes every now and then. In any do, as others have suggested, BREAK-IN your display before playing games on it.
If you really burned it, your are in troubles, no fixing that. I would be surprised however if that were truly the case.

the burning is not really bad you can only just see a out line of dials from the games imprinted on the screen, and i had only played the games for about 3 - 4 hours not 12 hours straight i turn my TV off eveynight, but tks for the info i might try turning the contrast down a bit. so at the mo i am going to play my 360 on my 32 inc LCD TV just to wait for the burning to go away.

I Have a new Sony 42" Plasma. I've got it connected to a Zenith HT-in-a-box receiver.

After playing a movie when the movie stops, its a blue screen with a big white "Z" in the middle of the screen.

Since moving into our new house, we're still waiting to get out Satelite dish connected, so we've been watching a lot of movies the past 2 weeks...

I noticed the other day that we have a pinkish tint "Z" in the middle of the screen now. Its not "that" noticeable, but it is there.

Is there anyway to get rid of it? Will it gradually go away as the plasma is used more?

I think the problem was that my wife would play a movie for our two year old and when the movie was over, she'd leave the screen on while she put him to bed or went on to do some housework...

We talked about it, and the screen wasnt on standby mode for more than an hour at any given time... we've only got perhaps 100 hours of total use on the screen thus far.

Suggestions? Comments?

>>> we've only got perhaps 100 hours of total use on the screen thus far.

It's probably just Image Retention. It seems that when a plasma is new it tends to retain static images for a while but it's not burn-in. I watch an hour or two of local FOX news every weekday morning and my Panny retained this logo during the first month but it eventually faded away. Once the plasma was broken in it no longer retains this logo. Any other image that's retained is only temporary and gets wiped away the next time i watch it.

The wife needs to get with the program here . . . . ;)

Turn the contrast way down and keep it down for games. No more than a third of the way from the minimum.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

Turn down the CONTRAST or the BRIGHTNESS? I'd heard people talking of lowering the BRIGHTNESS. Thanks.


blakespot

One little question which I am not sure if it has been answered in here. Burn-in is a non-issue, but if someone that have to run the white screen wash out demo a few times, I wonder how much that would affect the life of their plasma.

Hi all... i went on the consumer reports site and asked the CR experts about break in and burn in. I am just wondering how all of you "break in" your plasmas?? Do you play constant DVD's?? just watch tv?? or something more elaborate?? Below is the conversation I had with consumer reports... I left out the name of the CR expert. It sounds like they suggest just letting the plasma display a solid grey screen - like something that i guess you can find on the AVIA calibration CD.

What do you think??? Would love some comments...


Here is the conversation - -


From: CR_Moderator_XXXXXXXXX Dec-4 9:50 am
To: Nigel_Wade (7 of 10)

2506.7 in reply to 2506.5

Nigel

Some more "burn in " information from the CR experts:

We've noticed that some models, when fresh out of the box, are prone to "image sticking" or short-term burn-in. It goes away after the steady pattern we're feeding it is replaced with the next image - one that more evenly drives the screen.

It happens because phosphors age quickest when they're fresh - the manufacturer probably optimized for initial brightness, for marketing reasons, to grab the shopper/consumer. Optimizing them instead for steady output would be a completely different design goal. Maybe some manufacturers already watch for this, and pre-age the phosphors, we are not sure.

If you really want to pre-age a plasma, be very careful. Use an even, full-screen medium-dark gray field, steady pattern, no motion, no detail. You can probably find it on the Video Essentials or Avia DVD.

Options Reply




From: Nigel_Wade Dec-5 1:03 am
To: CR_Moderator_XXXXXXXXX(8 of 10)

2506.8 in reply to 2506.7

Jerry - thanks for the extra effort. I really apprecitate you looking further into this. Could you possibly be more specific in the following statement that you made....

"If you really want to pre-age a plasma, be very careful. Use an even, full-screen medium-dark gray field, steady pattern, no motion, no detail. You can probably find it on the Video Essentials or Avia DVD".

All of the people (in AVS Forum) that have said that they do a break in for there plasma's say that they just play a DVD movie on a loop. I am not clear on what you recommend. When you say no motion and no detail what do you mean? Can you possible attach a picture of what the screen would look like? I would think you would definately want motion so there would not be a still image on the screen.

Thanks Jerry


Options Reply Delete Edit




From: CR_Moderator_XXXXXXXXXXDec-5 9:02 am
To: Nigel_Wade (9 of 10)

2506.9 in reply to 2506.8

Nigel

Our expert is referring to an even gray picture field. This has no other picture content, that is: no bars, crosshatch, dots etc. no motion, and no detail. It just lights up the screen evenly. You would play it from the calibration DVD

I bought a 42" Panasonic HD plasma (PX50U) on 9/12 and have used it 40-50 hours per week.

I watch a variety of material and play some games and I figured that an 8th gen panel like this should be pretty resistant to burn in. Well, I guess I was wrong.

I turned my set on today and it was on a source with no signal (since the last thing I was doing was gaming). To my horror, I noticed 3-4 DISTINCT elements burnt in to the screen.

One is the CBS logo from CBS HD, the second is the TV menu, the third is the TV source indicator, and the fourth appears to be some text in the upper-right which I can't discern.

This is really troublesome since I rarely switch sources and the tv menu and source indicator don't stay on the screen by maybe 20 seconds after the source has been selected. To complicate matters, I switch channels pretty often and regularly view different material stored on my SD TiVO.

So, with such little use, HOW ON EARTH could an 11 week old set already have this sort of burn in? Is this normal or am I a special exception here?

I have the extended warranty from Best Buy, but I'm worried that they're going to try to pull the "oh, that's normal" card on me. This does not bode well for a tv that's not even three months old.

I'm super pissed right now and am in need of help. Mayday! Please advise!

The first thing I recommend you do is turn your brightness & contrast settings down. The next thing you should do is call Panasonic and see what they have to say. For the time being, stop playing games on your PDP and make sure anything you watch fills the entire screen. Try not to watch CBS for a while and hopefully over time the images being retained will fade away.

Just put on Discovery HD and walk away....
Give it a couple of hours... it'll be fine...

Oh and Stop watching CBS or any of the other CRAPPY News affiliates, they are all corrupt...

Don't worry so much...

check your settings.... if you don't have these...
try them..

Picture: 9
Brightness: -3
Sharpness: 0
Color Temp: Normal
Color Mngmt: off
Black Extension: 1
W/B High R: -8
W/B High B: -18
W/B Low R: 5
W/B Low B: 10
Gamma: 2.2
AGC: Off

Before you pull the old "Oh, Best Buy is trying to screw me" card, remember that clearly stated in your service plan brochure is that phosphor burn is not covered under the Service Plan, and is considered abuse.

Or did you not read it before you bought it?

I can't remember for sure if it does have one, but if so, use the screen wipe function of the Panasonic. I did this on a Samsung Plasma, which had evidence of the menu being retained on the phosphors. Within thirty seconds, the menu traces were gone. They were very faint, like you mentioned your plasma's retained images were. I know all the reasoning as to why a white screen wipe won't help burn-in, but in this case, it fixed the problem.

It is pretty shocking, though, that some of those images have burnt in so quickly. Glad you caught it early...should be able to fix it at this point.

If it were me...and the warranty didn't cover it...I'd give the thing a snow job...

Turn all the stettings up on full blast (ouch, I know) then set it on a static channel, and let it set this way for a few hours.

If that "fixes" it...reset your levels properly. Use one of those AVIA discs, or a VE one.

It's worth a try.....

Oh.. one more thing... I have not "torched" my plasma. It's either run on the standard factory settings or on cinema mode which is calibrated using Digital Video Essentials.

I admit that the brightness and contrast are slightly higher using Cinema mode, but not by much.

It's scary that the tv menu is burnt in since it's not on the screen but for a few minutes per day. The CBS logo is also pretty transparent and with the variety of material that's beneath it, I can't believe that it's burnt in to my screen.

Now I'm scared to play games on the thing... which sucks because this is a friggin $2500 television.

It's like having a car that you can't drive because either sun or rain will make your paint job fade. It's a load of crap for a tv that's not even three months old. Oh, if you can't tell, I'm still angry. ;)

If it were me...and the warranty didn't cover it...I'd give the thing a snow job...

Turn all the stettings up on full blast (ouch, I know) then set it on a static channel, and let it set this way for a few hours.

If that "fixes" it...reset your levels properly. Use one of those AVIA discs, or a VE one.

It's worth a try.....

That hurts! What about several JPEGS on a CD-R....solid white....solid red....solid blue...solid black? If the set can wipe itself then by all means try that. As others have said....don't panic yet as you've caught it early. Keep us posted as this is the first case I've encountered of this forum.

Wow, I just bought one of these Panny's last week at CC. Mine is still in the box until I can get it mounted on the wall. I hope to do that this weekend. This is a big concern because almost all TV channels/networks seem to display their logo in one of the corners. It annoys the hell out of me. Mine is for TV only, we have a dedicated FP HT for movies and this will only have TV shows.

"I admit that the brightness and contrast are slightly higher using Cinema mode,
but not by much."

Sharpness is a killer....what's that set at? -10 or lower would be good.

With the level of gaming and amount of use (40-50hrs a week is extreme use), you should have gone with a LCD. You should go back to BestBuy and ask to talk to the manager, tell your story and seek a trade towards a large LCD (Sharp, Sony, JVC...).

"I admit that the brightness and contrast are slightly higher using Cinema mode,
but not by much."

Sharpness is a killer....what's that set at? -10 or lower would be good.

It's at 0.

I played with the sharpness when I first got it and honestly couldn't see a difference regardless of what I set it to.

With the level of gaming and amount of use (40-50hrs a week is extreme use), you should have gone with a LCD. You should go back to BestBuy and ask to talk to the manager, tell your story and seek a trade towards a large LCD (Sharp, Sony, JVC...).

At 3 months out, I doubt they'd take it back since they'd be losing money, though it never hurts to ask.

I'm too worried about the gaming since it's all Xbox360 and most games have options to turn off status displays.

That hurts! What about several JPEGS on a CD-R....solid white....solid red....solid blue...solid black? If the set can wipe itself then by all means try that. As others have said....don't panic yet as you've caught it early. Keep us posted as this is the first case I've encountered of this forum.


I can whip up a dvd that displays these images in a constant loop. How long should I display each image?

Oh.. one more thing... I have not "torched" my plasma. It's either run on the standard factory settings or on cinema mode which is calibrated using Digital Video Essentials.

Standard factory settings or calibrating using test disks does not guarantee you don't end up in torch mode. You must consciously turn down the contrast signficantly and complete the rest of the calibrations around this constraint.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

I bought a 42" Panasonic HD plasma (PX50U) on 9/12 and have used it 40-50 hours per week.

I watch a variety of material and play some games and I figured that an 8th gen panel like this should be pretty resistant to burn in. Well, I guess I was wrong.

I turned my set on today and it was on a source with no signal (since the last thing I was doing was gaming). To my horror, I noticed 3-4 DISTINCT elements burnt in to the screen.

One is the CBS logo from CBS HD, the second is the TV menu, the third is the TV source indicator, and the fourth appears to be some text in the upper-right which I can't discern.

This is really troublesome since I rarely switch sources and the tv menu and source indicator don't stay on the screen by maybe 20 seconds after the source has been selected. To complicate matters, I switch channels pretty often and regularly view different material stored on my SD TiVO.

So, with such little use, HOW ON EARTH could an 11 week old set already have this sort of burn in? Is this normal or am I a special exception here?

I have the extended warranty from Best Buy, but I'm worried that they're going to try to pull the "oh, that's normal" card on me. This does not bode well for a tv that's not even three months old.

I'm super pissed right now and am in need of help. Mayday! Please advise!


....and here I was today in Costco looking at a beautiful Pioneer plasma saying to myself, "you know I think I'm finally getting over this whole burn-in stuff." ....and now here you come posting stuff like this.....you're killing me.

Oh.. one more thing... I have not "torched" my plasma. It's either run on the standard factory settings or on cinema mode which is calibrated using Digital Video Essentials.

I admit that the brightness and contrast are slightly higher using Cinema mode, but not by much.

It's scary that the tv menu is burnt in since it's not on the screen but for a few minutes per day. The CBS logo is also pretty transparent and with the variety of material that's beneath it, I can't believe that it's burnt in to my screen.



I'm very sorry to hear of your troubles and I hope the burn-in isn't "real" burn in (hopefully some sort of image latency, or something that won't be permanent).

But the idea that your panel would have burned in like that, in such a short time, is very strange given the mass of experience people have on the board with Panasonic plasmas over the years. I mean, I've been using the same menu on my Panasonic 42" plasma for almost four years now - my kids are constant channel surfers so it's on a lot. After 4 years there isn't even a hint of burn in, either from the TV menu, TV guide menu, TV logos, letter-boxed movies or anything. Plus, there are plenty of gamers who have reported no problems either.

I don't mean to make you feel bad in mentioning that. It's just that reports of burn-in are so rare, that it just seems so unlikely you'd have a permanent problem after 11 weeks, given your description of how you use the display. So, hopefully, it won't be permanent. Please take some of the advice given in this thread, and keep us informed how it goes. Best of luck.

I agree with Rich. If it's not visible during normal viewing, try to put it out of your mind, be sensible, and (try to) enjoy it. I'd be willing to bet that over time the issue will disappear.

larry

With the level of gaming and amount of use (40-50hrs a week is extreme use), you should have gone with a LCD. You should go back to BestBuy and ask to talk to the manager, tell your story and seek a trade towards a large LCD (Sharp, Sony, JVC...).

He didn't say he played games 40-50 hrs per week, he said he uses the TV 40-50 hrs per week.
I personally think there's something else going on here.

Agreed.

It's not important but.... Please read my sentence again and see if you still think it says gaming for 40-50 hours.

BigMike... you need to have more faith. If you lack confidence in a product that you bought from a retailer because of product failure (whether the failure is real or perceived), you have a very good chance of having the dealer give you a replacement or a trade. You need to be certain what solution you want and then be persistent.

Look on page four of this doc:

http://www.fcw.com/vendorsolutions/panasonicplasma.pdf

Hope this helps.

Really weird. I think that something is wrong with your plasma. There's no way that there should be burn-in from TV guide that is left on for a 20 seconds.

I've paused things on my 50px50 for long periods, use the TV guide a LOT, don't really pay much attention to burnin in terms of logos and my picture setting is pretty high (13). No hint of burnin after 5 months.

I've had the Panny 42px5ou since September, have DTV, watch a lot of sports (especially football), and play about 10-15 hours a week of XBox on it -- and haven't seen any burn in. My contrast settings run 0, +3, and +5 for Cinema/Standard/Vivid, and I use the Vivid for gaming.

In fact, I only recently saw any image retention at all. I bought College Hoops 2k6, which doesn't quite stretch all the way to the left and right edges of the screen. After about 90 minutes of gaming, I did notice a slight amount of ghosting, with those edges being a bit lighter than where the image had been. Switched on regular TV for a couple minutes and it was gone.

Obviously, your mileage may vary depending on what you're watching, but I haven't seen anything in 3+ months and probably 300 hours of use to make me think I should be worried about burn in. I know it only takes one post to freak everyone out, and while I have a lot of sympathy for Al's plight, I think it's probably the exception and not the rule.

It's not important but.... Please read my sentence again and see if you still think it says gaming for 40-50 hours.

BigMike... you need to have more faith. If you lack confidence in a product that you bought from a retailer because of product failure (whether the failure is real or perceived), you have a very good chance of having the dealer give you a replacement or a trade. You need to be certain what solution you want and then be persistent.

Here is your sentence:
"With the level of gaming and amount of use (40-50hrs a week is extreme use), you should have gone with a LCD. You should go back to BestBuy and ask to talk to the manager, tell your story and seek a trade towards a large LCD (Sharp, Sony, JVC...)".

You said 40-50 hrs per week is extreme use, are you implying watching TV 40-50 hrs is extreme? You told him to get an LCD, because you meant gaming. I was right, you were wrong.....admit it....lol.

You guys got me all paranoid.......i turned on mine with the dvr off and whew! no images!
I did see once a few images when say changing a channel and the channel is blank for a few seconds.
Also these cable boxes are not really "off" when it's turned off, sometimes i'll see side bars and logo's you need to try unplugging it for awhile and checking your plaz with everything powered off but the panel itself.

I agree with Rich and some of the others. Very unusual-something strange here.

Let me ask, have you gone through the Burn in Thread at the top. My guess is that this is not permanent and some of the solutions above might work, although I wouldn't do anything drastic. I would also seek some further advice and contact the manufacturer.

There were a lot of posts recently concerning burn in, in which many of the game players were saying they had no burn in problems while some of the more seasoned members were saying basically, what does it hurt to be a little cautious and break the set in properly just to be sure.

I'll bet you get your problem solved--good luck.

I would like to just add that I bought my first Plasma A KDE-50xs955 Sony. The very first day I watched it after turning it off and then later back on I saw a BOSE speaker company logo on the screen during an all white/grey screen maybe a video input with nothing on it. I freaked out totally thinking the TV was a demo from CC where I bought it. However it went away on it's own and I noticed several times different things images that were "retained" They all would go away after normal use. I think it is just a part of the "seasoning" of the display . I was so worried after the horror stories and misinformation out on plasma screen burn. I ended up changing from the Sony to a Panasonic but on both I did set the contrast and brightness down for a burn in period.

I finally got my Panasonic 42" ED set up a couple days ago after a week of having to wait for delivery. So I've hooked up to standard DirecTV, turned all my picture settings down and set the aspect ratio to Just for the break-in period. So is it just me, or does just about every channel now have their station logo in one of the corners of the screen? Do these semi-transparent images fall into the 'fixed images' category that we're supposed to avoid during break-in? Or are the commercial breaks enough to avoid any burn-in?

Hi guys, I'm a TOTAL noob with Plasmas but I still bought the 1130 HD Pioneer 50" Elite model. I was very upset because a lot of things didn't go as well as planned with the whole purchasing experience with BB, because they didn't have an installer (rescheduled) available the day the stuff was suppose to be delivered and someone was suppose to come 2 weeks after that. So I decided to mount and connect the TV myself which went pretty well.

I turned everything on and the picture was beautiful. I got this TV 3 days ago.

My dad likes to watch USA channel when he's here and this is where my troubles begin.

After basically one afternoon of watching that channel, in the evening the same day, I noticed that USA logo was burned in! I was so upset. How is that I get a top of the line Plasma (6th gen at that) and after a few hours of watching one channel I got a burn in. Best Buy people told me that burn-in would be possible only if I really left the screen on paused for a few days on one image.

I admit, I didn't get into calibration, break-in thing when I got it. I didn't really think about it because the image was incredible the moment I turned the TV on and every single TV that I had so far worked the same way out of the box.

Now, USA channel is burned in, though it's not really noticable when you watch regular TV or DVD. It's faint impression that is somewhat visible only in white scenes.

It's the 4th day now and I'm really, not upset, but very dissapointed and sad that a set with this type of image quality is now shattered with the USA logo that I see on ocassion. People usually don't even notice it, but I do and is a bit frustrating.

Could this be temporary thing that will fade away or I'm pretty much screwed with what I have. I've read a lot of about the static channel and leaving it overnight (couple of hours), but in some places I read that it shortens the lifespan of the display.

I'm afraid that BB or Pioneer won't do anything about this because on Plasma this burn-in issue is non-warranted. But I just can't get over the fact that this TV has been here for 4 days and it has this nasty thing burned in now.

On the other hand, I bought Panasonic EDTV 42" Plasma for my loft area, the same day Pioneer got hooked on, and this TV has been on for 3 days non-stop while being mostly on USA channel as well and no issues like I have on Pioneer. How about that. :(

Would anyone be kind enough to help me with what I need to do to continue using my Pioneer in the living room. I'm so afraid now that I don't even watch channels with any type of logos on screen, not to mention that I completely stopped switching to USA channel, not even for a sec.

Thank you!

...Best Buy people told me that burn-in would be possible only if I really left the screen on paused for a few days on one image.


if that's what they told you, take it back & exchange it for another set...
i'm sorry about the problems you have been having. regards.

Would anyone be kind enough to help me with what I need to do to continue using my Pioneer in the living room. I'm so afraid now that I don't even watch channels with any type of logos on screen, not to mention that I completely stopped switching to USA channel, not even for a sec.

Thank you!

I have a px500 so a different model than yours but still a Panny Plasma. I originally gamed on my TV only to find that sburn-in occurred after only a few hours of use...The problem was that I had it set to torch mode and did not realize it...Search my previous thread on this...

It's been about 2 weeks now and the burn in I had is definitely, slowly but surely going away...In fact right now I hardly even notice it even when I'm looking for it...So the bottom line is tone down the settings a bit and over time it should go away...At the rate that my burn in is dissapearing it should take a month more to completely dissapear...This is my hope anyway...We will see... From what I understand the TV is a lot less susecptible after 1000 hours or so of viewing...That's not a misprint, I started gaming at the 160 mark...But I hear 1000 is actually the magical number...When I get my Xbox 360 sometime early next year I should be at that mark and will game on it again to see if I get anymore image retention...

WOW :eek: I just returned a Sharp 32D6U to Video Only and picked up a 37PX50U. I am new to plasma and not sure I like the plasma compared to the LCD for watching Comcast Analogue channels. The otherthing is that I am able to pickup the digital and HD channels on cabel. I am on basic. However, I cannot change the 4X3 aspect ration when viewing these channels on digital or HD. That means I have black sidebars. Cannot change these. They are already set to white but still are black on digital or HD if being broadcast in that format. Now I am really worried about the burn in. Just like all the movie channels having their logo in the lower right hand corner, along with the news channels. I'm thinging about taking it back and getting the Sony 32XBr LCD. I think on some of the channels the Sharp was better than the Panny. No to knock plasma or the Panny HD is beautiful, but most of our viewing is the Analogue channels. I know the Sony is very good. Open for suggestions.
:(
Thanks,
RP

Dont worry too much about burn-in. During the first 100 hours take the precautions of watching tv in the full screen mode. After the 100 hours break-iny ou can watch anything you want including stations with those black bars. I have never had an issue. The plasma picture from the Panny will wipe the pants off anything else.

WOW :eek: I just returned a Sharp 32D6U to Video Only and picked up a 37PX50U. I am new to plasma and not sure I like the plasma compared to the LCD for watching Comcast Analogue channels. The otherthing is that I am able to pickup the digital and HD channels on cabel. I am on basic. However, I cannot change the 4X3 aspect ration when viewing these channels on digital or HD. ...
??? If the input signal is 480i or 480p, you should be able to change the Aspect mode on the Panny.

WOW :eek: I just returned a Sharp 32D6U to Video Only and picked up a 37PX50U. I am new to plasma and not sure I like the plasma compared to the LCD for watching Comcast Analogue channels. The otherthing is that I am able to pickup the digital and HD channels on cabel. I am on basic. However, I cannot change the 4X3 aspect ration when viewing these channels on digital or HD. That means I have black sidebars. Cannot change these. They are already set to white but still are black on digital or HD if being broadcast in that format. Now I am really worried about the burn in. Just like all the movie channels having their logo in the lower right hand corner, along with the news channels. I'm thinging about taking it back and getting the Sony 32XBr LCD. I think on some of the channels the Sharp was better than the Panny. No to knock plasma or the Panny HD is beautiful, but most of our viewing is the Analogue channels. I know the Sony is very good. Open for suggestions.
:(
Thanks,
RP

I have the Panny px500 essentially the same one you have...I have never had any issues of burn-in with the black bars...And I watch a lot of DVD's and 4:3 aspect TV...Although I have not watched in that mode for days upon days at a time...I'd say about 3 hours a day worth of those black bars and have not noticed anything!

I was considering a plasma from Costco the Visio P50HDM, but then found this in the manual:

"Do not show the same stationary image for more than 15% of the total monitor viewing in any one week" (p. 3.)

That seems a bit extreme. If I understand this, if I watch 20 hours of television a week, then I better not watch more than one channel more than three hours a day straight (or over time of a week?). So, if I watch a lot of food network, and we do, then we'd better not watch more than three hours a week (or all at once?).

Does it mean all at once, or 15% a week like it says? It would be bad to watch one hour of foot tv, or cnn for an hour one day, then an hour another day and then a third hour, within seven days? I must be misunderstanding this. I can't see how anyone can watch television, especially with the network logo on the bottom of the screen.

Thanks for commenting. Not trying to offend anyone. Plasma looks great. I don't want a tv to dictate what I can watch though before it ruins a $2500 television and I don't plan on monitoring the time spent on a channel for the next five years!

I know what the manual suggests but I simply did what was recommended on this forum and in the Panasonic White paper - I never did what the manual said with that 15% time thing. I still NEVER had a problem and this is going on 500plus hours now. My neighbor also bought the Pany 37" and from day 1 he watched anything he wanted and laughed at me for even using a 100 hour break-in. He also has had ZERO burn-in even though he has watched programs with bars constantly and has had his settings on vivid from day 1. Burn-in is likely way over-hyped.

Any channels other than Discovery good choices for eating up that 1st hundred hours? I don't have Discovery, everything else seems to have logos - and I'll be watching tons of sports with the scoreboard on the top or bottom of the screen.

How about throwing in long DVD's like Braveheart, Gladiator, etc...(as long as they don't show the letterbox bars)?

Hello,

I recently purchased a AKAI 42" Plasma HDTV (16:9). I thought the burn-in issue would be easy to work around given all the different display mode. To my dismay, it appear to be very difficult to avoid the black bars w/o getting some picture cut-out.

For example, I have basic Comcast Cable. The Plasma TV (no built-in tuner) gets the AV signal from my VCR. When I select "Fill-All" mode, some TV shows (like Alias) fills the whole screen. But shows like (Smallville) leave top/bottom black bands. The only way to remove the top/bottom bands seem to select "Letter Box" mode. But then I lose some picture at the very top and bottom. This especially affect close-caption because the words get cut off.
Even when I select "Wide" mode, there are top/bottom black bands.

For DVD viewing, I have Samsung HD850 upconverting dvd-player. There I also run into the same problem with top/bottom black bands. I set the DVD display menu to 16:9 TV aspect ratio. But I see the same problem here as described above with TV. The remedy here is the dvd-player allow me to select "zoom-fit" which fills the whole screen. But I think I lose some picture along all four edgesl. So far I only played 2.40:1 DVD discs.

There appear no way to rid of the top/bottom black bands on the AKAI w/o resorting to some kind of image "loss". Since my AKAI is 16:9 and I set the DVD player to TV aspect ratio of 16:9, then why doesn't my DVD movies take up the whole screen in "wide" mode?

Does anyone has any suggestion on TV viewing improvements?

Thanks a lot!

hi guys does any of u all have any links where u can download white screen so that i can burn in to dvd and check if my plasma and lcd has got burnmark ?
thanks alot in advance

hi guys does any of u all have any links where u can download white screen so that i can burn in to dvd and check if my plasma and lcd has got burnmark ?
thanks alot in advance
There are many ways to check for that.

If you're on PC, just set your desktop background color to "light grey" or "white". You can then look for any burn marks or burned pixels...

Im sure other members know the way around it without having to use PC connection.

I know there are a few threads about the orbiter, but there is nothing on this forum (or in my manual) that talks about the settings of the orbiter range. I can choose small, mid, or large. So what does this mean to me? I do know that when I have the orbiter turned off I don't get the occasional flicker of the brightness level (noticeable in darker scenes only). Anyone have a clue?

I have the Pioneer PDP-4214HD from costco.

Today I upgraded my 4 year old 27" Sony Wega flat screen CRT to a 42" plasma Panasonic TH-42PX50U and plan religiously following the break-in instructions to make this thing last the long run.

However, I'm a bit bummed by the length of time before I can start enjoying some color on my screen though (the first 100-hour break-in, then the white sheet gives another 900 before I can take the contrast or brightness past 50%). I don't watch more than a few hours of a TV a day, so it could literally take 6 or 7 months, maybe more before I log 1000 hours.

So sorry if these questions have been asked before, but would it be OK to hook my plasma up to a computer and run a screen saver or winamp type plug-in 24 hours a day (or close to that) to just power through the first 1000 hours? Is there any possibility of damage if the display is left on for too long at a time/continuously? What about the break-in DVD file for download I've seen mentioned? I tried a search but couldn't find it. I could always just burn my own looped DVD screen-saver, but that would bring up the same issue, continuous operation.

I've been all through this thread, and it seems like everyone is posting their own scenarios, so I'll post mine. I bought a Panny 50PX50U this weekend. A condition of the purchase was that I couldn't watch it until Christmas morning (wife). The bowl games are on that week, and obviously, I would like to watch them on my new plasma. I plan on following the white paper rules for 100hrs. Can I get away with watching these games so soon? Will commercial breaks/halftime provide enough of a "rest" from the scoreboards?
I plan on only watching about 1 game a day. In the regular season (starts back in 8 months) I plan on watching 2-4 games on Saturday. Do you guys think this will be a problem? The display should be well past 100hrs. by then.

Aside from my habits, do commercial breaks provide enough "rest" from logos?

I've been all through this thread, and it seems like everyone is posting their own scenarios, so I'll post mine. I bought a Panny 50PX50U this weekend. A condition of the purchase was that I couldn't watch it until Christmas morning (wife). The bowl games are on that week, and obviously, I would like to watch them on my new plasma. I plan on following the white paper rules for 100hrs. Can I get away with watching these games so soon? Will commercial breaks/halftime provide enough of a "rest" from the scoreboards?
I plan on only watching about 1 game a day. In the regular season (starts back in 8 months) I plan on watching 2-4 games on Saturday. Do you guys think this will be a problem? The display should be well past 100hrs. by then.

Aside from my habits, do commercial breaks provide enough "rest" from logos?

TV won't be an issue at all...Just don't play games on it yet...Make sure you take it off of "torch" mode and calibrate to your liking...Right out of the box I used:
Standard
Picture: +10
Brightness: +5
Color: 0
Tint: -4
Sharpness: -5

No problems wutsoever watching the games or anything...

I have the Panny TH42PD50U and am careful with the forst 100 hrs. Keeping the picture and brightness belwo 50% means 0 to negative numvers or below +15?

Thanks,
Neil

I have the Panny TH42PD50U and am careful with the forst 100 hrs. Keeping the picture and brightness belwo 50% means 0 to negative numvers or below +15?

Thanks,
Neil

Some guy was on here saying when he asked the service rep the guy mentioned 0 to 30 was the measurment they used when talking about percentages...Which means keeping it below 15 makes sense...But others, just to be safe are putting it a 0...For me...I can't imagine watching TV at 0...It's too low!

Also...I've come across an interesting test that I've been using to see if image retention exists...When you go into the TV Guide menu for the TV and highlight the last channel selection, the paque greyish-blue background ruthlessly shows you if you have any image retention...The vide game image retention that I got is almost virtually gone but is now replaced with the FoodTv letters...LOL...I'm sure it will eventually go away, but it's odd how quickly the screen has image retention for logos like FoodTV...But then again...I do a lot of FoodTV watching...Probably 50% of all my viewing time...

I was the guy that talked to the service rep. 0 to +30 at 50% = 15 setting max which looks great. The negative emphasis (anything below 0) is NOT what they meant when saying to reduce by 50%. Watching at all "0" settings is horrible. The Panny rep reemphasized to me that you wont need to worry about burn-in. They just dont see it anymore even if you have it on vivid settings from day 1. My neighbor did it with his (Vivid settings) right out of the box. To this day neither of us has had any burn-in.

Ok...An update...I finally got my Xbox 360! After waiting 16 hours in line I was lucky number 13...I'm going to put it to good use over the next few weeks on my plasma as I now am on vacation and will test to see how good this plasma stands up to image burn in... :D

http://xf1.xanga.com/7ca813e6641a822810425/b16170457.jpg

http://xc6.xanga.com/f40887020663322810799/b16170684.jpg

BTW...As per my previous post, the Food TV logos are completely gone...The image retention I had with my previous game, Shadow of Collosus, is virtually gone too...I'd say about 95%...You can still see a very, very, very, very faint outline, but it's so hard to find now sometimes I think it's just my mind playing tricks on me...

I hooked up the Xbox 360 last night and played about two hours of Kameo...It's odd how they have different settings for TV's as well...They have on for plasma, LCD and RPT...The normal settings is the highest...It's odd how the plasma one seems to have the darkest brightness setting...I decided to leave the setting at normal and controlled the settings via my TV.

Now if you know the game Kameo it has two status HUD pieces on both the left and right top hand part of the screen...And so far nothing! No image retention at all...BTW the game looks beautiful!

post some screenshots! :D

i got my 360 last week - since then i played call of duty for 6 hours straight the first night (non stop), about 3 hours the next day, and i just finished playing another 6 hours straight. Since i got the xbox i only watched about a hour of tv, and 15 hours of the same game, with the same static compas on the bottom left. After 6 hours today, i turned it off and immidiatly went right up to the screen to see if there was any burn in/image retention. Not even the slightest, you couldnt find any image retention at all if somebody payed you to. If there isnt even the slightest retention, how much do you hvae to play to have actual burn in??? burn in is not possible, it ESSENTIALLY does not exist. I lived 25 years of my life never knowing what burn in was, even though crt's have always suffered from it. Its the same thing now that i have a plasma. I have a 50px500u, maybe a cheaper model will burn in, but thanks to everybody who convinced me burn in wasnt a problem, I just convinced myself 100% there is nothing to worry about.

My wife has had some crazy Zuma marathons (A very cool 360 puzzle game on Xbox Live Arcade). Basically the whole screen is a static 2D image. I came home the other day and noticed the border was there when I turned my receiver off. At first I was quite alarmed, but after watching some TV (and playing other games) it's gone. Now I make sure to turn on pixel orbiting when she plays puzzle games.

My twelve hour marathon of PGR3 left nothing on the screen. I should also note that I went crazy and bought my plasma the same day as the 360 on November 22nd (my day of joy 2005 as I will remember it). I know I'm insane to "break-in" my TV with games but after logging probably 75-100 hours on the 360 between me and my wife I'm problem free. I'll be more careful with my Panasonic since I know I'll be keeping that one.

By the way my current set is the Hitachi 42HDF52 (which is turning into a Panasonic 42PX50U in about two weeks when they are back in stock at my local AV shop).

I bought the 42" Philips 42PF7320A about a month ago. I have noticed in black scenes there is discoloration in the lower left coner and a little in the upper left corner where there is a very dark purple-ish color where the rest of the screen is black (for example with the credits at the end of a movie where the entire background is black). I cannot see any discoloration at all in light or medium color scenes. A few weeks ago when I turned on the tv there was a "burst" of black that started at the center and spread out to the edges of the screen; I turned off the tv and turned it back on and it was gone. This only happened once. Could this be burn in or is my tv defective?

Pioneer 5060. 1/4 inch black frame ??

Is it normal when you look at the screen when viewing full mode to see a 1/4 inch black stripe in the frame of the screen on the left and right side and a bit smaller on the top and bottom.

I have seen this on many tvs but was wondering since this is my first plasma if this is normal. I just hooked up my TV and started watching DVD and took some precautions to avoid burn in but just noticed these 1/4in bars.

Anyone with a pio could let me know

Thanks

I have a new Pioneer 5060 50" plasma screen that has been up and running for 3 weeks. I've taken precautions with the break in period such as running with low contrast and brightness settings, expanding DVD's to full screen so no bars are present, watching SD programming in fullscreen wide mode, etc.

That said, last night we had people over for Christmas and they got to watching most of a football game and during the game there's a static score bar near the top, in place during plays - but not all of the time. Anyway I turned channels later and the bar left a ghost on the screen which I thought might be (and may still be) "image retention" that will go away. (I left the DVD menu up for "Love Actually" for 5 mins and it has a big red heard on white background and it left a DRAMATIC image retention ghost that was gone in 20-30 mins of regular watching.)

I watched near an hour of TV after last night and turned it off for the night - back on this morning and it's been on for 3 hours full screen and the ghost is still there - it may have deminished a bit I cannot tell for sure.

It would seem unlikely that one football game would permanently burn this screen as that would seem to generate quite the consumer complaints. Is this likely a case of image retention that will fade over the course of the next day(s)?

Also - can someone point to an actual definiton of temporary "image retention" vs. actual burn? Thanks.



blakespot

...and where is this "white paper" breaking guide people here speak of? Thanks.



blakespot

...and where is this "white paper" breaking guide people here speak of? Thanks.

I believe it's located here:

http://www.glaucobruzzi.com/plasma-faq/showthread.php?t=49
http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/pressroom/cont2.asp?Filter=12&cont_id=822 (link to original Panasonic article)

Turned off the TV or turned off the 360?!

i got my 360 last week - since then i played call of duty for 6 hours straight the first night (non stop), about 3 hours the next day, and i just finished playing another 6 hours straight. Since i got the xbox i only watched about a hour of tv, and 15 hours of the same game, with the same static compas on the bottom left. After 6 hours today, i turned it off and immidiatly went right up to the screen to see if there was any burn in/image retention. Not even the slightest, you couldnt find any image retention at all if somebody payed you to. If there isnt even the slightest retention, how much do you hvae to play to have actual burn in??? burn in is not possible, it ESSENTIALLY does not exist. I lived 25 years of my life never knowing what burn in was, even though crt's have always suffered from it. Its the same thing now that i have a plasma. I have a 50px500u, maybe a cheaper model will burn in, but thanks to everybody who convinced me burn in wasnt a problem, I just convinced myself 100% there is nothing to worry about.

I have been using my Sony PFM42X industrial plasma HDTV 42" for a month now. I ran a movie channel for about the first 50-100 hours. I have had the contrast and brightness turned down to practically nothing, maybe 30%, and the picture is plenty bright for me and looks wonderful. I get occasional image retention that is noticeable during black screens, but it goes away about as quickly as I notice it. I noticed one thing strange: I can adjust just about everything picture-wise on my VGA input (from cable box) as far as chroma, color, saturation, ect, but through my DVI input (from computer) it only gives me bright and contrast control, and adjusting these seems to make no difference in the picture. Occasionally when I'm online through the DVI input Ill notice white internet background screens start to darken slightly as if the brightness were being slowly turned down on its own, until I move my mouse and bring up the hidden taskbar, then the screen lights up again to normal brightness. Anyone have any ideas what may be causing this?

Panny TH-50px50u
Panny s77s

Just got the new plasma and last night started watching SW III - Revenge of the Sith.
With the picture ratio being greater than 16:9 you have the black bars on the top and the bottom. I really don't like to zoom the pic (lack of PQ) or change the black bars to light grey. Is there any reason to worry about burn-in from a 2.5 hr. movie?

Thanks

Greetings

Not really. But make sure the contrast is not cranked ... so calibrate the TV first with a test disc.

regards

where can you get a test dics from? are some better than others?

Turned off the TV or turned off the 360?!
turned off the 360- would be pretty hard to see any burn in with the tv off.

turned off the 360- would be pretty hard to see any burn in with the tv off.

But that's what burn-in is. Seeing an image left on the screen when you've turned the TV off.

where can you get a test dics from? are some better than others?

Check for THX Optimizer on a DVD you may own.Simple enough to get a start on it.

Panny TH-50px50u
Panny s77s

Just got the new plasma and last night started watching SW III - Revenge of the Sith.
With the picture ratio being greater than 16:9 you have the black bars on the top and the bottom. I really don't like to zoom the pic (lack of PQ) or change the black bars to light grey. Is there any reason to worry about burn-in from a 2.5 hr. movie?

ThanksTurning down the brightness & contrast is a good idea and Panasonic recommends displaying no black bars during the first 100 hours of use and for no more than 15% of the time during the next 900 hours. If you follow these guidelines you should not incur any image-retention damage with your PDP.

I watched "Batman Returns" last night in it's 2.35:1 OAR on my 50PX50U with my Oppo OPDV971H (D-Nice) (http://www.oppodigital.com/). ;)

But that's what burn-in is. Seeing an image left on the screen when you've turned the TV off.
Not only when it is off, you would see it when it is on too. If you only seen it when its off, then its not exactly an issue is it. Either way, i have no burn, not even a second of image retention after playing hourrrrrrrrrs of a game.

I think this is a silly topic for so many people to be stuck on.. If plasmas werent so expensive and Panasonic wasnt bragging they had the best plasma in the world, I'd actually see room for concern. Plasma is going to be the next # 1 monitor for us who dont want to go through the trouble of using projectors. If plasma was a bogus technology you wouldnt have Sony, Pioneer, and Panasonic making them and standing behind them. There are some extremely smart engineers in Japan who get paid really well to optomize this technology. I remember when CRT projection came out and everyone was all worried about burn in, as those monitors were far more succeptable, yet go to a sports bar and look for ESPN logos burnt into their big screens. If I was going to buy Ferrari Id buy it because I know its a well enginineered sports car, and thats the reason I bought my plasma (plus it looks as aesthetic on my wall as a Ferarri would look in my driveway. ) Form and function . The longer I've been using my Sony plasma the less image retention I've seen. If you look back on the thread you'll notice most of the people who actually OWN plasmas arent complaining a bit about burn in, and the ones who are haven't owned theirs long enough or done enough research to understand the principles of new phosphors. Yes they all warn you about burn in in the owners manual, and yes pharmacuetical companies warn you about shortness of breath, fainting, loss of appetite, and nausea. I ran mine all day on the internet today with its 300 or so hours on it and was hoping to see image retention from at least my taskbar, yet nothing. Just buy a plasma and enjoy it. Trust me, theres nothing that compares when it comes to movies, games, anything. For you LCD owners, go back to the LCD thread. LCD cant even compare to the PQ of a plasma. I saved up for a long time to get this monitor, and after reading the Syntax Olevia thread I'm glad I did. I noticed there are a hell of alot of off brand and Korean LCDs then there are plasmas. Theres a reason for that. BTW the whole darkening thing that I mentioned in my earlier post is a from the power saving feature that the monitor utilizes by lowering stagnant high contrast to lower its power usage. I hope someday you skeptics will quit arguing and just go buy one of these amazing machines. I love my 42" HDTV plasma. Best $2500 with a 4 year extended warranty shipped I've ever spent. IMO this forum is alot more effective when people ask questions and get knowledge based on experience, not skeptisism. Down the road if I do experience this so-called burn in, You'll all be the first to know, however I bought this monitor based on hundreds of hours of careful and painstaking research, and I have more faith in plasma than I do in God. Someone close this silly thread already.

๋Just got Pioneer 436 today. I have no calibration disk now. Please some one kindly advice the setting for DVD and SD SAT TV in order to avoid burn-in. I try to read through this thred but only 13 pages so far.

Thanks,
Pal

I think this is a silly topic for so many people to be stuck on.. If plasmas werent so expensive and Panasonic wasnt bragging they had the best plasma in the world, I'd actually see room for concern. Plasma is going to be the next # 1 monitor for us who dont want to go through the trouble of using projectors. If plasma was a bogus technology you wouldnt have Sony, Pioneer, and Panasonic making them and standing behind them. There are some extremely smart engineers in Japan who get paid really well to optomize this technology. I remember when CRT projection came out and everyone was all worried about burn in, as those monitors were far more succeptable, yet go to a sports bar and look for ESPN logos burnt into their big screens. If I was going to buy Ferrari Id buy it because I know its a well enginineered sports car, and thats the reason I bought my plasma (plus it looks as aesthetic on my wall as a Ferarri would look in my driveway. ) Form and function . The longer I've been using my Sony plasma the less image retention I've seen. If you look back on the thread you'll notice most of the people who actually OWN plasmas arent complaining a bit about burn in, and the ones who are haven't owned theirs long enough or done enough research to understand the principles of new phosphors. Yes they all warn you about burn in in the owners manual, and yes pharmacuetical companies warn you about shortness of breath, fainting, loss of appetite, and nausea. I ran mine all day on the internet today with its 300 or so hours on it and was hoping to see image retention from at least my taskbar, yet nothing. Just buy a plasma and enjoy it. Trust me, theres nothing that compares when it comes to movies, games, anything. For you LCD owners, go back to the LCD thread. LCD cant even compare to the PQ of a plasma. I saved up for a long time to get this monitor, and after reading the Syntax Olevia thread I'm glad I did. I noticed there are a hell of alot of off brand and Korean LCDs then there are plasmas. Theres a reason for that. BTW the whole darkening thing that I mentioned in my earlier post is a from the power saving feature that the monitor utilizes by lowering stagnant high contrast to lower its power usage. I hope someday you skeptics will quit arguing and just go buy one of these amazing machines. I love my 42" HDTV plasma. Best $2500 with a 4 year extended warranty shipped I've ever spent. IMO this forum is alot more effective when people ask questions and get knowledge based on experience, not skeptisism. Down the road if I do experience this so-called burn in, You'll all be the first to know, however I bought this monitor based on hundreds of hours of careful and painstaking research, and I have more faith in plasma than I do in God. Someone close this silly thread already.

I generally agree here. Just don't leave your plasma on "torch" mode with static image for 1 or 2 days.

So I had posted this in another thread but it was off topic and thus ignored. Basically trying to understand why burn in is not cumulative.

"it's been my experience, however, that any image retention accumulated by watching a movie with bars (or 4:3 with bars, or leaving a dvd menu on for hours) is washed away when you finally do end up putting something different on, and that the image retention is not cumulative. And I have done all of those things (not all on purpose!) I have an NEC and if I watch 2 hours of a 2.35 movie in OAR, I will get image retention, but it goes away once I fill the screen again for a few minutes."

"I've been confused by the burn in issue for a while, since when I first started reading about it, it seemed that it would be cumulative (i.e. a certain amount of letterboxing per week would definitely cause burn in) but in practice, that hasn't been the case. I still haven't found a good explanation for it, maybe someone can help me out. If it really is just phosphor wear, as in each pixel has a certain life span and watching a letterbox movie permanently affects that lifespan, then it would seem that watching anything letterboxed ever would definitely cause burn in eventually, unless you took action to specifically reverse it (inverse screen for instance). But we know that is not the case, so there must be something to be said about filling the screen, that is restoring the black level to even across all pixels. Also, I find it odd that a panel that is supposed to last 20 years, would show any difference in pixel brightness after just 2 hours of a letterboxed movie. I mean I see it if I do that, but I don't believe that it can be attributed to phosphor wear alone. There is something missing from the puzzle, but I don't know what."

Anyone?