I have recently bought a plasma and read on here about the break in.

I called some local stores - some high end stores and they have ALL said you don't need to do that. Why do they say that but everyone on here says to do it for at least 100 hours?

One dude did say "It can't hurt and the best way to break in is have a "snow" on the full screen and let it play. Does that make sense?

There is a area here to be able to download a break in DVD. If everyone should break in a plasma why do stores not sell a break in DVD? It sounds like a simple way for stores to make extra money?

is breaking in a plasma a myth? My thoughts are if you spend that much money you are better safe than sorry but I am just curious why you can't buy a break in DVD from best Buy if everyone should break in a plasma???

You also don't need to stretch before you run.

Have a little patience jeez people. 100 hours of a not optimial picture is worth the lessened chance of burn-in. I think break-in... and the possiblity of burn in are a bit overatted myself but it does help your mind.

Why not just take a little care with your thousand dollar investment?

Yeah. It's sort of like, why not do it? I have the settings turned down WAAAAAAY low, like -15 picture/brightness/sharpness, and it's still watchable. Some dark scenes are really dark, but most channels are just fine, and I'm probably overdoing it by decreasing it that much anyway. I would rather be safe than sorry. Especially since most places won't even accept a burned-in set back during the usual 30-day-return policy.

While I did turn the settings down a lot, I didn't really bother with the "break-in" DVD. I just watch normal stuff, and I'm sensible about it. I haven't played games on it yet (mainly because I just don't feel like it until I maybe get a Wii), and I don't leave it on channels with tickers on them forever, but everything seems to be going just fine.

my store recomends it. We also offer basic calibration with our Home theater setup packages.

I just got a panny 58" and have not yet run the break in DVD. I have not noticed ANY IR yet... Though I suppose I haven't really been looking for it.

I also haven't run too much stuff with black bars, just commercials during HD viewing...

Believe it or not, not all salespeople really know what they're talking about! Uncharitably, some just want to make the sale, and worry might discourage you from buying, so...

That said, TVs do vary. What was true in 2004 isn't necessarily AS true today. But a little caution seems prudent. Don't immediately watch dozens of hours straight of 4:3 SD, or letterbox DVD, or one channel with a fixed logo and/or ticker, and you'll largely avoid the problem, whether or not it exists for your particular TV. I'd rather be "safe than sorry" as the expression goes, and the DVD or Video-CD or whatever is just one way to help you achieve that.

Unfortunately, no two people giving their "rule of thumb" advice have the same thumb. Or perhaps the same TV.

I'm cautious, but not paranoid. I like my TV, and I want to like it in 6 months or 2 years or whatever, so a little up-front caution is worthwhile. To me. YMMV.

Doug

Like Panasonic suggests, break in is indeed needed. But not with a breakin dvd. Running a special breakin dvd was some plasma owner's idea to accelerate the process which caught on. But you can do what the manufacturer suggests: run your tv with settings turned down for the first 100 hours.

Its the same thing as breaking in a car. You do it with careful and controlled driving. You can just accelerate the process by putting the car on a jack and leaving it running ;)

Like Panasonic suggests, break in is indeed needed. But not with a breakin dvd. Running a special breakin dvd was some plasma owner's idea to accelerate the process which caught on. But you can do what the manufacturer suggests: run your tv with settings turned down for the first 100 hours.

Its the same thing as breaking in a car. You do it with careful and controlled driving. You can just accelerate the process by putting the car on a jack and leaving it running ;)
Yeah, but the oft-quoted "white paper" is from 2004, by and for one brand of plasma TV. Not everyone's TV arrives with any specific instructions regarding 100 hours, 200 hours, 1000 hours, dim settings, etc. Hence much of the confusion. My TV just has general warnings about static images - and the WARRANTY actually has more detailed info than the USER MANUAL does!?

Heck, we can't even get the "experts" here to agree on whether LCDs are completely immune, somewhat vulnerable, etc.

Doug

You also don't need to stretch before you run.

Have a little patience jeez people. 100 hours of a not optimial picture is worth the lessened chance of burn-in. I think break-in... and the possiblity of burn in are a bit overatted myself but it does help your mind.

Why not just take a little care with your thousand dollar investment?

Just like buying speakers for your car. A store will probably say oh no need to break in but if you ask your sbuwoofer manufacturer they will likely suggest a break in period.

Thanks for the info.

i was not trying to avoid it, I was merely trying to understand. I have tuned my TV down and am very near the 100 hours but I was just curious as to why so many people say do it and it seems to not be mentioned in the manuals.

Thanks and may all your plasmas be burn in free!!

Believe it or not, not all salespeople really know what they're talking about!
You can say that again. When I was shopping for my set I had a sales slug in a Sears tell me that plasma sets were "crap." Lousy SD picture, use tons of electricity...he didn't understand why anyone would buy a plasma.

I guess I'm pretty stupid...I later bought a Panny plasma.

Should one do it for reasons other than IR? Will the picture quality be any different after a couple hundred hours break-in? Just bought a plasma a few days ago so please forgive my ignorance.

I was at BB (Magnolia) in Frisco TX checking out the 50 inch 1080P Pioneer PDP. It had burn in from the Blu Ray demo disc menu....
I would recommend breaking in a PDP. If you look at the Phosphor output curve, the most siginificant drop (change) is in the first 100-200 hours, so it makes sense to tone down the contrast and brightness along with minimizing black bars and static images(station logos, info bars) during this period.

It does make sense to break it in. With just about any electronic equipment I've seen, a break in period of extended use is recommended. In my experience this is mostly because if a device is going to fail or change characteristics, it is going to do it in the first X hours of use, where X depends on the product. Heck, I even break in iPods by continuous play and battery drain cycles over a few days.

I think the rule of thumb for plasma is between 100 and 200 hours mostly from the community's operational experience and it just "feels" right. I spoke with an ISF certified calibrator and he says he won't calibrate a plasma with anything less than 100 hours of service. That and the fact you don't see ISF calibrator's denouncing a break in period lend credibility to the argument.

FWIW: For my new Pioneer PDP-5070, I am running Evangelo2's break in DVD around the clock while I am not watching TV and being careful about what channels I watch when I am watching. I've also tuned down the settings according to D-Nice's recommendations. After I hit the 200 hour mark, it's time for calibration.

Honestly, I don't subscribe to the "forced" burn-in theory. I think it's worth while taking a few precautions during the first 100-200 hours, but I don't believe it's necessary to use the burn-in procedure and disk that is often referenced in this forum. All you are doing is accelerating the aging of the display's phosphors. The phosphors used in plasma displays have a logarithmic aging characteristic, and the curve is steepest during the initial 100-200 hours. When it comes to video, I believe simply turning down the contrast and using stretch modes to fill the screen during this period is more than adequate to avoid image retention/burn-in.

However, if you play video games with a lot of static images (e.g. status bar), then I would recommend some initial aging beforehand.

-Steve

I agree with SLB no disc is necessary but other precautions should be taken. For a complete explaination check out my blogs on plasmas at

www.hdguru.com

The HD Guru

I just bought a Pan 50PX60U and finished a 100 hour continuous running of the "break-in DVD" downloaded from this forum.

I want to see if anything changes or misbehaving soon so that I can return this set within the 30-day limit.

After 80 hours, I was struck how the color just suddenly glows or leaps out of the screen despite no change in my settings which were tuned way down for the break in purpose. Had I adjusted my set with DVE without breaking in, I would have had to redo several times due to this perceived change.

I agree with SLB no disc is necessary but other precautions should be taken. For a complete explaination check out my blogs on plasmas at

www.hdguru.com

The HD Guru

Would you point out where that explanation/discussion is? I looked through nearly all your posts and did not find it.

Would you point out where that explanation/discussion is? I looked through nearly all your posts and did not find it.Plasma Facts and Myths Panasonic Presents Advice From the Video Purist Perspective (http://www.dynamicdigital.ca/documents/Plasma%20Facts%20and%20Myths.pdf)

http://hdguru.com/?p=16

The HD Guru

We seem to talk far to much about this..break in period. I never used any break in period on my tv and it is working fine after years. When you first get the set home, use some common sense..maybe..set it on 'a non-bright' setting. In other words, if there are 3 settings on the tv, set it on the lowest one (for brightness) for a couple of weeks or so. You could even let it play all night for a week or 2. But do not worry..about having exact settings, etc. for a new tv. For the most part, fill the screen and keep contrast/picture (brightness) turned down for a couple of weeks. No big deal. Enjoy. And, if you want to go thru more exact procedures, it is up to you.

Should one do it for reasons other than IR? Will the picture quality be any different after a couple hundred hours break-in? Just bought a plasma a few days ago so please forgive my ignorance.


In my experience it's better safe than sorry. I went with a 200hr break in period just to be safe, and my only proof that it worked is the fact that I never had any instances of I.R. or burn in. Of course I don't know if it would have been any different if I hadn't done a breakin period, but at least you get piece of mind out of it.

We seem to talk far to much about this..break in period. I never used any break in period on my tv and it is working fine after years. When you first get the set home, use some common sense..maybe..set it on 'a non-bright' setting. In other words, if there are 3 settings on the tv, set it on the lowest one (for brightness) for a couple of weeks or so. You could even let it play all night for a week or 2. But do not worry..about having exact settings, etc. for a new tv. For the most part, fill the screen and keep contrast/picture (brightness) turned down for a couple of weeks. No big deal. Enjoy. And, if you want to go thru more exact procedures, it is up to you.What may seem like common sense to most individuals is beyond the comprehension of others.

If an owner of a new PDP displays it in torch mode, shows black bars too often, does extensive gaming or use of static images they will damage their PDP.

The vast majority of individuals vary their viewing habits enough to insure even phosphor wear and/or reversal of temporary image retention.

While it is not likely to occur, individuals have to remain cognizant of the possibility for permanent image retention and take reasonable precautions to prevent it. My suggestion is to inspect your display on a regular basis for evidence of image retention and if discovered employ full screen content that is devoid of static logos which will even out phosphor wear.

I just bought a Pan 50PX60U and finished a 100 hour continuous running of the "break-in DVD" downloaded from this forum.

I want to see if anything changes or misbehaving soon so that I can return this set within the 30-day limit.

After 80 hours, I was struck how the color just suddenly glows or leaps out of the screen despite no change in my settings which were tuned way down for the break in purpose. Had I adjusted my set with DVE without breaking in, I would have had to redo several times due to this perceived change.


where can i find this break-in dvd?

where can i find this break-in dvd?

Click on Downloads when you get Here! (http://www.eaprogramming.com/)

Glenn

In my experience it's better safe than sorry. I went with a 200hr break in period just to be safe, and my only proof that it worked is the fact that I never had any instances of I.R. or burn in. Of course I don't know if it would have been any different if I hadn't done a breakin period, but at least you get piece of mind out of it.

On the other hand, aren't you just deferring the proper burn in of the phosphers?

http://hdguru.com/?p=16

The HD Guru"Plasma disadvantages are few. In the early days, the most common criticism was that they suffered from “burn-in,” meaning that when a static image such as a video game logo is on the screen for too long, its shadow may linger even after it’s gone. Burn-in really is the uneven wear of the phosphors within the plasma panel. The risk of burn in has been greatly reduced by the set makers and can be minimized with a simple precaution. Like with LCD, upon unpacking and connecting the set, change the “picture mode setting” from factory preset (usually Vivid) to Movie, Cinema or Standard (depending on the TV) and lower the contrast (also called the “picture control”) to about one half level for the best picture."

Not bad advice except the "HD Guru" neglects to mention the fact that one should avoid displaying black bars as much as possible during the first few hundred hours of operation. ;)

On the other hand, aren't you just deferring the proper burn in of the phosphers?


Not sure what you mean by this????

Like Panasonic suggests, break in is indeed needed. But not with a breakin dvd. Running a special breakin dvd was some plasma owner's idea to accelerate the process which caught on. But you can do what the manufacturer suggests: run your tv with settings turned down for the first 100 hours.

Its the same thing as breaking in a car. You do it with careful and controlled driving. You can just accelerate the process by putting the car on a jack and leaving it running ;)

Turning down settings slows down phosphor aging, which in turn takes the phosphors longer to hit the exponential part of the decay curve. The idea is to have as even wear as possible up to that curve. Don't crank your settings down for that, as you just delay the process. Instead, find settings that you like, and look great to you, and then just run everything full screen with no logos or static images for the duration of the breakin period.

Dustin

"Plasma disadvantages are few. In the early days, the most common criticism was that they suffered from “burn-in,” meaning that when a static image such as a video game logo is on the screen for too long, its shadow may linger even after it’s gone. Burn-in really is the uneven wear of the phosphors within the plasma panel. The risk of burn in has been greatly reduced by the set makers and can be minimized with a simple precaution. Like with LCD, upon unpacking and connecting the set, change the “picture mode setting” from factory preset (usually Vivid) to Movie, Cinema or Standard (depending on the TV) and lower the contrast (also called the “picture control”) to about one half level for the best picture."

Not bad advice except the "HD Guru" neglects to mention the fact that one should avoid displaying black bars as much as possible during the first few hundred hours of operation. ;)So no 2.35:1 movies at all for a while? Or, would watching a 2-hour long 2.35:1 movie be OK?

So no 2.35:1 movies at all for a while? Or, would watching a 2-hour long 2.35:1 movie be OK?

If it worries you, zoom it out until the bars are off the screen. If you aren't breaking in the set, just vary your content, (bars, no bars, etc).

So no 2.35:1 movies at all for a while? Or, would watching a 2-hour long 2.35:1 movie be OK?

A two hour movie is fine. Watching the complete set of Lord of the Rings Extened Edition back-to-back (≈12 hours) is probably not a good idea during the first couple of hundred hours. Also, avoid watching a lot of SD in 4:3 aspect. As long as you mix your content and watch mosly (i.e 75-80%) full screen material for the first 200 hours or so, you shouldn't have any problems. You might occasionally see a bit of image retention, but it should disappear quickly once you switch to full screen material.

-Steve

I just (3/11/07) picked up the Philips 42PF9631D/37 from Best Buy. I was concerned about the 100 hour break-in period, so I dialed down the setting really low for the first 100 hours. But now I'm reading that it'd be ok for me to dial them up to a decent level (nothing crazy bright like from the factory) and just make sure I fill the screen. Is this correct?

Having just watched a couple movies with the settings down, it'd be really nice to dial them back up a bit just so that the dark scenes are distinguishable. If I can do that and just take it easy for the first 100 hours, that'd be great. Otherwise I'll stick to my low settings.

The manual doesn't mention anything about a break-in period and I've searched the website for my model and it also says nothing about a break-in period.

I just (3/11/07) picked up the Philips 42PF9631D/37 from Best Buy. I was concerned about the 100 hour break-in period, so I dialed down the setting really low for the first 100 hours. But now I'm reading that it'd be ok for me to dial them up to a decent level (nothing crazy bright like from the factory) and just make sure I fill the screen. Is this correct?

Having just watched a couple movies with the settings down, it'd be really nice to dial them back up a bit just so that the dark scenes are distinguishable. If I can do that and just take it easy for the first 100 hours, that'd be great. Otherwise I'll stick to my low settings.

The manual doesn't mention anything about a break-in period and I've searched the website for my model and it also says nothing about a break-in period.


Everyones going to have different opinions on this, but for me I always felt "Better safe than sorry" during the break in period. Also if you want to speed up the break in process you can leave the panel on over night with the volume turned down. I did this myself and left the panel on an HD channel over night then turned it off in the morning. It's important if you do this to select a HD channel like Discovery HD, theses channels won't have the logos or bars that can burn in. In any case I've owned 3 plasmas over the last 5-6 years and after going through the break in process, I've used the panels as I would have any other TV I've owned, gaming, wide screen films, and I've never seen a hint of I.R. or burn in. For the most part I belive burn in is a thing of the past, at least in terms of the plasmas from quality manufactures. I feel safe in saying that if you use common sense you won't have a problem.

Good Burn-in article:

http://www.*******************.com/plasmatv/plasmatv-burnin.html

guess it got edited. Here's the text

Plasma TV Screen Burn-In: Is It Still a Problem?

Reviewer: Phil Connor

Copyright © 2006 *******************.com. All Rights Reserved.

Besides questions about the average lifespan of plasma TVs, the question I get most from people has to do with plasma TV screen burn-in. Which raises the question: What is plasma display burn-in, and how does one know what to expect and is it still a problem?

All phosphor based display systems (CRT direct and rear view and plasma) are susceptible to image retention also known as "ghosting, image shadowing, image burn in." This is due to physical properties of phosphor and how it reacts to light and electric impulse.

The good news is that for the past couple of years quality manufacturers have been steadily working on improving plasma technology resistance to "burn in" with great success. One technique used is motion adaptive anti burn in technology, which focuses on moving the on-screen image ever so slightly. The goal is to avoid detection by the human eye, but still move the image enough to cause color changes in the pixels. A second improvement by some manufacturers is improvement in the phosphor gas itself in order to make it more resistant. The green phosphor is the most important in this process. This is also a key element in increasing phosphor and screen lifespan to CRT levels.

As a result of these advancements, a couple of prominent manufacturers now claim that plasma TVs have the same burn in resistance and susceptibility as CRT TVs. When was the last time you heard someone say that they were concerned about image burn in on their tube TV? Never?

But to digress, burn in, simply put, is a damaged pixel, whose phosphors have been prematurely aged and therefore glow less intensely than those of surrounding pixels on the plasma TV screen. The damaged or "burned in" pixel has developed a "memory" of the color information that was repeatedly fed to it in a static manner over a period of time. And that phosphor color information has actually become seared or etched into the plasma TV glass. Hence the term, "burn-in." Once these phosphors are damaged, they cannot give the same output as the other phosphors around them do. But pixels do not suffer burn-in singly. Burn-in occurs in the shape of a static image that persists on TV screens -- things like network logos, computer icons, Internet browser frames, or an entire image that has been displayed in a static manner etc. Network logos were a problem initially but they have now become sensitive to the problem and have also adapted a motion logo technology which prevents burn in.

So, how do you prevent burn-in on your brand-new plasma TV screen?

(1) Some obvious advice: Do not leave static images on your plasma TV screen for more than an hour. Turn off your unit when you are not watching it. Do not pause DVDs for more than 20 minutes at a time.

(2) Know that plasma screens are more prone to burn-in during their first 200 hours of use. When phosphors are fresh, they burn more intensely as they are ignited. This means that relatively new plasma display TVs are prone to "ghosting", which occurs when on-screen images appear to stay on the screen belatedly. This is a function of the high intensity with which new phosphors "pop," and this phenomenon usually "washes out" on its own, as the screen displays subsequent images. Displaying a bright, or moving snow image (as with a DVD or VCR with no input) will "wash" a ghost image from the screen in most cases. Many plasma manufacturers have installed anti-burn settings, which are monotone gray or snow screen settings which recalibrate pixel intensity levels uniformly - thus eliminating any image retention (ghosting). It is a good idea to run this type of program after the first 100 hours or so.

(3) Adjust the CONTRAST setting at or below 50% on your new plasma TV. These days most plasma TVs are preset to either peak or very high contrast (also called picture setting on many TVs). This forces phosphors to glow more intensely, which decreases the length of time necessary for burn-in to occur. Our advice is to reduce the contrast setting to 50% or less for the first 200 hours of use. And, be sure to avail yourself of your plasma's anti-burn-in features.

(4) Some plasma televisions burn-in more easily than others. In my experience, AliS type panels -- the ones utilized by Hitachi and Fujistu -- seem more readily given over to problems with burn-in. As well, be more wary of the 2nd and 3rd tier brands as their technology is usually not as up to date as some of the better 1st tier brands.

(5) When displaying video games and other content which have static images, use your burn-in protection features like power management settings, full-time picture shift (both vertical and horizontal), and automatic screen-saver functions. Check your Owner's Manual for further information.

(6) Realize that quality matters with burn-in as with everything else. Purchase a plasma display that has really good scaling, so that you can watch 4:3 TV programs in widescreen comfortably. It is better not to display black bars on your TV screen for prolonged periods of time (especially in the first 200 hours), so you are probably better off watching most everything in "full screen" mode. This should not be much of a problem todays selection of widescreen HDTV and DVDT content.

Also, higher quality TVs tend to be more resistant to burn-in -- though not entirely immune to it. Of the plasma displays I've owned and/or tested extensively, NEC, Sony, Pioneer, and Panasonic seemed least prone to burn-in once the plasma screen was properly broken in.

Note: There are some applications which are simply not well suited to plasma display technology. The static flight schedule signage at airports, for example. It amazes me to walk into an airport and see a ruined plasma display monitor hanging from the ceiling with what is obviously an extreme case of permanent burn- in. As LCD monitors have increased in size, they are being used to replace plasma displays in this types of setting.
The Bottom Line on Burn-In

Plasma TV burn-in is not an issue that should cause undue concern in the average user. With a modicum of caution, most plasma TVs will probably never have a problem with image retention. A viewer may experience temporary ghosting, but this is not cause for alarm.

(3) Adjust the CONTRAST setting at or below 50% on your new plasma TV. These days most plasma TVs are preset to either peak or very high contrast (also called picture setting on many TVs). This forces phosphors to glow more intensely, which decreases the length of time necessary for burn-in to occur. Our advice is to reduce the contrast setting to 50% or less for the first 200 hours of use. And, be sure to avail yourself of your plasma's anti-burn-in features.


Just one thing to point out...the 50% contrast or below setting is 50% of the MAX contrast value, not 50% of the out of the box contrast setting.

What about brightness? How does brightness come into play in this scheme of things? All the articles call out contrast, but nothing is mentioned of brightness or color. I know people on this forum have said that they reduced all their settings. But why, when all that is said is to reduce the contrast ratio to 50% of the maximum value.

I'm not debating the fact that it's probably a good idea to go easy the first 100 or 200 hours of initial usage. I just want to get rid of the myths that seem to be floating around a lot.

What about brightness? How does brightness come into play in this scheme of things? All the articles call out contrast, but nothing is mentioned of brightness or color. I know people on this forum have said that they reduced all their settings. But why, when all that is said is to reduce the contrast ratio to 50% of the maximum value.

I'm not debating the fact that it's probably a good idea to go easy the first 100 or 200 hours of initial usage. I just want to get rid of the myths that seem to be floating around a lot.

Contrast affects your white/color level, brightness your blacks. Turning contrast down helps limit overall color intensity. Turning brightness down will essentially lessen detail in dark scenes, which will not have a profound effect on IR/BI.

I have a Panasonic 42inch Hidef plasma panel for the past year and a half. After entertaining some
people, and having our comcast music choice channel on, I noticed a
burned in image and bars where the 4:3 image stopped. I had it on for
a few hours.

Then, a friend gave me advice to play snow on the panel (remove the
input) overnight. Now, ALL low def images (especially graphics) have a
choppy broken look, and the black areas can clearly see shadows from
the snow?! Is this permanent? I am running the white bar scroll
screensaver all day, will this help or hurt? I can't believe how easy
it was to do this. I bought from jscreenfix the dvd pixelprotector,
that supposedly has a pattern like snow and some calibration
utilities. Will this help? I reset the panasonic back to factory
defaults, which seem bright to me.

I have recently gotten the Panasonic 50" 60U. I have watched my set with these settings from the start:

picture 22
brightness 8
color -1
tint -4
sharpness -14
color warm
black level- light

I have watched carefully with no static images and no 4:3 at all. I have watched DVDs in widescreen with the top and bottom bars for no more than 2 1/2 hours at a time and always have watched full screen TV for a few hours afterward. I have noticed no IR at all. If I continue like this, should I experience any IR or burn in? Should I even worry about this? I have not noticed even a trace of it. The picture looks fantastic. Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks...

<><

I have recently gotten the Panasonic 50" 60U. I have watched my set with these settings from the start:

picture 22
brightness 8
color -1
tint -4
sharpness -14
color warm
black level- light

I have watched carefully with no static images and no 4:3 at all. I have watched DVDs in widescreen with the top and bottom bars for no more than 2 1/2 hours at a time and always have watched full screen TV for a few hours afterward. I have noticed no IR at all. If I continue like this, should I experience any IR or burn in? Should I even worry about this? I have not noticed even a trace of it. The picture looks fantastic. Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks...

<><

I have had the same panel for 6 months now, I did a 200hr break in and since then I've gamed hours on end, watched wide screen films, sometimes several films back to back and never had any problem. At this point I'm convinced that you would really abuse your panel in order to achieve burn in. Recently HBO did the original Star Wars trilogy in HD, and showed them back to back, thats close to 8 hours of wide films with black bars, and not a hint of image retention or burn in. Now maybe if you did that every night you would have a problem, but who out there does that? In any case I belive if you use common sense you won't have any problems. By the way, great selection, the 50PX60U is IMO, the best overall value out there, and PQ is only matched by the Pioneers and exceeded by none.

I have recently gotten the Panasonic 50" 60U. I have watched my set with these settings from the start:

picture 22
brightness 8
color -1
tint -4
sharpness -14
color warm
black level- light

I have watched carefully with no static images and no 4:3 at all. I have watched DVDs in widescreen with the top and bottom bars for no more than 2 1/2 hours at a time and always have watched full screen TV for a few hours afterward. I have noticed no IR at all. If I continue like this, should I experience any IR or burn in? Should I even worry about this? I have not noticed even a trace of it. The picture looks fantastic. Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks...

<><

Your settings seem extremely low for break-in. I mean, can't hurt to run it like that. I just turned mine down below 50%, and that was mostly just the contrast. I have:
Contrast = 45
Brightness = 55
Sharpness = 2
Color = 50 (I believe, I'll have to check tonight)

According to the above, as long as the contrast is below 50% for the first 100 hours or so, you should be fine. Just make sure whatever you watch fills the screen and you'll be set. Basically just use common sense.

Your settings seem extremely low for break-in. I mean, can't hurt to run it like that. I just turned mine down below 50%, and that was mostly just the contrast. I have:
Contrast = 45
Brightness = 55
Sharpness = 2
Color = 50 (I believe, I'll have to check tonight)

According to the above, as long as the contrast is below 50% for the first 100 hours or so, you should be fine. Just make sure whatever you watch fills the screen and you'll be set. Basically just use common sense.


Are you talking about the settings for the PX60U??? If you are I think you may be making a huge mistake. As far as I know 0 is the mid setting for all panny levels, your settings for contrast Brightness and color are well beyond what most would call Torch level." None of the (prof) calibrated settings for the PX60U I've seen posted have recommended levels even close to the ones you've listed, and that's at normal viewing, not break in. Anyone else have thoughs on this???? :eek:

Are you talking about the settings for the PX60U??? If you are I think you may be making a huge mistake. As far as I know 0 is the mid setting for all panny levels, your settings for contrast Brightness and color are well beyond what most would call Torch level." None of the (prof) calibrated settings for the PX60U I've seen posted have recommended levels even close to the ones you've listed, and that's at normal viewing, not break in. Anyone else have thoughs on this???? :eek:
Those look like settings for Samsungs, where the settings go from a range of 0 to 100. Settings of 50 are at the middle.

I used break-in settings for the first 200 hours of my Samsung 4253. Now, I've notched up some contrast and brightness settings to the 55-65 range for to get more detail in dark scenes.

I'd like to point out that the PDP-5070 user's manual does not recommend going through any sort of 100-200 hrs break-in process. Think about it: if you were a manufacturer of expensive TVs would you skip putting in the manual a critical aspect of operating the TV because you assume that eventually the owner will go to avsforum to find out what they should *really* do? I'd be surprised if even a tenth of all plasma purchasers have spend any time reading a site like this one.

Ok, ok, so the manual does give the usual disclaimer about avoiding static images for "too long" (but incidentally, I have yet to see a definition of how long too long actually is.) Here's my experience though...

After I got my Pio5070, for the first few days I treated it with kid gloves and checked regularly for IR (image retention). Then maybe 3 days in I decided what could it hurt to watch one 2.35 movie? Did that, no IR. Not long after, did a bit of gaming. No IR. Watched some 4:3 std def TV. No IR. Not even a little. All this, before the 25 hour mark.

I'm somewhere in the neighbourhood of 200-300 hrs now. For most of that time, I've had my contrast set a little *higher* than the manufacturer default settings. Looking back I have pretty much watched whatever I wanted. I've played video games more/less right from the start, 3:4 std def content, 2.35 ratio movies. (Although, the 5070 has a nice stretch mode for 3:4 which I like better than black bars.) In the last few weeks, I have logged ~20 hours or more on Crackdown for the xbox 360 - which has a static heads up display. Still no IR!

I do tend to watch a fair amount of stuff that is full screen. And my personal viewing habits are such that I tend not to watch the same thing for more than a few hours at a time.

I dunno guys, given my experience with the Pio5070 I think all this talk about IR and breakin periods just creates alot of fear, uncertainty and stress for nothing!

Are you talking about the settings for the PX60U??? If you are I think you may be making a huge mistake. As far as I know 0 is the mid setting for all panny levels, your settings for contrast Brightness and color are well beyond what most would call Torch level." None of the (prof) calibrated settings for the PX60U I've seen posted have recommended levels even close to the ones you've listed, and that's at normal viewing, not break in. Anyone else have thoughs on this???? :eek:

Negative. I have the Philips 42PF9631D/37. It has a range from 0 to 100. I'm just trying to keep it below 50. When I first got it everything was turned way up.

I have to admit that I read through the owners manual and it said absolutely nothing about a break-in period. It did give a small warning about leaving static objects on the screen for long periods of time. But that was it.

The Pioneer manual made a pretty strong recommendation to use the "wide" viewing mode and the more I read about IR the more I come to the conclusion common sense will serve fine.

Don't use the torch settings all the time, but it's ok to use them some of the time.

Don't watch channels with static images, bars, or logos all the time but it's ok some of the time.

Don't watch programming with sidebars all the time, but it's ok some of the time.

etc

Negative. I have the Philips 42PF9631D/37. It has a range from 0 to 100. I'm just trying to keep it below 50. When I first got it everything was turned way up.

I have to admit that I read through the owners manual and it said absolutely nothing about a break-in period. It did give a small warning about leaving static objects on the screen for long periods of time. But that was it.


Ok, scared me for a second, thoses settings on the Panny could cook a chicken. You'll find most manufactures don't say anything official about a break in period, probably because they don't want to scare off new consumers. I'm sure there are at least some on here will insist it's not necessary, but in my mind it's always been a "better safe than sorry" kind of thing. I've owned three plasmas over the years and the only proof I have that a break in period works, is the fact that I've never experienced burn in. Plasma technology may well be at a stage where breakin periods are unnecessary, on the other hand to me a couple of hundred hours seems a small price to pay for piece of mind.