This is just a theory of mine, and it may have been said before.

When phosphor based CRT's were the thing - we were warned not to allow games to remain static on the screen or there was the possibility of burn in. It seemed to be more of a problem (but still rare) when we saw big screens first come out. Seemed the larger screen CRT projo made burn in more of a possibility.
That said - there was still only a few instances that I would see, and we sold a lot of sets. Most of the time, there was never a problem.
Now we have phosphor based PDP's - in the 16.9 format - starting at 42" (excepting a couple of 38"). We buy these sets and there is still a lot of 4.3 content out there - plus the PDP's have a really bright screen at full tilt at the outset.
I really don't think we have any more problems with burn in today with these PDP's than we did when we had large screen 4.3 CRT projo's. - AS LONG AS THE SCREEN IS FILLED UP during the aging process, and games are used with reason. With some time it will be less and less of an issue - as the pixels will age appropriately and evenly.
The thing that has really changed is that the new sets are 16.9, and there is still a lot of 4.3 content. If someone buys a new PDP and watches tons of 4.3 in torch mode to start with or does the obviously bad thing with static images, they will have problems.
To me - the sales people who slam PDP are just lazy and don't know their facts. One day it will all be 16.9 content, and the problems with IR will more than likely disappear completely for the most part. I just hope PDP's can stand the storm of mis-information and negativity till then. :rolleyes:

Agreed. I have been in the display world for 26 years and sold both LCD and plasma technologies. The burn in issue is real for plasmas if you use them for digital signage/advertising where the image is static for a long period of time. You are right that the phosphor aging issue (and therefore, burn-in) is more of an implied threat instead of a real one.

If you go out of your way to heavily use certain pixels (phosphors) in a fixed pattern, they will give up their light output ahead of the other less used pixels. In almost all cases, you can only see this on a full white screen on a plasma. Why would the average home user put up a white screen and stare at it. With stronger phosphors, more gas, higher pressures, and image moving tricks in the video processors, it is darn hard to mess up a plasma unless you really want to.

There are strengths and weakness with all the technologies and none of them are flawless. But sales people spreading lies and half-truths don't help anyone.

What is considered a "long period of time"?

With stronger phosphors, more gas, higher pressures, and image moving tricks in the video processors, it is darn hard to mess up a plasma unless you really want to.

There are strengths and weakness with all the technologies and none of them are flawless. But sales people spreading lies and half-truths don't help anyone.

Here we go again.. DBLASS, I KNOW you read some of my responses on this, so I'm not going to explain this to you again... However, I feel I must re-state: Burn-in resistance has been improved because of several factors in the past years, NONE of which have anything to do with putting "more gas" in, or increasing the pressure in the plasma discharge chamber. Sorry.

Just received and set up my Pioneer Elite 940 last week. I am being very careful what I watch as far as no black sidebars, but I have noticed that a lot of the channels will leave their logo up on the screen continously. There are commercials every 10 minutes or so but is this anything to worry about. I also watch a lot of sports where the score is displayed at the top and a ticker is running constantly at the bottom. Again is the commercial breaks often and long enough to take care of this worry. I have my family afraid to even use the new set.

Just received and set up my Pioneer Elite 940 last week. I am being very careful what I watch as far as no black sidebars, but I have noticed that a lot of the channels will leave their logo up on the screen continously. There are commercials every 10 minutes or so but is this anything to worry about. I also watch a lot of sports where the score is displayed at the top and a ticker is running constantly at the bottom. Again is the commercial breaks often and long enough to take care of this worry. I have my family afraid to even use the new set.

Do not worry about this, the breaks are more than enough to "reset" things. Logos are a pain but are also not a huge deal. After a 2.35:1 movie, especially a long one I will see a BRIEF image retention ( or lack thereof ) where the black bars were. This stays for about 5-7 seconds and then disappears.

What Im saying is to NOT be afraid of the TV! You paid good money for it, watch it, love it, cherish it! ;)

Just received and set up my Pioneer Elite 940 last week. I am being very careful what I watch as far as no black sidebars, but I have noticed that a lot of the channels will leave their logo up on the screen continously. There are commercials every 10 minutes or so but is this anything to worry about. I also watch a lot of sports where the score is displayed at the top and a ticker is running constantly at the bottom. Again is the commercial breaks often and long enough to take care of this worry. I have my family afraid to even use the new set.
If you only watch the channel with the same logo, then you need to run some other channels/materials in additon. If that represents <1/2 of your viewing then between the commercails and the other channels/materials you should be ok.

Same with sports. Just try to make sure that tickers represent <1/2 of your viewing. In the short term (say a given week you can go over that ratio, but if you watch >50% of material with a ticker over a long period of time (months/years), eventually you'll get some IR.

Well.....I am a rank newbie here and this is my first post.

I purchased a Pioneer PDP4272HD on December 30,2006. My cable company (Suddenlink) only offers 4 HD channels right now so most of my viewing has been in 4:3.

I now have what looks like "burn-in" on the outer edges where the 4:3 mask is.

Have I screwed up my new plasma tv already? Is there anything I can do?

Well.....I am a rank newbie here and this is my first post.

I purchased a Pioneer PDP4272HD on December 30,2006. My cable company (Suddenlink) only offers 4 HD channels right now so most of my viewing has been in 4:3.

I now have what looks like "burn-in" on the outer edges where the 4:3 mask is.

Have I screwed up my new plasma tv already? Is there anything I can do?
Check your manual to see if you have any screen burn utilities that come with the TV. My Samsung 4253 comes with 3 utilities, 1 which is called a Signal Pattern that does a sort of screen wipe every 10 seconds. It helped me get rid of some minor burn-in from excessive analog closed captions use in the first 3 weeks.

As for watching 4:3 content, I tend to use the zoom-in functions to fill up the sides of the screen.

Here we go again.. DBLASS, I KNOW you read some of my responses on this, so I'm not going to explain this to you again... However, I feel I must re-state: Burn-in resistance has been improved because of several factors in the past years, NONE of which have anything to do with putting "more gas" in, or increasing the pressure in the plasma discharge chamber. Sorry.


Your are right. Increasing the gas and putting it under higher pressure keeps the displays from hitting half life longer. It has no bearing on burn in.

Are we in basic agreement?

DB

Have I screwed up my new plasma tv already? Is there anything I can do?

Yes, go to the Flat Panel forum, and burn the Break in disk. It's a 16 hour disc that shows full 16:9 imagery with varying gradients. Basically it wears all your pixels evenly.

Whenever you are not watching your Plasma, play that DVD. Put your Pioneer on Standard or Dynamic settings while playing that DVD, and use slightly lower settings while watching your TV. This will make your mask phosphors catch up.

It may be a lil bit, but if you can keep that running 24/7, the masks should be significantly reduced/unnoticeable within a ~week. Just keep the 4:3 content limited to 4-6 hours a day ... and 16 hours of that break in DVD.

Yes, go to the Flat Panel forum, and burn the Break in disk. It's a 16 hour disc that shows full 16:9 imagery with varying gradients. Basically it wears all your pixels evenly.

Whenever you are not watching your Plasma, play that DVD. Put your Pioneer on Standard or Dynamic settings while playing that DVD, and use slightly lower settings while watching your TV. This will make your mask phosphors catch up.

It may be a lil bit, but if you can keep that running 24/7, the masks should be significantly reduced/unnoticeable within a ~week. Just keep the 4:3 content limited to 4-6 hours a day ... and 16 hours of that break in DVD.


Thank you very much. I will give it a try