I just purchased a TH-42PX75U (almost purchased a Vizio GV42lf 1080P LCD but after much reading and comparing at the store, the Plasma just has that "Wow" factor...can put my finger on it but it just looks like it should look)

1) When gaming (or doing anything) if you have IR - is it okay to just turn of the TV? Many people say they put it to a 30 minute sleep timer and set it on Disc. HD...why is that?

2) The break in period - how necessary is it? I have also heard that the factory does a "pre break in" for almost 100 hours - is it okay to just leave it on for 72 hours straight on Discovery HD?

3) Is it true that using the feature that clears your IR will shorten the life span of the plasma? If so, why?


I can be patient on my new purchase but at the same time, I do not want to be overkill on the whole break in period and IR for games.

Thanks for the help

I just purchased a TH-42PX75U (almost purchased a Vizio GV42lf 1080P LCD but after much reading and comparing at the store, the Plasma just has that "Wow" factor...can put my finger on it but it just looks like it should look)

1) When gaming (or doing anything) if you have IR - is it okay to just turn of the TV? Many people say they put it to a 30 minute sleep timer and set it on Disc. HD...why is that?

2) The break in period - how necessary is it? I have also heard that the factory does a "pre break in" for almost 100 hours - is it okay to just leave it on for 72 hours straight on Discovery HD?

3) Is it true that using the feature that clears your IR will shorten the life span of the plasma? If so, why?


I can be patient on my new purchase but at the same time, I do not want to be overkill on the whole break in period and IR for games.

Thanks for the help

1. No. Turning off the tv does nothing. The IR will still be there when you turn it back on. The best thing to do is to put it on a channel with a picture that fills the screen, and has no stationary logos. Keep it on that channel for at least as long as you played video games.

2. Not very necessary IMO, just be careful with what you watch, and tone down your tv's contrast. Also, make sure that you keep the screen FULL, and avoid movies with black bars as well as 4:3 content with black bars for a while. Stretch everything to fill the screen. As time goes on, you will be able to worry less and enjoy more. You will still get IR on your tv from time to time, even with many hours on it, but it goes away quickly. Also, do not leave it on a channel unattended, suppose that channel has problems and puts up a screen with a fixed object, or something else goes wrong. Don't risk your purchase. Just watch full screen programming for a while.

3. Yes, this does reduce the brightness of the tv over time. There is NO NEED to use this feature unless you already have some BAD IR!. Like I said, just monitor your viewing habits and keep the screen full with no stationary logos. You are going to be fine!

Good luck, and enjoy your new plasma.

As long as you mix up your viewing it'll be fine. I've had a Panny 7uy for over 2 yrs now and have played xbox along with DVD and satellite on it.

No issues yet.

1) When gaming (or doing anything) if you have IR - is it okay to just turn of the TV? Many people say they put it to a 30 minute sleep timer and set it on Disc. HD...why is that?

Turning off is OK, but won't fix IR. Plasma phosphors, similar to CRT phosphors, wear when you light them and wear makes them dimmer. Vendors specify lifetime as when the display is 1/2 as bright as new (usually converts to something like 30 years of 8 hour a day viewing). When the wear is uneven, you see Image Retention. In order to get rid of IR, you need to wear out some of the other plasma pixels, so you need to light up the screen with video.

2) The break in period - how necessary is it?

Phosphors wear a bit faster when new and need to be lit up to harden them a bit... hence a break in period. I think all manufactures suggest break ins at low contrast for 100 hours and then another 500 hours without static logos. They claim its important, but you will hear lots of stories. I think its most important to turn the contrast and brightness down for the first few weeks and then calibrate it.

3) Is it true that using the feature that clears your IR will shorten the life span of the plasma? If so, why?

Yes, explanation above.

Many plasmas have pixel shifting features that reduce the likelihood of IR by basically moving the video around to softening the edges. You notice IR more when there is sudden change in brightness, less so when the change is gradual. Keeping the brightness down, off of torch level, also helps. Usually you will only notice IR on a solid color screen, especially a solid white calibration screen. Its hard to notice when viewing videos, so don't worry.

Thanks for the help and input everyone. I searched the forums and never found someone who directly asked the same questions and most questions about video games and plasmas quickly got off on a tangent.

From reading it seems like the break in that one should do is turning down all of their settings for the first 100 hours. I do have one more question though - when you suggest to stretch the screen...do you also do this on a movie? Are the black bars on the top and bottom also considered to be a static image much like a station logo is?

If I were to watch a BR movie from my PS3 - you would stretch the screen so it is not showing the "wide screen bars" at the top and bottom? Is this is for the initial period of watching until the TV has been viewed for a while (500-1000 hours)?

Thanks for the help and input everyone. I searched the forums and never found someone who directly asked the same questions and most questions about video games and plasmas quickly got off on a tangent.

From reading it seems like the break in that one should do is turning down all of their settings for the first 100 hours. I do have one more question though - when you suggest to stretch the screen...do you also do this on a movie? Are the black bars on the top and bottom also considered to be a static image much like a station logo is?

If I were to watch a BR movie from my PS3 - you would stretch the screen so it is not showing the "wide screen bars" at the top and bottom? Is this is for the initial period of watching until the TV has been viewed for a while (500-1000 hours)?

Hey, no problem on the answers. This forum is great, and I have learned much. Most of the people here are top notch. My answer to you on the black bars is yes. Stretch it out so you don't see them, they ARE static images. You don't have to do this every time during break in, but I would say most of the time. A lot of people hate watching a movie stretched.......I do, but for the plasma's sake, do it for the tv's first hours. After a while, you'll never have to worry about it again (for movies, you'll still have to vary content). And 500 hours is pushing it a little, I wouldn't worry after 200, so long as you're careful. In other words, don't watch content with black bars all the time even after a million hours.

OH MY GOSH! I would like to state that I have had a Samsung 67" DLP, a Vizio 42" 1080P set (both from costco) and finally this Plasma. I have seen all of the technologies in my basement plugged in and can say without a doubt in my mind plasma is in a league of its own. 720P is just fine enough because it looks about 10x better than a 1080p LCD and a 1080P DLP. Oh well, I guess the only people who will read this have already found this out! :) From here on out I will only by Plasma unless for some reason I need an LCD for a bright room, but if thats the case, I just won't put a TV in that room...

My last and final question - I have played NBA 2k8 on it for about 10 minutes tonight and saw the faintest static image on it when left with a black screen...so here is the question. This IR goes away pretty quickly when viewing TV but if I were not to watch TV in between breaks, just play the game for a couple hours, turn off the TV and then play games again tomorrow and kept this schedule for 10 days...would the IR be worse and thus need more TV time to erase it? Just curious. I have left it on DISC HD tonight and will probably let the TV take a break tomorrow afternoon and let it break in "naturally" after today.

On a side note my dad saw the television tonight and I just turned it to Standard colors for about 30 seconds (Yes I live at home and yes I am still in college) and he has been here through all TV purchases (67" dlp Samsung and 42" vizio 1080P) and this was the first one where he sat down and said "WOW! That is CLEAR!" Keep in mind he is about 60 could care less about TV's, still watches a 19" 15 year old TV a couple hours a week in the upstairs. Through all the purchases he has said "yeah, that looks nice..." but on this he was in complete awe about it...that is saying a lot considering his vision and hearing isn't the best anymore.

OH MY GOSH! I would like to state that I have had a Samsung 67" DLP, a Vizio 42" 1080P set (both from costco) and finally this Plasma. I have seen all of the technologies in my basement plugged in and can say without a doubt in my mind plasma is in a league of its own. 720P is just fine enough because it looks about 10x better than a 1080p LCD and a 1080P DLP. Oh well, I guess the only people who will read this have already found this out! :) From here on out I will only by Plasma unless for some reason I need an LCD for a bright room, but if thats the case, I just won't put a TV in that room...

My last and final question - I have played NBA 2k8 on it for about 10 minutes tonight and saw the faintest static image on it when left with a black screen...so here is the question. This IR goes away pretty quickly when viewing TV but if I were not to watch TV in between breaks, just play the game for a couple hours, turn off the TV and then play games again tomorrow and kept this schedule for 10 days...would the IR be worse and thus need more TV time to erase it? Just curious. I have left it on DISC HD tonight and will probably let the TV take a break tomorrow afternoon and let it break in "naturally" after today.

On a side note my dad saw the television tonight and I just turned it to Standard colors for about 30 seconds (Yes I live at home and yes I am still in college) and he has been here through all TV purchases (67" dlp Samsung and 42" vizio 1080P) and this was the first one where he sat down and said "WOW! That is CLEAR!" Keep in mind he is about 60 could care less about TV's, still watches a 19" 15 year old TV a couple hours a week in the upstairs. Through all the purchases he has said "yeah, that looks nice..." but on this he was in complete awe about it...that is saying a lot considering his vision and hearing isn't the best anymore.

The short answer to this question is yes, the IR will get worse using the tv in this way. You see, if you play the same game 2 hours and shut off the tv, you are not giving the tv a chance to do away with the IR. If you should play the same game the next day, you will compound the problem. The more you leave static images (hud, tickers, etc.) on, the LONGER it will take to get rid of the image retention. This happened to me as I played Forza 2 for a few days on mine, and noticed the speedometer retained on my set. It took me a few days of full screen viewing to get rid of it. After this, I just shut off the spedo when I was playing the game. Options like fading huds or just shutting certain fixed images off in video games is great if you can live without the information. Like I said before, just use some common sense. After your done playing, leave the tv on full screen programming with no static images for AT LEAST the same amount of time that you gamed for. I was paranoid for a while at first, just be smart and you should never have any problems.

Enjoy the plasma, and I agree, they are the best.
Damon