just got a new plasma, is this great buy?and new to this forum, Have questions?

Despite what anyone here *suggests, read your tv manual and follow its instructions first.

You will encounter image retention (IR), and some will wipe clean faster than others, but most if not all IR will fade. The tv will typically get better with some age (months rather than hours I say).

Your manual will tell you how to activate the pixel shift function

I play 360 on my Samsung plasma and I started right out of the box, break in is a clique rather than a fact, do some reading here and make your own mind up. I do get IR but it does wipe away in less than 30min (7 legendary Halo hours trying to kill two F%*(&^ Scarab tanks). Permanent burn is nearly a myth, in fact the only perm burn I have seen is on early plasma models used as leaderboards and baggage claim wards, and I bet that would wash away nearly clean after some good tv viewing.

Congrats on your purchase! The PZ77U's are great TV's, no doubt. If you haven't already, you may want to skim through this thread, which is dedicated to that model:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=938089

I agree I think Burn in just wastes energy and life of your set.

Just be a little extra careful (conservative) with settings for the first few months and try to keep it on full screen and you'll be fine.

If you see IR, don't panic, ignore it use it on full screen and a couple days later it will probably be gone.

The pixel shifter is always on in the Panasonics.

As HDPeet said, the pixel shifter is always ON in the Panasonics so there is no adjustment required. Addtionally, based on postings in the PZ700 thread, very few owners actually see IR of any kind. I've played PS3 (on VIVID) from the beginning and have never seen any IR. In fact a number of us never did any kind of "break-in" procedures at all (except reducing PICTURE setting to 0), rather just watched TV as we usually would and STILL never had any IR. However, if you want to get through the 100 hour "break-in" faster and are concerned about IR on your set, just leave your set on HD Discovery for 10 hrs/day and you'll be done in 10 days (especially if you're anxious to get that PICTURE setting back up to 20+ as most are). With a 1/2 life of 60,000 hours, you're hardly shortening it's life span by speeding through the first 100.

Edit: I just found your other thread indicating you are already "freaking out" about some IR. It would seem you should speed through the first 100 hours as suggested. Any IR you experience should be gone quicker after that and generally in just a few minutes. One guy said in order to test his new set, he left it on a static image for 5 hours and it STILL only took about 5 minutes of watching some HD programming to wipe the IR away. Another benefit of speeding through the first 100 hours is it still gives you time to evaluate the set and still be inside the vendor's 30 day (or whatever it is) return policy.