I want to game for 4-5 hr periods.

I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, there's a feature that helps remove image retention. Forgot what it's called but you can run it every hour or so until you have used your HDTV for at least 100-200 hours.

If anything you will get IR but it goes away. So game away my friend and do not worry about it.

Permanent? No. Takes many days of a static image. Actually you would have to game non-stop for weeks without turning the set off or switching to other content. Doesn't happen.

IR? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the game and the set you chose. On a good set, any IR would wash away usually immediately and would not be at all bothersome. On the best sets, you wouldn't even see any. Store-brand sets may have longer-term IR, but it still wouldn't be permanent.

I say go for it. Countless people who have posted here routinely game on their plasmas for hours and hours. The same PQ elements that make their sets great for regular content hold true for games as well (contrast, motion resolution, viewing angle etc...). IR is now a small, small issue. Everyone has many questions about it, but as a reported problem on these forums, it is pretty low on the list. Lots of other issues are much more prevalent in every kind of tech.

Just saw that you are considering the 50pz800u, which is very good at preventing IR. It doesn't have basically perfect IR resistance like the pioneer kuros, but it is probably the next best thing. Even with this being said, it is a small thing and I still don't think you should bother to take this factor in to consideration. If the 50pz800 is the set for you PQ/value wise (a good choice btw), game away. I think this set falls in to the category of possibly seeing IR, but having it wash away quickly if you do. Games with a high-contrast HUD that never changes (like when a cutscene happens) would be the most likely to have some after several hours.

I regularly game for 4-7 hour time periods on the little brother Panasonic set (50px80u) and have no IR problems at all (i.e. never see IR over regular content). I waited about 100 hours before I did this though, just to give my tv some time to get nice and strong!

right now I play for about 4-5 hours on my 800u, and it is perfectly fine. If I am playing a FPS or anything with a stationary life bar or HUD, there may be a little IR when I am done, but I just run the scrolling bar 2 maybe 3 times and it is all gone. IR is not anything to worry about because I goes away really quick. As far as burn in is concerned, just be smart and dont leave a game paused for 8 hours on torch mode. THX mode and you'll be gravvy.

HAhaha game away bro! i have a 2007 model 720p panasonic PX75u and i game EVERY day 90% of usuage is gaming! the trick is to mix content if you feel "concern" so lets say i play GTA4 for 5hrs (killing cops causing chaos is fun) then i decide to play GH and beat xbl people for another 4+ hrs then some H3.

the other 5% is watching 4:3 / 16x9 tv and 5% is movies.

No burn in at all whatso ever, Ir ? yes but it goes away within mins of watching or playing a diffrent game, think gta4 hud 5hrs then switch to gh3 the hud on gta4 clears up.

MAKE SURE to break in the tv FIRST ~ you can use the break in disc to evenly wear all phosphors or watch a movie make sure to fill in the screen if black bars are on movie. and loop it,

once its broken in (150hrs or more better) which is about 6 days, the more it breaks in the harder it is to get temporarly IR, keep in mind the pannys are already good with IR.

oh and you can game during the first hundred hrs just limit it and mix and match.

also theirs a way to accelerate the break in process

to do this make sure it is ONLY on the break in disc and NOT on anything else, what you do is crank up the contrast / picture settings and the phosphors will get worked out faster.

remember if you accelerate make sure not to use those settings other then break in disc

Game On Dude!

But the standard break in process is to set brightness and contrast to 50% for the break in DVD for 200hrs?

What settings should be used to accelerate the process? 80% contrast/brightness for 150hrs?

This is for a Panasonic TH42PX80.

be your best judgement its not critical to match exact numbers, the ideal is to make phsophers get an active excercise run...

REMEMBER dont leave those settings in ANYTHING else other then the loop break in.

normaly it says to reduce the contrast / brightness 50% less then how it comes new and its CORRECT IF you are watching tv,

but by doing that method it only takes LONGER to break in the tv

so by doing the oppisite it s "accelerating" and pushing it to get into the shift that it does every 1k hrs.

and you can leave your tv non stop if you wish ( i did) 150hrs is about 6 days. after 150hrs-200 hrs you can do as you like but remember the more you break it in to that 1 thousand hrs mark the better it is.

especially if its even wear (what the break in does) rather then being on the new tv with black bars or what ever...

which is no big because i dont think someone is going to keep their display for 10+ yrs

I've been gaming quite extensively on my Samsung plasma from day 1 and have never seen IR.

i have the 50pz800u and i play 360 all the time on it. since i work for a big box i tried it, i left the dashboard on for a entire shift 12hrs and came home, changed the input to see, there was a lil image, once i changed it to a different screen it went right away... so IR is not a problem at all, i tried it out for about 13hrs, 30 min to work, 30 min back home and 12hrs working lol.

I game alot on the older panny 65pz750u and never bothered breaking it in. Never had a hint of IR even when just sitting in the H3 lobby while waiting for a game to start.

RyanW2050 as you can see nothing but positive results from plasma gamers

wow where is he

I have been putting 4-5 hours at a time in on my Panasonic plasma playing Zelda Twilight Princess (a game I consider to be a plasma killer in terms of IR) over the last week and my Panasonic (42px75) has had no issues with it at all. Game away and enjoy it after a mild break-in (just be cautious during the first month) and never worry about gaming again.

Holy Crap, and I thought that my IR stress tests were hard on a plasma.

Try that same test with a black bar movie set to a loop for the same amount of time and post the results.

pendragon i dont see why you are botherd but black bars (i read your past posts) surely your set has past over 500 hrs right?

I'm more worried about long term effects than anything else (that and the fact that 7 hours of Lord of the Rings took 10 hours to fade fully has me worried a bit)

are you going to keep the set longer then 8-10yrs? if no then you got your answer

You know I've heard so much about 4:3 black bars but I wonder if super wide aspect ratio movies will ever become an issue. I'd like to keep my set for the next 10 years instead of having to purchase another set every 5 years.

well calculate the amount of hrs you are roughly going to use lets say 12hrs(day) x 365 (days)= 4,380(hrs in a year) x 10 ( years) = 43,800 keep in mind this is 12 hrs aprox and its not going to be each hour 4:3 or 16x9 or 2:35:1

and once (if) you reach that point you just do a few clicks up on brightness and problem solved.

But im sure by 7yrs from now (at most) technology advancements will be so far advance that it will justify the purchase upgrade.

gus738,

Thanks for the info, I'll opt for the accelerated break in and use higher settings for break in and lower settings for TV viewing until after 150-200hrs.

I'm not going to keep the TV on non-stop though, probably 8-10hrs a day so it'll take me a few weeks to get to 200hrs.

Does normal TV viewing count towards the break in hours with the lower brightness/contrast?

Yes vegeta (DBZ rocks btw) by nature it has to happen since you are aging the phosphors by watching tv

I bought a Pioneer Elite pr-110 fd earlier this year and broke it in for the first 150hrs non stop, was done in about 7 days. Now I only played games on it, VF 5, forza 2, gears all games with huds, some large white huds AND...

I had 0 ... count it 0 incidents with image retention. I think the first 150-200 hrs of the plasma is when its most prone to image retention! Break it with dnice settings for the first 150 or 200 hrs and then never worry about it again, just make sure the contrast isn't over 35ish on the Pioneer Kuro's or the equivalent on the Panny.

I am a huge gamer and I cant recommend enough the Pio or Panny plasma, I must stress to also put the plasma in game mode, it reduces lag to almost NONE, so it feels just like a crt !! ENJOY!!!

Probably, even after I get a new TV I will keep this as a secondary TV.

I am probably a bit over paranoid, but I didn't even get to finish my IR test with LotR (I wanted to watch all three back to back, but only got to watch the first two) and the IR lasted longer than the movie was on.... (10 hours to fade 100%) this is opposite of how long all other IR took to fade normally (longest IR for me before that was 1/3 of the time it was on screen, which was also black bar IR from a blu-ray movie) this has me worried going forward because I like to watch movie series like that back to back on occasion. (my black bar viewing has gone down over 75% since I got my plasma because of the fear of uneven wear.) I only watch movies with black bars now for critical viewing or when I want to enjoy the movie, all casual viewing of black bars has pretty much stopped for me.

no disrespect or anything but i find it hard to belive you are going to keep what wil be consider very old technology in the upcoming years, furthermore the cost will be much less and PQ will improve dramticaly of course and chances are your electricy bill will be less

I would get rid if it because 1k would buy me more then

What would be the point of getting rid of it? I couldn't even get 1/4 of what I paid for it when I do decide to sell it. (and I want to eventually have nothing but flat panels in every room)

I bought my PX80 and it came with a 5yr free guarantee. I plan to keep this TV until it is unrepairable and if something better comes out, the PX80 will be relegated to the bedroom or game room or something so I'm also planning on taking good care of it but if it breaks within guarantee and is unrepairable, the shop will give me a like-for-like model at the time or store credit