IR or possible burn on panny UT50

Well, all Panny sets are different with IR. Luckily, my 42UT50 is pretty strong against IR, but I make sure I moderate how long a still image is displayed on the set. In your post, you stated you played Borderlands for 4-5 hours straight, which is pretty much why you got this IR. Don't game for so long on these sets, it's not even healthy to play a video game for that long. You do not have burn in, you might just have stubborn IR. Since you played Borderlands for 4-5 hours, what I suggest doing is putting a library of music into a USB stick, plugging that into your Xbox 360, and going to the media part and play your songs and go into visual mode, where you see all those vibrant, dynamic colors. Do this for 10 hours approximately, then check to see how your set is looking. If you can still see the IR, add another 5 hours of playing.

During like the first week of owning my 42UT50, I fell asleep after watching an episode of Lost on Netflix. I slept for eight hours while the still image of the Netflix menu was on there. It took me roughly 16 hours to get rid of.

Best of luck to you, friend.

I ended up getting some pretty resilient IR after about a month of playing Battlefield 3 for 2 hours, 3-4 times a week. That's on a Samsung. Yesterday, I left the TV on with the scrolling feature enabled for about 11-12 hours, and all the IR is pretty much gone. I'm sure if I did another round of it, the IR would be completely eliminated.

I don't think you've done anything to permanently damage your set, honestly. So, I'd suggest doing something similar to what Jawzey said. I'm not sure about your Panny model, but, if it does, enable the scrolling/white wash feature when you wake up one morning, and let it run all day. Should clean it up in one go, if not, two.

Ah, I forgot about the scrolling feature. I've used that on my Panny as well and it works great! The only downside with it is that it will stop after about 10 minutes I think (don't quote me on that), so if you choose to do use this feature, make sure you or someone else is in the room to moderate it. IR is truly not a big deal once you learn how to use the set and how to properly take care of it.

@Jawzey: The 10 minute limit couldn't be due to the set's auto-off feature, could it? My Samsung turns itself off after not detecting an input device for 10 minutes, unless I disable that feature in the Eco settings. The TV doesn't count the white wash as an input source, so it will turn off if that setting is enabled.

@danny001: Does the set turn itself off, or does the white wash simply disable? Pure speculation here, but take a look in your power-saving/Eco settings and see if there's some kind of setting that would cause that.

To answer your question, typically, it depends on the age of the TV, as well as what exactly you're doing with it. If you play a game for a couple hours, turn the TV off, and then come back the next day and play the same game again, chances are, you're going to get burn-in if you do this repeatedly for several days/weeks.

My plasma is generally meant for gaming, but I do a little TV watching as well. I do make it a point to just leave the TV on DirecTV for a while after I'm done gaming in order to let any residual IR wash out and lessen the chances of burn-in. However, in order to get rid of nearly all the IR I had after my bouts of BF3 gaming, I had to leave the white wash on for 12 hours. Mind you, the IR was really only visible on a white screen, but I assume another 6 hours, and all traces of the IR would've been gone. That's AFTER letting my TV play movies, or running the white wash for a couple hours after EVERY 2-hour gaming session. Incredible, no?

Yeah, having your contrast cranked like that can definitely increase your risk of IR. With my TV calibrated, my contrast sits at 60%. Different TV's though, so I'd recommend you either buy a good calibration disc (I've heard good things about Disney WoW and Spears & Munsil), or you can use the method I used here: http://lifehacker.com/5858625/how-to-calibrate-your-hdtv-and-boost-your-video-quality-in-30-minutes-or-less

I played a few hours of Borderlands tonight, and ended up with some pretty good IR on a white screen with my set calibrated pretty well. Just be careful with your contrast settings and be sure to moderate your gaming time. Good luck.