Break in

It depends on exactly why you're "breaking it in", and what kind of aging procedure you're going to be using.

Are you going to get it ISF Calibrated soon?

Or are you just scared of getting IR/Burn-In?

What brand/model is the TV?

Yea I am curious about this too as I am getting a plasma tomorrow and it will be my first

According to experienced ISF Calibrators, breaking the TV in won't reduce the chance of the panel getting IR or Burn In. Since you're not having the TV ISF Calibrated, it doesn't really matter if you run some sort of "break in" procedure or not. Whether you run Evangelo's "break in" slides or display various HD wallpaper images or just watch various content, the panel will settle in all on it's own during the first 100-200 hours or so, sometimes longer. Lots of us don't do any sort of break in and we watch letterbox movies and sports and news as soon as we set up the TV and don't have any IR problems.

If you "break in" using the slides, just put the TV into Custom mode and use the factory default picture settings and set the Slideshow speed to Slow and after 100 hours of this the panel should be fully settled in (per D-Nice's method).

If you "break in" using regular content, i'd just use somewhat subdued Contrast setting (maybe 70%?) in Custom or THX or Cinema mode and watch it normally for a few hundred hours.

Basically this eventually stabilizes the panel so that your picture settings adjustments stick. The gamma and gray scale changes during the first 100-200 hours so any initial picture adjustments you do will change a little while the panel is settling in so the final picture adjustments should be done after this period.


That seems to vary widely from panel to panel. Some of us can watch the same news and sports channels and even game for hours and hours and any Logo/HUD IR we get is very temporary and goes away within seconds or minutes after switching to other content, while other people's IR stays for much much longer. Some people here get stubborn IR just from having the settings menu up on the screen for several minutes while the rest of us have no such issue. Maybe i'm lucky, or maybe other people are unlucky.
Edited by RandyWalters - 1/4/13 at 7:26am

Agreed . . . but it does help 'age' each pixel . . .
but if use the default Custom settings, you might as well skip the aging. D-Nice video settings are here
Edited by JForge - 12/26/12 at 11:47pm

The answer to that question is . . . you won't know unless you try them to see if you like them. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
The "custom" settings are good as are the "THX" settings. Many like the THX better. "Vivid" is for a bright room for football.

Regarding the "aging" of each pixel, D-Nice is clear that you MUST set the video values to what he wrote. Again, the object is to AGE each pixel and age each equally. If you use the default values, you will NEVER age them compared to D-Nice's settings.

Picture Mode: Custom
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 50
Color: 70
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 50
Color Temp: Cool2
Photo Enhancement: Off
C.A.T.S: Off
Video NR: Off

Good luck. . .

They're just panel aging settings that D-Nice used for running the 100 hour slideshow with Evangelo's break-in images. His panel aging settings for the 30 series (Custom mode with a Contrast setting of 100% etc) were different than the method he used for the 50 series models that's all. Remember all you're doing is aging the panel with slides so it really doesn't matter if you use his 30 series method, or the different method he used on the 50 series which is to just leave it in Custom mode with the factory default settings for 100 hours. The 30 series panel aging procedure will accomplish the same thing in your situation, presuming you have a 2012 Panasonic (you never did tell us your TV's brand or model number).

I just plugged it in ,watched and enjoyed the heck out of the TV the moment it came out of the box...Why over complicate it..Its a TV ,watch it

Well to be fair, every Plasma i've bought or have set up for friends, family, neighbors, and customers have looked "harsh" for the first hour or two even after inputting known good settings. The picture quality definitely changes quite a bit during the first few hours and even the first few days before the panel starts to settle in, and it continues to improve over the next few weeks even if those settings aren't changed. I've seen this many times on many sets. I must say i did not enjoy my first few dozen hours of TV watching while my panel was first settling in.

Using a panel aging procedure (AKA "break-in" procedure) does help prep the panel sooner so you can go back and more accurately dial in your user settings. There is some value to doing this, even if you're not going to input D-Nice's Reference Settings or have the TV ISF Calibrated.