Who has burned in a new plasma gaming?  

Thats a good question. I've been thinking of the same thing. I really like the Plasma's display. But just thinking of "burn-in" issues has me considering LCD. I plan on using an XBOX 360 and the XBOX HD-DVD Player on either a Plasma or LCD. Then I read that gaming on LCD can give you the "ghosting" problems. Theres so much to research and way too many TV's to choose from.

Burn-in is uneven wearing of the phosphors on the screen, if it occurs there is nothing you can do to get rid of it.

The temporary "shadow" I've never heard of but could convievably be caused by an overheated shadow mask which plasma's don't have. At any rate, it would go away with no ill effects once things cooled back down.

The risk of burn in on a plasma is no more than on a traditional CRT direct view set. For the vast majority of people it is so slim they don't need to worry about it. However, it you like to pause your games and leave your TV on while you are at school/work all day then yeah you'll probably get some burn in. Also, if you are a hardcore fanatic about one particular game and only play that one then you may see some burn in after a few months/years from the static images associated with the game. The same thing will happen if you watch a lot of football and they leave that station watermark in the same spot.

I currently have a Pioneer 1130HD and I am strongly considering getting an LCD to use for gaming because of image retention issues.

It's not so bad if I only play for an hour or two, but when I have friends over or get a hot new game, I can easily play for eight hours straight. If I do this with something like a racing title which has gauges displayed on the screen, I get VERY noticeable image retention (no permanent burn in, though--THANK GOD!! ;) ).

Thus far, I have been able to get rid of the image retention by playing DVDs for hours on end when I'm not gaming (I don't have cable or I'd probably just leave the TV on overnight--of course, you'd have to make sure that you pick a channel without a ticker/logo). My current choice for wiping out image retention is an anime like Magical Nurse Komugi--I figure that the bright colors are probably better at resetting the screen than some dark movie, but that's pure speculation on my part.

Anyway, it's getting kind of annoying dealing with this, which is why I want to get an LCD to wheel out for those marathon gaming sessions. Since those Westinghouse 32" LCDs are only like $700, I figure that's more than worth it for the peace of mind it will provide.

On an Australian forum it was suggested that you switch to analogue TV broadcast, disconnect your TV antenna and leave the TV playing "snow" overnight.
That should get rid of any issues with image retention.

AFAIK, as long as you are careful in the first 100 hours then there shouldn't be an issue.

Game w/ my 360 on my S5053 plasma.... looks incredible (much better than my LG 37" LCD) and haven't experienced any burn in. You will experience some slight IR sometimes, but this goes away for me after a couple minutes of regular viewing. Don't be afraid to game on a Plasma, just be smart about it and avoid 24hr long gaming sessions. If you play for 2-3 hr spurts at a time you will be fine.

Get the Panny, you won't be sorry. 50" of HD sweetness. Just break it in and keep the settings low.
I've had last years Panny for 1.5 years. After about 5 months I watched 3 hours of SDTV with grey side bars. I turned it to an HD channel and saw a different shade of side bars. I watched them disappear in about 5 seconds right before my eyes. That was the first and only time I ever saw IR. Aside from the break in period, I never stretch movies to fill the screen, watch all Sd shows in 4:3 and can play hours of the same video game.
For a casual games like myself, I highly recommend a plasma. For a hardcore gamer I'd recommend an LCD though.

YES!
I have the Toshiba 42HP95 (Same glass as Panasonic) that I bought specifically for Xbox360. Out of the box, I lowered the contrast and brightness a TON (below half), I watched tv for the first two or three weeks only playing games for an hour or so at a time. After all of that, at times I would play games for hours at a time and never had any kind of image retention at all. If I go away from the tv for a while and I have something paused, I simply shut the set off. Why take chances?

I now also have the ps3 hooked up to it with no worries and sometimes watch programming with very BOLD logos (ESPN HD) and it is not a concern due to my experiences.

My brother also has the 50" version with 4 kids and a careless wife (in terms of care of a plasma) and he never has image retention or burn in. < - That is what sold me on the panel in the first place.

A friend of mine has a Samsung LCD (Newer version 40" piano black frame) and video games look neat (for lack of a better term), I guess I would buy one specifically for gaming, however any video or programming I have seen on it just looks unrealistic and flat. The lag is a huge deal breaker and quite noticable at times.... 8ms... yeah right.


Good luck with your decision.

My kids have been playing xbox a ton on our Pioneer 50" plasma for 2 years now and there isn't one iota of burn in anywhere on that screen. The games played the most, Madden 2006, Burnouts 2 & 3, Sonic Heroes (i think?), morrowind..

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as well. I picked up a PS3 a few weeks ago and just purchased a Hitachi 42HDS69, I didn't know about the flicker issues until after I bought it so hopefully mine will be one of the ones that are affected or I don't notice it. Plus, I got a killer deal on it the day after Thanksgiving. Anyway, I knew about the burn in possiblity before I purchased the plasma but when I actually started to read about it I started getting nervous. A lot of people have said definitely not to get a plasma but then again a lot are saying they are fine. How careful do you have to be with the plasmas? Are the people saying not to game on plasmas speaking from experience or just forum rumors about old plasmas? I don't want to ruin an expensive TV by playing games on it.

No Burn-in here using PC to Panny 42 60U. But another user I've spoken to reported some after a 10 hr WoW stretch.

Don't think I'll be playing for 10 hrs at a time. I'll be smart and limit it to, at most, 2 hours without stopping.

I agree with the above posts. I have a new 42" Panny 600U and am still in the break-in period. The most I've played is two levels of Call of Duty 3 in one sitting and do notice some image retention (ammo meter in the lower right corner and compass in the lower left), however, this goes away in about ten seconds simply by playing a full screen channel. I am holding off on watching a 2.35:1 movie until I finish the break-in period just to be safe. I think you'll be fine as long as you don't game for more than a few hours at a time and do you best to mix things up along the way.

One more thing: When downloading something from Xbox Live or the PS3 online store, try not to keep the same screen up while the download is in progress. At this time, I thikn you have to keep the PS3 screen up during the download or it will cancel. In that case, simply switch to the cable input and watch some tv until your download finishes.

Yep, I have a S5053 as well and play Madden 07 on my XBox 360 for hours on end. While there is some slight imagine retention of the damn game/profile bar afterwards. After I watched regular TV or run the screen burn protection for a little while, all is well again!

But when IR first happened, I thought ruined the unit!

Haha yeah dude, when I first got my plasma I was an idiot about it and had the settings way to high. So anyway, after a nice two hour session of Guitar Hero 2 I saw a nice bold ROCK icon on the lower left hand corner of my screen. That was the closest I'd come to crying in like 15 years. All is well though, few hours of watching regular tv and the IR was gone. I'm not an expert, but I think you really have to try to get burn-in on these newer sets.