Retained (burnt in?) Black Bars on Top and Bottom of Image due to widescreen movies..  

what brand/model do you have?

Your dark bars are NOT caused by black bars during widescreen movies or 4:3 tv. They would cause light colored bars, not dark colored bars.

http://www.plasmasaver.com/burnin.html

There is no need to use some idiotic break-in DVD... If the uneven phosphor wear is not too embedded on your display... for the time being, perhaps hundreds of hours, be sure everything you display uses the full-screen to hopefully even out the phosphor wear. For now, I'd recommend avoiding any use of black bars.

Plasma Facts and Myths Panasonic Presents Advice From the Video Purist Perspective

Why run your display if you're not going to be watching it?

I'd also recommend being careful running your PDP while its unattended... it has been reported the so-called "break in" DVD may be caught in a loop where it doesn't begin playing automatically again when finished and leaves a static image on the PDP.

Watching "any" full screen content achieves the same goal (i.e. evenly wearing the phosphors) as the almighty break in DVD.

Phosphor decay rate exponentially slows. It starts off faster, and over time it slows down, which is why many advocate breaking in your set for the first 200-300 hours. Watch full screen for a while, and eventually the brighter area will even out with the rest of the phosphors.

Just watch full screen for a while. If you run the break in dvd your problem will probably still exist after many hours. Watching something that fills up your screen on the other hand, will probably get rid of the problem after about an hour or so. What your eye sees is the very defined straight lines on the top and bottom where the black bars started and the image stopped. Watching any program will introduce random colors which will eventually mask this problem because the pixels will decay ad random rates. I know that probably doesn't make much sense the way I explained it but take my word for it. They will go away.

Watch varied content on full screen and it should go away.
I would not run the Break in DVD ... that is for break in (logging hours under controlled circumstances)...not IR reduction.

Clear your mind and Repeat after us...
Varied content full screen
Varied content full screen
Varied content full screen

very good now go do it

Egads men. (3) voices of reason all posting in-a-row... (dlconner/NeptunesFinest/bvader) with no one from the "let's throw caution to the wind" crowd flaming in-between?... the stars must have been aligned just right yesterday.

Check your TV manual to see if your TV comes with any burn-in prevention programs.

After owning my Samsung 4253 for just 3 weeks, I've caused a minor amount of burn-in due to excessive use of the analog closed-captions. I was able to see the two rows of where the closed captions text were appearing when my screen showed white images. The TV's analog captions use bright white text, with a black background. I did wonder whether that contrast of white on black could cause burn-in, and it sure did.

My TV comes with some burn-in prevention programs, which I've since run for a few hours, and it's almost completely eliminated the burn-in. I can still see a bit of residual burn-in, but other people probably won't notice it.

Even after over 500 hours, I'm still not watching letterboxed DVD's on my Panny, even though I want to. I don't get visible letterbox retention afterwards unless it's on an all black screen, but call it the plasma paranoia or whatever, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, even if it is temporary and every time I've gotten the retention some full screen has cleared it up.

please continue here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=608677