Master Burn-In/IR/Break In Thread Part II: All Posts Here Only - Page 105

I just turned down the sharpness and it fixed the clarity of the Pandora logo. The xbox menu stuff seems to be gone, as expected. The IR was probably only there for a few minutes. But Pandora remains.

I have an old AVIA disc that I used on my old RPTV for calibration, but need to get something more recent before I get into the nitty gritty. But it does seem that the THX settings are rather popular for quick and easy settings. I just need to turn the sharpness down and see how that affects things.

I had read that the THX settings are not adjustable? Did I read wrong or misunderstand your post? (still waiting for delivery on my 50GT30).

You can adjust much of it, but not the pro settings. I recently turned the sharpness down on the THX settings, from 75 down to 20.

Funny enough, the Pandora logo is still visible but slowly receding, but now I can make out the station names and faint outlines of the previous songs on the screen. BUT only when I have a solid color (usually green or white) on the screen, and if I am looking for it.

I know I am being OCD about it. I should just use the TV like normal, as the IR should go away. It will probably just take a while. Right?

It should go away over time, I have seen very few sets that had true burn in and did not go away. 15 to 20 is a good point for sharpness for these sets.

I had a similar problem that took over two months for it to go away. It's called Heavy Image-Retention.

My settings in THX Mode:
Contrast: 56
Brightness: 55
Color: 49
Sharpness: 11
Tint: 0

So is THX the culprit?

I bought my VT20 mid/early March and watched nothing but HBO HD till April. Got HEAVY IR from The Today Show shortly after (my wife's favorite morning show). Now, I noticed I'm getting IR from watching something for only a short period of time-it's like it's getting worse. I watched about an hour and a half of Field of Dreams on Encore and I could see the logo on white scenes after I switched the channel. There was a local tv show logo in the bottom left corner after 15 MINUTES of watching it. I know, because I never watch that channel.

I can still see today.com on my screen on white screens and we haven't watched it since I noticed. Is there any recourse for IR? Can I take it back to Best Buy? Will Panasonic stand behind their product? I haven't even started on the floating blacks that are annoying either.

It's even more frustrating because I have an awesome 42" Panny plasma in the bedroom that was my first plasma (purchased in '07) and it's still going strong w/ no problems.

/whinypoopypantsrant

I'm going to purchase a Panasonic P55ST30 soon. After reading all the break-in / slideshow threads, it seems safe to say that while it couldn't hurt, it probably isn't necessary if you are careful with your viewing for a while.

However, I have five other people in the house of various ages, and I can't guarantee their being "careful" with the TV. My wife for one would not like to hear about how she can't just watch whatever she wants to watch, like she can now on our old CRT. And some of my family won't be bothered to learn how to zoom the picture or anything, so there would probably be lots of 4:3 material viewing with black bars on the sides, for instance. Given that, I think I'd better do the 100 hour high-contrast slideshow. Agreed?

My question: I assume that these sets are not so delicate that I couldn't, right out of the box, watch a DVD or a Blu-Ray in non-safe mode--that is, fiddle with the settings to get the best PQ and show off the set a bit before I lock it down for 100 hours. I'm talking about a few hours of experimenting: watching parts of a few DVDs to see how they look, maybe 15 minutes of gaming, no static image (including black bars) for more than a half hour or so. Would I STILL need to lower the contrast and brightness and be careful, or could I just live it up for a few hours and then get serious with the slideshow? I'm going to leave the old set up and running in the living room while I break in the plasma elsewhere.

Hey everyone, first off you all have been GREAT on these pages helping me with my issues, but I have one final (maybe) question. Since I got hosed into buying the floor display Panasonic G25 (50 inch) and I know for a fact it was never broken in properly (in fact I am sure they took her out of the box and put her in "torch" mode) what should I look out for? shes got almost 1,500 hours on her, and I use the TV mostly (as in 80%-90%) for gaming. MOST video games have a static status icon somewhere on the screen (only exception so far is Crysis 2 I've found) and alot of the posts I read say they have little to no IR issues, yet it seems that almost every game I play with a lifebar or whatnot is leaving me with some stubborn IR that can take days to fade. In fact I STILL have the faintest outline of "KILLED" in the bottom right from the "Total zombies zilled" counter from the 2 hour session with dead rising 2 a few months ago. I use D-Nice's THX settings and service menu offsets, and these settings for when playing games http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1343033 . I have tried reducing contrast and brightness, turning super white off on my PS3, and no-matter what,if it has a static status icon or lifebar or whatnot I'll get some IR. I am starting to fear one of these days I'll be playing for a few hours and get a burnt-in image. Also, even with contrast and brightness set to max, and running a few times in a row the scrolling bar is of little to no help. Is there a repair I can have performed to start from scratch and break it in right? Picture quality looks great during blu-ray watching (some "noise" but I sit maybe 6-8 feet from the set) I am stationed in Okinawa, Japan right now and we have a Panasonic rep on island that can do repairs.

So after weeks of reading, posting, researching, I finally have a grasp of this and can say that I believe you (like many of us) have a slight misunderstanding of the purpose of the "slides". Whether or not they work is another question, but they in no way prevent burn in. So "being careful" is a good idea whether or not (really, regardless of) you run the slides.

The slides just help to break in the colors more uniformly. That way, 1,000 & 10,000 hours later the colors are more consistent. The slides have nothing to do with IR or burn in now or later. Hope that clarifies it for some.

Well Said !

Thanks, that makes sense. I was sloppy to imply that you had to run slides to "break in" a plasma for 100 hours. So, the slides are for uniform aging (and possibly to then be able to use D-Nice's settings)--and not universally accepted as necessary. I figured since I've waited this long to get an HDTV I could wait 100 hours more to enjoy it, so long as there might be some real benefit.

But there is a consensus that you should be especially careful for 100 - 200 hours anyway, right, to help avoid IR? Whether or not you use slides? So my using the slideshow for 100 hours would be sort of killing two birds with one stone. Not that I'd ever let my kids leave a game paused overnight or anything. But I'd feel safer locking it down for that period rather than trust my household to go easy for a while.

If that's all correct, I still have my question: one or two hours of mixed viewing with a brand new ST30 isn't going to hurt anything, right? Even if I'm not especially cautious? After that I'd start up the 100 hour slideshow (for color break-in purposes!), which would surely wash away any light IR anyway. Is that right, or am I still confused?

I bought the break-in slides DVD from AVSFORUM. Can I use this break-in disc w/D-Nice's prep settings?

The break-in slides are not for preventing or to eliminate IR, it only supposed to help 'aged' the NEW phosphors evenly on your set so that any chances of getting burn-ins in the future are reduced. You will still get IR no matter what so long as you owned your plasma, or any other plasma, but it should go away shortly.

Not really.

The slides are to age the phospors evenly so that the real colors/Pq of the set gets togheter quickly. It doesn't have anything to do with IR. That's why people usually wait the 100/150hours mark to get their TV calibrated because the TV brightness and color fluctuate too much before that time.

I bought the break-in DVD from this site. Is there an automatic loop on the DVD(so it will play all night long looping so the patterns don't end) or do I need to change a setting on the PS3 for repeat playback?

Anyone just purchased the dvd via paypal? I dont have Nero to burn the disc.

I have not done any break in process whatsoever. No leaving tv to run for ages, no special dvds. I have just used the tv as normal and just enjoyed it. So far all is good and no IR (touch wood). Had tv for 3 weeks so far. My tv is a PS51D6900.

Whats the best way to get rid of stubborn IR? I got the damn YES logo peeking thru and having been able to get rid of it. Im going on vacation soon and was thinking about leaving the TV on HBO in Vivid for a week while Im away. Will that do the trick?

I would absolutely recommend that you NOT do that. Who knows what you'll end up getting stuck on your screen that way. Doesn't your tv have an anti-image retention scrolling bar that you can activate?

1000 hours seems like an awful long time, thats 41 days!
Anyone have a recommendation on being able to watch TV/Play games while breaking in? My concern is I use a PC with the TV and that is a pretty static image (desktop). Is the break in to avoid image burn in? Is there a minimum break in required so that this does not happen? Does the break in "strengthen color"? Just picking up the VT30 tonight and I want to treat it well. Looking for a caucious recommendation here..

Thanks a bunch.

Yup, and that's 41 days NON-STOP! I think this is a bit excessive. Just watch regular tv as you go along. Zoom everything to full screen on SD and try avoiding static logos like ESPN on HD, and do not double your plasma as a computer monitor!

Don't double it during break in, or ever? What if I have "turn off screen after 15 minutes" set on the PC?
I don't see a problem with only turning it on when I want to watch streaming content full screen, post break-in. Right?

Hi, all. I just bought my first Plasma - an LG 42PW350. When I bring up the TV menu (even for a minute) it takes ~20 minutes of colorwashing (AKA the break-in DVD) before the image is completely gone. Is this normal? I was shocked to see it because I'm being so careful and only used the menu briefly. Again, is it normal?

Also, I don't see any anti-burn-in settings in the menu or manual. Do LG's have them?

Thanks!

I have a friend that has an older 42" plasma/720P (cir. 2006) and he uses it frequently as a computer monitor since day one. He hangs it up on the wall and higher than usual -- like most folks do above a fireplace -- and I don't understand this concept! When I asked him about image-retentions or burn-ins he said he haven't noticed any of the sort, but I can clearly see shadows and all kinds of garbage retained during scenes with light backgrounds. He's not very good at making out these kinds of things, and I'm not sure how severe it is at this stage. I don't want to say anything more to make home feel bad since he loved the TV more than his wife.

Here's my take:
Seriously, I'd rather enjoy a monitor that is 1.5ft distance from my face (even though it is only 17") rather than watching a 42"-50" monitor that is 10'-15ft away, much less having one that was hung high up on the wall! But hey, if it suits you; by all means do so.

I have been hounding Samsung about the fact that they have Web Browsers in more of their LED TVs than Plasma TVs. I recently bought a PN51D6900, with which I am very happy. There first response was ludicrous, and I won't take the time to repeat it now. After a less than measured response to that, they replied that plasma TVs have more IR issues than LED, and that is the reason. Does this make sense?

Hey guys i will be receiving my 1st plasma tomorrow ( the 50 inch st30 ) and have been researching various forums and websites bout proper break in for preparing your tv for future use and they normally all say to reduce brightness and contrast to half for 100 too 200 hundred hours however, i see that d nice is saying on a different site that apparently is not to be mentioned for some reason, brightness at 50 However Contrast att 100, now obviously d nice knows what he is talking bout but i am just a bit confused bout the contrast at 100, will someone kindly explain this to me ??


Thanks

^^I have my Brightness set to 54 and Contrast at 55, anything higher will easily create image-retentions, which will eventually disappears anyway but I'd rather have it this way (not to retain any) than having to wait for it to go away. I've had my G25 for more than 7 months now and I still go by my own set of rules -- works great to this day.

Thanks for your reply and also now that i am looking for channels that doo not have a logo at the corner it is seeming that all thee hd channels that i am normally watching have the channel logo inn one of the corners,

Can someone name a few channels without that logo that i can go to for breaking in my plasma


Thanks

HBO is the only channel that I know of that never uses a static logo!

Hi guys,

I read some story's here about heavy IR of channel logo's. Did anyone actually got rid of? I got some heavy IR of 2 dutch channel logo's (out of the box settings, too high contrast for some 3 or 4 weeks).
Mine has faded alot, but still clearly visible when a solid light background is displayed. It now doesnt appear to fade anymore, or so little that it is barely noticeble. I tried the screenwasher last night for a couple of hour but this seems to worsen it a bit. Hope that it will fade by time, but I guess it will take a long time.... :-(