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*Brand New Panasonic 42PX80U: Permanent Black Bar Burn-In or Just Image Retention???

3K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  blueslit 
#1 ·
I purchased the Panasonic 42PX80U plasma tv about a week ago. Immediately out the box I turned down the settings to less than 50 on picture & brightness. The first thing I watched was the Dark Knight on Bluray then I believe I watched just some regular standard DSS tv. (Coincidentally, the Samsung BR player I used (BDP1500) died about almost 2 hrs into the movie after owning it just 1.5 months. I just sent it to warranty repair today!)


But now about a week later I noticed I have thin strip, about half an inch thick, beginning at the very top of the screen that is darker than the rest of the screen, from I assume the black bars from the Dark Knight movie. You can only see it when watching darker scenes. In brighter screens, you cannot see it at all. It's just a thin band that is slightly darker than the rest of the screen. When a thick black bar is shown on regular tv, the thin strip on my tv is noticeably blacker or darker. When I get real close to the tv on a dark background, the the thin black strip does look embedded into the picture. It does not look like regular image retention. I am familiar with regular IR.



Now I don't recall if I had stretched the screen enough when watching the Dark Knight right out of the box. The cabinet on this Panasonic is black and so it sometimes hard to see if you've stretched the screen enough to eliminate ALL the black bar. If that was the case, it was just carelessness on my part. I guess I was too excited in unpacking this tv for my bedroom.


This is my 2nd plasma. I have a 50 inch Samsung I bought in 2007 that a carefully broke in from info from AVS (full screen image for the first 100 hrs). I am fully aware what Image Retention looks like. On my Samsung, I have had various kinds of IR from ESPN, TNT, ABC and other static images. Some were more pesky but they eventually came out with either time or the anti-burn in feature of the tv. Now I can play Xbox 360 for extended periods of time & static programs at relative lengths and have no problems.


My question is if the thin, dark band I have on my brand new Panasonic is just a case of bad image retention or actual burn in. I know about the break in disc, but I don't think it will help much in this case. Also, I've tried the scrolling Anti-burn in feature on this Panasonic with no success. Oddly enough, it is different from my Samsung. The scroll is set to a black background and my Samsung is a black scroll set to a white background. Weird.


After reading a multitude of posts on AVS, I still don't have an idea of what actual permanent burn in looks like as opposed to really bad Image Retention. In my case, the darker strip only appears on darker programming. You cannot see it in brighter backgrounds. Actually, I really only see it at night and not in the daytime. Nevertheless, it is noticeable and does not want to come out.



Can anyone provide some concrete feedback? Do you think the thin, darker area will eventually go away? If so, since this has happened when the tv and likewise the phosphors were brand new, could it be permanent burn in? If it is indeed a bad case of image retention, do you think it will go away after a long period of time? A month or so or shorter? Should I use the break in DVD or Anti burn in scrolling feature of the tv for long periods of time or just watch regular tv stretched normally and hopefully it will eventually dissipate. What do you all think? I appreciate any feedback.
 
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#2 ·
Two things - black bar IR or burn would result in brighter bars, not darker bars. If those phosphors were aged less due to letterbox content they'd be brighter.


Second, you're only seeing this across the top, and not at the bottom? That seems odd if in fact it's from the letterboxes.


Is there any chance that what you're seeing is just a shadow being cast on the top of the screen by the bezel? I know it sounds stupid but I have some recessed lighting in my living room, and when they are on the top 1" or so of the screen is darker due to the shadow from the bezel. First time I noticed it I was like "what the F?" but then realized it was just the lighting



jeff
 
#3 ·

Two things - black bar IR or burn would result in brighter bars, not darker bars. If those phosphors were aged less due to letterbox content they'd be brighter.

Are you 100% sure about this? I thought it was the other way around. That doesn't make sense. If a section of a plasma screen were always on a black bar, then the damage would show lighter after time?



Second, you're only seeing this across the top, and not at the bottom? That seems odd if in fact it's from the letterboxes.

Actually, the Panasonic has a feature where you can drop a zoomed screen at will as far as you want. You can only do this in the zoom feature. I did lower the zoomed screen to get rid of station logos from the bottom right.


Is there any chance that what you're seeing is just a shadow being cast on the top of the screen by the bezel? I know it sounds stupid but I have some recessed lighting in my living room, and when they are on the top 1" or so of the screen is darker due to the shadow from the bezel. First time I noticed it I was like "what the F?" but then realized it was just the lighting




I've thought it may be this, but it is not a shadow. Up close, you can tell the section of the screen was darker on the panel, not just by a shadow cast by the bezel. Also, I know this b/c when I raise a black bar to the exact point where the IR bar is, it matches and lines up perfectly. Which goes back to your first point. I'm almost positive black bar IR or Burn In on a brand new plasma would make that portion of the screen have a darker haze, not lighter.
 
#5 ·
Have you tried switching from HD1 (overscan) to HD2 (1080p) and vice versa?


edit- never mind, just realized the PX80U is 720p..
 
#6 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by s to the k /forum/post/15431583


Are you 100% sure about this? I thought it was the other way around. That doesn't make sense. If a section of a plasma screen were always on a black bar, then the damage would show lighter after time?

I think he's right about this. A black bar means the phosphors are not firing, or not firing as strongly. So they should not be being used as much, which would mean they would be brighter than the rest of the screen.
 
#8 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by omeletpants /forum/post/16025956


Most people of this forum say there is no longer burn in on plasmas.

? We never actually determined what this guy was seeing. The thread title is actually misleading - what he describes is the opposite of letterbox bar burn in. Must you chime in with these little comments in every thread?


jeff
 
#9 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by greenjp /forum/post/16026113


? We never actually determined what this guy was seeing. The thread title is actually misleading - what he describes is the opposite of letterbox bar burn in. Must you chime in with these little comments in every thread?


jeff

I don't recall discussing burn in much. Debate the information, stop attacking the posters.
 
#10 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by greenjp /forum/post/15430229


Is there any chance that what you're seeing is just a shadow being cast on the top of the screen by the bezel? I know it sounds stupid but I have some recessed lighting in my living room, and when they are on the top 1" or so of the screen is darker due to the shadow from the bezel. First time I noticed it I was like "what the F?" but then realized it was just the lighting



jeff

I also thought I had a "thin black bar" across the top of my plasma that turned out to be a shadow from the bezel. Yeah, stupid I know.
 
#11 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by omeletpants /forum/post/16026137


I don't recall discussing burn in much. Debate the information, stop attacking the posters.
What I'm talking about is your propensity for making posts in threads that do not add to the discussion - they don't help the OP's question, they don't provide any context, they don't provide any experience. It's just noise and you're notorious for it. The frequency with which you feel it necessary to post "Debate the information, stop attacking the posters" speaks for itself. Please don't bother responding unless you have something constructive for the topic.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GrnXnham /forum/post/16026140


I also thought I had a "thin black bar" across the top of my plasma that turned out to be a shadow from the bezel. Yeah, stupid I know.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one



jeff
 
#12 ·
I thought it may have been a shadow at first as well. It's definintely not IR in my case as it appears to be only on one side, vertical from top to bottom. The right side of the TV is perfectly fine. I thought the same thing (like the phosphors aren't burning as bright). The color does come through in that area when the TV is on, and is not as noticeable with brighter images. Darker images (grays and blacks) and the screen noticeably shows the area to be dimmer. Like I said, it was like this out of the box the first time I fired it up.
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by azmark7 /forum/post/16026555


I thought it may have been a shadow at first as well. It's definintely not IR in my case as it appears to be only on one side, vertical from top to bottom. The right side of the TV is perfectly fine. I thought the same thing (like the phosphors aren't burning as bright). The color does come through in that area when the TV is on, and is not as noticeable with brighter images. Darker images (grays and blacks) and the screen noticeably shows the area to be dimmer. Like I said, it was like this out of the box the first time I fired it up.

Sounds like you need to make a call to Plasma Concierge and see if they can help you.
 
#16 ·
I find it interesting that whenever black bar burn in is mentioned, like in the manual's for samsungs and panasonics they always put it in context of "sd" material. Then people think, oh, that won't affect me b/c i'll be using it for widescreen tv and blu ray.... but often times blu ray isn't full screen.


I'm concerned about this too, b/c i'm on the verge of picking up a plasma tv, and i don't really like streatching out sd images, i prefer to view then 4:3


Second, I thought that one of the reasons plasmas could do better blacks was b/c when displaying black parts of the screen they could turn of that cell, or pixel or whatever, guess that was way wrong.


Also, if "break-in" is an important part of plasma technology, why isn't it ever mentioned by the manufactures in the manuals of they tvs?


I'm skeptical of having to break-in a plasma - i've seen it posted many times here as well that it's like carrying a car on rollers for the first 1000 miles or something....
 
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