Joined
·
108 Posts
I found this on another Forum. It was a response from a Panasonic representative. I thought it would be a good cut and paste statement, for the million times we get a question about burn in. It is really well put, and strait from the source. Andrew
"Panasonic has worked diligently to lessen if not eliminate the occurence of burn-in on our sets. However even better than using a pixel shifting technology to spread the burn-in around, we have addressed the root cause of burn-in by formulating the phosphors to be more resistant to the effects of static images on the set.
Our facilities in Highland, New York have applied for and received patents for 9 advancements in phosphor technology. The most recent have been developments that make the most critical phosphors more stable, longer lasting and slower to lose luminosity. This will make our plasmas last longer (far beyond 20 years of 7 hour a day use), and less susceptible to burn-in. The reason is that later versions of our sets use the new formulation phosphors that lose brightness slower. The slower they lose brightness the less likely they are to suffer from burn-in.
Our latest sets lose brightness slower than a CRT. Thus that would indicate better resistance to the effects of image retention or burn-in. In independent testing (ISF) 3 random plasma sets were left on the menu for Halo 2 for 48 hours. When checked after this torture test all 3 plasma sets showed a "ghost" image of the menu. However, they then ran a video loop for 24 hours and re-checked the sets. The "ghost" image was no longer discernible and the sets appeared to have never suffered from burn-in. This situation has been repeated by others in similar tests.
The conclusion is that burn-in is still possible BUT the probability of it is extremely low. Even after accidently leaving a video game menu on for 48 hours the sets appear to lose the "ghost" image if run for a comparable time with regular video. In other words you don't need a special "white bar scroll" to fix the set. By the way, the white bar scroll ages the set more quickly so that areas not burned in are decreased in brightness to match the areas that are.
If you take precautions the likelihood that you will experience burn-in is not worth worrying about. If you fill the screen completely while watching it as often as you can (yes some widescreen movies still have black bars for super widescreen content but that is ok) you are less likely to have burn-in than a tube set .
This year marks the 10th year we have produced and sold consumer model plasmas.Amazingly the 42" set we are selling this year is approximately 1/10th the price of the 42" ED we sold back then. Panasonic would have abandoned plasma technology years ago IF burn-in issues were significant and switched to alternative technologies.
LCD is not necessarily safe from "ghost images" either. Most LCD Manufacturers indicate in their owners manuals NOT to leave static images on the set for long periods of time. 2 manufaturers have even written "white papers" outlining the effects of what they call "image persistance" that manifests itself as a ghost image and how to prevent it. Just google "LCD Image Persistance" and look for results.
This is not made to be a bash against LCD but does indicate that neither technology is perfect. However in typical everyday usage both sets can provide years of quality performance and with a little precaution, or possibly none at all will not ever have an issue with "ghost" image issues. We would have been run out of business by now if burn-in affected a precentatge of the sets we sell"
"Panasonic has worked diligently to lessen if not eliminate the occurence of burn-in on our sets. However even better than using a pixel shifting technology to spread the burn-in around, we have addressed the root cause of burn-in by formulating the phosphors to be more resistant to the effects of static images on the set.
Our facilities in Highland, New York have applied for and received patents for 9 advancements in phosphor technology. The most recent have been developments that make the most critical phosphors more stable, longer lasting and slower to lose luminosity. This will make our plasmas last longer (far beyond 20 years of 7 hour a day use), and less susceptible to burn-in. The reason is that later versions of our sets use the new formulation phosphors that lose brightness slower. The slower they lose brightness the less likely they are to suffer from burn-in.
Our latest sets lose brightness slower than a CRT. Thus that would indicate better resistance to the effects of image retention or burn-in. In independent testing (ISF) 3 random plasma sets were left on the menu for Halo 2 for 48 hours. When checked after this torture test all 3 plasma sets showed a "ghost" image of the menu. However, they then ran a video loop for 24 hours and re-checked the sets. The "ghost" image was no longer discernible and the sets appeared to have never suffered from burn-in. This situation has been repeated by others in similar tests.
The conclusion is that burn-in is still possible BUT the probability of it is extremely low. Even after accidently leaving a video game menu on for 48 hours the sets appear to lose the "ghost" image if run for a comparable time with regular video. In other words you don't need a special "white bar scroll" to fix the set. By the way, the white bar scroll ages the set more quickly so that areas not burned in are decreased in brightness to match the areas that are.
If you take precautions the likelihood that you will experience burn-in is not worth worrying about. If you fill the screen completely while watching it as often as you can (yes some widescreen movies still have black bars for super widescreen content but that is ok) you are less likely to have burn-in than a tube set .
This year marks the 10th year we have produced and sold consumer model plasmas.Amazingly the 42" set we are selling this year is approximately 1/10th the price of the 42" ED we sold back then. Panasonic would have abandoned plasma technology years ago IF burn-in issues were significant and switched to alternative technologies.
LCD is not necessarily safe from "ghost images" either. Most LCD Manufacturers indicate in their owners manuals NOT to leave static images on the set for long periods of time. 2 manufaturers have even written "white papers" outlining the effects of what they call "image persistance" that manifests itself as a ghost image and how to prevent it. Just google "LCD Image Persistance" and look for results.
This is not made to be a bash against LCD but does indicate that neither technology is perfect. However in typical everyday usage both sets can provide years of quality performance and with a little precaution, or possibly none at all will not ever have an issue with "ghost" image issues. We would have been run out of business by now if burn-in affected a precentatge of the sets we sell"
