WHAT IS "BURN-IN"
Typically, "burn-in" is defined as an uneven wear of a phosphor based display unit (Plasma and CRT for example). It is the phenomena of being able to "see" the remnants of something that was being "displayed" even though you are watching totally different content. It is not image retention, which goes away.
HOW DOES IT OCCUR
It occurs due to content being viewed not in the aspect ratio of the display unit thereby aging phosphors in the display differently. For example, 4:3 content is being viewed as 4:3 content on a 16:9 display device with the side bars as "black". Viewing in this way for extended periods of time (not defined) will cause the phosphors in the middle of the unit to age faster than the phosphors in the black side bar. When phosphors age they decrease in brightness.
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF RPCRT OWNERS EXPERIENCE "BURN-IN"
Although there is no, as yet, survey of all CRT owners, many owners of such devices have not experienced it. Rough guess, less than 1%. The few that have would, IMHO, be guilty of "abusing" the display.
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE TO CIRCUMVENT "BURN-IN"
Absolutely, the list is as follows:
1) Get your display "calibrated". Now if that entails a professional ISF calibration (~$400) or a calibration via Avia or DVE (~$40). That's your call. Alot of "damage" can be curtailed by dialing down the brightness and contrast from the get go.
2) Put some sort of "color" on the side bars when watching 4:3 content in its native aspect ratio. If you absolutely hate stretching 4:3 content, that is filling the 16:9 aspect ratio of the unit, then make sure that the side bars are set to either "gray" or some other color than "black".
3) Did I mention to dial down the contrast and brightness?
4) Vary your viewing habits. In this day and age of 16:9 DVD's, HD content and SD content this should not be difficult to be achieved.
5) Dial down the contrast and brightness, are you getting this part yet?
6) CRTs are susceptible to "burn-in" when in their infancy as the phosphors have not had a chance to age. A few hundred hours of watching varied material to age the phosphors is not unrealistic and will probably due a lot to curtail possible damage.
7) TURN DOWN THE CONTRAST AND BRIGHTNESS OF THE DISPLAY. Sorry, but I firmly believe that this is crucial to preventing burn-in damage.
8) When you are done playing a video game or watching a movie with the black bars on the top and bottom, watch a program that fills the screen for the same amount of time you spent playing the video game or watching the movie. This will in a way help to wash away the previous static image.
OKAY, I'M A (put your own explicative here), I HAVE "BURN-IN" IS THEIR ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE
Are you sure it is "burn-in"? It may be "image retention", which is different. Image retention is the phenomena of being able to "see" what was just on the screen prior to turning off the unit. Image retention goes away and has no effect on the display. It may, however, be a sign that your contrast and brightness are too high. Burn-in stays on the screen forever, never disappears and really bad burn in can make text unintelligible.
Back to the question, is there anything that can be done to fix burn in? Yes, there is. As stated before "burn-in" is the uneven wear, or aging, of phosphors. You can reduce it by reversing the image of the screen. For example, let's say that you have the middle of the screen burned in because you used black bars when watching 4:3 content. Just put up grey bars or white bars for the side and don't display anything in the middle. How? Just unplug your STB from the unit when in 4:3 mode. The time it takes to "erase" the burn-in will be in direct proportion to the amount of time that was spent watching 4:3 content with the black bars
I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BURN-IN
There is alot of information concerning this topic. A "Google" or "Yahoo" search will yield more results
AVS Forum Burn-in FAQ
Keohi HDTV - Learn About Burn-in
HDTVArcade.com - FAQ on Burn-in
IS A RPCRT THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR ME
Unfortunately, no one can tell you definitively whether a rpcrt, or any viewing device for that matter, will be the best choice for you. There are too many considerations to take into account. CRT displays offer one of the best pictures that can be found today. Only you are aware of what you would use the display for. Only you know what your budget is. Only you can make that choice. I would say that if you plan on using your display as a computer display or you plan on playing video games for 90% of your viewing time, then a crt might not be for you. But only you can make that decision.
CONCLUSION
CRT displays can offer the viewer a very clean, detailed, color accurate and film-like picture. A "looking through the window" type of experience. As with any investment of a significant nature, rpcrts can also be a very expensive and care must be taken as not to abuse your television.
MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Before coming to this forum in Nov of 2002 I decided that an rpcrt was right for me based on price and performance. I ended up with a Panasonic 47" 1920x1080 unit. I must say that this unit is becoming very popular on this forum. One of the reasons is because this display has one of the finest pictures that I have seen from rear projection televisions. The flexibility that Panasonic includes in their rpcrts for tweaking makes this television capable of displaying dvds, hd movies, shows and sports that have a 3 dimensional, film-like quality to them. When I have people over who are not as into home theater as I am, I get general comments that while watching a dvd and especially hd, it looks as if you are right there. My father made the comment as we were watching What Lies Beneath (bwt, this one of the best looking hd movies I have seen) ota on ABC that it looks like you are looking through glass. I have enjoyed this unit now for close to a year and a half and I am happy to report no sign of "burn-in" and no sign of the display starting to dim. I played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the display on Friday night (5-7-04) as I have been doing ever so often with SSX 3 on my PS2 and some NFL football, NBA basketball and Halo on my X-Box. I do everything in moderation. A little video game here, some dvd movies there and some hd and standard def television here. I provide my television with a steady mixture of images. It is just like your daily eating routine; you make sure that you have a steady diet of foods that are represented throughout the food pyramid that we learned about in elementary school. Don't feed yourself too much of one food or too little of another. A balanced diet, whether it is food or home theater, is the key to ensuring you and your television has a long and healthy existence.
I want to thank rmcgirr83, better known as the Other Rich, for helping with this and for allowing me to base this post with modification on his original post that is over in the Plasma Forum Master Burn-in thread. I also would like to thank Barrybud for allowing this thread. I hope that this thread can be of helpful to the many who come this forum and have questions about burn-in.
Typically, "burn-in" is defined as an uneven wear of a phosphor based display unit (Plasma and CRT for example). It is the phenomena of being able to "see" the remnants of something that was being "displayed" even though you are watching totally different content. It is not image retention, which goes away.
HOW DOES IT OCCUR
It occurs due to content being viewed not in the aspect ratio of the display unit thereby aging phosphors in the display differently. For example, 4:3 content is being viewed as 4:3 content on a 16:9 display device with the side bars as "black". Viewing in this way for extended periods of time (not defined) will cause the phosphors in the middle of the unit to age faster than the phosphors in the black side bar. When phosphors age they decrease in brightness.
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF RPCRT OWNERS EXPERIENCE "BURN-IN"
Although there is no, as yet, survey of all CRT owners, many owners of such devices have not experienced it. Rough guess, less than 1%. The few that have would, IMHO, be guilty of "abusing" the display.
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE TO CIRCUMVENT "BURN-IN"
Absolutely, the list is as follows:
1) Get your display "calibrated". Now if that entails a professional ISF calibration (~$400) or a calibration via Avia or DVE (~$40). That's your call. Alot of "damage" can be curtailed by dialing down the brightness and contrast from the get go.
2) Put some sort of "color" on the side bars when watching 4:3 content in its native aspect ratio. If you absolutely hate stretching 4:3 content, that is filling the 16:9 aspect ratio of the unit, then make sure that the side bars are set to either "gray" or some other color than "black".
3) Did I mention to dial down the contrast and brightness?
4) Vary your viewing habits. In this day and age of 16:9 DVD's, HD content and SD content this should not be difficult to be achieved.
5) Dial down the contrast and brightness, are you getting this part yet?
6) CRTs are susceptible to "burn-in" when in their infancy as the phosphors have not had a chance to age. A few hundred hours of watching varied material to age the phosphors is not unrealistic and will probably due a lot to curtail possible damage.
7) TURN DOWN THE CONTRAST AND BRIGHTNESS OF THE DISPLAY. Sorry, but I firmly believe that this is crucial to preventing burn-in damage.
8) When you are done playing a video game or watching a movie with the black bars on the top and bottom, watch a program that fills the screen for the same amount of time you spent playing the video game or watching the movie. This will in a way help to wash away the previous static image.
OKAY, I'M A (put your own explicative here), I HAVE "BURN-IN" IS THEIR ANYTHING THAT CAN BE DONE
Are you sure it is "burn-in"? It may be "image retention", which is different. Image retention is the phenomena of being able to "see" what was just on the screen prior to turning off the unit. Image retention goes away and has no effect on the display. It may, however, be a sign that your contrast and brightness are too high. Burn-in stays on the screen forever, never disappears and really bad burn in can make text unintelligible.
Back to the question, is there anything that can be done to fix burn in? Yes, there is. As stated before "burn-in" is the uneven wear, or aging, of phosphors. You can reduce it by reversing the image of the screen. For example, let's say that you have the middle of the screen burned in because you used black bars when watching 4:3 content. Just put up grey bars or white bars for the side and don't display anything in the middle. How? Just unplug your STB from the unit when in 4:3 mode. The time it takes to "erase" the burn-in will be in direct proportion to the amount of time that was spent watching 4:3 content with the black bars
I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BURN-IN
There is alot of information concerning this topic. A "Google" or "Yahoo" search will yield more results
AVS Forum Burn-in FAQ
Keohi HDTV - Learn About Burn-in
HDTVArcade.com - FAQ on Burn-in
IS A RPCRT THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR ME
Unfortunately, no one can tell you definitively whether a rpcrt, or any viewing device for that matter, will be the best choice for you. There are too many considerations to take into account. CRT displays offer one of the best pictures that can be found today. Only you are aware of what you would use the display for. Only you know what your budget is. Only you can make that choice. I would say that if you plan on using your display as a computer display or you plan on playing video games for 90% of your viewing time, then a crt might not be for you. But only you can make that decision.
CONCLUSION
CRT displays can offer the viewer a very clean, detailed, color accurate and film-like picture. A "looking through the window" type of experience. As with any investment of a significant nature, rpcrts can also be a very expensive and care must be taken as not to abuse your television.
MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Before coming to this forum in Nov of 2002 I decided that an rpcrt was right for me based on price and performance. I ended up with a Panasonic 47" 1920x1080 unit. I must say that this unit is becoming very popular on this forum. One of the reasons is because this display has one of the finest pictures that I have seen from rear projection televisions. The flexibility that Panasonic includes in their rpcrts for tweaking makes this television capable of displaying dvds, hd movies, shows and sports that have a 3 dimensional, film-like quality to them. When I have people over who are not as into home theater as I am, I get general comments that while watching a dvd and especially hd, it looks as if you are right there. My father made the comment as we were watching What Lies Beneath (bwt, this one of the best looking hd movies I have seen) ota on ABC that it looks like you are looking through glass. I have enjoyed this unit now for close to a year and a half and I am happy to report no sign of "burn-in" and no sign of the display starting to dim. I played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the display on Friday night (5-7-04) as I have been doing ever so often with SSX 3 on my PS2 and some NFL football, NBA basketball and Halo on my X-Box. I do everything in moderation. A little video game here, some dvd movies there and some hd and standard def television here. I provide my television with a steady mixture of images. It is just like your daily eating routine; you make sure that you have a steady diet of foods that are represented throughout the food pyramid that we learned about in elementary school. Don't feed yourself too much of one food or too little of another. A balanced diet, whether it is food or home theater, is the key to ensuring you and your television has a long and healthy existence.
I want to thank rmcgirr83, better known as the Other Rich, for helping with this and for allowing me to base this post with modification on his original post that is over in the Plasma Forum Master Burn-in thread. I also would like to thank Barrybud for allowing this thread. I hope that this thread can be of helpful to the many who come this forum and have questions about burn-in.
