I will try and answer some of the questions from memory since I am at work right now.
- Yes, the 42XBR950 does have the white screen along with a "screen saver" feature where it moves the image around some. I assume the 50" version has these features.
- In split screen mode there are black bands on the top and bottom when the two images are the same size. You can, however, enlarge one side to eliminate the bars around that image. Of course, the alternate image then becomes teeny tiny.
- Haven't had my display long enough to comment on the burn-in. On the other hand, I do NOT notice any image retention at all - which others have mentioned with new sets.
- Agree with bill4d about the distortion. But - I am willing to accept the small amount of distortion on some shows to help avoid any possibility of burn-in. I do love my HD feeds though!
- My 42" has the four zoom modes mentioned by dreggman. For some reason I am not a big fan of the Wide Zoom on either my plasma or my 34hs510. I use the Full mode (which stretches right and left only) when watching most SD feeds. I am not exactly sure why I don't like Wide Zoom. I need to talk to my therapist about that!
- My 42" plasma has three filters (once again, going on memory) - Vivid, Standard, and Pro. I have not tweaked my set at all since I am giving it some time for burn-in (not the bad kind) and pretty much watch everything in standard mode. Vivid is way to bright and bad for new plasmas with the high picture settings and Pro, from the factory, is analogous to putting all stereo equalizer settings at 0 (no negative and no positive).