Are plasmas still bad for static screens?

M

matteos

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Its not as bad as it used to be. Its for the most part a non issue. Most devices do things like dim the screen and things like to help prevent it.

I wouldn't worry about it to be honest.
 
No.

The main problem I found with LCD's is input lag. I would not want to game on that..
 
Newer plasmas have some technology to help reduce image retention / burn in so i think it isn't really an issue. But if you obsess over it you will probably see something.

My Panny plasma has a menu option to wipe the screen for a given time to fix any burn in that may happen so it must be possible to some degree.
 
My opinion is that if I'm going to drop upwards of a grand on a TV, I refuse to get something I'll have to worry that someone leaving it on overnight will mean I'll spend the next week staring at the HGTV logo (or worse). All the workarounds in the world aren't good enough for me to ignore the fundamental design defect.

For me, going LCD isn't about buying a TV; it's about buying peace of mind.
 
XenIneX said:
My opinion is that if I'm going to drop upwards of a grand on a TV, I refuse to get something I'll have to worry that someone leaving it on overnight will mean I'll spend the next week staring at the HGTV logo (or worse). All the workarounds in the world aren't good enough for me to ignore the fundamental design defect.

For me, going LCD isn't about buying a TV; it's about buying peace of mind.
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and worse display quality

dont think LCD isnt a consolation prize. you are giving up other things for that piece of mind

and someone leaving the TV on overnight is a PERSON problem, not a tech problem, IMHO
 
haunter said:
and worse display quality

dont think LCD isnt a consolation prize. you are giving up other things for that piece of mind

and someone leaving the TV on overnight is a PERSON problem, not a tech problem, IMHO
Click to expand...

I will disagree here. You should never have to worry about a TV. If you turn it on, nothing bad should ever happen (except maybe the speakers, but that obvious is obvious case).

However, modern plasma displays are greatly improved and have significant anti burn-in tech on them. Furthermore, once you get beyond ~250 hours, the chance of burn in is now very small and is always reversible (e.g. just watch TV). Also, all tech burn's in. Even those LCD at the airport "burn in".

So the price for a fabulous display is to play "kung pow-enter the fist" on permanent loop for 10 days. ;)
 
I think Burn-In is a non issue with TV's from today.

I have a 50" plasma that has been used from day one as a computer monitor. It rarely gets turned off and the screen is static most of the time.

Not a trace of burn in and it is an older model from 2005.
 
ClockerXP said:
Newer plasmas have some technology to help reduce image retention / burn in so i think it isn't really an issue. But if you obsess over it you will probably see something.

My Panny plasma has a menu option to wipe the screen for a given time to fix any burn in that may happen so it must be possible to some degree.
Click to expand...

You can't fix burn in on displays like plasma and CRT.
 
Burn-in or image retention, in this context you are arguing semantics.

Although I suppose you could argue that short term image retention is more common, but if you are playing a game, chances are that you won't notice this much as the things on screen that stay put, stay put anyway and the stuff that moves, moves.

As others have stated, generally it is a non-issue. The newer plasma TVs are pretty good at avoiding it, and when they do get image retention, a few minutes of normal use and it will most likely go away.

Also, generally you have more to fear from long term usage patterns (e.g. the exact crosshairs of a FPS game played for several hours a day for a year straight) than from accidentally leaving the screen on overnight.

In the above example you can experience uneven wear, but again, even under significant use, the new sets are generally pretty good about this.
 
I have a 50" 2011 Panasonic plasma (GT-25) which I use with my HTPC almost exclusively. I can get very mild image retention from time to time if I walk away from the screen while it's on a menu. It doesn't stick around for long.

If you're really worried about it, my plasma has a couple of settings to help. First is the auto-off timer, which I have set to 3 hours. If I don't do something with the remote for 3 hours, the set will automatically turn it's self off. I just press a button on the remote when the timer pops up in the corner and it's good for another 3 hours. Easy.

Secondly, my TV has a "Pixel Orbitter" setting that does something involving occasionally shifting the pixels on the screen to prevent burn in. I'm not exactly sure what it does or how it works, I've just always left it on and have never noticed to be detrimental to my viewing experience, so I'm just going on faith that it does something here. Look to see if the display you want to buy has a similar option or setting.

And finally, my Panny has a an anti-burn in mode where it displays a black screen and scrolls a white bar back and forth across the screen for 15 minutes, or until you press a button. I occasionally run it, though I don't think it's really necessary. When I do run it, I just set the sleep timer for 15 minutes and then start the anti-burn in pattern and walk away.

But really, it's not an issue. Modern plasma displays are extremely resistant to burn in, have great illumination levels, and produce a beautiful picture.
 
I wouldn't worry about it too much


I have a 60" Samsung that's roughly 3 years old at this point and it has some pretty obvious image retention issues (always has). With that said... I play PS3, 360 and in one instance, my roomate had fallen asleep and left the static netflix selection screen on for roughly 8 hours (PS3... all red screen with lettering and boxes). The retention was crazy, but after running a wipe for 30-40 mins, it was all gone. Since that, I really don't worry about it. If a static image containing that much contrast didn't do any damage after 8 hours, I'm not too worried about 30 mins or whatever.

I also have a 42" Samsung Plasma (bedroom Tv) that's probably close to a year old at this point and I haven't noticed ANY image retention. I've fallen asleep with the screen on my AppleTV home screen, sleep for 8-9 hours and the second I change the channel the image retention is so minor it's not even worth doing a wipe.

When I got my first plasma, people told me not to because of the possibility of damaging the screen, but I'm convinced that as long as you're not purposely trying to break it, it's likely not going to happen with modern/quality displays. Just be smart about it.
 
2011 Panasonic plasma owner here. I do a lot of gaming on it, never had any issue with image retention or burn in.
I had some slight image retention for a few seconds when I left a game on pause for hours. The pause menu was bright, the game level was dark. I had a little ghost of the menu for less than a minute, then all was fine.
 
TESLA said:
Burn-in or image retention, in this context you are arguing semantics.

Although I suppose you could argue that short term image retention is more common, but if you are playing a game, chances are that you won't notice this much as the things on screen that stay put, stay put anyway and the stuff that moves, moves.

As others have stated, generally it is a non-issue. The newer plasma TVs are pretty good at avoiding it, and when they do get image retention, a few minutes of normal use and it will most likely go away.

Also, generally you have more to fear from long term usage patterns (e.g. the exact crosshairs of a FPS game played for several hours a day for a year straight) than from accidentally leaving the screen on overnight.

In the above example you can experience uneven wear, but again, even under significant use, the new sets are generally pretty good about this.
Click to expand...


I agree, as I currently have a 3 year old 50" Samsung plasma with an image burned into it. Most of what people are talking about here is common image retention - it's kinda par for the course when it comes to a plasma. It's nothing to really be worried about, and it should go away rather quickly on it's own. In the event you accidently leave it stuck on a screen all night or so, there's allways the built in image wiper which will do the trick for you.

Tesla is dead on though - it's not leaving it on all night stuck on a screen that causes image burn (I can't count the number of times I accidently fell asleep and it was stuck on an image all night - never a problem) - It's the repetitive thing you do on an almost daily basis, built up over years of time, that "burns" (We can split hairs and call it "uneven wear" if you want) an image into the screen.

I was in denial about it for some time, but I can now admit I have a problem. It's a disease really - I'm not going to lie, if the TV didn't give me away I'd still be doing it. ---- I work from home and I have an addiction to Mike and Mike in the Morning.:D Thanks to ESPN's need to force feed us sports media news 24/7 via their news ticker (I'm addicted, remember? That automatically makes it their fault) - I have a very faint ESPN logo in the bottom right corner of my TV. Everyone that I have pointed it out to in person swears they would have never noticed it since you can only see it when the background is white - but the short of it is that after several 8-10hr image wiping sessions, it's still there faintly.


Despite this - I'd still get another. I have 3 other TV's that are LCD's, with the best being a 42" LG in the bedroom, and they just don't seem to have the same level of vibrance when it comes to color and contrast. I don't consider myself to be a quality snob, as I don't know what the technical term is for "I noticed my LCD suddenly looks better to me now that I moved it into a dimly lit bedroom". Don't get me wrong, I love my LG LCD. I just love it less as a living room TV vs. a bedroom one for some strange reason. I guess you could say, IMO, my Samsung plasma handles the varying viewing angles, lighting conditions, etc better than a semi-comparable LCD.
 
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