Do you stretch 4:3 to 16:9?

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Klob

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Currently I use an HD LCD projector and display 4:3 content at the correct aspect ratio. I am thinking of getting a 16:9 Plasma or maybe LCD but am concerned about uneven wear of the screen from viewing 4:3 content at the correct aspect ratio. Is this still an issue on current HDTVs? I had a Viewsonic HD LCD TV and got uneven wear after only 6 months and it was so noticeable that I took it back for a refund to Costco. Good thing they have a good return policy. Projectors have no such issues but I read even the latest Plasma screens still do. Sure they don't get burn in as easily as they used to but they still can get burn in, just takes longer now. There is no way I will stretch 4:3 to 16:9 because it looks terrible.
 
Uneven wear on Plasma is no longer an issue unless you seriously abuse one, the same goes for any screen type.
Be sure to run it in well according to the instructions or guides on the web.
I used to zoom in a little on 4:3 material but now just watch it as is, no burn in at all.
This is on a Panasonic 42PZ80B.

Plasma screens have a halflife of 100,000 hours now so its very hard to cause excess wear.
Thats a much longer screen life than that of CRT or LCD.
My Plasma has been used for PC about 8hrs a day and the same for TV+films for over 7 months now and the screen is unmarked.
 
An article I read recently said burn-in on plasma is lessened but not completely resolved and that was on one rated for 100,000 hours (although I question the accuracy of that number anyway). What is considered serious abuse of a plasma?
 
Klob said:
An article I read recently said burn-in on plasma is lessened but not completely resolved and that was on one rated for 100,000 hours (although I question the accuracy of that number anyway). What is considered serious abuse of a plasma?
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24/7 use where it displays something unmoving. Think taskbar without autohide for really long hours at a time without any screensaver.
 
Klob said:
An article I read recently said burn-in on plasma is lessened but not completely resolved and that was on one rated for 100,000 hours (although I question the accuracy of that number anyway). What is considered serious abuse of a plasma?
Click to expand...

It hasnt been completely resolved for any of the current mainstream display panel technologies.
Serious abuse is displaying say ticket information / train timetables for days on end with no video to smooth the wear.
A plasma should be used for video to even the wear out so its not advisable to use one purely as a Windows display with no video/TV.

My Plasma gets about 8hours a day PC and 8hrs a day TV/Video and has been subjected to over 12hrs almost solid gaming in one go with no issue.
During the run in period, I used a low power mode for PC and full power for video/TV and the screen was perfect after the 1000hr period finished.
During the run in period I had a few anxious moments where I left my PC screen on overnight but there was no damage caused at all, the after image was gone before 1/2hr !
Now I do whatever I want and it never matters, the screen is still perfect 7 months on :)

Its worth noting that I do not use overscan ever for TV, there is nearly always a small black border on the left/right edges of the screen when watching TV.
When I display an all black screen, there is zero noticeable difference at those edges.
If there were problems with uneven screen wear, that would be sure to exhibit it.

If ever there is a problem you can play a video that will even the wear out for you and you can not do whatever caused the problem again.
I havent seen the need for this on my TV.
 
Of course, it depends on the model. I have not had any issues with my Panasonic 50" 1080p plasma, and I haven't been that good about avoiding burn-in. Maybe I'm just lucky.

:)
 
Yea, guess the Viewsonic I bought from Costco was crap. It had overdrive technology and the screen was darker where I had been watching 4:3 content. I used it as a computer monitor for a while too but the image quality was not optimal as a computer screen. Plasma would be purely for TV, DVD and PS3 games. I've seen some people just stretch 4:3 to 16:9 and it looks bloody horrible to me. I guess they are blind though because they think it looks fine.
 
After seeing what happened to my friends plasma I avoided plasma like the plague. Horrible burn in from watch 4:3 TV. He got his TV 2 years ago on black friday.
 
You can zoom in so you have a smaller border or no border, keeping the aspect ratio.
It wears thin though.
 
Ohh God No,

I hate skewed aspect ratios. Check and see if your plasma has a burn-in prevention mode, which shifts the image by a few pixels at intervals.
 
Doesn't look like shit (standard size):

lasvegas_640x480.jpg


Looks like shit (stretched content):

lasvegas_720x480.jpg
 
I never stretch, and it bugs me when people do.

Also, plasma issues have NOT been resolved. They have been lessened in the tier-1 brands, but they are not resolved, and this goes for normal consumers, too, not just businesses with the screens always on.
 
dandragonrage said:
I never stretch, and it bugs me when people do.

Also, plasma issues have NOT been resolved. They have been lessened in the tier-1 brands, but they are not resolved, and this goes for normal consumers, too, not just businesses with the screens always on.
Click to expand...

I'm struggling to find where someone has stated the issues are fully resolved in this thread.
Then again, LCDs suffer from the same problems, some of them worse than Plasmas do.
See post #5 for more info.
 
but her boobs look bigger in the second one, so it can't be all bad right? ;)

Bothers me also, especially when the wife plays the wii and leaves the TV on fill afterwards...
 
Nenu said:
I'm struggling to find where someone has stated the issues are fully resolved in this thread.
Then again, LCDs suffer from the same problems, some of them worse than Plasmas do.
See post #5 for more info.
Click to expand...


He also says it can be put back to normal by playing full screen video. Not on the LCD I had. I tried every trick in the book to get it back to normal but the uneven wear was pretty much permanent. I read that to get rid of it you would have to run a pure white screen for as long as you had been watching the 4:3 content to get the uneven wear in the first place. That would have been many many days of running a pure white screen. No thanks. I even tried running for hours full screen that quicvkly flashed between RGB colors. Back to Costco it went for a refund. Think I will just stay with my LCD projector for now until this issue is fixed real good.
 
Klob said:
He also says it can be put back to normal by playing full screen video. Not on the LCD I had. I tried every trick in the book to get it back to normal but the uneven wear was pretty much permanent. I read that to get rid of it you would have to run a pure white screen for as long as you had been watching the 4:3 content to get the uneven wear in the first place. That would have been many many days of running a pure white screen. No thanks. I even tried running for hours full screen that quicvkly flashed between RGB colors. Back to Costco it went for a refund. Think I will just stay with my LCD projector for now until this issue is fixed real good.
Click to expand...

For LCDs, this type of burn in is called image retention and is not initially permanent but can become so (or very hard to shift) if left alone long enough.
It is caused by the panel being too warm and/or an image being displayed for too long.
In reality if the panel is too warm, the length of time an image can be displayed without side effect is reduced.
The cure is to keep the panel cooler but if you do end up with image retention on an LCD, the fastest fix as you stated is to display an all white screen for hours.

Bad image retention on LCDs isnt that common (unless abused) but there are some panels that are more prone to it which need to be kept a bit cooler.
So any monitor that produces too much heat or the heat doesnt vent properly or has a known problem panel is more likely to suffer but the environment it is placed in matters too.
The cooler the room and/or higher airflow where the monitor is the better, but as you noticed, some are beyond help.

You did the right thing returning your display, it sounds like it was quite bad.
 
Yea, I did quite a bit of research on it and LCDs can certainly get image retention even though some reviews say they can't. From what I read it's LCD panels with overdrive technology that are most prone to the issue, which my Viewsonic LCD had.
 
I don't like the stretched 4:3 either. I just had Comcast replace a bad cable box and the installer was surprised when I asked him to turn off the 4:3 stretch because of burn-in. I've been running almost three years on a cheap Vizio plasma without burn-in. It has a "screen cleaner" and I have other things I can run from the attached PC. I do see an image persist if it has been there a long time but goes away almost instantly when things change. Still, I run the screen cleaner once in a while to be sure.
 
I use Just Mode on my Plasma when watching regular tv, it lessens the stretch from the center of the tv outwards.
 
So my westy 42w2 has begun to show lines on the screen, and getting worse about it. Luckily I have the extended warranty through BB and when the repair guy shows up, the first thing he does is stretch the cable box and blames it for creating the lines on the side saying they should go away shortly. Gotta love it...

I then proceed to show him the vertical line dead center to which he replied he'd order a new panel right away. =)
 
I NEVER stretch EVER period, I like viewing things in their native aspect ratio....
 
criccio said:
+1

OAR or BUST.




So not only are you ruining the already pretty poor image quaility, you are cutting off the top and bottom of an image that had the sides cut off already? :rolleyes:
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Its only for SD television only, HDTV is viewed at the natural size / aspect ratio. So what if somebody wants to see it cut off anyways. This thread was not to ask why you think your method was better and bash everybody else. It is not like this is a black and white issue, to each person his own.
 
Omegas said:
So my westy 42w2 has begun to show lines on the screen, and getting worse about it. Luckily I have the extended warranty through BB and when the repair guy shows up, the first thing he does is stretch the cable box and blames it for creating the lines on the side saying they should go away shortly. Gotta love it...
Click to expand...

That's exactly what happened to my LCD. Lines on the edge of 4:3 content and screen was slightly darker where the 4:3 content had been displayed due to uneven wear of the screen. Mine never went away but then I wasn't about to wait 6 months for it to go away either.

Ah, it's good that projectors have no such issue. I can watch in any aspect ratio and not worry about it. Only downsides are that you need to use a darkened room and the replacement bulb prices are a big scam. I haven't had to replace my bulb yet but expect to soon and the suckers are like $300.00. :mad:
 
LCD projectors have the same issue - actually worse then direct-view LCD screens. DLP does not have the issue in any case. LCoS (sort of a hybrid between LCD and DLP) doesn't seem to have the issue, at least not as bad as LCD or plasma.

IMO, DLP and LCoS are the only technologies worth considering for any serious viewer, be it television or projector.
 
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