Ping: Plasma TV Owners

[Fidatelo]

I just bought a plasma tv, and I'm just curious what any FOFC'ers that own one think about the whole burn-in issue. Some questions:

Do you believe in the need for a break-in period?
Have you ever experienced IR or burn-in?
When the manual says not to leave a still image on the screen for "long periods of time", what would you say is "long"?

I've read all different manner of opinions on the AVS forums, but I have a better feel for the community here and I think I will trust your answers more.

[IMetTrentGreen]

I had a pretty common form of IR due to some voltage setting being too high. This would've been within the first three months of owning the TV. They (samsung) sent a guy who came and fixed it within 20 minutes and I haven't had the issue since. I'd ask about that.

[Fidatelo]

I don't have any IR or burn-in, I'm just trying to get an idea of how delicate I have to treat this thing. Some of the guys on AVS seem to go to what seem like ridiculous lengths avoiding the mythical 'burn-in'. I'm just curious what more average TV people think about the whole thing.

[Phototropic]

I got mine in August '05. I turned down the brightness and contrast a bit from the default settings as I had heard that was good during the "break in" period. At the time I was playing a lot of NCAA 06 which had a mostly static scoreboard, and that would leave some nice IR when I was done playing. I typically would flip over to TV when I was done playing for a bit, and I also watched a lot of movies anyway that helped counteract that.

Once I got past the 100 hours viewing time or so, things seemed to get much better. I wouldn't worry about burn in unless you are constantly watching a channel with a static logo or solely playing a game with a static scoreboard. Just my 2 cents.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

No problems with newer models. You will get temporary burn-in when you turn the TV off, but it always goes away. As long as you don't leave a DVD menu on overnight, I think you're ok. There are also menu options on the TVs to go to an all white or all green screen. Leaving this option on for a few minutes will override the burn-in. And many DVRs come with a screen saver that pops on after you have paused a TV show for more than a few minutes. So, there's lots of help there.

[stevew]

I still see burn-in on a newer model at work, but it was probably an extreme situation that wouldn't happen in a home setting. In short, what basically happened was that the commercial advertisement channel on the screen didn't fill the screen completely(there was a slight bit of interference on the one side). By the time we realized this and fixed it, like 2-3 weeks later, there was a darkish pattern burnt in on the left side of the screen. So even with pixel shifting, etc, it can happen, but it'd take something extreme.

[CU Tiger]

This month my company will install our 1,000th Plasma monitor.
To date I have had 1 burn-in bad enough to neceessitate replacement, 10 year old kid left a vid. game paused while family went on vacation for 5 days. Had 2 or 3 other complaints and in all cases either by the time we got on site it had dissipated or with a few hours of movie playing it goes away.

Be a little gentle with it the first, month or so, then act like its a normal TV.