Can Playing Video Games Damage Your Tv?

I have a 28" Panasonic wide-screen TV. I used to play video games on my 25" 4:3 tv before it died. Would playing games on my wide-screen cause damage to the tube? I ask this because in the Panasonic manual, it states any defect caused by playing games is not covered by their warranty. Also would games look better in wide-screen?

[Tight Git]

Andrew,

Unless you play an excessive number of hours at high contrast, you should be ok.

The warranty exclusion is a get-out to protect the manufacturer from the aforementioned situation.

Since I'm old fashioned enough to watch programmes on my TV, I'm afraid I can't comment on widescreen games.

Happy gaming!

[Astaroth]

Wether they look better or not is personal taste. Many newer games (for the PS2) have the option of displaying in widescreen format and so you get a little more of the area on the screen at a time but many older games don't and if your set may stretch these to fill the full screen (in the game the Mrs is playing at the moment all the 'sexy women' (as the game calls them) are all suffering from a major case of thunder thighs because of stretch)

[Laurel&Hardy]

As Astaroth says, if the game is written to display as 4x3 it will look real odd on a widescreen if you decide to fill the whole display, but they will still display as 4x3 on a wide.

You would have to run the set at high / full contrast for several hundred hours to get any screen burn. At normal picture settings this should never become an issue.