Plasma owners - image burn advice please

codlord

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I am thinking of buying a Plasma display and I have 3 Related questions that I have yet to find answers to regarding image-burn:

Plasma manufacturers/FAQ's always say something like "do not display static images for an extended period" - but what is an "extended period"? Will I have problems after 1 min, 10mins, 60mins, 1 day or what?

There is a lot said about pontential problems with side-bar burn-in if watching 4:3 stuff. I won't be watching much of that but a lot of DVD's are displayed in some letterbox format which essentially means you will have bars top and bottom throughout the film - is this going to be a problem?

Lastly, what about if I want to play PS2 games on it - most games display scores etc in a static place on the screen - am I going to ruin my expensive plasma if I play a game for a long time?

Any advice/experience from Plasma owners appreciated.
:confused:
 
Codlord

Phosphor burn can be a problem - though so far we have had no nightmare reports in from our Home Cinema customers.

Look for a display that has power management and/or screen saver modes as a user definable option - the Panasonic TH-42PWD4BX model for example can be set to automatically run its screen saver after a fixed interval; possibly a good way to manage your PS2 sessions - though a killer if you are just about to complete a level!

In 4:3 mode some screens enable grey side bars rather than black side bars - if you run your display in 4:3 for extended periods you can get uneven 'wear' rather than screen burn.

In everyday use where you are displaying any sort of letterboxed image, channel idents or after a session on the PS2 put you display into one of its screen saver modes for 30 minutes or more.

Be especially wary when the display is new - reduce your contrast and brightness levels and don't go in for marathon PS2 sessions for the first few days; keep an eye on the display and don't panic if you see a slight ghost; get the screen saver turned on ASAP or run full motion video for an hour or so and it will sort itself out.

We have displays in our AV hire stock (another part of our business) that are two and three years old and get total abuse from our customers and careful use of the screen saver modes back at base means they are kept free from any screen burn.

We've also got a lovely 42" display somewhere that one of the manufacturers leant to B****r King on approval and they put a static image on it for three weeks!!! its now available for parts and comes complete with a free BK logo built in :)

Best regards

Joe
 
.

We've also got a lovely 42" display somewhere that one of the manufacturers leant to B****r King on approval and they put a static image on it for three weeks!!! its now available for parts and comes complete with a free BK logo built in :)

[/B]



That's the funniest thing I've read in a while:D
Perhaps you could sell it to Maci D's Joe?!


Codlord,
try visiting the www.avsforum.com which is an American forum and on it you'll find loads of plasma owners who have screen burn posts aplenty. Try also this faq link or the Pana 42 which discusses user application.
 
Joe

Great tale:D

I am tettering on the brink of plasma investment. Torn between PDS4229/4242 or TH42PWD4BX.

Impressed with the PDS's both have a "screen wash" facility that washes the screen in white for 30-40 seconds as you power it off.

Do the Panny's have it? Is it any good? Could the screen saver be activated in a similar manner?

The panny seems to get the better reviews, I think mainly down to the contrast ratio and brightness?

Can the Panny accept a component input from a DVD player (Denon DV2800 hacked for PAL Prog Scan) and do you think the Denon is a good match? I plan on putting all the other video through the AV processor on SVHS to get the switching. Hence I will also need SVHS input on the plasma. Does the Panny have that?

Am I better off putting all the video through something like the Iscan box?

Lastly Joe when are you selling off your hire fleet and would you consider offering them to us!!?
 
Buy the Avia Home Theater Calibration DVD. Use that to adjust your brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and sharpness levels. That will bring the TV down to a safe level which will limit the chance of burn in. If you're still paranoid simple refresh the channel every 30 minutes or so, but as I say - as long as you have the right brightness and contrast levels, burn in isn't really gonna be a problem.
 
Hmm!!

Seems like I should be getting a copy of this, any ideas of suppliers?:rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by Mikey K
Hmm!!

Seems like I should be getting a copy of this, any ideas of suppliers?:rolleyes:
Sure,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/630551982X/qid=1021742936/ref=sr_11_0_1/102-9156371-7766551

It's not cheap at $40 (£28), but believe me, you are not watching your TV properly without properly calibrating it. The detail and sharpness you get after calibrating is unbelievable. The disc can be used to calibrate CRT's, Plamsa, Projector, Home Theater sound systems and other stuff. No point in buying an expensive TV if you aren't going to watch it properly. :D
 
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Yes with the BNC Input Board, one of the options is Component and the AV input can accept S-Video.
 
Mikey K

Sorry for not replying sooner.

Panasonic screen savers can be programmed to come on at pre set times each day for a designated time period or you can simply invoke the screen saver using the action/select button on the remote control; once you set the actual time on the panel you can adjust how long you want the screen saver to run for.

You can set the panel to run its white scroll bar (we use this one most of the time) or image reversal (looks like your watching a Top of the Pops episode from the 70's).

The Panasonic's also have the side bar screen saver for watching in 4:3 mode - though after extended 4:3 viewing I would use the white scroll bar or full screen video to energise the whole panel.

I would want to run a screen saver for more than 30-40 secs if I had been viewing for a couple of hours or more.

The Fujitsu and the Panasonic are both good panels and we prefer the Panasonic though others prefer the Fujitsu models.

As per Panicsony you can run progressive scan in PAL and NTSC and you can have an S-Video connection into the panel too.

We have lots of customers using the Denon DVD and AV amp range with the Panasonics and all report back favourably.

Feedback from those who have tried the iScan with the Panasonics has been mixed - some thought it a worthwhile step others thought the processing on the panel was as good and sometimes better than the iScan.

I tend to sell our hire stock to other hire companies or regular corporate customers - the bezels in particular can look a bit scruffy and whilst not an issue on an exhibition stand where they are often concealed they look pretty poor in your sitting room.

Best regards

Joe
 
Hi, i throughly recommend the panasonic 42" as i am a proud owner of one. trust me this is the best plasma available at the moment and ALL pictures including SKY (RGB & Composite), video(composite), DVD (NTSC/PAL component & interlaced) look amazing.

picture quality even from a video source looks good, better than most televisions as the panasonic upconverts all input sources to a progressive image:cool:

By the way i recommend you listen to Joe, the dude knows what he is talking about and buy it from him, dont go looking for special bargains.

Also buy the BLACK commercial version as it has all the various menus available to you and when you get the plasma ask Gordon=convergent-av who will calibrate your plamsma properly for you
 

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