GadgetObsessed
Distinguished Member
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- Jul 6, 2001
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Reported Burn In Rates as of 2 April 2019
2018 OLEDs - 1.7% (out of 120 votes)
2017 OLEDs - 7.3% (out of 219 votes)
2016 OLEDs - 29.1% (out of 234 votes)
2015 OLEDs - 13.3% (out of 30 votes)
Moderator note * Please be aware that the results of this poll do not represent an even demographic. By reading these results one might assume that OLED burn in is a common issue, however its important to remember those who search, visit and vote here will commonly already experience an issue.
Whilst this comparison is nice, it does not take in to consideration everyone who has purchased an OLED TV, nor does it attract people to vote here who do not have OLED burn in compared to those that don't. Not to mention it also doesn't include figures corresponding to how many units have sold. Please take this into consideration when reading these results.
Response to moderators note above:
It is difficult to know whether the poll is biased in favour of burn-in or not. There is a general argument that more people complain on forums than do not because those with a complaint are more motivated to find a forum on which to complain. In this way any internet poll is biased one way or the other because the voters are self selecting.
However, many of the voters are regular users of the forum - so would have seen this poll irrespective of whether they had an issue or not. Are those without an issue much less likely to click on an AVForums poll that they have already seen? (The answer is nobody can be certain.)
I am not sure how the total number of people who own an OLED is relevant to the discussion.
For a given level of statistical confidence, the required sample size is not dependent upon the size of the total population. For example, if you want a reliable poll of voting intentions for a general election the sample size would be the same for Iceland (population 360,000) as it would be for the UK (population 67 million). A typical voting poll asks fewer than 2,000 people how they will vote. This is out of a voting population of around 47 million.
Ideally someone would randomly select a number of OLED owners (or select them based on TV usage, panel age, etc.) and visit them to check if their TV had burn in. Unfortunately, nobody is going to run such a survey so we are left without knowing the true rate of burn in.
Notes on the Results so Far....
2018 Panels - one user reported faint burn in and that they use their 2018 OLED for very long hours and as a "PC monitor, for gaming, movies and TV - so lot's of static stuff on screen especially when using as a PC monitor or playing games for hours at a time"
2017 Panels - 16 users have reported burn in. One of these cases was apparently due to HDR gaming on a Philips OLED. This is an interesting case.
2016 Panels - More than 1 in 4 owners have reported burn-in! In this poll, the rate of burn in for 2016 OLEDs is much higher than than for 2017 OLEDs.
This could simply be due to burn in being directly related to hours used which is related to panel age. Based on the assumption that the vast majority of panels of a given model year were sold between April and April and that they sold at a roughly constant rate throughout that 12 month period then the average 2016 panel is 30 months old and the average 2017 panel is 18 months old. Perhaps the owners of 2017 panels with burn in are more likely to be those who use their panel for more hours per day.
Alternatively, the difference in burn in rates between 2016 and 2017 panels could be evidence that the 2017 OLEDs are more resistant to burn in. This is possible, as often burn in on 2016 panels seems to be related to the red sub-pixel. The 2017 panels have larger red-sub pixels than the 2016 panels. All other things being equal a larger sub pixel should last longer. This is simply because a smaller sub-pixel has to be brighter per unit of area to generate the same total amount of light. Additionally, we do not know if LG use different OLED emitter compounds in 2017 that could have longer lifespans. (There is ongoing R&D aimed at producing OLED componds that are both brighter and longer lasting.)
2015 Panels - lower reported burn in rates than 2016 OLED but with only 30 votes it is hard to draw any firm conclusions.
ORIGINAL OPENING POST
There is lots of discussion on this forum about screen burn on OLEDs. So I am curious to find out:
(1) The proportion of OLED screens affected by screen burn
(2) Whether the issue varies by panel type/year.
This will either end up being reassuring or worrying to potential OLED buyers.
Firstly, to clarify what I mean by burn in for this poll.
Burn in is where an area of the screen has been affected in such a way that it is noticeable during normal viewing and that effect has been caused by viewing of certain content.
This can include:
(a) Channel logos and bars/tickers
(b) Fading - this could be that certain areas of the screen are now paler or brighter than the rest of the screen. For example, if you watch a lot of movies in widescreen 2.35:1 with black bars at the top and bottom you may find that the area of these black bars ends up being brighter than the rest of the screen. (This is because the rest of the screen has "aged" more through displaying actual content. This is why plasmas used to have the options of making the black bars grey so they would age at a similar rate to the rest of the screen.)
For this poll I am explictly excluding issues of tinting and general uneveness in illumination. While these are issues with OLED they are different to the risk of permanent burn in.
I have also decided not to include OLEDs pre-2016 e.g. the LG EF950V. I think that the panels have moved on so much since then that it isn't really relevant to todays buyers.
At the bottom is my best guess of a list of the mapping of model to panel years. Please let me know if I have missed any or made any mistakes.
Note that you can select up to 3 responses. This is to cover people who may have bought OLEDs in each of the 3 years concerned.
2018
LG B8/C8/E8/W8
Sony AF8/AF9
Panasonic FZ952/FZ802
Philips 803
2017
LG B7/C7/E7/W7
Sony AF1
Panasonic EZ952/EZ1002
Philips 9002
2016
LG B6/C6/E6/G6/W6
Panasonic CZ952
2018 OLEDs - 1.7% (out of 120 votes)
2017 OLEDs - 7.3% (out of 219 votes)
2016 OLEDs - 29.1% (out of 234 votes)
2015 OLEDs - 13.3% (out of 30 votes)
Moderator note * Please be aware that the results of this poll do not represent an even demographic. By reading these results one might assume that OLED burn in is a common issue, however its important to remember those who search, visit and vote here will commonly already experience an issue.
Whilst this comparison is nice, it does not take in to consideration everyone who has purchased an OLED TV, nor does it attract people to vote here who do not have OLED burn in compared to those that don't. Not to mention it also doesn't include figures corresponding to how many units have sold. Please take this into consideration when reading these results.
Response to moderators note above:
It is difficult to know whether the poll is biased in favour of burn-in or not. There is a general argument that more people complain on forums than do not because those with a complaint are more motivated to find a forum on which to complain. In this way any internet poll is biased one way or the other because the voters are self selecting.
However, many of the voters are regular users of the forum - so would have seen this poll irrespective of whether they had an issue or not. Are those without an issue much less likely to click on an AVForums poll that they have already seen? (The answer is nobody can be certain.)
I am not sure how the total number of people who own an OLED is relevant to the discussion.
For a given level of statistical confidence, the required sample size is not dependent upon the size of the total population. For example, if you want a reliable poll of voting intentions for a general election the sample size would be the same for Iceland (population 360,000) as it would be for the UK (population 67 million). A typical voting poll asks fewer than 2,000 people how they will vote. This is out of a voting population of around 47 million.
Ideally someone would randomly select a number of OLED owners (or select them based on TV usage, panel age, etc.) and visit them to check if their TV had burn in. Unfortunately, nobody is going to run such a survey so we are left without knowing the true rate of burn in.
Notes on the Results so Far....
2018 Panels - one user reported faint burn in and that they use their 2018 OLED for very long hours and as a "PC monitor, for gaming, movies and TV - so lot's of static stuff on screen especially when using as a PC monitor or playing games for hours at a time"
2017 Panels - 16 users have reported burn in. One of these cases was apparently due to HDR gaming on a Philips OLED. This is an interesting case.
2016 Panels - More than 1 in 4 owners have reported burn-in! In this poll, the rate of burn in for 2016 OLEDs is much higher than than for 2017 OLEDs.
This could simply be due to burn in being directly related to hours used which is related to panel age. Based on the assumption that the vast majority of panels of a given model year were sold between April and April and that they sold at a roughly constant rate throughout that 12 month period then the average 2016 panel is 30 months old and the average 2017 panel is 18 months old. Perhaps the owners of 2017 panels with burn in are more likely to be those who use their panel for more hours per day.
Alternatively, the difference in burn in rates between 2016 and 2017 panels could be evidence that the 2017 OLEDs are more resistant to burn in. This is possible, as often burn in on 2016 panels seems to be related to the red sub-pixel. The 2017 panels have larger red-sub pixels than the 2016 panels. All other things being equal a larger sub pixel should last longer. This is simply because a smaller sub-pixel has to be brighter per unit of area to generate the same total amount of light. Additionally, we do not know if LG use different OLED emitter compounds in 2017 that could have longer lifespans. (There is ongoing R&D aimed at producing OLED componds that are both brighter and longer lasting.)
2015 Panels - lower reported burn in rates than 2016 OLED but with only 30 votes it is hard to draw any firm conclusions.
ORIGINAL OPENING POST
There is lots of discussion on this forum about screen burn on OLEDs. So I am curious to find out:
(1) The proportion of OLED screens affected by screen burn
(2) Whether the issue varies by panel type/year.
This will either end up being reassuring or worrying to potential OLED buyers.
Firstly, to clarify what I mean by burn in for this poll.
Burn in is where an area of the screen has been affected in such a way that it is noticeable during normal viewing and that effect has been caused by viewing of certain content.
This can include:
(a) Channel logos and bars/tickers
(b) Fading - this could be that certain areas of the screen are now paler or brighter than the rest of the screen. For example, if you watch a lot of movies in widescreen 2.35:1 with black bars at the top and bottom you may find that the area of these black bars ends up being brighter than the rest of the screen. (This is because the rest of the screen has "aged" more through displaying actual content. This is why plasmas used to have the options of making the black bars grey so they would age at a similar rate to the rest of the screen.)
For this poll I am explictly excluding issues of tinting and general uneveness in illumination. While these are issues with OLED they are different to the risk of permanent burn in.
I have also decided not to include OLEDs pre-2016 e.g. the LG EF950V. I think that the panels have moved on so much since then that it isn't really relevant to todays buyers.
At the bottom is my best guess of a list of the mapping of model to panel years. Please let me know if I have missed any or made any mistakes.
Note that you can select up to 3 responses. This is to cover people who may have bought OLEDs in each of the 3 years concerned.
2018
LG B8/C8/E8/W8
Sony AF8/AF9
Panasonic FZ952/FZ802
Philips 803
2017
LG B7/C7/E7/W7
Sony AF1
Panasonic EZ952/EZ1002
Philips 9002
2016
LG B6/C6/E6/G6/W6
Panasonic CZ952
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