VT30 Sky Icon Retention

[blowy111]

I have Got a 14 month old Panasonic VT30 50", i have owned from new and I have used the set for 10 hours a week at the max
(i work a lot, and sleep a lot!). We mainly watch Sky on the set, with the occasional Blu-Ray.
It now seems to have the 'ghost' of the Sky HD 'Pause / play' icon in the lower right corner. This is mainly visible as bieng slightly darker than the background on white/cream or light coloured solid scenes.
When i got the plasma i educated my other half on the 'correct' treatment of them and asked her not to leave the set paused for a extended period , i am sure that the absolute maximum this has been on pause ,is about 10 minutes (the icon also appears when you fast fwd etc though, so is on screen at other times). To be honest, we have 'babied' the set, particularly for the first 6 months.
I have tried a couple of measures to get rid of it (i noticed the ghost image 3 weeks ago), including 6 hours of solid colour slides - via USB (found on this forum somewhere) and 6 hours of my friends Disney WOW Disc on the Pixel Flipper, both were split sessions of 3 hours x 2. We have still been watching Sky as normal but not pausing the set at all and pressing 'back-up' where possible to remove it from the screen as soon as possible.
The set is on 'normal' with contrast and brightness midway (and was when i took the above 'failed' measures). The wife says she can barely notice the image but se acknowledges its there.
My question's are please, will it go? Surely when we keep watching Sky we are 'topping it up'.
Should the slides/pixel shifter be run with increased brightness and contrast to help move it? Is this a 'normal' thing to happen to this set?
Im worried that i have spent a lot of money on a 'faulty' set, where the fault is specifically excluded from its 5 year manufacturers warranty.
If anyone can offer good advice or reasurance it would be appreciated, most of the threads on this relate to channel logos etc, not the icon which is on screen for a relativley short amount of time.

 

[Scooby2000]

If its fading it will go with time. try using the scrolling bars, set the TVs auto standby to 4 hours and leave the bars running when you go to bed.

 

[blowy111]

Thanks Scooby. Im not 100% sure it is fading, although i think so, the trouble is its hard to guage as the colour and brightness of the backgroung has a direct bearing on its visibility (hardly visible on Reds, more on blue and most on light green), in additon to white backgrounds.
I have tried to persuade my other half to watch our stuff on zoom but she kept complaining that she cant see peoples heads etc. As a compromise i turned on 16.9 Overscan on which i think has re-located the icon slightly. I hope that this minimises the continuation of the problem.
Does the scrolling bar not only run for a set period on the VT30 ? Im sure i read somewhere that it only goes for 15 minutes at a time?
I appreciate your advice, and thanks.

 

[Scooby2000]

Scrolling bar goes on until you stop it or the set goes to standby, at least my GT30 did.
Make sure the pixel arbiter is on and use normal mode as the extra dither may help it.

I've had a set with bad IR, took about 5-6 months for the thing to settle.

 

[blowy111]

Scooby i will give it a go then and update the thread with any progress. Thank You.

 

[blowy111]

Scooby, it definitely seems to be fading now, 2 x 3 hour sessions of the scolling bar (which i can confirm runs indefinatley on the VT30), and minimal use of pause, and im damn sure its slowly improving. I'll run it some more over the next few days and let you know. Thanks for your advice and reassurance, people like you make these forums a great resource.

 

[Scooby2000]

Scooby, it definitely seems to be fading now, 2 x 3 hour sessions of the scolling bar (which i can confirm runs indefinatley on the VT30), and minimal use of pause, and im damn sure its slowly improving. I'll run it some more over the next few days and let you know. Thanks for your advice and reassurance, people like you make these forums a great resource.

Glad to hear it, I can understand people worrying and being annoyed with IR but in most cases it can be sorted out.

From personal experience of bad IR with a set I don't even think a bout burn now, way to much poor info out there causing people to worry when they don't need to, annoys me as so many now panic at the slightest hint of IR (not referring to you there) and post they have burn etc, not their fault, its the poor advise given by people who know jack all or in some cases know better but are just lazy in their articles.

With any luck as your set ages IR should be less and less of an issue, at least you know of a way of removing it now if it doesn't.

 

[blowy111]

Just a quick update for anyone interested. After taking the above advice i can confirm that the 'burn' was never 'burn' all the. Scooby said it would go, it did, and 100%. It is no longer visible at all, even on burn in slides.
In a nutshell, as scooby said, if you suffer from this, use the scrolling bar for a good few hours (mine probably totalled about 15 over a few weeks) and try to avoid repeating the action that caused it (until it goes). I turned overscan on for a few weeks so when we did pause/ff/rw the icon was slightly shifted from its original position. I found this a far more tolerable solution than using zoom.
I have now turned this of,reverting the set to its proper native view, and am not living in fear of using pause (for a few minutes at least). Most of all i am enjoying this great TV.
I love the quality of this great plasma and would hate for people to be put off by many of the scare-mongers who know very little about the actual cause and cure of this temporary problem. In my view, the quality far,far outshines this temporary drawback few people may actually experience.

 

[Scooby2000]

Just a quick update for anyone interested. After taking the above advice i can confirm that the 'burn' was never 'burn' all the. Scooby said it would go, it did, and 100%. It is no longer visible at all, even on burn in slides.
In a nutshell, as scooby said, if you suffer from this, use the scrolling bar for a good few hours (mine probably totalled about 15 over a few weeks) and try to avoid repeating the action that caused it (until it goes). I turned overscan on for a few weeks so when we did pause/ff/rw the icon was slightly shifted from its original position. I found this a far more tolerable solution than using zoom.
I have now turned this of,reverting the set to its proper native view, and am not living in fear of using pause (for a few minutes at least). Most of all i am enjoying this great TV.
I love the quality of this great plasma and would hate for people to be put off by many of the scare-mongers who know very little about the actual cause and cure of this temporary problem. In my view, the quality far,far outshines this temporary drawback few people may actually experience.

Good to hear all is well now, I think many get some bad IR and after reading poor information online just think its burn so go through the stress of trying to get a refund/replacement when they don't need to.
By posting what you have you've likely helped with a lot of peoples concerns, nice one.