The manual states “Do not display a picture in 4:3 mode for an extended period, as this can cause an after-image...”

What is “an extended period”?

Thank you.

Mark J. Price

Plasmas are prone to burn-in, what they are calling after-image. As to how long it will take to happen will depend on how bright the screen is. I'd call the manufacturer and ask what is typical.

The chap at the TV shop talked me out of buying a plasma screen.

He started on about this screen burn and said it could occur in 15 minutes in the worst case.

The Sky logo and various other screen logos will burn the screen as well.

He said something about getting the gas recharged to cure this but I was talked out of buying one by then

Was it Dixons/Currys? That's about the level of plasma knowledge you can expect there. The re-gassing stuff is a complete myth but for some reason lots of inexperienced dealers still think it's true.

If the set is new (less than about 100 hours) they can burn in a few hours. After that they are better but it's still best to limit 4:3 to one film a day.

Have a read of the Plasma forum over at avforums for lots more information.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=82

I'm not gonna get a plasma TV until they are up to the HDTV spec at a reasonable cost.

Ha, Ha, Ha, love it, the chap at the TV shop is a moron ! Don't buy anything from him.

You should be careful with a plasma for the first couple of hundred hours of watching it, turn the contrast and brightness down. After that don't worry too much, make sure you don't leave static images on screen for too long (the tv guide is an example not a DOG) but most screens will move the pixels a little so that this image isn't in fact static.

The screen will in fact stand up to quite a bashing (not that you should try), my daughter has thrown things at it, static images have been left on it for a hour or more, it even had 'Titanic' on it, which you will have to agree is enough to make most normal TV's jump off a tall building.

Re-gassing as said above is bull.

I love my plasma, it is the best piece of kit I ever got. The thing to remember is that, as with all precious items, you want to look after it. People come in to my front room and go 'wow', the screen looks good, and the picture is great.

We were thinking of upgrading to a plasma screen or and LCD screen, but after seeing some of the shop displays we were a bit dissapointed. The picture on the LCD ones looked a bit crappy, and made me feel strange. The plasma ones looked a bit better, but still not good enough for my mum to fork out £1500 odd. We looked in Dixons and by the looks of things here, that wasnt a good idea!!

LCD screens have a way to go yet. Even the HD versions we have show typically lousy video compared to plasma and crt. Also, LCDs displaying content at a resolution not the same as the native resolution of the display will always be soft.

Plasmas, at least the ones over here, show fantastic pictures, even with standard definition. The HD versions are of course gorgeous and will continue to get better up to the max resolution for HD. As with all TVs quality still varies from brand to brand and model to model. Overall plasmas easily have the highest quality picture for a large screen.

Together with your comments, I have also found:

For the first 200 hours of use, the plasma screen is very prone to burn-in.

* Keep the contrast and brightness down.
* Don’t leave of when not being viewed.
* Don’t have the screen in 4:3 mode or have static images for long periods. (Still don’t know what a long period is. Some say 15-minutes)

Currys (UK vendors) told me that the gas can be re-filled.
Yes I understand this is complete rubbish.

Burn-in is damage to the phosphor.
The gas is contained in many thousands of ‘isolated’, sealed, glass tubes.
When the ‘half-life’ of the gas is exceeded (bit fuzzy on this) the colours start to bleed and the screen becomes less responsive.

The manufacturers consider the ‘half-life’ of the gas as the stated life of the tube.

The more excitation of the gas (brighter and use) the faster you will get to this point.

For interest:

I have a Panasonic TH-42PWD6 monitor with one SCART input terminal board. A Quintro+ RGB SCART Switch Box.

The Quintro+ automatically switches to the last activated input.

I use an old OnDigital tuner.

I did see some basically awful examples in the shops (Currys/Comet) of both analogue and digital inputs.
But even with my old box, the picture is superb and with DVD (RGB) and XBOX (RGB), well, simply awesome.

Anyone wants to put me right, please do.

Thanks.

Mark

This thread describes my practicle experiences of image burn in...

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/...d.php?t=108540

Only one small thing. The usual effect when the screen ages is just that the phosphors fade, i.e. the picture is not so bright. There is not usually any colour bleed. This does sometimes happen with very old CRT sets when the tube is knackered.

i would just like to add that after image is a warning that you are risking screen burn,if you run full motion video on the screen for a while(30mins to an hour)this will clear and it is fine and as long as you always clear any after image you get on the screen,then screen burn should not occur.

The highest spec, 1920x1080 plasmas are supposed to be coming out soon so that should drive the lower HD spec Plasmas down quite a bit. Can't wait to see one in action.