[philnavigator]

I have heard and read a bit about the dangers of screenburn, motably on plasma screens, but have not been able to find a straight answer to a simple question.

How long does it take an image to 'burn' onto a screen, CRT or plasma? At present I have a 32in widescreen CRT set, with plans to invest in plasm soon, and I want to know if watching excessive amounts of Sky one or 'E4 Brand New' will affect my set. Are ad breaks every 15-20 mins enough to stop this from happening?

Any ideas?

[GaryB]

Burn on a CRT is a very minor problem. It would take weeks, if not months showing the same image or an image with a logo, etc. to cause a burn, assuming brightness and contrast are not set to very high levels.

Plasmas are very different. It is possible for a minor burn to be caused after just a few hours. Many plasmas have a reverse or white out mode that you can use to get rid of these. Major burns can be caused after just 5-6 hours in extreme cases and are usually irreversible. Many plasmas include burn protection systems such as "pixel shift" that very slowly moves the image around. The movement is not visible and it effectively spreads the burn around and minimises the effects. I have seen several plasmas with burnt in satellite logos and even one with a burnt in DVD menu. A word of warning - manufacturers will not cover this under warranty and, in most cases, fitting a new PDP will cost almost as much as the set.

[philnavigator]

Quote:

Originally posted by GaryB
Burn on a CRT is a very minor problem. It would take weeks, if not months showing the same image or an image with a logo, etc. to cause a burn, assuming brightness and contrast are not set to very high levels.

Plasmas are very different. It is possible for a minor burn to be caused after just a few hours. Many plasmas have a reverse or white out mode that you can use to get rid of these. Major burns can be caused after just 5-6 hours in extreme cases and are usually irreversible. Many plasmas include burn protection systems such as "pixel shift" that very slowly moves the image around. The movement is not visible and it effectively spreads the burn around and minimises the effects. I have seen several plasmas with burnt in satellite logos and even one with a burnt in DVD menu. A word of warning - manufacturers will not cover this under warranty and, in most cases, fitting a new PDP will cost almost as much as the set.

So when you say weeks or months on CRT, and 5-6 hours on plasma, this would be constant? If I watch 10 hours of Sky one per week, with ad breaks and whole days in between programs, this would not affect either, e.g. its not cumulative?

[GaryB]

That will be OK. It's constant, uninterrupted use that does the damage.

[philnavigator]

Quote:

Originally posted by GaryB
That will be OK. It's constant, uninterrupted use that does the damage.

Thanks for the info

[Everything Goes]

Perhaps we should call screen burn DOG Bites!