Plasma TV Burn-in (Help?)

Rhett

Rhett

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So, I talked my parents into upgrading their old tube TV to a flat screen. It was a fairly good deal, so they were pretty happy to upgrade.

None of us knew about the break-in period. Nobody at Best Buy mentioned it (hurr). Manual (after re-reading it) didn't really mention it (though the website does??). My only experience with flat-screens is that my monitor is LCD, and my brother's TV is plasma... (though he also didn't mention it... I don't even think he bothered paying attention to the break in period, honestly)

Well, I ended up playing quite a bit of Tropico 3 on it. Tropico 3 has a cursor that stays in the center of the screen, as well as a HUD and minimap that covers most of the bottom left portion of the screen. I recently started noticing these outlines when the TVs background is black. I assume it's a form of burn-in. I played Tropico 3 for a while at a time, which didn't help (3-4 hours, as there's a glitch that corrupts extended save-games).

Will the burn-in diminish, or should we get it replaced? It's still under a 30 day return policy. It's probably around the 40-60 hours of use, mark.

Cheers!
 
[quote name='seen']Wrong section for the thread. This older thread may answer some of your questions.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=282111

Further, what is the TV brand/model number?[/QUOTE]

I had considered 'Off Topic', but this is mostly gaming-related, and I figured fellow gamers would have had a similar experience is all...

TV is a Panasonic Viera TC-P50X3 50". Currently using the built-in image retention wipe (scrolling white bar), consistently, seems to be helping. The burn-in is pretty light, and barely noticeable, but it still bugs the hell out of me. :lol:

Thanks for the link, checking it out.
 
[quote name='Rhett']Well, I ended up playing quite a bit of Tropico 3 on it. Tropico 3 has a cursor that stays in the center of the screen, as well as a HUD and minimap that covers most of the bottom left portion of the screen. I recently started noticing these outlines when the TVs background is black. I assume it's a form of burn-in. I played Tropico 3 for a while at a time, which didn't help (3-4 hours, as there's a glitch that corrupts extended save-games).

Will the burn-in diminish, or should we get it replaced? It's still under a 30 day return policy. It's probably around the 40-60 hours of use, mark.

Cheers![/QUOTE]
Image retention. Choices are use the tool built into most currently produced plasmas or hook up coax to generate white noise on the screen and leave it running that way for a bit. Try 15 minutes to an hour, longer for really bad retention.
 
[quote name='Mad39er']Image retention. Choices are use the tool built into most currently produced plasmas or hook up coax to generate white noise on the screen and leave it running that way for a bit. Try 15 minutes to an hour, longer for really bad retention.[/QUOTE]

Working on that now, thanks for the added reassurance though! I thought about the static screen, but this TV actually bypasses that and turns it into a black screen with 'No signal'. :whistle2:#

Lesson learned for the future, heh.
 
[quote name='Rhett']Working on that now, thanks for the added reassurance though! I thought about the static screen, but this TV actually bypasses that and turns it into a black screen with 'No signal'. :whistle2:#

Lesson learned for the future, heh.[/QUOTE]
Hmm... I know if I don't hook up a coax it goes to no signal. With a piece of coax hooked up it should pick up something though.
 
[quote name='Mad39er']Hmm... I know if I don't hook up a coax it goes to no signal. With a piece of coax hooked up it should pick up something though.[/QUOTE]

All they have is SD cable, so...

The retention is definitely better (ran the test around 3 times, only lasts 15 mins a piece), but still there. I'll probably just keep running it, and stop gaming on it to be safe. (for now at least... can only resist the temptation of a bigass TV for so long... :lol:)
 
[quote name='Rhett']All they have is SD cable, so...

The retention is definitely better (ran the test around 3 times, only lasts 15 mins a piece), but still there. I'll probably just keep running it, and stop gaming on it to be safe. (for now at least... can only resist the temptation of a bigass TV for so long... :lol:)[/QUOTE]
Run the scrolling bars a bunch. Just let it break in for the 200 or so hours, the image retention goes way down after that and is completely manageable in terms of annoyance afterwards. I use my plasma as my computer monitor and the retention doesn't last long.
 
[quote name='Mad39er']Run the scrolling bars a bunch. Just let it break in for the 200 or so hours, the image retention goes way down after that and is completely manageable in terms of annoyance afterwards. I use my plasma as my computer monitor and the retention doesn't last long.[/QUOTE]

Ran it for about an hour and 15 minutes, and had a DVD running for about 30 minutes... if it's gotten better, it was only a slight improvement. I guess I'll keep it up.

Thanks for the help!
 
jack up the contrast to 100, play a dvd that has lots of bright scenes in it. That should help as well.

avsforums.com is your friend for this kind of stuff, there is prolly even an owners thread for the your tv i bet, prolly worth checking out as well.

i got bad ir from fifa cause im a tard and played it using my plasmas default game mode which had contrast WAY too high. Make sure when you are gaming or watching anything with a static image that you turn down the contrast to something in the 60s. My tv is a panny vt20 3d tv, it has a thx mode, use that. You wont see any ir with those settings. I can still notice mine some on certain screens, like on the xbox dashboard. However watching any thing, cant ever see it.

Oh also if your tv has SD card slot, look up break in slides. Download it and put it on sd card, run picture slide show for hours at a time, helps speed up the breakin process.

Hope any of that helps!
 
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