Gizmodo: burn-in

The Truth About Plasma Screen Burn-In

Rosa Golijan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST

People are still talking about plasma burn-in, even though it's a non-issue. Actually, two very rare separate non-issues, permanent burn-in and temporary image retention. Gary at HD Guru decided to put the matter to rest:

Gary decided the best way to illustrate this issue is to figure out what it takes to create image retention or burn-in.

In his trials, he was able to cause retention, "a faint ghost image of previously viewed content," by tuning to a SMPTE color bar test pattern for 15 minutes and then switching to an all white screen. The resulting effect dissipated after a few minutes and is definitely of no concern to plasma display owners.

Burn-in, a "faint outline of a previously viewed image caused by uneven phosphor wear," turned out to be far more difficult to cause. Gary couldn't do it by freezing a frame for ten hours, nor by seeking out showroom demo plasma HDTVs that might have been on a burn-causing loop. In the end he concluded that the effect might be created in a "worst case scenario" which involves "100% viewing of 4:3 content with black side bars [instead of gray], or exclusive viewing of 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies (without using one of the zoom modes to eliminate the black bars) and leaving it on that way continuously for weeks."

So basically, unless you're seriously obsessed with a particular image that you'd stare at it for weeks at a time, or only watch 2.35:1 movies (in which case who cares if the burn is uneven in the unused pixels?), you can skip worrying about burn-in and enjoy your plasma. If you want more on the science of all of this, check out Gary's full story. [HD Guru]

LCD Burn-in Exists, And It Isn't Pretty

Jason Chen — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:00:33 EDT

Despite what the floor salesmen at Best Buy tell you about Plasmas vs. LCDs, LCD TVs actually do get burn-in. Sure, it takes longer to make that "Fox News" logo locked into your TV even when you're watching, say, The Venture Bros., but it'll get there. As you can see in this 22-inch Sharp LCD at Bic Camera in Japan, the "0" in the 1980 yen appears even when the number doesn't. We just wish the guys who took this picture knew how to use a camera correctly.

Sharp's Senior Vice President said that the condition can be reversed by "exercising" the pixel by playing snow, or turning off the screen for a while. What he didn't say was whether this works on all screens, and how long it takes to clear the stuck pixels. [HDGuru]

Plasma Burn-In From Too Much Sports

tgrumet — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 15:46:50 EST

Looks like the Australians take their sports extra seriously, with some of them actually burning the logos of TV channels into their brand new plasma screens from too much viewing of the same channel. Fascinating, really. I've had a plasma for over 2 years and I've never had this problem. But Aussie Wayne Siers claims that after buying a $3000 plasma TV on Christmas Eve (that's THIS Christmas Eve, by the way) it now has the Channel 9 logo burned into the right-hand corner from watching the same sports show for 5 days. After that, it was matched by a Channel 7 logo from one day of tennis viewing. Way to go, Wayne. That may be a record. And has anyone told you to get out of the house for while? Get some fresh air? Let that be a lesson to all of you sports fiends. Stick with a CRT if you have to watch that much. Or even better, head to the pub and watch them ruin their $3k TV!

TV logos make their mark [News.com]