Projection screen videogame "burn-in": Myth or Reality? (1 Viewer)

[Ken Garrison]

I have my contrast on FULL BLAST!! Makes the video look better. I ain't worried about burn in. It's never happened to me with the way I set up my monitors and TVs.

 

[Dave Marx]

Bruce, please provide a link to the Burn-in FAQ. If you feel uncomfortable posting it here, please email it to me: [email protected]
Thanks..

 

[BruceSpielbauer]

Dave Marx:

I just sent you links to the FAQs about screen burn in, and also a link to one of the better threads now occuring on this topic. The thread is great, as it has several testimonials from "victims," and is useful since they try to describe what mistakes they think they made.

I wish I could find the one where the guy's kids hit the "reset" button on his RPTV, which caused his contrast to go back to 100%. They did this to plug in and play their X-Box. Then, later, they watched the Cartoon Network. He now has THIS logo on his screen, and he says he can see it almost constantly, in almost every scene. He was (to put it judiciously), a wee bit miffed...

I am not posting these here publicly, simply because they direct users to a different forum, which might be considered somewhat "competitive" with this one . I try to play by the rules.

-Bruce In Chi-Town

 

[Dave Marx]

Bruce...thanks so much for the email. Unfortunately, the links appear to be closed. I also sent you an email response.

DAVID

 

[Jim FC]

I work in a TV store, and believe me, burn-in is entirely real. Most of our RPTVs have the "ESPN" logo burned-in on the lower right-hand corner of the screen, and we have the contrast at 50% or lower on all our sets! The most important thing, which nobody seems to have mentioned yet, is that for the first two months or so, you should not leave ANY static image on your screen, even with the contrast down, for more than about ten minutes. TVs have a break-in period, and they are very bright right out of the box. It doesn't take long to ruin a TV if you don't know what you are doing. The first thing you do to a new TV is to get it out of Torch Mode, by turning the brightness and contrast to 50% or lower.

The reason 16:9 bars are not burned in as quickly as video games or channel logos is that the latter two tend to be very bright on your screen, while with a 16:9 DVD, there is no white line separating the image from the black bar. While a black bar can burn in (or more precisely, not burn in while the rest of the screen does), burn-in is much more common and noticeable with bright, white logos or graphics. The safest thing? Turn the contrast & brightness below 40% (this actually helps your picture quality), don't play any video games AT ALL, and limit any channel with a bright logo to a half hour or less.

 

[BruceSpielbauer]

David:

Check E-Mail, I just sent you detailed instructions.

-Bruce

 

[LanceM]

just do what i do, pretend the best buy salesmen arent there. safer that way.

 

[Ryan Beerski]

James is smart...he burned Grand Theft Auto III into my 73" Mitzy... Way to go, James!

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Or you could drop the $6k and get a DLP RPTV.

 

[Ken Garrison]

Ok, I'm a believer now. I was in Sears today looking and drooling at the HDTVs. The guy only had a Fullscreen of Shrek playing in the DVD player onto about 5 Big Screens. I asked him, WHERE'S THE WIDESCREEN VERSION? He said he didn't have it around. Then he mentioned the Burn In. I mumbled, I don't believe that. Then he pointed at a couple TVs that are burned in. I couldn't really see it that time. Then when I was almost outta the store, I looked again, and I could see it. Them widescreen HDTVs were nice also. This one TV I was looking at had Dish Network HDTV playing on it. I played with the remote a little. For some reason, circles looked like flat ovals. I kepted trying to set the video on it, but the aspect ratio would NOT change. Some things on the sides were cut off. Probably EXCESSIVE overscan or something. I think all the Widescreen TVs looked like that. I did change it to a 4x3 analog channel that was playing on all the OTHER 4x3 TVs. The quality didn't look too bad either. I noticed some artifacts on it, but not enough to cry about. So, I wouldn't mind taking an HDTV home, as long as I got the money. I sure wish they had an Anamorphic DVD playing. THe guy didn't have any Anamorphic DVDs. Damn

 

[Dave Marx]

I am curious...everyone has been talking about BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST needing to be turned low. I am wondering...what about SHARPNESS? Is it ok if I turn that up, or does it also have to be turned down?

 

[Chris Vargas]

You should usually turn sharpness down, but I don't believe it has anything to do with burn-in, or at least not as much as contrast.

 

[Jim FC]

Chris is right, sharpness has little-to-zero to do with burn-in, but you should still turn it down to get the best picture. Mine is at something like 10%. All sharpness ends up doing past about the 20% setting is to enhance static and other flaws in the picture, and once you get used to a picture with the sharpness control turned way down, you'll wonder how you ever watched TV with it up high.

Burn-in is all about contrast and brightness, which in order to prevent burn in, AND to deliver a better picture, should also be turned way down past where most people have them. Most new TVs come with the contrast set at 100%, which is horible!!! Until a TV starts getting pretty old, none of the picture settings should be much over 50%.

 

[Jan Strnad]

I'd recommend that everyone...especially Ken Garrison, since he's eager to learn...rent the Avia Guide to Home Theater DVD and go through setting the contrast (white level), brightness (black level) and sharpness settings on your TV. Regarding contrast, in particular, it's interesting how boosting the contrast makes the picture seem more vivid but actually washes out detail.

The Avia disc also does a good job explaining why you don't want sharpness cranked up, and provides the test pattern you need to maximize your set's sharpness setting.

The DVD contains other goodies, too.

Highly recommended!

Jan

 

[Dave Marx]

Thanks for the responses about the sharpness. I'll experiment with turning it down.

I am finding that I access the MENU button on my 53" SONY HDTV quite a bit, to tweek with the settings. The MENU setting calls up a huge fullscreen display, and it takes awhile to negotiate it. Sometimes I have the display onscreen for several minutes at a time.

Is this a burn-in risk? I have my contrast and brightness turned down.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

The menu screen being on for several minutes at a time won't hurt anything.

As long as you don't leave it up for really long periods of time like half and hour or an hour on a frequent basis you won't hurt anything.

I use my set for video games, mainly racing games that have a speedo display on all during the race. The actual length of these races on GT-3 and such is only a few minutes at a time, the rest of the time the game is running a replay or menu screen or such. I've played these games for 3 and 4 hours at a time on 2 different RPTVs with no sign of burn in-with contrast set to 30% or lower. The key is not to pause the game and leave it on the screen--it's ok to pause, but switch the set to another input while it's paused for more than a minute or so (i.e. if you need a potty-break). Likewise don't leave a menu screen on for more than a few minutes. As long as you also use the set for plenty of regular viewing you'll be ok.

 

[Dave Marx]

Thanks...that sounds great! Unfortunately, my girlfriend and I have been fighting all this weekend, so I haven't even gotten a chance to turn the darn TV on (probably a good thing, right?).

I am trying to summon up the confidence to play XBOX and PS2 on my new gorgeous 53" SONY HDTV, and posts like the last one make me feel more confident about it. Thanks again!

Dave M.

 

[Brian Harnish]

Bruce- Could you be so kind as to email me the links to the FAQ and threads on burn-in? Thanks!

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

You guys (especially you, Ken) need to keep in mind the difference between a normal direct view CRT and a RPTV CRT. The direct view has one big CRT run at low to moderate levels because you are watching the actual tube directly. Burn in there is IMHO less likely to occur because the tube isn't driven as hard.

On a RPTV you have three tubes that are a fraction of the size and being pushed hard enough to project the light onto the screen surface from behind. That means the intensity of light required is much much higher and should also mean that burn-in will happen much easier on a CRT RPTV than a direct view.

As for running contrast at full blast... not only will it use up the picture tube quicker than having it at proper levels, the image quality is not right. You most likely have blooming of the whites and washed out details.

Many people have no clue as to how a video image, especially for movies, should look. Avia or Video Essentials should be a mandatory purchase with any DVD player / display combination, IMHO!

As has been noted, the LCD and DLP RPTV's are not prone to burn-in due to no CRT tubes and no phoshors being used.

 

[Dave Marx]

I second Kimmo's emotion. I was wary about turning my contrast down, cause I thought it would make the image look worse, darker or whatever. Actually, it looks like a true image...one that you might see in a theatre. Very clear, very crisp and very natural. I tried turning up the contrast again yesterday, just to see the difference. The turned-up contrast picture looks WAY too 'bright', makes the picture look even grainier, and just doesn't look right anymore.

Seriously, turn the contrast down. Leave it down. You will get used to this great picture in a matter of days...maybe even hours. And your burn-in risk will lower also!