MASTER BURN-IN THREAD: READ THIS FIRST! (And ask follow-ups here.) - Page 10

Thanks for posting the experience with Fox News, since we too have that station on frequently. I wish to Sam Hill stations would quit with the icons!

I've started changing formats. My wife prefers stretch plus, so we use that most of the time. But now I also use standard - doesn't fill the screen horizontally, but moves the rotating image over.

Sometimes we use Expand (or is it zoom?), whichever format keeps the 4:3 format but fills the screen enough to get rid of the ticker and image at the bottom.

Man! People sure fill the screen then, though. :-)

Good luck, all. I agree, these are to be enjoyed, and we do play PS2 on it occasionally, too. I'm just trying to strike that balance between paranoia and minimum changes.

I have been waiting forever to get my hands on Hot Shots Golf Fore! for the PS2, and I just realized how many static images the games contains. Now I am going to be afraid to play the game as often as I like and it ticks me off. The guys who sold me my RPTV assured me that video games are safe to play on it as long as they are not left on pause, and now I have come to find out that there is alot more to it than that. I just spent $2400 on a set that I have to be paranoid about playing video games on, and I play more games than I do anything else. I don't even have cable hooked up to it because I only watch DVD's and play games.

I bought Digital Video Essentials and calibrated it the best I can, I have the brightness set to 44% and contrast set to 35%, and I am still paranoid. If I would have known then what I know now, I would have went for a LCD or DLP, but I bought a CRT thinking everything would be fine. Why don't these people that sell these things make the consumers a bit more aware of the danger of burn in?

I am wondering if anyone else here is strictly a gamer and DVD watcher like myself, and how long you have been gaming on your CRT RPTV? I usually play on average 4 to 5 hours at a time, at least I use to. Now I am terrified that I am going to have a permanent image of a Hot Shots swing meter or a Halo ammo bar etched into my screen, on a TV that I worked countless hours of overtime and saved up to buy. It almost makes me want to go back to my old analog set, just so I don't have to worry about limiting the amount of time I am allowed to play without ruining my new set. I have read numerous times that burn in is not covered under warranty, so I know that even though the guys at the store who sold it to me assured me gaming is safe, if burn in did occur, I would be SOL. This is so frustrating. I guarantee you the next set I purchase will be INCAPABLE of burn in, no matter what it costs.

Sorry for the extra long post, can any games give me any reassurance on how many hours at a time I can play with static images on without being terrified the entire time? Or did I basically just waste 2400 bucks since I am not an avid television viewer?

If I have DirectTV and only watch widescreen or HDTV format about 15% of the time should I even consider a widescreen? As DirectTV increases the amount of HiDef material I will view more and more overtime. However, currently outside of ESPN HD, NFL Sunday Ticket, and two-three movies per month the remaining material is ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WPB, etc. all of which are standard format with DirectTV (unless I purchase an antenna). So, with my scenario is getting a widescreen a good decision and using the "zoom" feature?

I skimmed through this thread and I don't think my question has been addressed yet, but 272 replies is a lot to read through..

I have a Scientific Atlanta 3100HD cable box from Blue Ridge Cable and it constantly outputs 1080i signal and whenever an HD broadcast is not present it put black bars on automatically.. I've been watching DVDs and HD programming as much as possible, but I have noticed a faint light line where the black bars begin on each side of the screen.. My contrast and brightness setings are at 35 and 60 respectively following my initial AVIA setup..

Is there anything I can do to reduce this issue, or should I simply just reserve my non HDTV watching for my living room? The new SA 8000HD is available (PVR, woohoo!) and I have heard you can switch the output, but it's a cumbersome process and does not sound appealing, but I guess all in the name of a burn-free screen, eh?

Has anyone else had problems with a set top box causing burn-in lines?

With regard to the RP CRT's, if you get burn-in can you replace the screen? I understand the standard TV's are just one big tube with a screen but where does the burn-in occur on the rear projection's? I realize they use multiple guns to transform the image on to the screen but is it coming from the guns or the display screen itself?

Burn-In on an RPTV is burn in on the individual "guns". And they can be replaced, but it's pretty pricey, I heard about ~1000 per "gun".

I have just purchased a Plasma Hitachi HDTV and I have turned down the contrast-brightness. My set has a feature that is the screensaver and is set to 20 minutes. It moves the picture every 20 minutes a little to the side. Don’t other displays have this? With this, should I still be worried about logo burn-ins?

orbiting features can be helpful, but really all it's doing is smearing out the wear a little bit. If you're going to use a display and run it into the ground as a kind of informational display type thing, then orbiting helps to make the burn-in much less objectionable because it's smeared around a bit and less defined. It helps, but if you have things calibrated properly, you probably shouldn't be worrying much anyway.

I have turned down the contrast and brightness to 0 but someone said here that even with perfectly calibrated display, you can get a burn-in.

instead of talking about avoiding it, how about talking about fixes for it? (i.e. negative of jpg, white background, etc)

(for example of burn in, in pics below, see the desktop icons on the left and the taskbar showing)

Well,


I am one paranoid boy right now. When i got tivo, I put it in the bedroom because i watch a lot of shows each week and know they have logos......CBS and so on. Now these logo appear to be transparent, so I don't know if that matters or not, but I am taking no chances. It is just bad that I can't watch stuff like that on the tv. I had decided to just watch dvd's on it, but now thatis a problem. Most of the good movies are 2:35.1, so that means no filling the screen.....I try to wat two of the 1:85.1 titles for every one of the other i watch to compensate, but who knows. I would like to hear from others on their watching habbits please

I have a different spin on this thread--are particular brands more likely to get burn-in? Anybody who has seen or experienced burn-in, which TV was it?

Still can't decide!!!!! RPTV or direct view?

JASON

I had a 55" mits platinum plus for about 3 months before I burnt EA Sports and a scoreboard into the top righthand corner of it. I sold that tv for $2000, and recently picked up a Hitachi 51F500 and haven't played xbox on it since.

Man, reading this thread has gotten me paranoid...

I've been cansually looking at new TVs for a while now, but haven't really had the money to buy something to replace my 32" JVC. Now I'm not sure if I want to, since I'll probably end up burning something into it from either TV, DVDs, or one of my many game systems. The point is-I want to be able to turn my TV on and watch-not think about what ratio I've been using, or how long I've run a particular game. Is there really no way to do that other than a CRT? It seems like all of the projection technologies (save for front) have some of these burn in problems...

The one thing I haven't seen in this thread though-is there a solution to the problem? If your screen gets burnt in, what is the typical cost to fix/replace it?

I'll be honest, I was also looking for an RPTV and decided against it, for both size issues and burn-in fears--I gotta say I'm glad I did. I got a Sony Wega 32" and while it's size is not quite what I wanted I'm quite pleased. The picture clarity is fantastic and LOW MAINTENANCE. But most importantly the other day I went to check my email which should have taken two minutes. One link led to another and two hours later I go back to the living room to see my TV left with several static elements on the TV--didn't have to worry. I had a two hour marathon of NHL2k5 to celebrate my new TV-didn't have to worry! Personally, I think the size trade off was worth the peace of mind. Besides, the money I saved by buying a 32" now, means in a couple of years when the burn-free gamer friendly DLP tv's come down in price I'll be ready to go!

Just my 2 cents
JASON

Of course, with DLP come other problems, which may or may not be more damaging than any problems you'd have with CRT RPTV.
For every story of burn-in, there's another story of the opposite. My boss has a two year old Mitsubishi 65" that his kids play PS2 on ALL THE TIME, and he doesn't have a hint of burn-in.

Another question, if your speakers are said to be magnetically shielded (Infinitys), then why would my TV (Hitachi 32udx10s) still suffer from the color fading in the corners? (I had a purity kit installed once and now it's hapening in another area of the television).

what do you mean by this?

he may be talking image quality, rainbows, SDE, etc etc etc.

If you take care of your CRT properly, you should get the best performance.

Hi all ,
I just had my new Pioneer 435 installed and watched three football matches on Ssturday night in a row. Even with flicking over to other channels at halftimes etc, I could see the ESPN Live logo burned in the next morning..sigh. Is this likely to fade with more judicious usage or am I going to burn this area out even more when I watch ESPN live again??? Thanks.
Ron

Wow. Not saying you're lying or anything, cuz I believe you. It's hard to believe that watching 3 football games would be enough to burn in anything. Unless, possibly, your brightness and such were through the roof. I feel for ya tho......

I'm going on 6 months now on my Pany 53" RPTV, and we watch alot of shows (especially off the TIVO) from USA, TNT, PAX, FOX, etc, which all have their logos onscreen all the time during the shows, and I'm not seeing any burn-in at all. I've got my brightness and picture settings at 23 (on a scale of 64), and everything's fine right now. My wife has a bad habit of pausing the TIVO and then walking off, so I've gotten on her a few times about that....

Mike W.

Yes..I was mortified that my brand new plasma was so afflicted...the burned area is still there but less so today....how can I watch more football in peace though? Sigh. Do you know if the burn in is permanent?

Ron: Plasmas have another funny thing that looks like burn-in, but really isn't. Plasmas can have very slow time for the cells to "return" to the off position if they've been displaying the same thing for a while. This sounds like what you were seeing, especially if you note that it appears and diminishes in a short period of time. So I wouldn't be necessarily worried, but just make sure you are calibrated and have lower white level settings.

Thanks Chris. I have reduced my brightness and contrast levels from the preset levels and hopefully this will help. I wonder when these channels will stop imposing their logos on us!
Ron

I read most of this thread. I have a question that has not been specifically addressed (or I missed it).

Some one here mentioned that an HDTV may be more susceptible to burn-in than a standard definition CRT TV. Is this true?

I have a 17 year old CRT. It has no burn in that I have noticed. I would assume that a CRT is mostly burn-in free based on this? Or were the older CRTs more resistant to burn-in?

Hi will...i believe crts don't have burn in problems...plasmas sure do and I'm not sure about LCDs

Guh. Did you guys read the thread at all?

Phosphor-based displays lose light output over time. This means CRTs (CRTs use phosphors to emit light) and plasmas.

*ANY* phosphor based display will be susceptible to burn in, inherent to the diminishing light output of the phosphors over time, due to heat/use. The degree of how quickly they will wear depends on the particular phosphor, and the usage of that phosphor.

Displays that do not use phosphors don't suffer this problem, but may suffer from other problems. DLPs, LCD, and LCOS based displays are widely cited as being burn-in free, though there have been some limited reports of LCD panel retention for particularly brutal use.

Thanks for the feedback. However, my main question is;

"Some one here mentioned that an HDTV may be more susceptible to burn-in than a standard definition CRT TV. Is this true?"

I have had a standard definition monitor for 17 years. It has been on for several hours a day (5-6). Watching standard cable, VHS, DVD, and playing occasional PS and PS2 games. The set has suffered no burn-in. Can I expect the same performance from a HD CRT.

Thanks in advance.

The resolution should not necessarily effect the burn-in. Obviously, there are different types of CRT displays, direct views are the least susceptible to wear problems, while Projection CRTs are much moreso.

So if you get a direct view HD set, you should expect to have to worry about burn in about the same, i.e. not much at all if you calibrate so you're not in "torch mode."

The only reason I mention the projection, is that many buyers that are moving towards HDTVs are getting larger displays, hence rear-projection units. It's not the HD part of this that is the difference, but rather the projection that uses CRTs differently, and will be more susceptible to burn in.

Now whether you can expect the same life-time of use from a set now as from a very old one, I dunno. I would have to err on the no side, in that older sets seem to be more resiliantly designed rather than today's more mass-produced cheapie sets. But this is a longevity factor of electronics and nothing to do with phosphor wear.

I have burn in on my old direct view Mitsubishi 32" I bought in the early 1990's. I was mostly watching LTBX LaserDisc and VHS on that set. It can be seen if I have a all white test pattern where you see uneven brightness. Most of the time it is not noticeable unless you really look for it..