For those with projection TVs (1 Viewer)

[David Preston]

I have a 57" Hitachi and have a question about it. If you are watching TV and then decide to eat or take a shower or something that you won't be in the room 30min do you leave the TV on or turn it off. My friend's dad said it's better to leave it on than to turn it off each time you leave the room for a while because it's not good to turn the tv on and off a lot. Projection TVs have a limited about of time before the CRTs or internals go bad right like 10,000 hours. So with this said would it be better to turn it off or leave it on. Probably a dumb question but I would just like some professional opinions. Thanks

 

[Mitch Stevens]

Well I'm not by any means a professional, but I do have a 65" Widescreen HDTV. I constantly turn it off/on. If I'm going to do something, like use the computer, even for 5 minutes, I will turn off my TV, and go back to it, and turn it on. In other words, the only time my TV is on, is when I'm sitting right in front of it. If I'm going to leave the room, even for a second or two, I turn it off.

It's almost a year old, and from what I can tell, there hasn't been any damage to it, from doing this. But even if there were damage, I have a 4 year extended warranty from Best Buy, so it doesn't matter.

 

[Allan Jayne]

I suggest leaving it on if you expect to come back in half an hour.

Some added stress is put on the internal components each time the TV is turned on.

It is impossible to predict the best length of time to leave it on if you are leaving the room.

As far as uneven wear on the tube phosphors (screen burn) goes, turning the TV off for brief periods of time when you leave the room will not improve things.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Dick White]

I don't know if it makes any difference, but usually when I am out of the room, I leave mine on but on an input with no signal so that the screen is black. (Actually, I usually switch to a DirecTV music channel, and on the new digital receiver it goes to black after a few minutes so I no longer have to switch the video input). When I leave the house, I usually turn it off and I turn it off overnight.

I still had a great picture on my analog RPTV after doing this for six years. Hope I have that kind of luck with the new digital set.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

You don't get optimized images if you keep forcing the TV to go through warm up periods.

Regards

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Leave it on, but make sure there is no picture being displayed, or that the picture is moving video so you don't get burn in. The 10,000 hour theoretical limit is for tube/phosphor life, and this varies widely based on use and calibration. The red tube will last pretty much forever, the G and B will be much degraded, MUCH sooner. 10,000 hours is a looong time too. And consumer grade sets don't have the electronic quality of pro-grade devices, so leaving them on to be more gentle is probably your best bet rather than turning them off and on for short periods of time all the time.

 

[Anthony J]

The 10,000 hour rule is kind of theoretical, but is the 10,000 hour an indication of total set failure (aka extremely crappy picture) or is it when you will start to notice the picture going downhill?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

it is a VERY theoretical count, but is usually the usable life of the CRTs, before focus and light output gets too poor to use. As a picky PQ guy, I'd put usable life much below that before I'd want to retube. But this is a long long time if you treat your set well and don't drive contrast through the roof, dont burn things in, etc.

 

[Anthony J]

I was just curious, because I am getting a Toshiba 42H83 in a few weeks. I will be buying Digital Video Essentials to tune the tv (don't think I'll get an ISF calibration). I will make sure not to turn the contrast way up (I've known this for a while, I also know that most people make this mistake). I do not allow things to burn in on my tvs, if for instance I fall asleep watching a DVD, I normally end up waking later from the sound system playing the menu music, I will press play movie and let the movie play again while I'm sleeping, call me lazy but I'll take DVD out when its time to wake in the morning, I just do this to avoid the burn in.

The only thing that will be bad for myself is that I end up watching alot on tv (I'm boring too, pretty much once I'm done with work I come home and the tv is on till the next morning, I also stay home on the weekends not much else to do, so naturally I'm using the TV alot and watching DVD's). I probaly have the TV on for about 8 - 12 hours a day during the week and about 40 - 48 hours on the weekend.
I know I can bring this down and I will, I will just have to turn the TV off when on my computer, that alone will save my TV at least 30 hours a week.