Does prolong watching 4.3 on widescreen TV ruin the TV? (1 Viewer)

[M_a_r_k^NE]

I own a 52 inch HD ready widescreen CRT RPTV. My friend who also owns a RPTV says that I should not watch 4.3 autoformat tv shows or movies on my widescreen TV. Because eventually it ruins the CRT display. Something to do with only projecting a certain area and not projecting the edges enough while watching 4.3 viewing. He says to always zoom it out to full wide or stretch mode.

Any truth to this? Is it o.k. to watch 4.3 a long time without effecting the picture and display. I like to watch the original either in 4.3 or wide. On tv, its autoformated to whatever the TV channel is broadcasting. Most channels are still in 4.3 mode.

Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Please consult the Master Burn-In Thread, which has been permanently pasted atop this section's main thread-listings page.

Conventional wisdom has it that a properly calibrated (preferably by a competent ISF tech) CRT-based widescreen RPTV will be able to handle a mix of 4:3- and 16:9-based programming with minimal or no burn-in. But make sure the programming is what I just said: a mix.

However, one of my esteemed colleagues has owned the same widescreen RPTV for a few years and has twice had the thing ISF-calibrated. Earlier this year, he discovered much to his surprise that his unit is a victim of phosphor burn-in.

Basically, the area of picture screen most used wears out the corresponding area on the CRTs more quickly than the unused portions. So even it out with both Academy Ratio films and widescreen films. For noncritical viewing of 4:3 broadcast material (the evening news and fluffy local programming), you might want to use the stretch mode.

 

[Allan Jayne]

Forestalling visible phosphor wear can always be done by lowering the contrast. In terms of ISF calibration, we can start talking about calibrating the room environment to the TV as opposed to calibrating the TV to the room environment.

>>> twice had the thing ISF-calibrated ... his unit is a victim ...

The correct calibration for the same TV for picture quality as viewed will be different depending on the light level in the room when the ISF technician arrives. The AVIA test disk will point out two of three limits to contrast, (1) the TV power supply where deficiencies show up as bending of a line in the test pattern, and (2) blooming which shows up as slight blurring as scan line fatten. It is more difficult to identify (3) the intensity levels on the CRT faces that lead to accelerated phosphor wear. This can be done with test equipment and is often guessed at by setting the contrast no higher than about a third for a CRT RPTV and working the rest of the calibrations (including shades for the room windows) around that constraint.

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

We can also talk about calibrating for the circumstances. Do you want to live with viewing the picture stretched for 4:3 shows? Do you want to live with drawing the drapes? Do you want to accept a shorter lifetime for the TV? For each of these circumstances your ISF technician can usually do a correct calibration for gray scale, color intensity, tint, etc., but you have to make the choice.