ever put mattes on a plasma (1 Viewer)

[Michael St. Clair]

I'd like to keep the grey side bars or dynamic grey side graphics in order to reduce the chance of an permanent image retention when watching 4:3 material.

But buy, I sure don't like looking at them.

My concern is heat. The front glass of plasmas can get a bit warm and I have to wonder if trapping that heat could cause any kind of damage.

Anybody use any kind of mattes with their plasma?

 

[ChrisClearman]

I have no idea what you're talking about. You're planning on putting a cover on the sides of your TV so you don't see the gray bars?

I personally stretch all 4:3 material (though it's not possible on some HD channels when they broadcast a 4:3 program).

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I guess the days of the old HTF are long gone. We used to talk about mattes all the time here. People used to create them to black out the extra bars when watching 2.35:1 DVDs (and any widescreen DVDs on a 4:3 set). It may seem silly but it gave more pleasing picture since no set has a truly perfect black level.

And yes, I'm talking about making physical covers for the sides so that I don't see the grey bars when watching 4:3 material.

I've tried the stretch modes and I hate them. I know some people are fine stretching and/or cropping 4:3 material but I despise it.

 

[Chris Dias]

Don't worry Michael, I knew exaclty what you were talking about. And I share you hatred of any kind of stretch modes. Sorry I can;t offer any insight into your heat build-up concerns as I don't have a plasma, but it certainly would make things look better.

But I just had to reply to let you know that the days of the old HTF aren't all gone.

Chris