kv34xbr910 Phosphor damage/phosphor trails

[emery]

Hi,

I just purchased a Sony 34 inch TV, and it was a few days before I began to learn about proper contrast level settings. I had it in Torch mode for approximately 8-10 hours of viewing. Now I am using the PRO setting with contrast reduced to 40%,Brightness 50% color and sharpness to 25%.

Have I already damaged my phosphor coating? Is the quality of my television reduced? I'm freaking out a little.

Now the other question I have is in darker pictures with bright spots suuch as someone walking with silver buttons on a black coat, I see noticeable motion trails. I've read somewhere that this is due to medium-long persistence phosphors that are inherent in this tv. Is this true? What can I do to minimize this effect?

Thanks

 

[Jack Briggs]

Phosphor lag is quite common and nothing to be concerned about.

You certainly had a chance to ruin your nice new set when running it in torch mode for that long. Thankfully, you saw the light, so to speak, and turned down the light output in a nick of time. Keep those settings where they are and you'll do fine. Also, disable the SVM and reduce the so-called "Sharpness" control to near zero.

(Again, if you see no evidence of phosphor burn-in on that XBR, you're okay.)

 

[Matt_Smi]

I have a question along the lines of phosphor damage, when I had my old 27” Sony WEGA I had it set on torch mode for quite some time, I used to play video games with the T.V. on “vivid” with the settings nearly unchanged because I though it looked good. Only on video games though, for everything else I had it set to my own custom setting which had its brightness reduced and all that. But still I played a lot of video games. Anyway not too long ago the Sony developed a spot where the phosphor appeared to be missing, so it looked like a blown out pixel on an LCD monitor but a bit bigger. Anyway I was wondering if having it in “torch” mode for so long may have been the cause of that? At least I had a service plan on the Sony so I got $840 back for it and can buy a new set with that. I will certainly not have my new one in touch mode at all, I do like a bit of sharpness and VM on low for video games though, I think it looks better.

 

[emery]

Thanks for the help Jack... you've calmed me slightly. I really love this thing and I want it to last.

As far as the phosphor trails go, I understand that it is common but is there anything I can to to minimize the effect? Because it is quite distracting. It has a green tint to it and it sucks. Will it ever get any better?

 

[Danny Beck]

I can answer your question about the Phosphor trails because I also own a 34" XBR910.

As far as I know there really isn't a way to make them go away.

I'm thinking that it might get less obvious over time though as the phosphor of the tv wears in more and more. I could be completely wrong though but that is my hope.

I agree that it is quite distracting in darker scenes when there is a bright white object moving around the screen. Very distracting as a matter of fact.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Yes, Matt, you burned in the phosphors on that 27-inch Trinitron. (Always but always avoid that ridiculous "Vivid" picture mode on Sony sets; go with "Movie" or "Pro," select the "Warm" color temp, keep the White Level/Contrast to at least at or below fifty percent, disable SVM, reduce "Sharpness" to at or near zero percent, etc.). You were fortunate to get that refund. Go to that replacement unit and torch no more.

And, as indicated, there really is nothing much one can do about phosphor lag. It's more noticeable on some sets than others. My bedroom Toshiba, which has a gorgeous color pallette, has very noticeable phosphor lag, while the WEGA in my main system hardly has any.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Phosphor lag is inherent to the phosphor, which will vary from tube to tube. Consumer TVs especially, which are used with interlaced material often, tend to have much longer phosphor decay times to minimize flicker. Notice on your computer monitor, even with refresh rates in progressive that are much higher than NTSC or such on an interlaced TV, you can still see flicker. IT's because the decay times are much shorter. In many CRT projectors, there are even faster phosphor tube options for 3d simulation setups. It's the green that is the slowest, so that's why youll see green phosphor trails all over the place.

 

[Matt_Smi]

Ok good to know that it was not the Sonys fault, it was mine. Because that would have possibly caused me to think twice about buying another Sony TV in the future. Also would it hurt to have a TV’s VM on low, the picture at 21 bars, and the sharpness at around 14 bars, because before I got rid of the TV I recorded my settings and that was my preferred picture/sharpness setting for video games (after I realized that Vivid looked really bad).