Pioneer 5070 / Plasma burn in / 16x9 question (1 Viewer)

[Adam.H]

Display: Plasma: Pioneer PDP-5070HD.

Source: Pioneer DV-490V/S (Standard definition DVDs)
Video Output Setting: 1280x720p

The Warnings:

“Extensive viewing of content with top, bottom, or side masks may cause uneven wear. After viewing masked content, it is recommended to view full screen motion video for an equal or greater amount of time.” – PDP-5070HD manual, page 7
“It is not recommended to consistently display signals that do not completely fill the screen. This may cause temporary or permanent image retention depending on the frequency and duration.” – PDP-5070HD manual, page 69

My Problem:
While viewing standard definition DVDs, anamorphic widescreen / 16x9 movies, with screen size modes “Wide” or “Full” I am left with a small amount of “black bars” on top and bottom of the picture. The screen really only fills in “zoom” mode – but this stretches / distorts the image slightly. DVDs will be my only source on this plasma screen. Does that mean I need to watch everything “Zoom” (distorted) mode to prevent damage to my television? Should I be using a different video output setting on my player?

 

[DonaldB]

You should have black bars on the top and bottom with 2.35:1 films, but anamorphic 1.78:1 and 1.85:1 discs should completely fill the screen with the TV in full mode. If not, you definitely need to check your DVD player's settings. It shouldn't be cropping the image so.

The PDP-5070HD is extremely resistant to image retention and burn-in. You don't need to be concerned if you have it calibrated to reasonable settings. Use something like Digital Video Essentials or Avia and you'll be fine.

 

[Allan Jayne]

On direct view panel TV's overscan tends to be less or nonexistent. 1.85:1 movies if not stretched or pan/scanned slightly during production, will show slight black bars at top and bottom on 16:9 (1.78:1) screens.

For a plasma, turn the contrast down to half or below and keep it that way. This is not overtly mentioned in calibration disk instructions but you should complete the calibrations as instructed subject to the contrast at half or below. This should almost eliminate problems due to burn-in.

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