Screenburn explained (1 Viewer)

[Robert P. Jones]

Screenburn is caused by fixed images. Any and all fixed images. Run a fullmotion, fullscreen videogame on your RPTV any time you want - but NOT Pong, or Home Shopping Club, or any other set of images which include fixed images in them.

The flat plastic screen you are watching, on an RPTV, is not what burns in. The phosphors on the CRTs themselves are what get burned, unevenly and inappropriately, which is the actual definition of screenburn. They degenerate more in areas of higher use than areas of lower use, it's as simple as that.

Screenburn can happen from greybars - usually causing unwanted lines of demarcation; or side blackbars - the inner section will be darker than the sides; or top/bottom blackbars, from playing 2.35:1 movies on a 16x9 - 1.78:1 - screen; or station logos, the worst offenders being MSNBC, FOX, CNN, etc, esp. the ones in white, where all 3 colors - and therefore all 3 CRTs - are affected. I have also seen tickertapes running across the screen cause screenburn.

This last phenom, and many others re. screenburn, can be remedied by leaving the Contrast at superlow levels whenever the screens - or rather the CRT faces - are threatened with CRT-damaging fixed images.

I sometimes run my Brightness down all the way also, till my pic is just a dull glow. This is the only way to rest assured your CRT faces will not be harmed by the plethora of ways to harm them that are out there these days, during this changeover from 4x3 to 16x9, and with station executives apparently totally clueless as to the damage they are continually foisting off on us unsuspecting clientele of theirs, every day they keep a stationary station logo up there at all times, during their offerings.

Mr Bob

PS - The ONLY remedy for screenburn is CRT replacement. Putting up an all white pattern is the best way to check and see if you have any. If you do and it is being caused by station logos, PLEASE call that channel and complain, at the HIGHEST levels possible.

 

[Carlo_M]

Thanks for the concise explanation Robert. I generally don't watch too much TV so I minimize exposure to the dreaded network logos. Whenever I do watch TV, I use either the zoom or the stretch. The only time I have black bars on my PT-47 are during the watching of a 2.35 movie or a 1.33 movie, so it's probably not going to burn in. Most importantly I've had my TV ISF calibrated and have contrast and brightness set appropriately.

Again, thanks for the information. Knowledge is power.

 

[Jeff_Hunt]

If, for example, you have a 16x9 rear projection TV and you watch TV in one of the stretch modes (no grey bars) and you watch movies about 2-3 times a week, how much danger is there of burn-in from letterboxing?

Does this mean that a marathon viewing of the Star Wars trilogy is putting your CRT's at significant risk? That's over 6 hours of constant 2.35:1 letterbox?

 

[Brian Glaeske]

If you put the Contrast at a comfortable level for you and the TV (I like to put it at just above the point where white no longer looks white) and don't be stupid, you'll have years of wear on your CRT's phosors.

Stuff eventually wears out, and maybe you'll have to get another RPTV soone than you'd have to get a direct-view, but in you'll probably want another one before then anyway.

Brian G.

 

[Tino D'Voe]

One sales guy was telling me that burn-in can be reversed if you play a channel with just snow for a day. Is he talking crap? or will it help?

 

[Jesse Leonard]

One sales guy was telling me that burn-in can be reversed if you play a channel with just snow for a day. Is he talking crap? or will it help?

He is full of crap. The only cure for burn-in is CRT replacement. The burn-in may appear to reduce overtime as the CRT's age, but once its there, snow isn't going to help.

 

[TylerL]

You don't really need to worry about this if you have a projector?

Because if anything bad happenes you can always just replace the bulb?

???