How bright is bright?

[Adam]

Will watching a movie in letterbox format be an issue for this TV?

While I can't say for that particular TV, I'll say that it isn't an issue with my 2009 Panasonic plasma (G10 model). It's probably like three posts up, but I forget if this is your first plasma - if it is, and if you're like me, you might freak out the first time that you see image retention...which you certainly might get when watching a letterbox movie. I remember the first time that I saw it. Scared the s**t out of me. "Arrrgggg!!!! It's burn in!!" No, no it's not.

Does that Sammy have any image retention options in the menu? My Panasonic has a scrolling white bar that I put on, and it's been very effective at erasing any retention.

 

[darien87]

While I can't say for that particular TV, I'll say that it isn't an issue with my 2009 Panasonic plasma (G10 model). It's probably like three posts up, but I forget if this is your first plasma - if it is, and if you're like me, you might freak out the first time that you see image retention...which you certainly might get when watching a letterbox movie. I remember the first time that I saw it. Scared the s**t out of me. "Arrrgggg!!!! It's burn in!!" No, no it's not.

Does that Sammy have any image retention options in the menu? My Panasonic has a scrolling white bar that I put on, and it's been very effective at erasing any retention.

Indeed this is my first plasma, which is why I'm being so paranoid. But a lot of people say that current plasmas are a lot more robust than the early ones. I know my TV has a Pixel Shift function that is supposed to help with burn in. Not sure about a screen wipe. I'm sure it does I'll just have to search through the menus to find it.

 

[FirstReflection]

I've had Samsung, LG, and Pioneer plasmas and I've used Panasonic plasmas a lot as well. Genuine "burn in" really isn't an issue so far as my experience goes. I've played videogames for hours and hours with a static, white HUD on all of them and non have ever had permanent burn in.

I HAVE spotted non-permanent image retention on all of them though. And while I'm not nearly anal enough to recommend a full on "break in" period where you don't watch any content and do nothing but run patterns and solid colors for several hundred hours, I WILL say that pretty much all of the image retention issues occur when the panel is new.

Plasmas do seem to "settle" after a few hundred hours of use. When I first got my Pioneer Kuro, I played videogames with HUDs and saw some image retention. Scared the crap out of me! Especially since it took quite a long time to fully disappear using the "wipe" pattern and just watching regular TV.

Now though, with several hundred hours logged, I can play the same videogames on my Kuro and it doesn't show a trace of image retention. So it was definitely showing up when the panel was new, but now that the panel has "settled", it doesn't seem to be a problem at all. I'll tell ya though, I was scared at first! But yeah, it was never permanent, it wasn't "burn in". It was just non-permanent image retention and now it doesn't happen at all after several hundred hours of use.

So if you spot image retention of those black bars from 2.35:1 movies, don't panic In my experience, it's totally normal. After the plasma panel has "settled", those "ghost" images will fade away into non-existence. Run the "wipe" pattern for a few hours if it's bugging you. But don't freak out. Eventually, your panel will "settle", just like all of mine did

 

[BMXTRIX]

Will watching a movie in letterbox format be an issue for this TV?

Of course it will be... IF (and only if!) you leave it on letterbox for the next 100 hours of use exclusively.

But, since you are more likely asking about watching a single letterbox show, then going on to a regular HD show, then some gaming, etc. then absolutely NOT going to be an issue.

I have the 64D7000 and my kids play hours of Wii and PS3 along with watching movies and HDTV and I can say that as long as you are mixing it up, you truly, ABSOLUTELY have no worries or fears at all that you should be concerned with.

It's only when you are only doing one thing in excess of 20 hours or so that I would even think about starting to get a bit more cautious.