I Need Some Plasma TV Help

[kage]

About a month ago I bought the Panasonic TC-P46G15 Plasma TV and I really like it. I have a question regarding it.
1. My plasma tv has over 105 hours break in time on it. I've been only watching tv shows on blu-ray that cover the entire screen. I did not watch any movies with an aspect ratio of 2.35.1 on my tv during the break in period. Is safe now to watch the movies with the aspect ratio of 2.35.1?

 

[jliedeka]

There's really no problem with that provided that you mix it up. I have a newer Panasonic plasma also. I watched movies with letterbox and pillarbox from the get go but I was running break in slides in between. A couple of hours won't hurt anything.

It's hard to say how well broken in your TV is. As the phosphors age, image retention becomes less likely. Burn-in is even more rare. You have to really abuse your TV to get that.

Mostly it's just common sense, don't leave it on 24/7 with a ticker or logo on the screen. As long as you mix things up, you shouldn't have to worry about the phosphors aging unevenly.

Jim

 

[njedpx3]

Just curious related question ...

There's really no problem with that provided that you mix it up. I have a newer Panasonic plasma also. I watched movies with letterbox and pillarbox from the get go but I was running break in slides in between. A couple of hours won't hurt anything.

It's hard to say how well broken in your TV is. As the phosphors age, image retention becomes less likely. Burn-in is even more rare. You have to really abuse your TV to get that.

Mostly it's just common sense, don't leave it on 24/7 with a ticker or logo on the screen. As long as you mix things up, you shouldn't have to worry about the phosphors aging unevenly.

Jim

What do you guys think about auto-Zoom. I leave mine on auto-zoom so it always fills the screen. I realize that some of the time the proportions are not correct but it elimated any worries I had about break-in and viewing one format too long.

OP, it is my understanding that break-in time is no longer a significant consideration ; not like it was just a few years ago.

Good Luck!

Forrest Man.

 

[FirstReflection]

With modern plasmas, like your Panny G15, you could go ahead and watch 2.35:1 movies with the black bars (top and bottom) or 4:3 content with the pillarbox bars (either side of the image) - you could watch those right away - straight out of the box - and there wouldn't be any real problem.

In the absolute strictest sense - if you are a professional who depends upon 100% accuracy for your livelihood - it is still recommended to use only break-in patterns for the first 200-300 hours so that you get perfectly even phosphor aging during that initial time when the phosphors lose, proportionally, the greatest amount of their brightness. But for any "normal" user, who is only worried about what the image looks like to their eyes and not a colorimeter and spectrum analyzer, you can go ahead and use the display with any content you like right away!

If you're open to some anecdotal evidence, just think of it this way: Panasonic's plasma sales have been quite successful over the past few years. They have sold many, many plasma TVs. And the VAST majority of those owners have never heard of "plasma break-in" nor even considered doing anything other than watching whatever they wanted right away, straight out of the box. If there were major problems, such as image retention, burn in or major shifts in colour - as a result of not doing 200 hours of "break in" with patterns only? A HUGE number of those plasmas would have been coming back to retailers as returns or there would be a massive outcry.

Simply put, for any "normal" user, break in just isn't necessary

 

[jliedeka]

I agree. Occasionally you will read some stuff about plasmas that is incredibly nitpicky. While IR and burn-in are still possible, the risks are very low. If you have ESPN on 24/7 for months on end, you may experience some issues. For most normal viewing, it's not really a problem.

I alternated normal viewing with break-in slides because I wanted to get to a point where it was worth calibrating the set. After watching for a while, I decided that the picture looks really good. I think the improvement from calibration would be lost on me. I'm not a photographer or graphic designer and if the greens or magentas are slightly off, I can't tell.

Jim

 

[FirstReflection]

I always say that it is worth having at least one of your displays professionally ISF calibrated in your life. I simply think that it is worth everyone's while to see a truly accurate image from at least one display. That way, you get used to what your images are supposed to look like. After that, you can always use that calibrated display as a reference for future/other displays.

Without a colorimeter, you can never really perfectly dial in the colour points. It simply cannot be done by eye. But the flip side of that is that if your colours are just slightly inaccurate, you'll never notice just by looking at them!

So it's worth getting used to accuracy by having one ISF calibrated display in your life. But, after that, you can pretty much adjust future/other displays on your own. They won't be perfect, but you can get them to where they look the same to your eyes. For most folks, that's perfectly satisfactory and I'm totally fine with it myself.

But if you've never seen an ISF calibrated display, I definitely think it's worth the money. Most people's idea of a "good looking" image is pretty far from accurate. So do get used to an accurate picture by paying an ISF tech. But once you're used to it, I personally don't think you really have to worry about it if simply enjoying your images is all you're after