Need Your Comments on Burn-In & Image Quality

[modman]

Ok, I have my new Panasonic 50-inch plasma up and running. But I am a little concerned about a) burn-in when I view alternative (i.e. non-wide-screen) images, and b) SD television quality.

First, the burn-in issue. For example...I watched Lord of the Rings the other night, and its natural wide-screen format was letterbox -- meaning that the image the director wanted me to see left dark bars at the top and bottom of the screen. If this is the way I prefer to see movies...am I going to get burn-in due to those black bars? I can zoom the image to get rid of the bars, but this makes the picture have much lower quality. What to do? Am I fretting about nothing? How long does a line of demarcation or a fixed image have to be present for burn-in to occur?

Now, for the SD television quality. It's lousy! The SA HD box currently is connected to the TV directly with component cables. I also have DVI run to the TV...when my new DVI-switching receiver arrives, I will use a HDMI-to-DVI cable from the SA box to the receiver, and then DVI out to the TV. Should the image get better with this change? Any other suggestions for how I can make the SD image better? (I don't have the option of running S-video cables out to the TV).

Thanks.

 

[ht_addict]

You just have to alternate what you watch to minimize the possibility of burn in or retention. Also right off the bat turn down your brightness/picture/contrast settings to 50% or less. Non torch mode.

 

[Jedi2016]

I don't think you have too much to worry about with burn-in on a plasma, not from black bars, anyway. On plasma screens, the color black is represented simply by turning off those pixels.. they're not emitting any light whatsoever. And what's left (the movie itself) is constantly changing, so there's no chance of burn-in there, either.

The only time you'd have to worry about burn-in on a plasma is if you leave a bright image on-screen for a long period of time. And it typically has to be a very long time (i.e. months).. burn-in simply doesn't happen the way it used to, it's very nearly extinct.

 

[Geno]

I agree with Jedi; the issue of burn-in seems to be over-hyped in these forums. I can understand people's paranoia with the prices of these displays. I've had my plasma for 9 months now. It's heavily used for SD and HD TV (Dish Network) as well as lots of DVD movies, and I don't see any signs of burn-in. It takes years of extreme use (static images) to make this happen.
Also, when you get an up-converting receiver, it may improve what you see in SD programming. My receiver is connected to my display with a single HDMI cable. Everything (VHS, TV, DVDs) goes through the receiver and is up-converted to 720P. The picture quality, IMHO, is very good with SD and spectacular with HD. Don't sweat the burn-in unless you leave video games on for days on end.

 

[WorldLeader]

I was watching LOTR ROTK a while back and my CRT burned in! It was at a part when the screen was nearly white but a green ghost was there. After the scene I could still see the green ghost even after switching to a football game. Multiple people with me saw it too. It was pretty weird.

 

[Nick250]

I have had a Sony 37" plasma for almost 2 years now with more than 50% of viewing standard def with side bars. No burn in issues so far.

Nick

 

[ejreiss]

I have a sony 55 inch lcd projection and couldnt stand watching standard definition programming. Picture was horrible but only because high def looked so good. Just got a new pioneer elite 1130hd and have not had a chance to run new satelite connection in that room yet. Can't wait to see what the standard def looks like on that because it has scaling built into tv and should improve the 480i picture from satelite. You may want to go check out the video upscalers such as dvdo line as they will increase the 480i picture to whatever you need. Wish I had a chance to demo one cause they are a little pricey.Whenever you stretch 480i to fit on larger tv the picture is going to look like garbage. Just hope my pioneer elite plasma is better for sd than my sony. If it isn't I will be buying the dvdo scaler.