subject: Plasma 1080p HDTV Burn In and How to Avoid It [print this page] For the past few weeks I've been receiving some questions via email and forum posts asking about plasma burn in. A lot of people are interested in whether or not plasma 1080p hdtv are susceptible to burn in. This used to be a major issue with Plasma HDTVs, but as technology has advanced, the problem has become less and less of a danger to your new plasma screen. It is still possible to burn in an image to the screen, but you really have to work at it to get it to take.
Image Retention
One thing should be made clear, Image Retention is not burn in. There is a difference between the two. Image retention can place a what looks like a shadow on the screen of what might have been a static graphic. What occurs is that as the pixels on a plasma hdtv screen display single colors for an extended periods of time, They become highly charged. If these pixel are tasked with displaying different colors than before, or the colors are turned off completely, these pixels will retain some of their charge temporarily. This usually will fix itself after being turned off for a while, or changing the channel to a different broadcast.
Plasma Burn In
Burn in is very different from image retention. Burn in will almost always be a permanent scar on you HDTV screen. It is often caused by an excessive amount of power being pushed through a group of pixels to display an image. The good news is that because technology has advanced to the piont where it requires less energy to display pixel colors, plasma 1080p HDTV, pixeles aging takes a significantly greater amount of time.
Preventing Plasma Screen Burn In
One of the most accepted and common ways to prevent plasma screen burn in is to "break in" the screen. The phosphors in plasma 1080p HDTVs provide light and color to each pixel and will run very hot for a short period of time (around 100 hours). The act of breaking in these phosphors "hardens" them and they become much less susceptible to burn in. This means that after you buy your new plasma HDTV you will want to run it the first few weeks without watching broadcasts which place a static image on the screen. The main culprits are newscasts, late night television infomercials, and video games. You should avoid viewing and displaying these on your plasma screen for around 100 to 150 hours after setting it up for the first time and your plasma display can be considered broken in. Some experts will say that this is not necessary anymore but I like to break in my plasma HDTVs just to be on the safe side.
Another method to avoid burning in any images to your plasma display is to configure your plasma to its home settings. The majority of plasma manufacturers ship their units with the settings set very high, to compete with other plasmas and the high level of brightness that the flourescent lights in a store will give off. This mode is called "torch mode" by some plasma screen enthusiasts because it uses a higher power setting to display images on the screen. If this mode is changed over to the home setting the screen will be slightly dimmer and use less power. Not only does this lessen the chance that you will burn an image into your screen, but it is a little better on your electricity bill as well.
Be sure to check your user's manual for additional information on burn in, or check the manufacturer's website as to what their additional recommendations are.
