Modern TVs

Any reason to be concerned about burn-in using a Playstation 3 with a plasma television?

I have a three-and-a-half year-old Panasonic TH50PHD7UY commercial plasma television and am wondering if I need to be concerned about burn in from a Sony Playstation 3. I want to purchase a Blu-Ray player and thought the PS3 would be great in that I could also play HD games with it. I have no qualms about watching a 4:3 television program or letterboxed movie for hours, or watching CNN for hours with the delegate totals on the edge even during commercials. As such, would an icon on a PS3 (i.e., score tracker) left on for hours be any different? Thanks!

Public Comments

1. You have no qualms about the CNN logo on the bottom right corner of your plasma tv? You should!!! That icon never moves. Some older plasma tv's DO have burn in issues, be very careful about static images (gaming or a cnn logo for that matter). Playing a game for 40 hours to finish it won't cause burn in, unless you play it for thousands of hours! Who plays a game for THOUSANDS of hours?
2. Well my friend, welcome to the wonderful world of plasmas. Although they have come a long way in newer models, older models (like yours) will still have a burn in issue. I would be very careful about gaming on it, as it will most definately burn in if watching something with a static image or playing games on it. Try to switch it up, and watch tv for a while between gaming. change the channels a bit. If you want a gaming TV, I would definately recommend an LCD tv instead as they have no chance of burn in. That is, if you're willing to buy a new set. Chances are, if your tv is 3 years old, it's not 1080p anyway. The picture quality in Blu-ray is amazing, and although you would see some difference in quality over DVD in a 720p plasma, it just isn't doint it justice. I would recommend investing in a 1080p LCD for both your gaming/blu-ray! (I know that some people still bash on LCD's ability to display Black colors...but this is a thing of the past really, kind of like burn ins with newer plasmas) Hope this helps. Good Luck!
3. There is a setting in PS3 that automatically dim the TV down to lessen the burn-in chance...All you have to do is find it and turn it on...I turned mine on if the TV is idle more 5 minutes...works great!!! Sorry I can't remember exactly where it is. It's one of those that you do-it-and-forget-it mentality... :)
4. Plasma, like tube TVs and older CRT rear-projection televisions, is a phosphor-based screen technology. Due to uneven wear on the phosphors, if you let a static image sit on your screen for too long, that image can end up leaving a ghost of itself behind--it appears burned in to the screen. The biggest potential for burn-in occurs when you have a high-contrast image--such as bright text set against a dark or black background--because some pixels are turned on to the max while others nearby are completely turned off. A good example is when you watch 4:3 video on a widescreen display and have black bars framing the image on either side (the pillarbox effect). Also, you get black bars on the top and bottom of a picture when you watch 2.35:1 movies on a 16:9 display (letterbox), which is the standard aspect ratio for all HDTVs. Then, of course, there are the news and stock tickers that run across the bottom of the screen when you watch various news channels, including CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, and ESPN. Watch TV for a few hours with those images sitting there, and you could end up with an after-image of the bars or the ticker visible on other scenes. These after-images will be most evident when you're watching a brighter scene with the picture filling the whole screen. The potential for burn-in is greatest during the first 100 or so hours of use, "during which time you should keep contrast low (less than 50 percent) and avoid showing static images or letterbox bars on the screen for hours at a time. You might have heard somewhere along the line that playing video games on a plasma can lead to burn-in. The idea is that if some sort of fixed icon is always on the screen during a game, that image will end up ghosted onto your screen forever. Again, this just isn't a real risk these days, particularly if you follow the first 100-hours rule and mix a little TV watching in with your gaming. I hope this helps you.