Plasma burn in new TV

November 4, 2009 10:13 AM

I've got burn in on my new plasma TV screen. Is there anything I can do about it?

I bought a new LG plasma TV just under a month ago. My kids have been watching PBS Kids in the evenings and today I noticed that when the TV screen is white (i.e. when I'm surfing the web on the TV and come to a white background page) the Kids 13 logo is clearly visible on the bottom right side of my screen.

Should I take the TV back or is this normal for a plasma (I thought plasma burn in was supposed to be a thing of the past these days)? Or is there anything else I can do to get rid of this burn in?

posted by gfrobe to computers & internet (11 comments total)

My Panasonic plasma has an "anti-image retention" function where a white bar scrolls across the screen; letting it run for a while wipes out any burn-in. Maybe your LG has something similar? If not, I'm sure there are DVDs out there designed to do the same thing. Check AVS forums if there's something you can download and burn there.
posted by cosmic osmo at 10:30 AM on November 4

Based on the research I've been doing in considering buying an LG plasma TV, I have been led to believe that a) burn-in is not a thing of the past, but b) it should go away after a few days of watching something that doesn't keep burning that in. Given that your kids will probably keep watching PBS Kids in the evenings, I'm not sure you'll be able to give the burn enough time to "heal."
posted by The World Famous at 10:32 AM on November 4

Many plasma TV's have a setting in the menu which puts static up on the TV, and you can leave that running overnight. I don't know how well it works, but it's worth a shot.

Also, be aware that if you are watching stuff that is not in letterbox format (so that you see black bars on the sides of the screen), eventually if you are watching something that does fill the whole screen, you will see that the sides are slightly discolored. Depending on your TV, if it doesn't have some sort of burn in setting, you might just try running some static on there for a while and see if that helps.
posted by markblasco at 10:33 AM on November 4

Try recording some static noise "snow" on a VCR and playing it for a very long time to see if that helps, if you don't have the feature the person above me said.
posted by glenno86 at 10:34 AM on November 4

I can't believe anyone is suggesting anything other than "take it back". All these "run snow" ideas are not solutions, they are band-aids.

A TV you can't run for a month without tuning is not worth owning. I've had my LCD over a year, never fiddle with the settings beyond initial setup, and it looks great.
posted by mkultra at 11:04 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

gfrobe, as suggested above I would check your manual to see if your TV has any features that can assist in removing the PBS logo you are seeing. For example, my Samsung plasma has both an "all white" screen and a rolling image of black/grey/white bars which will have the same effect as the "snow" suggestions listed above.

I would doubt that this is actual burn-in as that is mostly an issue with earlier plasmas. What you are seeing is likely what is commonly referred to as image-retention and SHOULD go away with the suggestions above or by watching some full-screen (high-def) content on the TV for awhile.

Ideally, plasma TVs should go through a break-in period where the first hundred hours or so is spent watching full screen programming or running the rolling bars/static etc. to break in the phosphors. This will reduce the chance of actual burn in (as opposed to image retention) occurring.

I have to say I disagree with mkultra above when he says "A TV you can't run for a month without tuning isn't worth owning". In my opinion, plasmas still offer a better overall picture quality than LCD and if you haven't spent at least a few minutes on calibration out of the box then you aren't seeing the great picture your new TV is capable of producing.
posted by Anizev at 12:13 PM on November 4 [1 favorite]

That sounds like an unusually bad case of image retention. Try playing full screen video for a few seconds and it should go away. If any longer, its probably defective and should be returned.

That said, if you're going to use it as a computer monitor often, you're going to encounter image retention (non permanent). If that bothers you, return it and get an LCD.
posted by wongcorgi at 12:36 PM on November 4

if you haven't spent at least a few minutes on calibration out of the box then you aren't seeing the great picture your new TV is capable of producing.

Of course- you always need the initial tuning (which is basically automated on modern sets), but I'm talking about ongoing fiddling beyond that.
posted by mkultra at 12:41 PM on November 4

Thanks for suggestions. Just went through the manual and there is nothing about burn in or static options to get rif of the burn in. I also don't have a VCR so can't run static like that. I do have stations that don't tune in at though though and would provide static. Should I run one of those channels overnight or do I run a risk of burning static images into my screen?
posted by gfrobe at 5:32 PM on November 4

N'thing image retention; I recently went back to plasma from LCD, and I occasionally notice image retention if I've had something up with a fixed image for awhile. It's not terribly noticeable unless you're looking for it, and quickly goes away when playing other content.
posted by nonliteral at 9:25 AM on November 5

gfrobe, to answer your last question above, you really just want to run any moving picture that is completely full screen and doesn't have any logos on it. You could achieve the same result by using the zoom function on your tv or cable box on any regular channel to create a full screen image and/or shove any logos off screen.

That being said, tuning into a channel that generates static would work fine - though I would want to make sure it keeps producing static and doesn't turn into those coloured bars or something.

I've had my plasma for about a year, play video games on it all the time and have left it on many times overnight with a fixed image (DVD menu, PS3 menu etc) and not experienced burn-in (though I did panic a bit when I noticed image retention the first few times, even though I was fully aware this was going to happen).
posted by Anizev at 10:25 AM on November 5