Is my TV a goner?
December 26, 2009 4:10 PM   Subscribe

Do these translucent vertical bars on the screen mean my LCD TV is going out?

I recently began noticing a series of translucent vertical bars on the screen of my 3-year-old Olevia 227V LCD TV. The bars are approximately two inches wide. The picture is still displayed as normal, but depending on the image being displayed the bars range from barely noticeable to quite visible.

At first I just noticed two vertical lines on the screen at approximately the area at which a standard definition image is cut off from the rest of the screen, and I thought I had some sort of LCD burn-in issue. But now I see these wide bars across the entire screen, rather than just single lines.

I see the bars regardless of whether the input is HDMI, component, or composite. However, I don't see them when the TV is on but the screen is blank (as when my DVR or Xbox 360 are shut off).

Is this a sign that the screen is likely to go out in the near future? Is there anything that can be done to get rid of these bars or should I start shopping for a new model now?
posted by iamisaid to Technology (5 answers total)
 
What you are seeing is likely vertical banding -- it's a fairly common problem with LCD sets, and is usually a result of the backlight not being completely even across the set. It isn't a set-killing problem; I have a few significant bands in my Westinghouse 42" screen, and largely have learned to ignore it.

Not something to fret about, but if it is this, it's not something you can fix, either. At least in my case, it's something I expect to be resolved from a technology-evolution standpoint by the time I'm replacing my monitor.
posted by ellF at 4:22 PM on December 26, 2009


I don't think that's vertical banding. It's burn-in, from watching a great deal of TV where the whole screen is illuminated other than the bars on the side, which are black when you're watching something that's not widescreen. So this is a fairly common issue on widescreen TVs that are used for watching normal TV as well as movies.
posted by glider at 4:29 PM on December 26, 2009


LCD televisions do not "burn in". There is no phosphor to burn. There's some speculation that a static image could create a burn-in effect, but it's generally not an accepted thing, and not something that should be occurring on a consumer-use (i.e., turned off every so often) set.
posted by ellF at 4:33 PM on December 26, 2009


Response by poster: I failed to mention that the majority of my viewing is in HD, which leads me to believe that this is not burn-in. In addition, the bands appear even in the middle of the screen, which would seem to indicate that it's not an HD/SD issue.

On the other hand, I only started seeing the bands over the past few days, and I definitely would have noticed them if they'd been there before. That article on vertical banding makes it sound like it's a factory defect that's there from the start...is that the case?
posted by iamisaid at 4:38 PM on December 26, 2009


ellF - I've seen it happen... I realize it's not the same type of burn-in as on a CRT though, so "burn in" are the wrong words to use.
posted by glider at 5:28 PM on December 26, 2009


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