So many conflicting reports on this. What do other plasma owners suggest? Did you use a certain procedure, and for how long? It seems excessive to run 100-150 hours straight slideshow. If this was really necessary wouldn't they do it pre-shipment to ensure less problems?
This is my first plasma, it's beautiful, I wish I'd gone with it from the start. However, the information available is all over the damn place. I need some reliable guidance here.
Plasma: Break in?
-
Cronozilla
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2609
- Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 8:15 pm
- Location: Oregon, USA.
Re: Plasma: Break in?
I've had two plasma sets since 2008. Both are still working fine.
Just avoid uneven wear. You can get a little loose with it after a decent period of time.
All that means is, fill the screen, and make sure most of it is moving most of the time. Never leave static images on it. If you're going to watch news or sports, don't do it for 4+ hours. And regularly use the burn in reduction abilities of the set. They usually have some sort of gradient wipe. It's really easy to set a sleep timer on the TV and then just start that and let it go for a couple hours.
The arguments of break in and how to do it don't really matter all that much. You're not setting the thing up for THX standards or something.
I would recommend calibrating the set, though. It will make it look as nice as it can. AVS has some videos that make this easy to do.
Just turn the TV off if you're not actively watching it, fill the screen with video, and regularly run the burn in protection. You should be fine.
The hardest thing about a plasma is training family members to not abuse it. If you only have to worry about yourself, it'll probably stay great.
Oh, I want to add, don't be afraid to use the TV! If something is going to break, you want it to happen within a year, because that's as long as TVs are usually warrantied for.
My first plasma set did have an issue within the first year, it was within the warranty period so there was no issue in getting it fixed, but it happens. (It had a weird blue and red glow when showing blacks)
Just avoid uneven wear. You can get a little loose with it after a decent period of time.
All that means is, fill the screen, and make sure most of it is moving most of the time. Never leave static images on it. If you're going to watch news or sports, don't do it for 4+ hours. And regularly use the burn in reduction abilities of the set. They usually have some sort of gradient wipe. It's really easy to set a sleep timer on the TV and then just start that and let it go for a couple hours.
The arguments of break in and how to do it don't really matter all that much. You're not setting the thing up for THX standards or something.
I would recommend calibrating the set, though. It will make it look as nice as it can. AVS has some videos that make this easy to do.
Just turn the TV off if you're not actively watching it, fill the screen with video, and regularly run the burn in protection. You should be fine.
The hardest thing about a plasma is training family members to not abuse it. If you only have to worry about yourself, it'll probably stay great.
Oh, I want to add, don't be afraid to use the TV! If something is going to break, you want it to happen within a year, because that's as long as TVs are usually warrantied for.
My first plasma set did have an issue within the first year, it was within the warranty period so there was no issue in getting it fixed, but it happens. (It had a weird blue and red glow when showing blacks)
Re: Plasma: Break in?
Congrats! Use it like you bought it.
Fully agreed with Cronozilla
Anything built within the last 5-8 years should be built of more burn-in resistant hardware and software.
I've read that they do that break-in at the factory now - makes for less RMA/warranty work. I certainly didn't have the patience to leave my screen sit unused for any long amount of time.
Some tl;dr:
Mine is a early 2013 Samsung, but with over a year of abuse it's still working perfectly. I've done some horrible things that would leave a ghost image on a CRT to this thing.
It ran well out of the box and it's still the same as when I bought it. It took some getting used to when it'd dim the screen slightly when a bright image is shown. Apparently they all do that if you set the "Cell Light" to full. I got used to using it slightly lower so the change isn't really noticeable. After a long period of an RPG on snes or leaving a website open or whatever I get some retention mostly only noticeable on a gray screen. This is normal, and none of it has been permanent - despite me leaving screens on for 12 hours or more (Racketboy is bad for that what with the vertical white screen with black sides). I disabled all the screen burn-in protection too and dislike screensavers. The software in my TV still dims the display after about 1/2 hour of inactivity. If I need the retention gone quick I put on a video from youtube and it's fixed in a couple of minutes. You can set a screensaver as this video after downloading it from Youtubedownloader or similar.
While working a long job up north I tried a different solution from the below mentioned problem my brother's Plasma had on another used Plasma at a place I was living at that we bought a big screen plasma for. An all white image. It did the trick just fine reversing the crap on the sides the previous owner had burnt in while watching 4x3 cable only on it. I just set the desktop background to white, and the screensaver to all white. Within 10 days the screen was healed.
My brother's old Plasma had a much worse problem - it was one of those really old plasmas, and it came used with and gathered some pretty bad burn-in being hooked up to his computer, not only that, the right 1/8th of the screen came with a widening pink gradient where it should've been black. The best solution I found was a screensaver that builds a reverse image of what burns stuff in over a long time and then displays that as the screen saver. I photographed the pink image, and then used a color reverse of it as the desktop background. That, along with the screensaver that built up a screen burn profile seemed to alleviate/heal the problem.
Let me know if you need me to find the name of that screensaver, but it's probably not necessary for your screen unless it's a very old model.
Fully agreed with Cronozilla
Anything built within the last 5-8 years should be built of more burn-in resistant hardware and software.
I've read that they do that break-in at the factory now - makes for less RMA/warranty work. I certainly didn't have the patience to leave my screen sit unused for any long amount of time.
Some tl;dr:
Mine is a early 2013 Samsung, but with over a year of abuse it's still working perfectly. I've done some horrible things that would leave a ghost image on a CRT to this thing.
It ran well out of the box and it's still the same as when I bought it. It took some getting used to when it'd dim the screen slightly when a bright image is shown. Apparently they all do that if you set the "Cell Light" to full. I got used to using it slightly lower so the change isn't really noticeable. After a long period of an RPG on snes or leaving a website open or whatever I get some retention mostly only noticeable on a gray screen. This is normal, and none of it has been permanent - despite me leaving screens on for 12 hours or more (Racketboy is bad for that what with the vertical white screen with black sides). I disabled all the screen burn-in protection too and dislike screensavers. The software in my TV still dims the display after about 1/2 hour of inactivity. If I need the retention gone quick I put on a video from youtube and it's fixed in a couple of minutes. You can set a screensaver as this video after downloading it from Youtubedownloader or similar.
While working a long job up north I tried a different solution from the below mentioned problem my brother's Plasma had on another used Plasma at a place I was living at that we bought a big screen plasma for. An all white image. It did the trick just fine reversing the crap on the sides the previous owner had burnt in while watching 4x3 cable only on it. I just set the desktop background to white, and the screensaver to all white. Within 10 days the screen was healed.
My brother's old Plasma had a much worse problem - it was one of those really old plasmas, and it came used with and gathered some pretty bad burn-in being hooked up to his computer, not only that, the right 1/8th of the screen came with a widening pink gradient where it should've been black. The best solution I found was a screensaver that builds a reverse image of what burns stuff in over a long time and then displays that as the screen saver. I photographed the pink image, and then used a color reverse of it as the desktop background. That, along with the screensaver that built up a screen burn profile seemed to alleviate/heal the problem.
Let me know if you need me to find the name of that screensaver, but it's probably not necessary for your screen unless it's a very old model.
Re: Plasma: Break in?
Thanks fellas, it is actually a 2014 LG. I have been wanting to go with plasma for a while, and since they were going away, no time like the present. I got the LG 60" they had on sale for $600, it's a great tv for that price. Regular price is $900 or so, it would still be a good set at that price...so I'm happy. Biggest problem is all the regrets I now have over my LCD purchases.
I've been sticking with 16:9 stuff for hopefully the first 50 hours ir so, but I just cant see running a slide show for a straight week.
Anyway, this thing is just gorgeous, I can't believe they are killing off the tech. I guess OLED is coming eventually though.
My set has an orbiter, screen wash, and then the "normal" which seems to be intermittent dimming, which of these is the best to use on a low hour set? Any ideas?
I've calibrated with the Avs tools and keep panel light pretty low, it's a light controlled room, but contrast needs to be high...is that OK?
I've been sticking with 16:9 stuff for hopefully the first 50 hours ir so, but I just cant see running a slide show for a straight week.
Anyway, this thing is just gorgeous, I can't believe they are killing off the tech. I guess OLED is coming eventually though.
My set has an orbiter, screen wash, and then the "normal" which seems to be intermittent dimming, which of these is the best to use on a low hour set? Any ideas?
I've calibrated with the Avs tools and keep panel light pretty low, it's a light controlled room, but contrast needs to be high...is that OK?
-
Cronozilla
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2609
- Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 8:15 pm
- Location: Oregon, USA.
Re: Plasma: Break in?
High "contrast" (it's brightness, and brightness is contrast, because reasons) is usually not great for the set.
But it probably shouldn't be as big of a deal as its been in the past.
But it probably shouldn't be as big of a deal as its been in the past.
Re: Plasma: Break in?
Cronozilla wrote:High "contrast" (it's brightness, and brightness is contrast, because reasons) is usually not great for the set.
But it probably shouldn't be as big of a deal as its been in the past.
Brightness as I understand it is the level of black in a picture, while contrast is the level of white. The "panel light" is set pretty low, but to stop my reference white from appearing grey, it is necessary for contrast to be set at 90+.
The set is in no way on "torch mode". I hate that look, but I can't figure how to properly calibrate it without having the contrast level set below 90. Brightness on the other hand is down in the mid 50s.
Of course dynamic contrast, edge enhancement, and all the other extra features are turned off.
Originally the panel light setting was too high, for roughly an hour or two. As I understand it this is somewhat different with a plasma as there isn't a backlight, so it is the level of electricity given to the panel? In any case, it was burning my retinas, so it got reduced quickly and drastically.
Typically with LCD (LED if you like) I keep backlighting below 10 and often at 0. I am used to a well calibrated set. There are differences now that I need to adjust for, color saturation and contrast are obviously superior, almost making me feel like things need turned down, but the calibration disc says otherwise. No clipping, smooth grayscale ramp, proper white and black levels, colors and tint are just about dead on with a blue filter. Without equipment this is as far as I can take it. Should I wait to calibrate properly until there are a certain amount of hours on the set? Keeping contrast lower than it should be for a proper picture?
-
Cronozilla
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2609
- Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 8:15 pm
- Location: Oregon, USA.
Re: Plasma: Break in?
That sounds about right. What you need to be wary of is white level, since that's the phosphor going full blast.
To note, most TVs are calibrated to be over voltage. It makes the primary TV colors more vibrant.
To note, most TVs are calibrated to be over voltage. It makes the primary TV colors more vibrant.
Re: Plasma: Break in?
Yeah from my experience a nicely calibrated plasma set will have pretty high contrast setting, middle brightness level, low black level, and set to normal or warm (warm1 if there are two warm levels) for more natural skin tones. But I'm the end it's your eyes watching the tv, I suggest using the avs forums or cnet suggestions and then slightly tweak to your liking.
"The librarian does not rue the library, nor the curator fear the exhibits. Rather they revel in their potential. And that is the beauty of a big backlog; pure potential." - Exhuminator
My Game Room | My BST Thread |
My Game Room | My BST Thread |
Re: Plasma: Break in?
Anybody ever notice some black spots for a second on especially fast transitions from light to dark? I've noticed this a couple times but found little info on what it could be.