Trying to prevent plasma screen burn

[MeineFolks'wagen]

I've looked around and can't really get any good answers. I have a plasma TV and my kids love to watch various shows. Well, since Netflix removed the option of being able to take letter boxed shows/movies and blow them up to full screen, the shows they are watching are burning lines into the TV. Now, they will wash out after a while, but it still annoys me that this is a problem. And it's not just the shows, even if I leave the PS3 or Xbox menu up on screen for a minute or so with no movement, you can see the shadows until they wash out. I've got all the settings on the TV tweaked as best as I know (auto power dim and all of that). I was basically told that this is one of the disadvantages of plasma, but was wondering if anyone had any ideas?

[92jetta9a]

I've had mine for over 6 years now and it happens occasionally when I fall asleep with a menu on or something. I have a samsung and it has a setting in the menu that allows you to white out the entire screen, essentially burning it all one color again.

If you are having any that many problems with it, I would check if under warranty still and/or start shopping for a new one as I have only had to do the aforementioned procedure 3 or 4 times.

Good luck either way.

[osiris]

What did you use to set the picture options?

[92jetta9a]

I personally used a dvd made by avris for fine tuning picture quality. I had real bad issues with shadows and dark scenes before using the dvd. It really helped bring out a much better picture.

Now that I think about it, since using that dvd I never had another burnt in image. That was about 4 years ago.

Hope that is what you were asking.

[MeineFolks'wagen]

LG is supposed to have that white out option too, but I'll be damned if I can find it.

As for settings, my TV has an auto power setting and it will automatically adjust the screen brightness, contrast, etc. depending on ambiant light (i.e. if a light is on in the living room, it will tone down the screen and vice versa) and it also automatically adjusts the screen depending on the type of image. I've toned down all of the brightness/contrast settings as far as I can go and still display a good picture. I haven't tried using any special DVD or anything to set anything.

It's only really bad when we watch something that is letter boxed and we can't blow the screen up. Again, even then, it will eventually wash out.

[Jesse]

You're fighting something that will never go away, so just learn to live with it. What you're seeing is image retention, not burn in. It will go away, so it's only an issue shortly after the fact. It's inherent with plasma tech, and you can't fix it, so might as well put brightness/contrast back to the correct levels and not worry about it.