Sound Advice: TVs handle burn-in better these days

By DON LINDICH, Special to the Star Tribune

Last update: October 9, 2009 - 3:12 PM

Q I'm going to buy a new TV. My wife likes to watch shopping networks, which always have logos on the screen, and I'm worried about damaging it if she watches them constantly. Which TV would be my best bet?

BOB, PITTSBURGH

A It sounds as if you've heard stories about logos being burned into screens when a single channel is displayed most of the time. They are true, but technology has moved forward to diminish the problem, known technically as static image retention.

Displaying the same thing day in and day out is not a good idea, because no TV technology, including LCD, is immune to image retention. Even DLP projection TVs using moving mirrors have been reported to experience "mirror fatigue," which causes image retention.

Although LCD is generally thought to be immune, there are cases where it does occur when pixels get stuck after displaying the same image for too long. You can sometimes clear the stuck pixels by tuning the TV to an empty channel so you see "snow," turning the brightness up all the way and leaving the TV on overnight.

CRT (tube) and plasma sets are most susceptible to image retention, because they use phosphors to create the image. When the same image is displayed day after day, hour after hour, it can cause phosphors to burn unevenly in the logo area compared with the rest of the screen, which changes constantly.

Panasonic has approached the problem directly by developing improved phosphors that eliminate uneven burning in its plasma sets. These new phosphors are used in conjunction with a method called "orbiting" that moves the image from pixel to pixel in a manner the viewer cannot detect. Writing for Home Theater Magazine, Geoff Morrison said he tried to burn an image into a Panasonic 42-inch plasma, but couldn't. There is also a scrolling bar you can activate in the setup menus that effectively wipes the screen image clean.

Samsung, the other large plasma manufacturer, uses automatic pixel shifting to combat image retention and has scrolling bar and white screen options in the setup menus.

I have a Samsung plasma in my bedroom and once fell asleep while watching it. My DVR locked up and I woke to a frozen picture with sports scores across the bottom, which had been there for two hours. I turned on the white screen, and when it came on you could definitely see an image ghosting across the white. Within 30 seconds, the white screen had completely eliminated the retained image.

If you want to be extra-careful, buy an LCD television from a major manufacturer. If you want a plasma, get one of the Panasonic models. No matter what you buy, try to remember to change the channel once in a while and use the scrolling bar on the plasma set before you turn it off for the day. No point in pushing your luck.

Submit questions and read past columns at www.soundadviceblog.com.

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