I'm a new plasma owner (Samsung HPN-5039). I keep hearing and reading stuff about burn in. However, a lot of DVD movies and even HD Television is transmitted in aspect ratios well above 16 x 9 which results in dark bands at top and bottom (letterbox) or in 4 x 3 which results in dark bands at the sides (pillarbox).
At least on this set, "smart stretch" modes don't work in anything but 480i, forcing a uniform stretch (wide) results in a really ugly picture with everyone too fat and zoom modes keep the aspect ratio but lose a lot off the top/bottom of the screen. On top of that many stations use logos or scrolling bars which are likely to burn the screen(so I read anyway).
I've seen many suggestions regarding reducing the contrast and brightness to avoid this. Is this really enough to prevent destroying a several thousand dollar monitor? Is plasma really as vulnerable as it would seem from all the published comments? What do most of you do to protect your vulnerable displays?
I apologise for bringing this up as I know it's been disussed ad nauseum all over the place. However, I haven't yet found one cohesive, intelligent discussion with real conclusions specifically with respect to plasma. There's a lot of hype and what appears to be hysteria out there.
Smitty,
Hibbard T. Smith, JR
smitty@essnjay.com
At least on this set, "smart stretch" modes don't work in anything but 480i, forcing a uniform stretch (wide) results in a really ugly picture with everyone too fat and zoom modes keep the aspect ratio but lose a lot off the top/bottom of the screen. On top of that many stations use logos or scrolling bars which are likely to burn the screen(so I read anyway).
I've seen many suggestions regarding reducing the contrast and brightness to avoid this. Is this really enough to prevent destroying a several thousand dollar monitor? Is plasma really as vulnerable as it would seem from all the published comments? What do most of you do to protect your vulnerable displays?
I apologise for bringing this up as I know it's been disussed ad nauseum all over the place. However, I haven't yet found one cohesive, intelligent discussion with real conclusions specifically with respect to plasma. There's a lot of hype and what appears to be hysteria out there.
Smitty,
Hibbard T. Smith, JR
smitty@essnjay.com
Comment