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Breaking in a plasma

Maximo

Maximo

Well-Known Member
OK so my new LG 50" 1080p plasma is coming today and I am swollen with anticipation. I had heard that some break in time is needed and the definition of breakin is up to debate.

Can I switch the plasma to a no reception tv channel (no antenna hooked up so should be easy) and let it run over night?

Also, how low should I set the contrast and the brightness?

I get it this afternoon and will imediately start it thought its burn in and was hoping something like that would work.
 
That static reception idea sounds good in theory but I'm not sure how smart that is to have a new set run that long. Maybe it's a non-issue. And assuming it is, having that "snow" on the screen overnight can't hurt.

As for the contrast and brightness settings, I think the lowest possible watchable setting should suffice. No, it won't look pretty but this is one of those take-one-step-backwards-to-take-two-forward kind of things.

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't even plug it in today. Let it acclimate to its new surroundings (temperature, humidity, etc). Give it 24 hours which will give you 24 hours to spend with its manual. be sure to read all the cautions and the do's and don'ts.
 
What if, by chance....Ijust open it up and watch it. And say fuck it to the whole break in thing? What are my expected concequences? Not saying I'm not gonna do that, just wondering, what am I working to prevent?
 
Maximo said:
OK so my new LG 50" 1080p plasma is coming today and I am swollen with anticipation. I had heard that some break in time is needed and the definition of breakin is up to debate.

Can I switch the plasma to a no reception tv channel (no antenna hooked up so should be easy) and let it run over night?

Also, how low should I set the contrast and the brightness?

I get it this afternoon and will imediately start it thought its burn in and was hoping something like that would work.
Click to expand...

Plasma displays have what's referred to as a cell structure, until that cell structure becomes stable, that structure has a memory much like a Nickle Cadnium battery. If the particular set of cells are exposed to brightness, or non-brightness(black Bars), for an extended period of time, they will remember that brightness level and reproduce it each and every time the display is powered up. Think of the break-in period as training, or teaching the display it needs to display all levels of brightness all the time and not just one level of brightness. You will experience some temporary image retention, which is normal for any plasma TV. LG will have enclosed a WARNING, regarding permanent image retention, read it!

As Zing suggested, depending on where the display is being shipped from, let it acclimate until it becomes the same ambient temperature of your room. Power it up and adjust the contrast and brightness 20-30 below where it set, which will be torch mode. Select a channel without black bars, top or bottom, and watch as you would normally. No test patterns, ticker tapes (CNN), just normal every day viewing. If you chose to use a DVD or BD. make sure you're around when it ends to avoid any static image when the movie ends. 100 hours will come and go before you know it.

Rope
 
Ok so I got my tv and it looks amazing. My wife was giving me shit because she said it was pretty big. But its a 50" and that's what we had before and that what we have now. But instead of it being 16" deep, it's 2.2" deep. So she can just pound sand.

Anyway, she was better once she saw toy story in its for BD glory (hey, I had to test it for functionality!)

Anyway, it looks like expert mode one is defaulted to some pretty low levels. And yes it is lower than I like, but it is currently being burned in with some nice safe blurays of the kids favorite Pixar Movies. I think my bootleg of Constantine has no menus in it so I might be able to loop it, we shall see.

BUT, I will say this. I plasma REALLY does belong in a windowless room. Evewn with in rooms lighting it is pretty glary. But, once the source material is on you don;t notice. Overall I am very happy with it.

Now the plan is is to sell my paradigm Cinemas (PM me if you want them :D ) and then but some new leather furniture for the living room. After that and after we find out whether or not we are safe from the tax man, we will be investing in some paradigm monitor's or se's.
 
Maximo said:
Now the plan is is to sell my paradigm Cinemas (PM me if you want them :D )
Click to expand...
Hey, thanks for reminding me. But please try to keep the forum suggestions in the Forum Suggestions section from now on. :teasing-neener:


:text-thankyoublue:
 
Ok, so I got a little taste of why you should break in a plasma this weekend. Watched some of our friends kids and they played wii for a couple of hours. and after they were gone, I noticed some pretty significant image retention. It kind of freaked me out at first but after 20-30 minutes of running a full screen movie it was completely gone. Won;t do that again. Hopefully after the 200 hour mark it won;t be so bad.
 
Maximo said:
Ok, so I got a little taste of why you should break in a plasma this weekend. Watched some of our friends kids and they played wii for a couple of hours. and after they were gone, I noticed some pretty significant image retention. It kind of freaked me out at first but after 20-30 minutes of running a full screen movie it was completely gone. Won;t do that again. Hopefully after the 200 hour mark it won;t be so bad.
Click to expand...

You're lucky the display didn't suffer permanent image retention. Any thing with a bright static image is a no, no until the cell structure becomes stable. After 200 hours, kids will be able to play games till the cows come home with no image retention.

Rope
 
Rope said:
Maximo said:
Ok, so I got a little taste of why you should break in a plasma this weekend. Watched some of our friends kids and they played wii for a couple of hours. and after they were gone, I noticed some pretty significant image retention. It kind of freaked me out at first but after 20-30 minutes of running a full screen movie it was completely gone. Won;t do that again. Hopefully after the 200 hour mark it won;t be so bad.
Click to expand...

You're lucky the display didn't suffer permanent image retention. Any thing with a bright static image is a no, no until the cell structure becomes stable. After 200 hours, kids will be able to play games till the cows come home with no image retention.

Rope
Click to expand...
Can't remember where I read it, but either Consumer Reports or one of the HT magazines stated that no burned-in image is permanent, they all fade eventually... :handgestures-fingerscrossed:
 
You're lucky the display didn't suffer permanent image retention. Any thing with a bright static image is a no, no until the cell structure becomes stable. After 200 hours, kids will be able to play games till the cows come home with no image retention.

Rope[/quote]
Can't remember where I read it, but either Consumer Reports or one of the HT magazines stated that no burned-in image is permanent, they all fade eventually... :handgestures-fingerscrossed:[/quote]

With the current generation of plasam displays, that could very well be true. In the past it's always been a concern, and I, for one, don't want to wait 5 years till the ghosting fades.

Rope
 
Congrats Max on the new Plasma!

I just got a Panasonic TC-P42C2 42" for the bedroom, it is nothing special but not bad HDTV for the master. Today's plasma HDTV's do not have burn in affect like the earlier versions, technology has improved over the years.
 
I dunno. Kids played wii on the plasma again yesterday and I have more (hopefully temporary burn in) ran movies for 2-3 hours and some of it is still there. to be fair you have to be right up agaist the screen to see it but it is still there. Wii has been unhooked from that tv until it is 2 months old.
 
I believe they have a white wash that helps. You may want to try that.

Even new, I think it is difficult to permanently have burn in...and one knock on the LG's is that they are VERY susceptable to image retention.

Do you have "Planet Earth"?

I have thought I would just run through the series (without borders) a few times to help with the break in period.
 
Personally, I think plasma gets a bad rap for the burn in issue. I think, for the most part, they are a "tougher" display than people give them credit for.

I was pretty abusive to my Pioneer RPTV I bought in 1995 and it just kept on ticking with no issues (still is according to my brother in law). I'm sure the Panny I have now maybe be a bit better built (as far as handling burn in goes) unit. So far, so good she's still purring like a kitten.
 
Maximo,
So glad you bought a plasma... You did the right thing for sure!!! There is nothing better man!!!!
Don't worry too much about that burn in, it will show some retention but just keep throwing a full screen of picture at if for a while and it will look fantastic.

When you go to bed, adjust the screen size to "zoom" so there is no black bars or anything and let it go all night.
 
I love my tv. The pciture quality is absolutely stunning. As far as stretch, it WILL NOT DO IT!!!! :angry-cussingblack:

Not really sure why. I guess I should have read the manual. :?
 
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