Panasonic TH50PX60U plasma TV: image retention problems?
Just bought the Panasonic TH50PX60U plasma TV and got DirecTV with HD receivers. The picture is stunning. I have the settings on low now until the burn-in period is over, but I would love to watch something other than DiscoveryHD during the burn-in period (like Sunday Ticket HD). Does anyone with a plasma TV have image retention problems (like scoreboards) after viewing a football game?
Answer #1: Unless you’re watching 4:3 content unstretched for 8 hours a day, you’re fine. And honestly, the stretching on these things is usually so good, that you’re better off just watching it stretched out and not having to worry about the black bar retention.
Answer #2: I Have TH-42PX60U and I was careful but not paranoid during the first 100 hours and never had a problem. Get the display off the factory-set “vivid” setting, turn down picture and sharpness a bit and you should be good to go. These Panasonics produce a great picture and football and sports in HD are terrific. Btw, the AV Forum has a separate thread on settings for the Panasonic plasmas. You can find all you need to know–and probably more.
Answer #3: You have to be in very severe cases to actually get uncorrectable burn-in. There’s a difference between image retention (which you get on either a plasma or CRT TV, if the same image is displayed for awhile, it will remain for a few minutes until it’s rewritten by changing pixels) and burn-in, which these days you’ll only get when spending many hours viewing static images that don’t change much, if at all (usually a stock ticker or closed captioning will do this, but only after a really long time and without watching much else in between).