Need Help with Plasma Burn In vs. DLP Decisions

There are two issues- one is after image retention--sometimes described as burn in, and the other is uneven phosphor wear, also described as burn in. You are discussing the latter. IN any case, I have used my plasma for over 2 years and the pic is perfect as evaluated by a widescreen reviewer who is part of our HT group. However I dont watch anything in 4:3; many DVDs have bars along the top and bottom however due to aspect ratio and my choice to see the dvd as was intended as opposed to zoomed or stretched.

It is important to avoid long periods of bars in the first 100 hours of plasma use. After that, the chance is greatly lessened for this problem. In fact, no plasma owners I know have this problem at all. Most plasmas have a reverso function- so if it does happen you can essentially wash your screen inside out- meaning white on ends black in middle; restoring even phosphor wear.

The only burn in I have seen is in older plasmas used in commercial settings with static screens, like airports with schedules of flights. Even the Panny Smithsonian plasmas, all three of them show no burn in despite continous daily use of the same material over and over again. Its in the future of flight area by a split open DC-3 with stairs going up.

DLP gives a distinctly less accurate picture- sorry to offend here, but between rainbows, lack of decent contrast ratios etc, there isnt anyway to get that looking through the window videophile picture. I actually dont recall anyone touting DLPs at CES 2005 this year- it was all plasmas, LCDs, and front projectors-- all of which are improving. I also personally dont like the physicial bulk of a DLP, although they are very lightweight ( I do like that).

Please review my post. I dont know of anyone who has a burn in issues with any plasma in the residential setting.

The ability to correct any issues exists should they come up. The only places I see burn in mentioned as an issue is in review magazines and periodicals that receive a great deal of advertising money from LCD manufacturers.

I stopped into tweeter store today and spent most of my time looking at the DLPs dipslaying discovery channel HD feed simultaneously. Obviously I had no control over settings of the displays at all. Ya know, some of the DLPs look pretty darn good! My clear favorite was the 50 inch Panny DLP I saw. I cannot recite the model number. It was the best one though. Second place goes to a 60 inch Sony. Third to Mitsubishi, and fourth to the SAmsung line. This is just an opinion obviously.

A few things here of interest;

1. LCDs have essentially small lightbulbs behind the screen. SO when one goes out it gives an uneven screeen appearance. Not truely a burn in, but looks like one depending on which lightbulb and where.
2. True flat LCD screens are very expensive at the 42 to 46 range.
3. Burnin on a plasma isnt a very probable occurrence. I'm the only one who is reporting seeing it on this thread and only on static 24/7 images.
4. SDE- screen door effect seems to be person dependent. Some people see it only up to 3 feet, but some see it at 6 feet. Most videophiles dont see any at 8 feet and none at 10 feet. No one in the Houston HT group could see it on my screen. View distance was about 7-9 feet for all.
5. The comment above about green push is a flat out falsehood for most displays. There was a previous Samsung model that had green push out of the factory, but thats it. Color decoders can theoreticlly be reset if not correct out of the factory although this is a service menu function. You are restting yellow blue and green and everything else is a mix of the above three. The real trick is maintaining true reds while getting brilliant yellows to be honest. High heat output; Energy use stats for each plasma model are catalogued on a thread at avsforum .com. The max watts numbers are declining each year and of course, only rarely is the max used. Most users are at half during DVD playback for instance. Plasmas do produce heat however no doubt.

And I'd love a Sony Qualia 006

Thanks for the reply. I use DVE essentials to calibrate with the filters. My green and red are spot on and I just dont see the push you are mentioning. The set is also spot on d65 as far as light. The only criticism I have is that my yellows, while good, are not quite as brilliant as they should be. My reds are not the typical red-orange you are describing, but true reds. I havent had the color decoder adjusted because I do feel that the red I have will indeed become more orange if I brighten up the yellow.

I havent yet seen an LCD I would want to replace my Plasma however. Their images are razor sharp but the looking through the window result I see on my plasma just cant seem to be reproduced by the LCDs I have seen, despite their striking clarity and sharpness of picture. I tried checking everything out at CES this year as far as this discussion and nothing I saw really changed my opinions, which of course, is all this is, just my opinions.

ISF calibration is another discussion. My comment; not all equipment is created equal, although the idea of standardization in approaching adjustments does make sense. ( not everyone agrees on this)

There is a thread on power heat and plasmas and LCDs at avsforum.com near the top. It restates what I have said. Some poster measured the power consumption on his plasma as averaging 140 watts but varying; being higher in all white snow scenes and lower in darker scenes. LCDs apparently consume energy at a more even regular rate. ( I dont know much about LCD power consumption firsthand myself).