Toshiba 42" RPTV & Xbox

[jlegge]

The typical manufacturers recommendation for that is 20% in any given aspect or static image. "Burn In" is actually the uneven aging of the phosphors in the CRT guns in the projection TV (not an actual image left on the screen). If you can limit it to about 20% or less (give or take) you should have no problems with this uneven aging, regardless of what you are doing, to include video games if that is your gig. The black bars from movies should not present any threat to your TV in general, seeing as most people tend to watch more television as opposed to movies anyhow.

:wave:

[Shirow]

Well I'm actually using it exclusively for movies - I'm getting a HDTV box today, but I doubt I'll watch it much. I'll be using it 85% or so for DVDs probably, unless there is much I actually want to watch on cable (I'm only getting the box because I work there, and I don't have to pay for the channels.. :p)

Thanks again for all the help guys - I'm loving the TV, I just don't want to decrease its life any further than I have to.

BTW, which box have you found better from TW? I had a choice of either and took the Pioneer, but I'm curious as to which is better.


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Well got home and hooked it up.. out of the 7 broadcasting HD channels, only 3 seem to be widescreen (PBS and Showtime... ABC too I think?) - the rest all seem to be in 4:3 which I don't quite get...

Also some of them are not that great quality - again, PBS and Showtime seem to be the best (even HBO is bordered on each side by black, which I don't quite understand...)

--

Nevermind, figured out that not all shows are broadcast in HD - that sucks but oh well.. the stuff that is coming in 1080i looks incredible

[bigcheeshead]

I feel your concerns. When I originally bought my TV over a year ago I was the same way. Flanners, American and numerious websites told me that safe percentage is around 15%.  I personally like watching DVD's with the black bars since unaltered picture size always presents a much sharper picture.
However, I wouldn't recommend playing games for 8 hours straight in letterbox mode.
One other thing to be careful about RPTV and games. Be careful about having games that have static images such as heallth meters, etc. Those will burn the screen alot faster then black bars.

[Shirow]

That's what I don't understand

If it's just uneven phosphor wear, why will an image being projected statically wear faster?

[bigcheeshead]

I think this explains it pretty good.

http://www.clarityvisual.com/pdfs/technotes/PlasmaDisplayTechnology.pdf

The article deals with plasma but I believe the same applies to RPTV