ACK! I've been burned!!!!!

[Tom Snyder]

We were watching a DVD last night with a lot of white (White shirts, white backgrounds, etc.). A few minutes into it, my wife an I both noticed what looked like a big yellow spot in the lower left hand corner.  Thought maybe it was the DVD or the DVD player.  Then a scene that had most of the screen in white revealed my worst fear:

The yellow spot was the exact shape and position of the Fox News Network logo. In addition we also saw the same yellow in the place where the side bars are when viewing 4:3...

It's a bummer because we use the Toshiba Grey Bars to avoid burn in... and Fox uses an animated bug that has the logo constantly rotating and animating to avoid burn in, but apparently to no avail...  guess I needed to watch more 16:9 HD and less news.

Oh well... I've gotten 4 years out the old girl, and it'll probably end up in the basement when I finish it off

[tazman]

DLP or LCD is the way to go man.:rock:   The plasma's are just as bad if not worse.  When I was doing my shopping and homework I had stopped in at Camera Case in Hartford.  The gentelman there told me that they had their palsma tuned to one of the news networks like CNN or something for about 2 hours and they experienced burn in.  It was even noticable after the set was turned off.  I wonder if there is any way to bleach the screen when that happens, say like displaying a totaly bright white image across the whole 16x9 viewing area for an extended period.  Maybe I'm way off base here, it's just a thought.

[The Law]

To me, this is an extremely compelling reason for stations to not do this.  Granted, self promotion is somewhat necessary, I suppose, but if no-one did this, at least the playing field would be level.  This could almost cause a user to switch to a different channel to avoid this, thereby causing channel jumping which, of course, a station wishes to avoid in the first place.


Deliberately displaying such advertising that directly causes harm to the consumer's property should be banned, don't you think?

One could argue that the onus would be on the manufacturer to develop a product that would mitigate this, however, it's rather a backward way to do things.  "Here, we're going to fcku up your tvs...fix it"

Maybe google can come up with a "bug" killer ala their popup killer.

*sigh*

btw, nice suggestion tazman.  Who knows.

[gparris]

Didn't you just have a roof antenna crash and burn, too? :eek:
You are not having a lot of luck and you are one of the head HDTV guys in the forum!

 Sorry to hear about your bad luck. Really.

:blush:

As for a replacement, what kind DO you think you will get?

DLP and LCD projection are good and take less room, but are a little more costly  than CRT RPTVs.
Then there is the concern about less than black-blacks, but if burn-in is a concern, get one.  

Once you have a coloring or burn in, the viewing is bothersome. Movies aren't as enjoyable, HDTV on that set isn't so great anymore! Keep us up-to-date with the saga. Thanks!

P.S. If it was me and had the cash, the SONY 70" grand wega with stand really rocks!  (or the Mits 82" Alpha LCoS).

[Todd Wiedemann]

Didn't you just have a roof antenna crash and burn, too?  
You are not having a lot of luck and you are one of the head HDTV guys in the forum!

Hmmm ...

Must be the Admin/Mod curse !! Both Gregg and I have been struck by lightning, Kevin was the one with the antenna knock down and now Tom being scorched !!

... all I have to say is "Greg O. .... duck !!!!"

Seriously, I looked at my lightning strike as "upgrade time"

The burn stinks, but if you can get a bigger set in return ?? Woo hoo !! :guitar:

[MathWiz579]

Geez... that's really too bad...

Makes me rethink if come May I should still get my Sony KP51WS510.

[tazman]

Then there is the concern about less than black-blacks, but if burn-in is a concern, get one.

I had been looking at the HD sets for 3 to 4 years before finaly making a purchase last summer.  I was torn between the Mits and the Sony CRT RPJ's.  Then I discovered the KF60XBR800 60" LCD RPJ XBR Grand Wega.  I compared that set to the Mits and the Sony CRT's side by side that I was considering before, and the black contrast level's are probably more of a techinal issue than a visual one.  At least to me anyway.  CRT's technicaly will probably reproduce the higher resolutions better than a DLP or LCD simply because the CRT's are not limited by the total number of pixals on a chip, yet CRT's always seem to have a softer image than a DLP or LCD maybe because they physicaly cannot be focused sharp enough.  All the DLP and LCD's that I know of that are out now have a maximum pixal density of 1.33 million pixals per chip.  If you do the math pixal for pixal thats a max resolution of 1280x720.  It would take a chip with over 2 million pixals to reproduce 1920x1080 pixal for pixal.

[Paul S.]

Originally posted by MathWiz579
Geez... that's really too bad...

Makes me rethink if come May I should still get my Sony KP51WS510.

Burn in is less and less an issue with new RPTVs.

[Timgb]

Have a rptv widescreen Mits.  I was told to not watch 4:3 format at all on. Even using the gray bars will cause burn in. Haven't had the problem.  Very satisfied with the HD picture on it. Looks as good as plasma. For the SD channels I watch them in sat a mode not digital ant they look very clear.

[Bebop]

Burn in doesn't happen over night, unless you have your contrast to the max. It took 4 years for Tom to noticed it.

[kjnorman]

Originally posted by Tom Snyder
It's a bummer because we use the Toshiba Grey Bars to avoid burn in...  [clip] Oh well... I've gotten 4 years out the old girl, and it'll probably end up in the basement when I finish it off

Well my Toshiba is only 2 years old, and I have significant burn-in from the Toshiba grey bars.  They have not worked at all.  My Tosh was calibrated using Avia, but my wife insists on watching 4:3 as 4:3, not stretched.  I watch my programming stretched.  The way I see my burn is on whites and light colors, the sides of the screen (non 4:3) has a distinct brightness/contrast shift.  It sucks.  The wife does not notice/care about it.  That sucks too  :bang:

Kerry

[Tom Snyder]

I have always had my contrast set at about 50...

It's the worst on white/light  colors, but I'm even seeing it on sky/water scenes...

I've started to watch all my 4:3 stretched now too....  we'll see how long I can get away with that before the wife notices.

[kjnorman]

Originally posted by Tom Snyder
I have always had my contrast set at about 50...

It's the worst on white/light  colors, but I'm even seeing it on sky/water scenes...

Same here, but I think my contrast is down to somthing like 30-35.

I starting pushing the stretch mde to see if that would offset it a bit, but it has not helped.

I was wondering if I could offset it by creating an anamorphic tape on my PC, where the center 4:3 area is black, and the usual grey bars on teh side are white or some fluctuating color - figuring that this would wear the sides to the point that they are the same as the middle.  I could play it over night - but I doubt this would work.

If anything, it looks like the grey sides are more worn out (reduced brightness mostly) than the middle.  I figure (again probably incorrectly) that the constant intensity of the grey bars are wearing the sides at a faster rate than the middle, that has must more varied color usage and I would believe a lower overall brightness.  Perhaps I can go into the service menu and shift the grey bars to black for a time.  This sounds like a halfbaked idea but I may just give it a try.

Kerry

[Matt Heebner]

Perhaps I can go into the service menu and shift the grey bars to black for a time.

This Is very bad idea because having a total black static image will cause those areas  to burn out even quicker than with gray. Remember, "burn in" is not an actual burn, but rather a premature wearing out of the phospers in those particular area.

Your best bet would be to watch everything stretched or zoomed. There have been reports of burn in actually reversing itself...which isn't actually reversing anything, but allowing the rest of the phospers that are unaffected to "catch up" to the worn areas.

Home Theater Spot has a few ideas. After reading this post, I checked for any sign of burn in using Avia, and didn't see anything at all. And this after many hours of Nicklodean banners, and many, many hours of marathon Halo multi=player games.

Maybe theres something to be said regarding paid calibrations....

Matt

[tazman]

Too bad you don't have PC hooked up to the set then you could make an image to fit exactly the affected area and use that to counteract  the gray bar burn in.  I have also heard of the burn in going away after time, so long as it was not to bad to start with.  Good luck.