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

[Skipjack]

Bummer, Tom.  I have a Toshi, so I will try to be more vigillant about what's on my screen.

Also, to all you "torch moders" out there, I highly recommend that you invest in a calibration DVD like AVIA or Video Essentials to help properly set your contrast, color and brightness.

I've found since calibrating my colors are more natural and lifelike and my blacks are nice and black.  

And remember: Any prolonged static image, light, gray, or dark, will cause uneven phosphor wear.

[kjnorman]

Originally posted by Skipjack
And remember: Any prolonged static image, light, gray, or dark, will cause uneven phosphor wear.

Add to that, that a TiVo menu screen should come with a government health warning like a pack of cigarettes.

"Leaving your TiVo on the menu screen or paused for prolong periods of time can have a determental effect on the health of your TV"

Alas, my wife often leaves the TiVo on the menu or paused on Oprah while she is chasing after our little one....  :bang:

[kjnorman]

Originally posted by 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.

Actually my PC has a full digital editing suite on it, so I will look at creating something interesting, alternating colored side bars with color graduation, and a "floating" black 4:3 area to try to minimise the risk of adding burn marks.  Create a loop and dump it to DVD+RW as an anamorphic DVD that loops, then try running this over night and see what happens...

What's the worst that can happen?  I premature age the tubes giving me a reason to argue with my wife about buying a DLP projector with HDMI input?  

Kerry

[Tonys]

Give this a try, when I bought my toshiba I had a lot of questions about burn in. The sales rep told me it took the store 9 months at 8 hours a day to burn in gray bars. What they did was put the Ice Age dvd in and played it continually for 2 days and that corrected the burn in. They also had an eight thousand dollar plasma that they left on over night with the menu screen on and it burned in by morning. They stuck in the Ice Age dvd for a day and it cleared it up. I would be courious if this works or if anyone else heard of this.

Tony

[kjnorman]

Always worth a try.  But I do not have an Ice Age DVD, will Shrek work?

[mrmike]

Originally posted by kjnorman
Add to that, that a TiVo menu screen should come with a government health warning like a pack of cigarettes.

"Leaving your TiVo on the menu screen or paused for prolong periods of time can have a determental effect on the health of your TV"

Alas, my wife often leaves the TiVo on the menu or paused on Oprah while she is chasing after our little one....  :bang:

You might try the S-P-S-Pause-S backdoor thing to make the status bar go away after you pause (and vanish quickly when playing or fast-forward/rewinding).  That way you might get Oprah burn-in, but you won't get TiVo burn-in.

TiVo itself won't let you stay on a menu screen for more than a couple minutes before it goes back to LiveTV

-MM

[gparris]

First quote:

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  




Second quote:

Originally posted by kjnorman
Add to that, that a TiVo menu screen should come with a government health warning like a pack of cigarettes.

"Leaving your TiVo on the menu screen or paused for prolong periods of time can have a determental effect on the health of your TV"

Alas, my wife often leaves the TiVo on the menu or paused on Oprah while she is chasing after our little one....  :bang:

Dude, you sure are having trouble with your set...but it looks like more than just a "HDTV set problem", maybe a marriage counselor can help.
 She should respect your stuff like it is BOTH of yours.  Either that, or get a new set you watch-alone- away from her destructive behaviors.
This new HDTV set should be a DLP, LCD projection, IMHO.
Instead of buying a HD Tivo, get a HDTV set for just you and wait on the "college fund" as your child is just one year old when you get that tax refund. Afterall, she messes up your set, it's not your fault, its hers,  IMHO!;)

[MathWiz579]

For something like burn-in, would a Best Buy extended warranty cover a new TV? Just wondering cause I'm still trying to decide if when I take the plunge to a big-screen from my Sanyo I should do DLP, regular rear-projection, etc... I'm interested in doing a projector eventually but currently I'm renting an apartment so it really doesn't make a projector feasible....

[gparris]

I don't see an coverage for burn-in on any warranties from any store. It is IMHO, it is a user error.

If space and burn-in are concerns of yours, get a SONY LCD RPTV as it does not do it, has a great picture and takes up less space.
These sets have had great reviews. All you need to do is change the bulb and its like new again.

I think the 42" set would do quite nicely in an apartment and later, in a home without difficulty. Circuit City is recommended as they seem to be more knowledgeable and have done a good job...ask summerfun in the forum as he has one himself.
I have personally never had a good sales experience at a Best Buy, but then again, that's just been my experience. Circuit City has a website where you can easily compare the sets,too.

[Gregg Lengling]

I have to read through my extended warranty with Circuit City...but I'll tell you this much..it was well worth it.  My RCA got hit by lightning last summer (less than 2 years old), and they replaced the Set/Box ect all for free and because of the prices coming down I got a better and bigger set and a better box.  If I find my warranty papers I'll look big screen burn it and see if it's covered.

[kjnorman]

Originally posted by Gregg Lengling
I have to read through my extended warranty with Circuit City...but I'll tell you this much..it was well worth it.  My RCA got hit by lightning last summer (less than 2 years old), and they replaced the Set/Box ect all for free and because of the prices coming down I got a better and bigger set and a better box.  If I find my warranty papers I'll look big screen burn it and see if it's covered.

You may find that electrical surges from lightning strikes are also covered under household insurance.

I had my last set die on me that was diagnosed as having power surge damage (even though the lightning storm was a couple of days earlier).  Our American Family insurance gave me a check to replace it at that is how I have my HDTV monitor today.  Otherwise I would still be on a 41in British Sony widescreen rear projection - with built in digital tuner (not that the British digital tuner did much good over here - but it did look great in the UK

Kerry

[Tom Snyder]

Hey Kerry:

Watch out for making claims on Homeowners insurance...  we know a lot of folks who made claims (and our insurance agent has backed this up) that all it takes is a claim or two and you either get priced out of the ballpark or even cancelled enitrely at renewal time.  And because they all share information, if you get cancelled by one insurance company, it's almost impossible to get covered by any of them.

We have a homeowner's policy with a huge deductible so it's only for catastrophic stuff, and we save the difference in the premium in a fund to help cover the small stuff...

We almost always skip the extended warrantees, but I agree with Gregg... on the Widescreens, it's probably worth it.

[oz]

All you need to do is change the bulb and its like new again.

How much is a new bulb, 2 grand?

[gparris]

The cost of replacing the bulb is in the extended warranty you get from Circuit City as I understand it...if this is not your case, I have found it to be around 2 hundred not 2 grand (oh pleezzz!):p

[MathWiz579]

gparris,

Thanks for the suggestion. As much as I probably would like to get an LCD, that 42" is out of my price range. Space is not a real concern. I guess my main concern now with purchasing a regular RPTV (Sony 51" probably) is burn-in or glare. My living room in the apartment is right next to a sliding glass door, and although we do have blinds, they still let a little light in that reflects off our current TV.