image retention vs burn in

[Erman_94]

hi there...i have a samsung plasma that ive had for about 2 or 3 years and apart from movies/blu ray i also watch a lot of standard cable on it (i.e vertical bars on each side)

i havent had a problem with it before but i now noticed that during a movie, when the scene is "dark" or has a "black background" i can detect these faint gray vertical bars on the sides of my panel

is this permanent burn in or image retention?

i TRULY hope it is something i can get rid of.

for the past 2 days i have been using the zoom and pan&scan function on my cable box just to avoid the bars on the side but it doesnt seem to be working to remove it. would i need to be doing this longer to rid the screen of these faint bars?

thanks.

[Plasmachick]

If you have the white screen feature, use it. If you know you watch tv with the side bars or whatever you should make a habit out of running the white screen bar feature. That's if your tv has it.

[Erman_94]

thanks for the response....it does have the white feature

but is it too late to save my plasma?

and how long should i keep the white on my screen for?

thanks

[brett_day]

burn in takes hours to occur, more than likely it is IR.

sometimes IR takes a matter of seconds to disappear and other times it can take a long time. If you have the whitewash function like plasmachick says use it for 10 mins see if it washes out. if not repeat the process! i would not worry about it though, it will more than likely go away

[Erman_94]

thanks brett...i also have another feature which sweeps across white/black/gray lines...should i use this as well?

[Kryptonic]

Are you seeing any actual line where the bars would end or is the screen just lighter where the bars are when watching 4x3 content? If it's the latter, it's just wear from not using that portion of the screen as much as where the 4x3 material plays. Try lowering your brightness and contrast settings and use the brightest bar available.

[repete66211]

Originally Posted by Erman_94

thanks brett...i also have another feature which sweeps across white/black/gray lines...should i use this as well?

The full white screen works better than the scrolling bars.

[Erman_94]

Originally Posted by Kryptonic

Are you seeing any actual line where the bars would end or is the screen just lighter where the bars are when watching 4x3 content? If it's the latter, it's just wear from not using that portion of the screen as much as where the 4x3 material plays. Try lowering your brightness and contrast settings and use the brightest bar available.

well when i watch a movie and the scene is dark (i.e with a black background) i can see that the "black" is actually lighter on the sides where the bar is on my cable tv and it is in the shape of the gray bars i see when watching 4:3 content