Plasma: The Straight Facts From Current Owners

[nremdn]

Ok, I have been a Samsung 120hz lcd owner for the past year and a half, but my growing blu-ray collection and desire for the highest picture quality I can get has slowly pushed me towards plasma (the tv I am very very interested in is the Panasonic TC-P50V10, due to being the highest rated HDTV of 2009 in picture quality). My question to all current plasma owners is have you noticed any issues at all with image retention or burn in? I wanted to ask on here because I know all of you guys have plenty of letterboxed movies (ex: 2.35) with the black bars top and bottom. I game on my tv and watch plenty of movies, that is and will continue to be it's 2 main purposes. Will I be sacrificing my tv to watch the 2.35 ratio movies I love or playing games for an extended period of time, or are there just some people out there that are freaking out over minor issues? I am just looking for straight to the point answers from plasma owners that watch plenty of black bar movies and/or game quite often. I would prefer to not have to monitor how many letterboxed movies i'm watching or looking at the clock constantly while gaming to make sure i've not played for too long. I already plan on doing the break in method with the color slides from AVSForums.com. I just want to make sure i'm not jumping into a whole load of work, worries, and issues just to watch my movies and games at a higher picture quality. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks again guys/girls.

[McGarnigal]

Just be sure to mix it up and you'll be fine. Just not all 2.35.1 or games nonstop. Watch some 16x9 full widescreen, and stretch out some full screen tv content here and there (not all the time either dont worry)

[CollinViegas]

I have never had even the slightest image retention on my kuro, and I have fallen asleep on the sofa at night only to wake up seeing "Press any button to wake up cable box" on the center of the screen in bright white after being there for 6 hours straight.

I am sure you will be more than fine.

[kevind]

I know these are not the most popular TV's, but my Vizio plasma does a great job and it has an "image clenser" feature that works great. Do all plasmas have that?

[McGarnigal]

Yea panasonic has a scrolling white wash bar. It works but its more peace of mind than a necessity

[mtbkr]

this is all very good because i just bought a 58' v-10 and i had the same concerns. looking foward to having my plasma cherry popped. this is the first one ive ever owned.

[theu715]

I actually have a 46" Panny plasma (not even a year old) and I've tuned it out with a calibration disc to the best of my abilities, but I still get IR on games, movies, and ESPN. If a watch a 2 hour movie, as soon as it's over there are bars still on the screen when the screen is black. Typically I run the white wash bar through it and it goes away, but sometimes it stays for a little longer. It is kinda annoying to me, because I've been thinking about canceling cable and just watching everything online to save money, but I don't want to run the chance on ruining my TV. Anyone else have this type of issue?

[kpkelley]

As long as you calibrate the settings so that you are not using the "Vibrant" mode, then you should not need to worry about IR or Burn-in, particularly if you follow the Break in procedure. You may see some minor IR on a black screen when changing channels or as discs load, usually only for a second or two. Burn-in should not be an issue at all with newer plasmas as they are much less susceptible to this than older(a couple of years now) displays, although I do suggest enablig the sets orbiter function to help minimize IR.

As for playing games and 2.35:1 movies, this should not be an issue unless you accidentally leave the television on a game or similar static object when you go on vaction for a week or two. I play games all the times, sometimes hours on end, and have never had an issue with it.

[moviefan]

Originally Posted by nremdn

Ok, I have been a Samsung 120hz lcd owner for the past year and a half, but my growing blu-ray collection and desire for the highest picture quality I can get has slowly pushed me towards plasma (the tv I am very very interested in is the Panasonic TC-P50V10, due to being the highest rated HDTV of 2009 in picture quality).

Not true, the highest rated plasma TV for the last 2 years has been the Pioneer Kuro Pro Elite which is no longer in production.
Having said that, the Panasonic is a great choice. I think you will love the plasma for movies ... great blacks and no motion blur. Go for it!

[xneox]

Originally Posted by moviefan

Not true, the highest rated plasma TV for the last 2 years has been the Pioneer Kuro Pro Elite which is no longer in production.

Not true. While generally accepted within the HT community that the Kuro still wears the crown (by an ever-decreasing margin), they disappeared from most lists right after the announcement. Why review something if it's no longer available?

[CollinViegas]

I currently own both, a Pioneer Elite PRO151FD and a Panasonic TC-P50V10...

The Panasonic comes extremely close in most aspects out of the box. However after both are ISF calibrated the Pioneer easily wins the crown.

They are fairly close in color reproduction, however the Pioneer wins hands down in Black level reproduction and low light detail. 2 very important factors to overall image quality.

Considering the Pioneer is a full 10" bigger {44% bigger} the simple fact that it produces a better picture than a smaller and newer television should convince the original owner to hunt one down instead. They are still being sold where I live for roughly the same price as the panasonics. Only reason I picked up the Panny was because the store only had the pioneer signature series instock and I needed the speakers built into the TV for the room it is in.