new plasma.. break in procedure?

[PoorSignal]

As stated in the other thread I am getting the 54" Panasonic G10 soon.
Now I am reading you have to burn DVDs with slide shows and play for 100 hours? seems like a lot of trouble.. and maybe I am spending too much time researching about this I Imagine the average joe buy this TV at BB take it home would simply take it out of the box and watch a sports game with it.

I just want to pop in my blu rays and watch.. Would the 2.35 :1 black bar be a problem with image retention and such?

I also want to play my some games on it but I guess I should wait a bit or be more mindful about what is persistance on the screen for each game?

Anyways what do you think is a reasonable break-in and do's and don'ts?

[skatalite]

Originally Posted by PoorSignal

As stated in the other thread I am getting the 54" Panasonic G10 soon.
Now I am reading you have to burn DVDs with slide shows and play for 100 hours? seems like a lot of trouble.. and maybe I am spending too much time researching about this I Imagine the average joe buy this TV at BB take it home would simply take it out of the box and watch a sports game with it.

I just want to pop in my blu rays and watch.. Would the 2.35 :1 black bar be a problem with image retention and such?

I also want to play my some games on it but I guess I should wait a bit or be more mindful about what is persistance on the screen for each game?

Anyways what do you think is a reasonable break-in and do's and don'ts?

The break-in process is a chore when it comes to plasmas, but it's overall worth it. Here are some tips:

- keep contrast and brightness down a bit, moreso than normal. Some would say keep them around half, so 50 on a 100 scale. Some would say in the 30/100 range.
- stay away from static images for too long. Some would say stay away from 4:3 or letterboxed movies altogether. Some suggest putting the TV into "wide" mode so the picture covers the entire screen.
- do this for at least 100 hours, although 300 hours is often suggested by some, and 500 hours isn't out of the question.

Yeah, all silliness. Here's my tip: just be mindful of what you have on your screen for a lengthy period of time. Calibrate your television and have fun with it.

I recently got a new plasma as well and played a letterboxed movie on it. I kept factory settings on to see what kind of image retention it would give me. And yeah, there was some image retention, because Samsungs -- like many TVs -- come preset in Torch Mode. I ran some anti-burn-in screens that can be found in my Samsung's menu, and within a minute the images that were retained were gone.

Heck, I once read a Panasonic manual that said avoid watching letterboxed movies for more than 2 hours on an LCD, and 1 hour on a plasma. Yeah... right.

You'll be fine. No worries. I think everyone reads into this too much.

[PoorSignal]

So, the letterbox is a problem too?
I plan to start by watch season 1-4 of "Lost" from Netflix, that should be quite a lot of hours there and it's full screen, no NBC logo also.

[skatalite]

Originally Posted by PoorSignal

So, the letterbox is a problem too?
I plan to start by watch season 1-4 of "Lost" from Netflix, that should be quite a lot of hours there and it's full screen, no NBC logo also.

Yeah, letterbox COULD be a problem. Emphasis on could cause it depends on your settings and how much time you spend with those seasons in one sitting.

[Kryptonic]

Watching something like Lost on DVD or BD is perfect for break-in. It's 1.78:1, it's bright and colorful, and four seasons is about 70-80 hours of content. Once your done with that, you should be set. Basically, just use common sense with your new plasma. After the first hundred or so hours, don't worry. Just leave the pixel orbiter on all the time and use reasonable settings. Have fun.

[neos_peace]

IMO. There is no ned to do a major break in deal. All I woiuld do is just tune down your settings then after awhile re-adjust your settings to your desired spot.

[talstarone]

As someone who is in the market for their first Plasma I have been following this thread since its start(Thanks for the Thread--PoorSignal)

And was starting to get somewhat scared away with reading of all these stringent break-in proceedures that take up to 100 hours(I dont watch Tv or play Video Games on my Home Theater TV)so it would take me about 40 to 50 movies just to reach a break-in point(and that is having to watch these movies without the letterbox bars)

So reading these posts and finding out that the Break-In doesnt have to be as intense as I was under the impression of originally,is easing my mind.Now I am not quite as hesitant in buying a Plasma.

I will continue to do research and follow threads like these,and in the end its members that are in a similar situation as myself,that will help me make the right choice in choosing my TV type.
So,to everyone contributing to this thread,Thank You All.

[aramis109]

Here's my break-in procedure so far:

1. Calibrated my set using the Spears & Munsil disc.
2. Watched movies, cable TV (SD and HD), 4:3, 1.78:1, 2.35:1, whatever.

Seriously, people get so worked up about break-in, but Panasonic and Samsung have nothing in their manuals regarding it at this point. I think people are overly cautious. Both myself and my father-in-law just watch whatever and he's had his for 3-4 months or more and it looks great (except the colors are off- I need to talk him into letting me calibrate it a bit).

Overall, break-in has become more about hitting the plateau where colors won't change and then getting it professionally or manually calibrated. I recognize I may have to recalibrate later on, but I'm watching whatever I want and enjoying the set. The paranoia on this subject is actually driving away buyers unnecessarily.

[talstarone]

Originally Posted by aramis109

Here's my break-in procedure so far:

1. Calibrated my set using the Spears & Munsil disc.
2. Watched movies, cable TV (SD and HD), 4:3, 1.78:1, 2.35:1, whatever.

Seriously, people get so worked up about break-in, but Panasonic and Samsung have nothing in their manuals regarding it at this point. I think people are overly cautious. Both myself and my father-in-law just watch whatever and he's had his for 3-4 months or more and it looks great (except the colors are off- I need to talk him into letting me calibrate it a bit).

Overall, break-in has become more about hitting the plateau where colors won't change and then getting it professionally or manually calibrated. I recognize I may have to recalibrate later on, but I'm watching whatever I want and enjoying the set. The paranoia on this subject is actually driving away buyers unnecessarily.

Thank You for that much needed(and welcomed)post,aramis.
I was posting about speaker break-in earlier and thought,my speaker manuals never mentioned anything about a break-in period.

So you havent done anything special or taken any precautions that would make you believe it will help(or hurt) your TV's performance in the long run.
And this calibration disc you are talking about,is this pretty widely used on setting up Plasmas ? If so is it widely available(like Amazon,BestBuy,etc)

[DavidAg02]

I've got a 2 year old Panasonic plasma. I've watched countless movies on it. Had tons of lengthy gaming sessions on it. Even used it for still image/slideshow viewing. Never once noticed a single bit of burn-in or image retention.

Never did a "break in" either.

Just enjoy your new TV. You will be fine!

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by talstarone

Thank You for that much needed(and welcomed)post,aramis.
I was posting about speaker break-in earlier and thought,my speaker manuals never mentioned anything about a break-in period.

So you havent done anything special or taken any precautions that would make you believe it will help(or hurt) your TV's performance in the long run.
And this calibration disc you are talking about,is this pretty widely used on setting up Plasmas ? If so is it widely available(like Amazon,BestBuy,etc)

The disc is just like DVE (Digital Video Essentials) only better, in my opinion. It can be used on any display, not just plasma. It has SD and HD shots on it. DVE has a ton of "junk" to get through and can be a pain to calibrate. On DVD the DVE disc often took me 40 minutes or more. I tried this disc and it took me 20 minutes or less to do so- no fluff, just get right in to calibrating.

Here's the website: http://www.spearsandmunsil.com/

And here's a bit about the two:

Stacey Spears and Don Munsil, who created the highly-regarded DVD Player Benchmark™ and Progressive Scan Shootout at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity®, have applied all their technical wizardry to this Blu-ray test and evaluation disc. "The test patterns on this disc represent the current state-of-the-art. They are cleaner and more accurate than the test patterns found on previous discs. There are a lot of subtle details that go into making them as mathematically perfect as possible, especially to ensure that they retain all their precision after lossy encoding. We have built proprietary tools to generate patterns and a custom encoder that preserves much more detail. Even ordinary patterns like color bars have unique traits that make them cleaner." - Stacey Spears, co-creator.

Dunno if you know, but Stacey Spears actually is a contributor on the insider threads here on occasion. The disc is a bit more expensive than the DVE blu-ray (it's $25) and I feel it's a little overpriced but it's a very good product. I feel it's better than the DVE which is the same DVD shots ported over to blu-ray.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B001UM29OC

Oppo digital actually include the disc free with their premier blu-ray player.

[JENKS]

Well chalk me up for one of the guys that did a break in procedure. I followed a calibrators reccomendation for break in off of a thread I found on Avs forum. I purchased my panny 65v10 8/23 and it finally showed up at the store on wednesday 9/2. I got it home and set it up in the front room by itself hooked up to a surge pretector with lots of room to breath. I put the break in images on a sd card and put it in the tv, and set it to slide show at 30 second intervals. I ran this tv for 7 days straight only turning it off once for about 2 hours. I was at first wary of running it that long continuously but I kept monitoring the temps of the unit to be sure it wasn't out of control and it was always fine. The reason I chose to do this is it ages the phospors and pixels evenly thus allowing me to break it in without worrying about what I am watching or gaming. The other benefit is you can get it calibrated sooner because you will have 150 hours quickly. I had over 160 hours of run time after the 7 days. I then took my old tv in the living room down and put the new beast in its home. I have done all day gaming and all day football yesterday with no image retention whatsoever. I am really glad I went this route and would advise you do the same if you have any worries at all. My tv is scheduled to be calibrated on 9/27.

[talstarone]

Originally Posted by JENKS

Well chalk me up for one of the guys that did a break in procedure. I followed a calibrators reccomendation for break in off of a thread I found on Avs forum. I purchased my panny 65v10 8/23 and it finally showed up at the store on wednesday 9/2. I got it home and set it up in the front room by itself hooked up to a surge pretector with lots of room to breath. I put the break in images on a sd card and put it in the tv, and set it to slide show at 30 second intervals. I ran this tv for 7 days straight only turning it off once for about 2 hours. I was at first wary of running it that long continuously but I kept monitoring the temps of the unit to be sure it wasn't out of control and it was always fine. The reason I chose to do this is it ages the phospors and pixels evenly thus allowing me to break it in without worrying about what I am watching or gaming. The other benefit is you can get it calibrated sooner because you will have 150 hours quickly. I had over 160 hours of run time after the 7 days. I then took my old tv in the living room down and put the new beast in its home. I have done all day gaming and all day football yesterday with no image retention whatsoever. I am really glad I went this route and would advise you do the same if you have any worries at all. My tv is scheduled to be calibrated on 9/27.

Thanks for the detailed information you have shared,JENKS.
It seems for every owner that has done a Break-In Period,there is another owner that hasnt done a Break-In Period.

What you did is something do-able as it doesnt take an extreme length of time to accomplish(around a week).So I will take what you have shared to heart and see what I will end up doing.

At the very least I think I may do a shorter modified Break-In Period ,if its just for my own piece of mind.
Again Thanks for the posts,Everyone...

[JENKS]

Originally Posted by talstarone

Thanks for the detailed information you have shared,JENKS.
It seems for every owner that has done a Break-In Period,there is another owner that hasnt done a Break-In Period.

What you did is something do-able as it doesnt take an extreme length of time to accomplish(around a week).So I will take what you have shared to heart and see what I will end up doing.

At the very least I think I may do a shorter modified Break-In Period ,if its just for my own piece of mind.
Again Thanks for the posts,Everyone...

No problem man. Here is the link that I followed for the break in settings :

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1128487

This is for a g10 panel but after talking to D-nice it is the same panel so it is safe to use. There is also a link on that thread to download the break in slides. I did 160 hours because I am super paranoid and heard things happening up until about 150 hours. The thread only suggests 120 hours, but be sure you DO NOT run those settings for anything but the break in slides due to the contrast and brightness. If you are gonna watch tv too, then be sure to change your settings as those would give you image retention easily watching tv and or gaming especially.

[PoorSignal]

I am going to run the break in DVD as long as I can but I plan to play some 1.85 movies in zoom mode in THX mode which should be on the dim side.. in because it is the only TV and I do want to use it.. does that sound reasonable?

[kpkelley]

That's perfectly reasonable. Break-in is suggested, not required. In fact, if you ask the manufacturer they would say no break-in period is needed. We as plasma owners suggest it to be safe, but it is not a requirement.

[JENKS]

Originally Posted by kpkelley

That's perfectly reasonable. Break-in is suggested, not required. In fact, if you ask the manufacturer they would say no break-in period is needed. We as plasma owners suggest it to be safe, but it is not a requirement.

X2! Well said.

[Raibeaux]

I used the break-in procedure on my Pioneer Elite, and I'm glad I did. I also had it calibrated by an ISF calibrator afterwards, and it's so good I can't describe it.

I downloaded the break-in onto a thumb drive, and ran it while I was at work during the day, let it rest, and watched a few 1:78 movies (no bars). I also let it run all night a couple of times.

After about 135 hours, I started watching anything I wanted, and I run the scrubber bar every couple of months. No burn in at all.

You can download the break-in disc on AVS Forums, which is the best place to learn about all this stuff.

Raibeaux

[picture_shooter]

My manual never mentioned anything about break in period. All good here

[BLUCanadian]

Originally Posted by Raibeaux

I used the break-in procedure on my Pioneer Elite, and I'm glad I did. I also had it calibrated by an ISF calibrator afterwards, and it's so good I can't describe it.

I downloaded the break-in onto a thumb drive, and ran it while I was at work during the day, let it rest, and watched a few 1:78 movies (no bars). I also let it run all night a couple of times.

After about 135 hours, I started watching anything I wanted, and I run the scrubber bar every couple of months. No burn in at all.

You can download the break-in disc on AVS Forums, which is the best place to learn about all this stuff.

Raibeaux

That break in disc is only necessary if you will be applying the settings provided by D-Nice (AVS Forums). Otherwise, there is no real point to running it. That breakin disc is specifically used to attempt to get Pioneer Plasmas as close to being ISF Calibrated, without actually paying a professional.

Just stick to Full Screen programming (1.78:1) for the first few weeks and you will be OK.
I suppose that just running the disc will help in this regard (by speeding up the process), but who knows if this is even necessary...