Bad Mix: Blu-ray DVDs on Plasma TV

[john_1958]

Been to local hometheatre store who has Panasonic plasma with blu-ray not a good combination
there was no depth in the video it just bore me to tears

[DavePS3]

There are about 12 different aspect ratios that directors and studios have been using since television threatened theater movie-going yraes ago. Widescreen was a valid gimmick to keep people in theaters. A wider screen meant a more panoramic view since we all see more horzontally than vertically. The two most common are 1.85:1 - which is the shape of all HD screens and 2.39:1 which some projector screens are shaped now to avoid the black bars. Trouble is, it either cuts off the sides or just drops and raises masking kits where the black bars are now. CinemaScope is just nutty in it's aspect ratio but at that extreme case, it's still what the director intended. On a plasma, you should have a way to convert the black bars to gray or, like LG plasmas do, you can run the white-wash or inverter afterwards to avoid the burn in. That burning takes a good 8 hours of solid straight static imagery before it's irreversable. Yes, zooming is grainier and cuts off the sides but there's absolutely nothing you can do about it unless you buy only films that are shown on the disc(s) at 1.85:1.

[DavePS3]

BY the way... I've seen HD-DVD 1080p on a Plasma too and it looks no better than regular DVD. The monkeys in the stores aren't tweaking the panels properly. Too much contrast, too much color and in some cases, trying to up the sharpness is a nice idea for standard def but bad for Hi-Def.

[dobyblue]

Burn in on plasma is not a problem anymore. If you bought your tv within the last two years or so you shouldn't be experiencing any burn in that can't be fixed by turning the tv off for two minutes.
Also, the black bars are "black" which means they won't burn in anyway.

[eli1277]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Burn in on plasma is not a problem anymore. If you bought your tv within the last two years or so you shouldn't be experiencing any burn in that can't be fixed by turning the tv off for two minutes.
Also, the black bars are "black" which means they won't burn in anyway.

what is burn in?

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Burn in on plasma is not a problem anymore. If you bought your tv within the last two years or so you shouldn't be experiencing any burn in that can't be fixed by turning the tv off for two minutes.
Also, the black bars are "black" which means they won't burn in anyway.

Burn in is still a problem with these plasma TV's and the black bars will cause uneven wear on the phospors. I owned a plasma for a couple of years and while I never had anything permanent, i had hundreds of temp burns...turning the tv off does not eliminate it...varied watching does.

We have permanently ruined several sets at Best Buy, mostly Pioneer sets just from the station icons during the loop/feed. You can see ESPNHD burned in on one pioneer and a compilation of several ghosted in images on another. We tryed moving the set to a dedicated hometheatre setup up and while it did fade away mostly, it was still there.

Even LCD tv's can be burned in, despite popular belief...it just takes extreme irresponisbility and time to do so.

as a former owner of a plasma...i do not reccomend the technology to anyone who wants more than 2 years of good PQ out of their purchase. These things fade out quickly. Initially they are show stoppers, but quickly become very flat and washed out even when calibrated off the factory torch modes.

[BTBuck1]

Using the zoom feature on my 788p & 720p sets (3LCD sony's) I do not experience any PQ loss. I do lose some of the sides (obviously) but no grain or blockiness to speak of.

[Deane Johnson]

Does anyone know if the movie studios intend to re-master the 2.4 : 1 widescreen movies to the 16 : 9 aspect ratio?

Plasmaguy, what part of the movie would you like to have chopped off so it would fit a 16:9 format. Perhaps a little on each side, perhaps all off one side, what would be your suggestion.

To be very honest with you, I am surprised you would invest in this type equipment without a better understanding of what it is all about.

I don't mean to be discourteous, or disrespectful, I'm just curious as to what you would like to see done to solve the problem you describe.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Burn in is still a problem with these plasma TV's and the black bars will cause uneven wear on the phospors. I owned a plasma for a couple of years and while I never had anything permanent, i had hundreds of temp burns...turning the tv off does not eliminate it...varied watching does.

We have permanently ruined several sets at Best Buy, mostly Pioneer sets just from the station icons during the loop/feed. You can see ESPNHD burned in on one pioneer and a compilation of several ghosted in images on another. We tryed moving the set to a dedicated hometheatre setup up and while it did fade away mostly, it was still there.

Even LCD tv's can be burned in, despite popular belief...it just takes extreme irresponisbility and time to do so.

as a former owner of a plasma...i do not reccomend the technology to anyone who wants more than 2 years of good PQ out of their purchase. These things fade out quickly. Initially they are show stoppers, but quickly become very flat and washed out even when calibrated off the factory torch modes.

As long as you have your set out of the box switched to custom mode with low contrast and low brightness and spend the first 150-200 hours with either stretched 4:3 source or a widescreen source with no logos, you'll not experience burn in outside of leaving a video game on pause while going away for the weekend.

If you were to set your contrast and brightness to 50/100 or less and play the plasma break-in dvd through five time, you'll have a properly broken in set and can treat it like you would any CRT television.

The break-in dvd is free and available here in VIDEO_TS, .ISO or .NRG formats - http://www.eaprogramming.com/downloa...nload_main.htm

The new 77U series from Panasonic have increased their ratings from 60,000 hours to half brightness to 100,000 hours.

I would recommend either the 77U line from Panny or the KURO line from Pioneer to anyone looking for the best picture with the best motion resolution and best blacks any day of the week.

Never buy a floor model though.

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

Burn in is still a problem with these plasma TV's and the black bars will cause uneven wear on the phospors. I owned a plasma for a couple of years and while I never had anything permanent, i had hundreds of temp burns...turning the tv off does not eliminate it...varied watching does.

We have permanently ruined several sets at Best Buy, mostly Pioneer sets just from the station icons during the loop/feed. You can see ESPNHD burned in on one pioneer and a compilation of several ghosted in images on another. We tryed moving the set to a dedicated hometheatre setup up and while it did fade away mostly, it was still there.

Even LCD tv's can be burned in, despite popular belief...it just takes extreme irresponisbility and time to do so.

as a former owner of a plasma...i do not reccomend the technology to anyone who wants more than 2 years of good PQ out of their purchase. These things fade out quickly. Initially they are show stoppers, but quickly become very flat and washed out even when calibrated off the factory torch modes.

It sounds like you work for BB. If you are talking about recent Pioneer plasma's, why didn't you have the orbiter on? Your guys there should know to always put this on, but even at the Magnolia near my house, none of the Pioneers had it on. Shows the training they had. People should know that, a properly 'broke in' plasma will have almost no susceptability to any burn. Once the cells, which are made of phosphor, are 'broken in' (200 hours or so) they are just as susceptible to any burn as an LCD is.

I had a Panny plasma for 3 years and never had a problem, because I did a small amount of research to make sure I was covered. I still own it and bought a new Pioneer this year and love it. I am just about done with my 200 hour break in. Question for any new plasma owner; does anyone use a 'break-in' disc to help the process? Probably not, and have never heard of one. I have several friends that have Plasmas for several years and have never had problems, let alone any type of fading. People come on all these forums and either do not understand how to properly break in their sets (Plasma or LCD), or don't care, then they complain about the problems they have. You wouldn't take a brand new car and drive it across the country, then why play your PS3 for 6 hours when you first get that new shiny tv? Patience pays off. The games and movies are not going anywhere. I assume everyone knows minor maintenance for their car? Why not for a $2k+ monitor? Simple things help.

My .02 cents..

[finalfantasy]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Burn in on plasma is not a problem anymore. If you bought your tv within the last two years or so you shouldn't be experiencing any burn in that can't be fixed by turning the tv off for two minutes.
Also, the black bars are "black" which means they won't burn in anyway.

Thanks for your input...I second your post!

First of all, what you hear at BB and everywhere else is "you won't have burn-ins with LCDs but plasmas will have burn-ins so don't play games on it"...and now, there are far more LCDs than plasmas everywhere...I don't care as long as there are great HDTVs, LCD/OLED/Plasma what have you, however, I don't want to see people not buying Plasmas because of misinformation or ignorance.

Secondly, I exclusively use my plasma for PS3/BRay experience because quite frankly, my LCD just isn't up to snuff when it comes to PQ...and I prefer the 2.4:1 aspect...it's the way the movies were meant to be enjoyed...

Third, if you think 2 hours of movie watching with black bars on top and bottom of the screen is going to cause a burn in, well, you should have stuck with CRTs...

Bottom line, you did not make a mistake in my opinion...your title is definitely just plain stupid since you are TRYING to say that 2.4 aspect on Plasma TV is a bad mix...which has nothing to do with format of the HDef media...posting something like this or going around saying this to your friends and co-workers is how BRay loses two to three potential new Blu blood...

[GooMan]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

BY the way... I've seen HD-DVD 1080p on a Plasma too and it looks no better than regular DVD. The monkeys in the stores aren't tweaking the panels properly. Too much contrast, too much color and in some cases, trying to up the sharpness is a nice idea for standard def but bad for Hi-Def.

I know, and it almost cost me a Bluray player. I was at Fry's with the misses and they had the Panny BD player connected to a Mitsubishi 1080p (I didn't check the model) and it was playing 8 Below which I heard was supposed to be a pretty good transfer and she about flipped out that I wanted to spend $600 (PS3) on a bluray player that didn't look any better than a standard DVD and looked worst than what was being displayed on the other TVs in the department.

Thankfully Best Buy had the Elite player hooked up to their Elite 1080p plasma and she was blown away. I actually had to hold her back from buying the monitor.

I don't know how common the Fry's situation is, but if stores don't get these players matched to quality TVs the average consumer is not going to want to spend the money (for either of the HD formats).

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by john_1958

Been to local hometheatre store who has Panasonic plasma with blu-ray not a good combination
there was no depth in the video it just bore me to tears

Thats nonsense. I have the 50" Panasonic and the picture quality is amazing. They may not have had it set up correctly.

[finalfantasy]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Thats nonsense. I have the 50" Panasonic and the picture quality is amazing. They may not have had it set up correctly.

Perhaps they were not using HDMI...it is Walmart afterall...I would not be surprised if they had regular DVD in the player...

My next purchase is going to be another Plasma...bottom line, unless you have viewed BRay movies or played games on 50" Plasmas, you don't know what your are missing and you certainly don't know what you are talking about...

All I know is, Spiderman 3, Ghost Rider, and Casino Royale looked so much better than the theater versions, I will stop going to big screens all together and wait for BRay release...

[SAFOOL]

Most of my tv watching is done using stretch-o-vision so that I avoid any burn in issues. When I watch a bluray movie or a true HD show/movie on DTV its OAR all the way. The mix limits my burn in concern.