plasma return?

[dipset420]

i was just wondering this. if i bought a plasma and the image burned into the screen, can you return it to the store for a new one if you have a warranty?

and 2 other things about a plasma.

1. how long does a image have to stay on the screen for burn in and can you play video games on a plasma and not have to worry.

2. how long does plasma last and when they do die what do you need to replace? a whole tv a light bulb or something else

[shock_terminal]

Originally Posted by dipset420

i was just wondering this. if i bought a plasma and the image burned into the screen, can you return it to the store for a new one if you have a warranty?

and 2 other things about a plasma.

1. how long does a image have to stay on the screen for burn in and can you play video games on a plasma and not have to worry.

2. how long does plasma last and when they do die what do you need to replace? a whole tv a light bulb or something else

From my experience (not saying it %100) once it's Burned in it's permanent.
At work we usually buy Phillips when it comes to Plasma, we bought another brand once and had burn-in very quickly, we were able to trade it in and went for a Phillips as a replacement.

1. Like I said on another brand we had an Image up for an hour or so and it was burned, but we had our Phillips up for just as long if not longer w/o problems.

2. Plasma runs on Gas, the gas in a plasma will leak out VERY slowly over time, the brightness is affected by this, as time goes on it will decrease in brightness, eventually (many years) being too dim to watch. There is no way at this time to "Recharge" the Gas. So at the TV's 1/2 life (not sure what that is exactly, I imagine it depends on brand) the Screen will be 1/2 as bright as it was originally.

This is why I currently run a DLP but am saving for a 1080p LCD.

[Filterlab]

Originally Posted by dipset420

1. how long does a image have to stay on the screen for burn in and can you play video games on a plasma and not have to worry.

2. how long does plasma last and when they do die what do you need to replace? a whole tv a light bulb or something else

1. Depends on the manufacturer, although in general many hours to burn in an image.

2. Most manufacturers aim for 60,000 hours full life, so 30,000 half life. If you watched every day for 6 hours, the TV's half life would be up at 13.6 years - longer than most keep their TVs for.

[Gremal]

My four-year extended warranty (which just expired) doesn't cover burn-in. After five years I'm experiencing some minor issues such as very subtle bands on the right and left from watching a lot of 4:3 content over the years.

I also use my plasma as a computer monitor. I've been irresponsible about allowing static, high-contrast images/windows to stay on the screen for extended periods, so this is coming back to bite me. Still, no one has noticed these minor problems while watching content on my plasma except me, so I feel it is not a big deal yet. Actually, when watching movies, even I can't notice any problem.

After another two years I think the problems may be visible enough to warrant a new display, but also technology will have advanced to make it worth buying a new display and the HDMI compatibility issues will hopefully be resolved. By then I definitely feel I will have gotten my money's worth out of the plasma and will probably buy the top-of-the-line Pioneer. Having enjoyed a plasma for many years in a bright room, I just don't feel I could enjoy an LCD as much, and I don't have enough space for any other type of display. Plasma is still king I think, and the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

[helli3yte]

here is a tip for all of you. go to best buy and buy a nice tv. it could be anything really. try to put atleast 2500 dollars or more on it. get the 4 year warranty and wait till you hit 3 years and 10 months. your tv is worth 2500 dollars right? go to best buy with the tv , tell them it doesnt work get another tv. but here is the kicker. get another tv priced at oh i dont know 5000 dollars. you pay the difference. guess what? your brand new tv just cost you 2500 dollars since the old tv that you returned is worth just that. get another 4 year warranty and repeat process. i am going to do this but i still have till oct 2010. but i hope you see where i am going. OH and remember, REMEBER!!!, that when you bring in your old tv tell them it doesnt work. ****, tell them anything, like it wont turn on, etc, etc. THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!! remember that. doing this will gurantee you a top dollar tv at half the price. oh and get a new 4 year warranty with each new tv you get or youll get screwed in the end and never get another newer better tv. hope this helps.

[blakjaks]

As was posted above, a plasma's life expectance is 60,000 hours or so. That is what I read online, and what was posted in my Panasonic owner's manual.

Even with a lot of usage you are looking at 10 years until half-life of the unit, which is more than enough.

As for burn-in, it really is hard to burn something in accidentally on current generation plasmas (3rd generation unless the came out with 4th gen between last May and today). I do not know the differences between 1st gen, 2nd gen, and 3rd gen, just repeating things I read almost a year ago when I did some research because I was hesitant on buying a plasma over an lcd.

When you buy a plasma you should first break it in. In the owner's manual they will tell you not to watch ANYTHING with a static image or with black side bars or movie bars the first 100-200 hours or so, and that up until 1000 hours you should limit viewing programming with static images/letterbox bars to 15% of total view time. (solid black is the WORST color for a plasma in terms of burning in an image, and watching something in letterbox one may think that only the pixels showing the picture are displaying anything but all the pixels in the letterbox are displaying black for the entire length of the picture, which can be very very bad when you first get the tv)

I do not remember the link but I was able to download a "break-in" DVD. What this did was when you played it it would fill the screen with the same color for about 20 seconds, then change the entire screen to another color, and so on, and it looped onto itself for endless play. At night when I would go to sleep I would pop in the break-in DVD, and when I went to work I would pop it in, and let my new plasma get through the initial 100 hour breakin period in this fashion.

From what I read the first 100 hours is where you really have to be careful and the plasma is susceptible to burn-in. Some say up to 200 hours. I broke my tv in maybe 150 or so hours, and was somewhat careful after that (tried to not watch TNT or channels with logos too long and I watched very little in letterbox for a couple weeks).

You should calibrate your plasma properly as well, not watching it in VIVID mode or "torch" mode as they call it, which is a factory preset where everything is super bright super high color. Using an AVIA calibration DVD you can adjust your settings to the proper contrast and picture and brightness values, which at first will appear dull but within a day or two your eyes will adjust to it and you will realize that you are now seeing colors the way they should be, not bright to the point where they will scorch your eyeballs out.

A common problem is that plasmas retain an after-image from time to time. People panic and think this is burn-in, but an after image will disappear generally after a few minutes (I have seen it take longer) of watching something else without that static image on the screen.

Burn-in is NOT permanent, but incredibly difficult to fix. If a pixel is "burned in" meaning it is stuck on one color, if that pixel were to display the opposite color (white and black are opposites no idea what the opposite of purple is though) for the same amount of time it was stuck on the burned in color, that would offset the burn-in. Sadly I have never heard of any service that could isolate stuck pixels, find the counter-color, and un-burn in an image, but it is interesting to note that technically burn-in is not permanent.

Long story short, I LOVE my plasma. The newer LCDS look great, don't get me wrong, but the PQ is better on plasma, hands down.

1) Plasma has deeper blacks. CRT still rules the deep blacks but plasmas are very very close (when the tv is calibrated properly). LCD tvs are in last place when it comes to the true deep blacks. The newer models look good... but not great.

2) Viewing angle is superb on plasma. I was in my kitchen last summer and a baseball game was on and I glance over at my wall-mounted plasma from maybe an 80 degree angle (or is that 170 degree? er... I forget basically I was 10 feet away but on the side of the screen) and I saw the image crisply. I have yet to see an LCD where you can do this. The vertical viewing angle (above and below) is very bad for many LCDS, but that will not be an issue once the thing is mounted or on a stand it seems unlikely you would stand on a chair to look down at your tv. But the horizontal viewing angle after 45 degrees to either side you really lose a lot. While you may be sitting right in front of your tv, if you have 8 people over to watch the superbowl, depending on the dimensions of your room many people may be sitting at a poor viewing angle to the tv. With plasma, this is not an issue. For LCD, this is a major problem.

3) Light/Dark rooms. The biggest drawback of plasmas is that in a well-lit room the PQ does not look as good. Since plasmas have a thick glass panel on the front you can see reflections, and the reflection of light can make the image seem less pure. While my tv does seem to look better when I am watching a movie and shut all the lights in my living room, I have had no trouble during the day watching movies, tv, or playing video games. I suspect that the picture quality would look better on an LCD during daylight hours with the lights on, but I was never upset watching things during the day with all the lights in the house on thinking I couldn't see anything. The PQ during the day is good, but late at night with 0 light in the room it is 100% outstanding.

4) Refresh speed. I don't know much about it but many LCDs have trouble with fast-moving graphics. This is why when you go shopping for one they display flowers or grassy hills or mountains or clouds with very little movement. You will not see Monday Night Football on display at Best Buy. Plasmas do not seem to have trouble with quick-action (mainly sports), but LCDs sometimes appear choppy. I HAVE had that choppiness (something I think they call pixelation, or artifacting... I don't know one technical term from the other) watching basketball on TNT, but I later found out it was not my plasma, it was the crappy TNT broadcast (bandwidth issues over DTV). So if you watch a lot of sports or other fast-action programming, make sure you get a GOOD LCD otherwise you may be disappointed... or alternatively just get a plasma.

[i want HD movies]

I just wanted to clear some stuff up for you... I work in the business and deal with these companies and customer issues regularly.... Blakjaks is hands down the most accurate of the posts so far...sorry guys ;P

The half life of plasmas is 60,000 hrs(any major company i.e. Pioneer, Samsung, Panny, etc.). Just for reference a tube tv has a similar(though most say shorter) half life than that. Meaning a plasma will look as good or better than a tube at each point in its life with the same usage. LCD flat panels are lit by a "bulb", this bulb is also rated to 60,000 hrs. but this is not a half life. Projection sets (DLP, SXRD, HDILA etc.) are all plagued by bulb replacement. While the picture is "renewed" every 2-4 yrs. you are shelling out $300 or so every four years in perpetuity. just an FYI.

The comment about calibration is crucial with any technology. Projo's and flt panels come out of the box on "torch mode". this can cut bulb ecpectancy by almost 30%(according to research I have read.) Plasma can almost avoid all burn in by reducing the contrast and brightness to the lowest level where you do not lose any dark level detail.

No you cannot return a tv for burn in. it is physical damage and no one will take it back. However permanent burn in is very dificult to achieve.

Go to ISF's website and look up an article in which they tested plasma, lcd and tubes. To test burn in on a plasma they left a video game on pause for 24 hrs. straight, then "wiped" the screen clean by playing somehting else for 48 hrs. straight. Just remember that whatever is "burned-in" will take 2-3 times as long to go away as it did to get there.

For those of you who think you are smarter than a multi-billion dollar company the customer is not always right. If there is no defect with the tv it will not be exchanged. And you do not get the purchase price credit. You get fair market value which means tht you get the price for a tv of equivalent technology. In four years a 720P plasma 50" will probably retail somewhere in the 1750 ballpark. That is the amount of credit you would get at the time of replacement.

[Kathy]

I have a Pioneer Plasma, I have burned images into it accidentally several times and it all has went away. In my home there is also a Sony Wega, HP LCD and a Samsung DLP. I am happy with 3 out of 4. DO NOT make the mistake of a DLP!! We had Samsung come out to fix the problem we are having.... the picture is cut off on the bottom and top when playing PS3 or using anything with HDMI (like Satelite) and the picture is bowed on both sides. The repair guy basically said DLP sucks and that was the way it was meant to look and he could do nothing . Stay away from DLP at ALL costs! No Good! If you play video games alot and are looking for a tv at a good buy, go for the Sony Wega it uses 3 LCD and is coming down alot from the $1,800.00 we paid a year ago! Also I would stay away from Magnavox Plasma Tv's.... I always liked that brand but noticed when we were shopping for a Plasma that every store had a magnavox on display with problems.