New plasma TV gaming concerns.

[Dylan1CC]

My brother recently bought a brand new LG 52 inch widescreen plasma TV. Tonight while he was playing Metroid Prime Echoes, there were a few times where we noticed some slight ghosting on the screen which either came from the game level itself or from the HUD (it happened after he'd been reading some scanned info) It only lasted about a few split seconds each time but enough to be a concern and seemed to occur when he turned the TV off and back on as a test. My brother lowered the brightness on both the TV menu and in the game's options, and it didn't occur after that.

Can HUDs in games like Metroid or static placeholders in games, radar, item counters, ect. easily cause burn in on current plasma TV screens? We never leave our games paused for extended periods of time, mind you. But this is an expensive new TV and he just wants to be sure he is taking good care of it. He is also wondering if the Wiimote could in any way adversely affect the Plasma.

He realizes that the wiimote doesn't interact with the TV screen but with the system itself and the sensor (even though that is just the LEDs obviously). But he says he has heard stories about signal interference from sound systems or wireless devices causing issues with high end TVs and just wants to be cautious. Anyways, any information from the experienced folks here would be greatly appreciated!

edit: Someone on TNL forum told me this is image retention which plasmas are susceptible to for the first 100 hours and should be run in low brightness for awhile (which my brother is already on top of). I assume after apprx 100 hours have passed it should be OK to run the game on a brighter setting again?

edit: I just read on an AV forum that viewing everything in stretched mode instead of 4:3 possibly this less of an issue? My brother plays his GC and XBox games all in full screen. And regarding Metroid Prime, he lowered the opacity of the visor in the game's settings so you can see right through her helmet. I'm assuming this would help a lot too?

Anyways, looking forward to trying Radiant Silvergun on this baby with my Saturn RGB adaptor cable.

[Wanderer]

My brother recently bought a brand new LG 52 inch widescreen plasma TV. Tonight while he was playing Metroid Prime Echoes, there were a few times where we noticed some slight ghosting on the screen which either came from the game level itself or from the HUD (it happened after he'd been reading some scanned info) It only lasted about a few split seconds each time but enough to be a concern and seemed to occur when he turned the TV off and back on as a test.

As you stated, this is image retention and it is normal and can even happen with CRTs when you turn off you display immediately after displaying a static image.

Can HUDs in games like Metroid or static placeholders in games, radar, item counters, ect. easily cause burn in on current plasma TV screens?

Burn-in is caused by uneven phosphor aging due to static images or black bars. Mixing up your viewing content (16:9 TV shows, stretching 4:3 content, etc.) will reduce your risk to burn-in. Although burn-in is less of a problem with newer Plasmas, the general rule is limit your black bar or gaming to 15-20% of total TV usage. Some gamers have increased the ratio to 50/50 and report no burn-in issues.

edit: Someone on TNL forum told me this is image retention which plasmas are susceptible to for the first 100 hours and should be run in low brightness for awhile (which my brother is already on top of). I assume after apprx 100 hours have passed it should be OK to run the game on a brighter setting again?

At minimal 100 hours of lowered brightness to reduce your risk of burn-in. Some Plasma owners go to the extreme and play no video games for the first 1000 hours! Even still, breaking in your Plasma with lowered brightness does not make you immune to burn-in and image retention.

After breaking in my Plasma for 500 hours, I've played a handful of Call of Duty 2 gaming sessions lasting 2 1/2 hours each. Every time I get extremely faint HUD (which is transparent grey) image retention that will only go away after 2 hours of full screen TV viewing. As long as I counter balance the Call of Duty playing with TV/DVD viewing, the image rentention shouldn't develop into burn-in (which is permanent).

So in a nutshell, be sensible, don't abuse your Plasma by playing Madden 2007 for 24 hours straight, and you should be able to enjoy all 52'' of Radiant Silvergun glory without any worries.

[Dylan1CC]

^^^^

Awesome. Thanks for the detailed info, Wanderer!