Preventing Burn In On Panasonic TH42PX80

Burn-in (also known as screenburn) is probably the largest concern that deters possible owners from committing to plasma televisions like the Panasonic TH42PX80. Perhaps this notion was correct a few years ago, but the latest plasma televisions such as TH42PX80 have improved significantly in this department... as long as the correct steps are taken, the risks of burn-in are minimal. But still, you have to know what the steps are. Let's start by exploring what is the exact science behind plasma burn-in.

The Science

Plasma televisions are made up of phosphor-containing cell units, which will be "charged" and "burned" when dictated by electrical current stemming from video transmission to generate different light and colour, which ultimately produce what you see as a picture.

However, when a picture that doesn't move is portrayed on screen on the plasma television for a prolonged period of time, the portion of phosphor cell units that does not move will be burned up much quicker than the portion of phosphor cell units that movies or are not lit up at all. If this occurs over some time, those phosphor cell units that have been burned up quicker will then emit less light, causing them to dim and leading to "ghost image" which will continue to affect all new pictures on screen. Such phenomenon is known as burn-in or screen burn.

Some extremely common types of burn-in seen on plasma televisions are the logos from BBC News or Sky, and the bottom bar of the Windows desktop screen (for example when a home theatre computer is displayed frequently on your TH42PX80). Because the phosphor cells are not stable in the first 200 hours of a TH42PX80 plasma's new life, it is most prone to developing burn-in during this period, so it is imperative that you learn how to guard against it after you set up your TH42PX80 out-of-box.

Steps To Avoid Burn-In

Your Panasonic TH42PX80 is probably set to the "Dynamic" mode once you take it out of the box. In "Dynamic" mode the overall luminance has been boosted artificially to increase sales in the shop floor, but that is the last thing you want if you wish to avoid burn-in on your Panasonic TH42PX80. The easiest way to rectify this is to switch your Panasonic TH42PX80 to the "Eco" mode, which produces quite a dark picture because it uses the least power. Put up with this for the first 200 hours until the phosphor cell units stabilise, then you can revert to any brightness and contrast desirable to your eyes.

We hope we don't sound condescending, but for the first two hundred hours after turning on your Panasonic TH42PX80 from new, refrain from putting any non-moving picture on screen for over half an hour (we recommend less than 15 minutes). When playing console games for long periods, take a break after 2 hours by turning the TH42PX80 off for about quarter of an hour before continuing your gaming session, the reason being that there exists quite a number of non-moving items in modern games such as life or status bar.

Also, try educating your housemates or family about these steps, so that they don't make the very same mistake that you're trying to avoid. All the best to you! And may your new Panasonic TH42PX80 serve you well for a long time.