Can video games cause plasma burn-in?
December 22, 2005

Submitted by: Eric Evans, via e-mail
I have a concern about my new plasma TV. I just set it up last night and played two quarters of NBA Live 2005 on it with my PlayStation 2 with the contrast and brightness set below 50 percent. Once I shut off the screen, though, I saw the imprint of the score and the EA Sports logo. The image faded after I watched regular TV for about an hour, but this experience is giving me second thoughts about plasma, despite hearing that burn-in is no longer an issue in newer models. Should I be worried about playing games or watching TV channels with static images (like the CNN logo) on my new plasma?

David Katzmaier, senior editor
That's nothing to worry about--it's perfectly normal. The first 100 or so hours of a plasma's life are when it's most vulnerable to burn-in, and as you saw, despite your precautions, even a half-hour of video gaming can leave a temporary imprint. As you discovered, watching moving video (basically, exercising the phosphors in the burned-in area) will erase the "burn" after a while.

If you want to more quickly get to the point where you can game, watch TV with logos, and the rest without seeing any impressions, I suggest leaving the TV on for 24 hours straight, tuned to a logo-free channel that you know doesn't go off the air or leave up test patterns in the early morning. Make sure you set it to an aspect-ratio mode that fills the screen. We perform a similar burn-in routine with plasmas that we review at CNET--and CRTs, for that matter--just to get the phosphors up to speed.

Once you log a good chunk of time, you shouldn't see any impressions, but during the first, say, month of use, they may appear occasionally. FYI, we've put a lot of hours of NBA 2K6 on our in-house plasmas, and they're fine.

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