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General discussion

Just bought the PN50A650 - a few questions

Jan 31, 2009 5:58AM PST

Hello all, I'm a first time poster. This week I just got my PN50A650 which I'm very happy with. But a few questions...

First off, how much of an issue is burn-in really? I thought it was not much of an issue with new plasmas, but reading the first 2 pages of the manual scared me to death! No more than 5% of your viewing should have black bars or stationary objects?! Is that true or just meant to scare us? I won't be watching much SD TV anymore, but even some HD channels have station logos, black bars on commercials, scores on sporting events, etc. Not to mention all the movies which have ratios above 1.78:1 and thus have horizontal black bars on the top and bottom. If these DVDs can only add up to 5% of my viewing, I have to say I'm seriously bummed.

Related to this, I see that there are a couple of features to help reduce this problem if it occurs - the white screen and the scrolling bars. The manual says the scrolling bars are more effective - is there any reason to use the white screen then? And should I use the scrolling bars routinely or just if I see burn in occur?

I know plasmas use a lot of power and this TV comes with various energy saver modes - is there any reason to NOT set the energy saver up all the way?

Also sometimes I see a message that "HDMI audio is not supported" even though the HDMI cable is connected. What I'm trying to do is to send the digital audio from a cable box or DVD player to BOTH a receiver (via optical cable) and the TV (via HDMI). Is this not possible? If I change the audio setting of the source to stereo, it sometimes makes this message go away and the TV will put out audio again, but it seems I can't have the full surround audio going both places at once even though everything's connected the right way.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Andy

Discussion is locked

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audio
Feb 1, 2009 12:10AM PST

Andy-

I receive my same tv Mon. I too will have the same set up I believe. HDMI from Satellite receiver to TV, PS3 HMDI to tv, then digital audio from tv to audio receiver. I really hope this works.

I would assume it would work. Hopefully we get a response.

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audio
Feb 2, 2009 10:09AM PST

I'm not using the optical out from the TV (I think that's only in stereo), I'm sending the optical out right to the receiver from my DVD player and from my cable box.

Andy

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Another thing....
Feb 2, 2009 2:31PM PST

Andy,

I almost forgot... let me address these too:

<i>Also sometimes I see a message that "HDMI audio is not supported" even though the HDMI cable is connected. </i>

This can happen if the incoming signal is not supported by HDMI. Make sure your source (cable box, DVD, etc) is sending a 720p or higher signal.

<i>What I'm trying to do is to send the digital audio from a cable box or DVD player to BOTH a receiver (via optical cable) and the TV (via HDMI). Is this not possible? </i>

No, the incoming signal for the TV speakers is HDMI.
If you have a receiver, send the source (DVD, Cable box) directly to the receiver for surround sound.
The optical on the television is an optical out for the tuner to send 5.1 surround sound when it is being broadcast. HDMI audio will reconfigure to 2.0 for the speakers, and 5.1 is not possible even though the 5.1 signal comes in - it will not pass through the audio optical.

Hope that wasn't too confusing. If it is, I'll break it down a little more, just let me know.

--HDTech

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Plasma answers
Feb 2, 2009 2:23PM PST

acunzomole,

This is a common concern, and I can appreciate your aprehension. Several people have asked me about this very issue, - some have played games for a few hours, discovered image retention and logged on panicked, only to note later that the issue fixed itself after some regular viewing hours. So I'm going to post my respose to one particular thread with my recommendations. To this date, nobody who has followed them came back to complain, so I'm assuming that it has worked out for most people.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-13973_102-0.html?forumID=146&threadID=322182&messageID=2937563&tag=forums06;search-results#2937563

Read all of the threads, and some of the concerns. If you have any that aren't addressed in there, let me know. Burn-in and image retention can happen with CRT, LCD, Plasma, projectors... every technology except DLP. Plasmas and CRTs are the most likely to experience this, and there are simple ways to avoid this.

Let me know your feedback, thoughts and concerns, and I'll be happy to discuss them.

--HDTech