Panny TH-42PZ85U or LCD? Burn in on panny?

First and foremost, allow me to congratulate you on your plasma purchase. You made the right decision, and for the price, you picked out the best damn plasma there is.

Secondly, image retention affects all plasmas. The question is to what degree. Panasonics have significantly improved their resistance to image retention, running cooler and incorporating a pixel orbiter. I would put the 85-series Panasonic just below the Pioneer PDP-5080HD, which would qualify as the least-prone image retainer of any plasma. PROVIDED that you first properly break-in the plasma, there will be no issues. But for the first 200 hours, you should adjust the set to 'cinema' mode. This will eliminate the chance of early phosphor wear and increase panel life (so you get the 20yrs. you payed for).

I am presuming you are equipped with a power conditioner and/or a step-down transformer. If not, get one fast (www.monsterpower.com or www.richardgreyspowercompany.com). This is a life-saver if there ever was one. This will allow the set to give you the life and picture quality you payed for in the first place, unlocking it's true potential (when connected to the right sources).

No LCD will give a cleaner picture, as there is no response time with Plasma sets. Even with 120hz, there is considerable motion lag layered with processing artifacts (from the 120hjz processor), so the gaming experience on an LCD is nothing compared to that of a plasma. Plus, dark scenes will be more visible and detailed on the plasma, making Halo a lot easier (I can testify for that one). With a punchier contrast, the Panasonic will invigorate the senses in a way that no LCD can.

Enough Said, I suppose you get it now.

-N.

I currently have a Pioneer elite plasma, . .I game every day, X360, PS3 and Wii.. . . as long as you don't pause the picture and walk away, or if you game, take a break every hour or so if the game has an on screen HUD and run a movie channel for a few minutes, burn in won't be an issue, . just use your head. . . First thing you are going to notice is the depth that a plasma has as compared to a LCD, .it's night and day, especially for movies.. . then of coarse my favorite, gaming, . . man, the difference is staggering, ther are no jaggies, the color isn't so saturated that it looks fake and no motion blur.......Now, if you watch CNN all day or Bloomberg, where there is a ticker on screen all day, then you might want to go with LCD. . . I just saw the review they posted a couple days ago for the Panasonic 800 series with THX and I am VERY tempted, so hope everything works out for ya.