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General discussion

Plasma TV and After-Image

by anselmpanop Feb 19, 2006 1:28AM PST

I have been living with the Panasonic TH-42PM5OU for nearly two weeks, and it looks like a good news/bad news situation.

First the good news: this TV, like a fine sound system, reveals the best and worst in the program material that?s fed to it. The best DVDs look outstanding, as do the best HD TV programs. Most SD TV programs seem to be surprisingly good too, though not as good as HD of course.

Now the bad news: most of the programming from my cable provider (Adelphia, Southern CA) is SD. Adelphia currently provides only nine HD stations, and of those nine, only one (KCET, which is a PBS station) provides wide-screen all the time. The others HD stations, including CBS HD, NBC HD, ABC HD, etc. provide some wide-screen programming, but much of the time there are black side-bars displayed (there are often times top and bottom side-bars as well).

The Panasonic TH-42PM5OU Operating Instructions (p. 16) explanation of 4:3 [Aspect] Mode says; ?Displays a 4:3 picture at its standard 4:3 size with gray side bars. (It may create an after-image on screen if displayed for a prolonged period of time.)". The Operating Instructions (p. 22) also talks about after-images; ?Do not allow a still picture to be displayed for an extended period, as this can cause a permanent after-image to remain on the Plasma display.?

Problem: This after-image issue is making both of us uneasy about keeping this TV. We could get rid of side-bars on 4:3 SD programming by going to one of the three other aspect modes ? ZOOM, FULL, or JUST. But my wife and I cannot agree on an acceptable alternative aspect mode. As a result, we are both uneasy about keeping this TV. Any thoughts?

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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You're not gonna like this. . .
by Coryphaeus Feb 19, 2006 6:44AM PST

TVs have outpaced broadcasting. Until broadcasters settle on a format, and decide to provide widescreen programming, you're gonna have to live with it. Set the screen format to one you both agree on and leave it there. I have all my HD TVs (5) set to display full screen.

Wayne

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers
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5 HD TVs?
by marinetbryant Feb 19, 2006 6:49AM PST

Will you adopt me?

Tom

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Take A Deep Breath And Relax
by RoadRunner6 Feb 19, 2006 7:33AM PST

Everyone who has a widescreen 16x9 aspect TV such as your Panasonic plasma goes thru the same thing. BTW, you have an excellent set there. As time goes on and there is more and more HD programming you will continue to see a better picture. The cable companies as well as satellite are sending us some pretty bad signals. That should get better with time and less compression, hopefully.

Panasonic recomends that you watch little or no 4x3 programming for the first 1000 hours. Also turn the brightness and contrast down to the middle setting or so. They are just making suggestions to insure that you have no problems with possible burn-in. Obviously don't leave a static image on the set for more than a minute or two. When we are watching a movie and put it on pause to take a break, we put it in pause and then hit the ultra slow motion reverse mode to keep the pixels moving just to be safe. Common sense will prevent any problems here. I recall one poster here had his kids stop a game but leave the set on for several days with a static image. He was having some problems with after image, duh! Be sure you use the pixel shift function, Panny calls it the ''wobbler'' mode if I remember correctly.

Panasonic's best ''strech'' mode for watching 4x3 signals (according to most) is the ''just'' mode because it streches the picture more on the sides than in the middle. Put it there and forget it and in a week or so you will begin to adjust to it and you will not want to go back to 4x3. Only occasionally will there be a problem with the ticker tapes on the financial channel, etc.

We have two EDTV plasmas and never ever watch in 4x3.

RR6

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Also
by HTHMAN Feb 19, 2006 8:22AM PST

In addition to all that good advice from RoadRunner6, you might consider buying (or renting) one of the Home Theater tune up disks such as Avia, Digital Video Essentials or the Sound and Vision HT tune up. You will be surprised at how much above optimum the manufactueres have set the brightness and contrast levels. Got to be the brightest set in the store to get your attention, you know.

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We've Taken a Deep Breath and We're More Relaxed
by anselmpanop Feb 19, 2006 9:31AM PST

Was jumping back and forth between the Daytone 500 on HD, and a beautiful travel documentary on PBS HD. The wife was so knocked out by the picture, she shouted; "we're not bringing this TV back!"

I brought the laptop over to her and started reading the replies to my post, and that sealed it.

Thanks.

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