Image retention/burn in using plasma as computer monitor

[Wekiva]

I'm sick and tired of my 32" Sony Trinitron (darn thing just won't die...15 years old). I am ready to jump on the flat panel bandwagon and am really torn about the LCD vs Plasma issue.

My room does have some light coming in but it's from a window that is covered by a flat roof over the back porch...and on top of that 95% of my TV watching is at night...so I'm not worried about reflected light being an issue.

I'm looking at the Samsung PN58A550. We really feel 58" is as small as we want to go which definitely lends itself to plasma to save some $$$. (Do they make many LCDs over 52"...only see two 65" at Bestbuy.com)

My real concern about all this is that I'm going to put in a Windows Media PC in the living room and the plasma will be used as the monitor. There are some obvious things I'll do like setting a screen saver at 10 minutes or so. But what if I'm using a program (any program...but take Google Earth as an example) for an hour or more...while I may be zooming around the world for most of the screen...the top bar will stay a consistent image (as it would using any program typically). That is where I'm worried about image retention/burn in.

I know this is a debatable subject but I'd love to hear from anyone using a plasma with a computer and hear how its working out for them.

Thanks

 

[cheesehead]

I would perhaps recommend buying an LED DLP rear-projection TV?

Unlike previous projection TVs, they have no bulbs, just LEDS that will likely outlast the rest of the television. This also eliminates several varieties of visual artifacts you can get from the color wheel in a more traditional DLP TV. Of course, because it's a mechanical system, there's no chance of burn-in.

Also, you can get a 65" DLP projection TV for under $2k, and a 72" TV for not much more.

 

[kalrith]

The main contributors to burn-in are high contrast and brightness, non-varied content, and non-full-screen content. A plasma TV is most susceptible to burn-in when it is new, because the phosphors aren't aged yet. I ran a break-in DVD found here for 200 hours when I first got my plasma in order to evenly and quickly age the phosphors. I also increased the brightness during this period.

So, after that divergence, be sure to at the very least take the TV out of dynamic mode, which cranks the brightness and contrast. Try movie mode for starters or find a thread on avsforum with settings for your TV.

And to specifically answer your question, using the plasma in conjunction with the PC will not matter as long as you vary your content. For example, if 90% of your viewing has the same toolbar on the screen, then a plasma's probably not right for you. However, if the PC is used 50% of the time and other full-screen content with no toolbar is used the rest of the time, then you should be fine, especially if you keep the orbiter, pixel shift, etc. on all of the time.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

the one issue i have with using plasma for pc output is that there tends to be lots of static content in a widespread area of the screen.
take a webpage for instance with a large solid colored background. sure it has pixel shift tech, but the pixel next to it is essentially the same color.