Exposure for an hour then grey display

1 hour = 30 minutes ?!? Yes, yes. This is the first result of our summer sport of ''plasma burning''.
1 hr exposure: we exposed the screen to a fixed image for an hour. Did the panel burn and, if yes, how much time did it take for the mark to disappear?

We left our logos on the display for an hour with brightness and contrast at a max. Then we displayed something else. Not a film or the telly, as a normal user would, but a uniform grey surface to detect the burnt parts of the panel. This is, then, a deliberately excessive test – although displaying a fixed image for one hour isn’t of course enormous. The logos of channels, games menus or black bands around some films remain on screen without moving for much longer periods sometimes. However, there aren’t many people who sit around observing the marks on a neutral image just to see what effect their previous viewing has had on the panel.

To the queston was there any marking on the panel after the display of a fixed image for one hour?, the jury declares unanimously that the Samsung PS42C96HD plasma was slightly burnt.

To the question is this burning permanent? The jury, gathered in front of the screen, declares that no, the trace is slight at the start and gradually lessens to disappear completely after half an hour.



Taking a photo of a plasma panel is not easy. Rendering the colours accurately is even harder. After many tests with lights, different equipment, cameras and various camcorders, we opted to film the panel; this is the solution that allows us to best capture the temporary traces.

A quick glance at the image might lead you to contest what we are saying: a slight burn. Look carefully at the image: you can see the contours of the word Versus at the top, especially the letters R and S. The contours of the white Digital Versus block also appear quite clearly at the top right as well as the word NUMERIQUES at the bottom right.

The most contrasting zones of the previous image are what come through. The word DIGITAL in green doesn’t appear and the green ball leaves a very very slight mark. When you’re standing in front of the screen, you see it, but it doesn’t come through on the image here – it is indeed hardly visible on the screen itself.

Now to the question is this a problem?

Everything depends on how much of a hair-splitter you are.

Some viewers will start watching their favourite series or a game and won’t pay much attention.

Others, including us – we wouldn’t be the pros we are otherwise would we?! – focus on the trace, asking ourselves, “Man, when is that mark going to go?!” Which it does after half an hour when a fixed image is displayed.

We will check next to see if turning off the television, or displaying a series of moving images, in particular a snowy screen, improves the situation.


Conclusions: the hour long test

• Displaying a fixed image on a plasma will burn a panel slightly and temporarily.

• After exposing the screen to the image for an hour, the resultant ghosting will not be detected by all viewers and disappears after half an hour at the longest (our test conditions are deliberately exagerated so as to give the “at worst” results).

Plasma “burning” in this case then is very relative. Those who watch a lot of films, for example, won’t see any fixed image on their screen, except perhaps black bands. Unless they watch different format films back to back, next time they turn their favourite screen on, they shouldn’t see anything that will disturb their viewing experience. Any little trace ghosting will have disappeared.

Opting for a plasma, then, means you benefit from:

• often brighter colours than on an LCD TV,
• particularly deep blacks ,
• faultless responsiveness ,
• more inches for your money!

On the downside however:

• you often get a shiny panel (you need to manage other light sources carefully),
• a lesser quality PC experience (see the inset on the product report),
• high energy consumption (300 Watts on this model on contrasted images, where an LCD will consume a maximum of 200 Watts)
• and the possibility of trace marks that you will sometimes detect but which will be temporary.