Hey, I just got a Pioneer 43" Plasma TV and I want to watch standard tv in the 4:3 aspect ratio (so it's the proper ratio).... which of course puts gray bars on each side of the screen. My question is how bad are these gray bars as far as burn-in goes??? There is a setting to change the gray bars so they show the edges of the 4:3 section of the screen in grayscale (but god it gets distracting and annoying), although I assume that's way better for the screen. So yeah, should I be worried about the gray bars?? If so, what does everyone do about that? I find watching 4:3 sd tv stretched is annoying. Currently, I've been dealing with the annoying "moving" gray bars by physically covering them, but if I don't have to, I of course don't want to. Thanks everyone, in advance.... David
When I say standard 4:3, I'm simply talking about the aspect ratio, whether it be digital cable, analog cable, video games, DVDs that were filmed in 4:3 or only released in 4:3. No matter what the source is, if I want the aspect ratio to remain 4:3 the tv puts gray bars on the sides of the screen.... I just want to know how bad those bars are for "burn-in". Thanks, David
Well, I say it would depend on how long the TV is in 4:3 Mode. It takes days of constant viewing to burn-in (damage) a plasma screen. After a couple hours static burn-in can occure but should go away naturaly. If your tv becomes damaged it is still possble to wash the problem out using an intense white video for several hours. A widescreen TV is for viewing WideScreen images. I prefer a streched picture but its subjective I guess. Ced
Thanks for the replies.... I too agree that widescreen tvs are for widescreen images and almost all my DVDs look damn great on it.... But I have 200 or so channels that aren't widescreen and I just can't stand those streched out wide people... haha. My sister has no problem watching everything in widescreen (streched out), but yeah, when it comes to aspect ratio, I'm kinda picky about it being exactly what it was meant to be. Well, at least as time goes on, widescreen tv will be more and more common. David
This is why I think most people say head the DLP, or LCD route for Wide Tv's. That way burn in is not a factor. But, still as mentioned it typically takes some serious beating on your TV to get burn in. You should be fine watching for a few hours. I would suggest after watching for a bit change the TV to a full screen image and let that play for 10 minutes or so then go back to your 4:3 mode. I always let my TV play in full screen for 10-15 minutes after watching a letterboxed movie or playing a videogame just in case. Cases of burn in now aren't as bad as they may have been 2-3 years ago. Now that TV's are made a little better and more efficent.
