LCD TV Screen Burn in

[Blake_T]

so i got my first HDTV around x-mas this year but most of what i watch/play is in standard definition and not widescreen (or cannot be fully zoomed wide due to subtitles, etc.).

after watching a lot of stuff and playing some vid games this weekend i noticed there's a pretty noticeable burn-in lines on 1 side of the screen right where the 4:3 picture's edge sits in the 16:9 screen.

i did some reading and supposedly it's fixable/repairable pretty easily but somewhat time-consuming (where the tv is in use, but has to be in use on something very specific).

does anyone know if those things like pixel protector work to help get rid of that?

[lefty-hyzer]

Blake, I work in audio visual systems integration. I have never once seen a burn in on a LCD. Are you sure it's a burn-in? Are you sure you have LCD, not plasma? I can probably help fix your problem, but will need to know the actual problem first.

[Lithicon]

I have about a 3 yaer old LCD that still burns in. If I'm playing games, and I used it for a monitor for a while.
Even three years ago they weren't suppose to burn in. But, they do. It's just very prolonged exposure to the same screen does burn them in. I have never seen a real Monitor do this, but LCD Tv's will burn in. Regardless of brand, and claims of them not burning in.

There is a solution you can try, I don't know if you've read this. Take the TV and lay it down flat, on something soft, like a bed. Preferably as flat as you can get it. Let it set a MINIMUM of 30 minutes. Off of courses, but if you have it on and using it, let it get nice and warm then turn it directly off and lay it down flat. It'll pull it back out, but it's still going to burn in again if left on the same screen for long periods of time. I've done this to my TV and it worked, but if playing PS3 games or PC games, and you pause it and let it set for any decent amount of time. It will faintly burn in, then vanish if the the TV is used again for TV or such. But, anything over an hour and it's going to burn in harder and need to be laid down to get it out. Once they burn in, honestly I don't think there is ever a way to stop them from burning in again. It's best to not let them burn in to start with, but that's a price you pay sometimes.

As far as the pixel protector things, I'm not sure if that will fix it.

[lefty-hyzer]

don't ever lay it down flat, that's horrible for it.

it is repairable if the pixels are just stuck, if they are dead, it's muck.

[Lithicon]

How is that horrible for it? It's just a liquid crystal. It spreads it out evenly again and seperates the clusters that burn in. Dead pixels don't show images, they show a single color. If the image is burnt in, which is pretty obvious if he is seeing a burnt image of something, or a dead pixel. Laying an LCD down doesn't hurt it, how else would you travel with one? If that's the case, don't put your laptop monitor down flat.... If that's horrible for them, why would they put them in cars where they are stored flat, or large LCD tv's that are stored flat in car's that fold down. It doesn't hurt them. I've seen LCD TV's that are mounted to the ceiling so that people can lay in bed and watch them... LOl! Have seen a lot of those, and smaller LCD's mounted in counter tops so people can watch TV while making dinner. It's clearly not bad for them.

[Blake_T]

i'm not really sure what it is, but attempting to get to the bottom of it. lately i haven't been using it much/at all in widescreen, so i'm not sure exactly when it happened but...

last night i was playing a ps2 game and i set my controller down for a minute and dozed off for about 3 hours (it was at 4:3 screen size). today i noticed a vertical line that is darker and extends about 2/3 of the way from the top down and approximately 1/8" wide that falls just off the edge of the 4:3 area in the display (you can't see it when watching a 4:3 ratio source)

it was a used tv, built august 2008.

the pixels still display color, but it's a shade darker than the surrounding pixels. i did some reading up on it and tried cranking the brightness/backlight to max and then displaying a white image and when i do that, the line vanishes (which says to me that they are at least able to light up).

i read up on various methods and a few methods they outlined were to like display a white image that fills the entire screen and leave it on that for a few hours and/or run a few different programs with a computer connected to it that will get the pixels uniform again.

i have read a few things on applying pressure to the screen but they all warned that it could easily do more harm than good.

i ran the applet here for about half an hour and it seemed to reduce it slightly
http://www.jscreenfix.com/basic.php

[Lithicon]

Yeah, I'd never physically apply pressure to the screen it's self. That is not good. The white screen is probably a good idea. It's kind of like a stuck pixel fix. Since it can display images, the pixels aren't exactly stuck, it's just an image slightly burnt there. You could do a few things to possibly fix it. As I said laying it down is one. Just simply leaving it off, will also usually solve the problem. If you watch TV on it, it will also usually fix it's self. Watch a full, widescreen movie and eventually it'll get the pixels back uniform and probably disappear. Umm, I've seen a lot of times where I've played a Ps game and ended up pausing it too long. Then the next day after watching TV for some time, the images that were there earlier have disappeared.

[Blake_T]

thanks for the input.

the problem is, none of the actual images from the game are persistent/ghosting... it's just the edge on the right side where the 4:3 ends in the 16:9 area. if you think it will fade naturally that is a good thing.

i downloaded an image file from jscreenfix.com that i was going to use in my dvd player on loop. it sucks that most things i use it for are 4:3 and i'm guessing this will be a problem that will continue over time.

[SkaBob]

If it's got inputs you can hook a PC into, there are also utilities for fixing stuck pixels that might help.

[Lithicon]

If it's just where the black ends because of the different aspects, then it's still sort of like ghosting"burning."
I've never actually seen this due to aspect ratio, and it's quite possible that's an irreversible problem. Definatly not saying it is for sure, but it is possible. Most of the time it's from bright colors that ghosting accures. But, I wouldn't see a reason it couldn't possible still go away naturally. I'd run the loop like you said, or continue to use the tv in widescreen, full screened. If you let it go for decent amount of time, it might go away.

[Blake_T]

tried the PC route, just everything i run in in full screen still leaves some type of bar on at least one part of the screen... either along the top, scroll bars on the side/bottom, or something in the corner. i'm guessing if i leave that on continuously i'll just end up burning in the spot where the image won't change.

If it's just where the black ends because of the different aspects, then it's still sort of like ghosting"burning."
I've never actually seen this due to aspect ratio, and it's quite possible that's an irreversible problem. Definatly not saying it is for sure, but it is possible. Most of the time it's from bright colors that ghosting accures. But, I wouldn't see a reason it couldn't possible still go away naturally. I'd run the loop like you said, or continue to use the tv in widescreen, full screened. If you let it go for decent amount of time, it might go away.

yah, it's where the black ends. it isn't visible in 4:3 and only shows once i switch it to wide mode.

the burn line isn't visible when i play the jscreenfix loops. gonna try running it for a few hours today and see what happens.

[Blake_T]

the main thing i'm curious about is if i'm better off leaving the tv off or better off running something continuously meant to fix the problem.

[SkaBob]

It depends on what's really wrong. jscreenfix is meant to un-stick pixels, not repair burn-in... It's possible that it won't have any effect.

At any rate, it does the same thing the app I was thinking of does, so if you full-screeen your browser with your desktop at the native res of the screen, it shouldn't leave anything but the jscreenfix color-static on the screen (no bars, etc.)

[lefty-hyzer]

it sounds to me like the image could just be off center, and needs to be adjusted. have you tried realigning the image? burn-ins are obvious, and aren't typical of lcds. what is typical is image persistence. try running a solid white screen for an hour or so, that will reset everything, if this is your problem.

i was saying you should never lay it down flat on the screen, no matter if the surface is soft. constant pressure of any sort is a no no.

[Lithicon]

With the aspect Ratio's showing like that, it does sound like it could be off center. But, that's usually pretty obvious and would be present in both ratio's. It sounds like when he changes the aspect ratio wider, where other ratio ends, it shows where the boarder once was. I've just never heard of a TV, or monitor burning in a black image. Especially boarders.

Is it just a single line of pixels verticaly, or does it seem start where the boarder was, and fade to the edge of the screen?
Or is the entire boarder, on both sides just slightly darker, or one side for that matter.
I had a monitor that had a complete row of dead pixels about 4 inches off the right side once. Thought they were stuck, and ran numerous test, and progs to fix it and never went away. But, it would appear pink, not black. It was just a single row of pixels, running vertical.

And, I should have specified that you shouldn't allow stuff to press on the screen when you lay it down. If you lay it down on a bed, and it's flat, the bevel on the edge of the screen is enough to protect it. It won't hurt it that way.