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Buyer's Guide: The Best Monitors 
2 weeks later
Vincent Alzieu
Updated: August 31, 2009
Updated: August 31, 2009
Two weeks have passed since the last one hour test, and in all almost four since the 8 hour test. Over these four weeks, the television has displayed games and films and has been turned off for most of the time. We put it through very moderate usage at the cinema setting. Have the last traces of burning completely disappeared?
If you put on a film, you notice nothing at first and all seems to be fine. But on single-colour zones, a cloudless sky for example, anyone looking hard can see the effects of burning. We, of course, look hard, as this is the whole point of our test!
We therefore displayed a darkish uniform grey again, then we photographed the screen with an SLR, on long exposure: ½ second. This was necessary both because of the fact that we’re dealing with plasma technology (a rapid exposure brings out coloured flashes) and to capture variations in brightness properly. Such a long exposue does however tend to accentuate what you would see with the naked eye: nevertheless this process does give an answer to the question ''have the partial burn marks COMPLETELY disappeared?''.
The photo of the TV displaying a grey screen:
Reminder of images displayed on the previous two tests:
Today’s photo on a grey background, with comments:
1 – Logo sphere from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
2 – The word “Versus” from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
3 – The word “Numeriques” from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
4 – White “LesNumeriques” logo from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
5 – Vertical bar that framed the new image in the test two weeks ago, display for 1 hour
The photo was taken under different conditions to those of the photo taken two weeks ago, which explains the obvious difference in the two. We have also moved from webcam monitoring to a shot taken with an SLR – the SLR detects brightness variations more precisely.
Obviously, even if the photo accentuates what you see with the nakes eye, the traces of ghosting resulting from the 8 hour test have not completely disappeared. However, the traces of the 1 hour test have almost totally disappeared, as we also noted on the day following the test after “only” 45 minutes. Many viewers would have no problem at all with this. Others would however focus on it and fixate on the occasional mark, ending up hating their TV.
We now have to decide what to do next. Should we continue with the test or not?
Many of you have suggested that we burn a last generation Panasonic plasma. Many are willing to bet their little finger (imprudent!) that these plasmas won’t be affected by any burning, in contrast to the Samsung that we had on hand.
Strangely, Panasonic don’t seem to be in any hurry to lend out a V10 for us to put through its paces. Who can blame them?
We shouldn’t however conclude from our test that all plasmas are subject to the same problems as this Samsung PS42C96HD. It was never a very high-end model, just a great product attractively priced. We have been told by a plasma manufacturer that cheaper screens are much more subject to burning than higher-end products. Why not…
What should be retained from all this is that some care does need to be taken with a plasma. Although you can leave an LCD TV on the same channel or game for hours at high settings, it isn’t advisable to do the same with a plasma. Plasmas are however great for cinema use. Colours, the blacks, viewing angles are all what you’d hope for. However, we recommend gamers, who play the same game for hours on end, to go for an LCD TV. Naturally, it's up to you!
Of course, the tests are not yet over. We are now carrying out the two further tests with fixed images for one hour and we are going to try and put our hands on an even more recent plasma, higher end, ideally a V10, to at least carry out the one hour test. So watch this space!
If you put on a film, you notice nothing at first and all seems to be fine. But on single-colour zones, a cloudless sky for example, anyone looking hard can see the effects of burning. We, of course, look hard, as this is the whole point of our test!
We therefore displayed a darkish uniform grey again, then we photographed the screen with an SLR, on long exposure: ½ second. This was necessary both because of the fact that we’re dealing with plasma technology (a rapid exposure brings out coloured flashes) and to capture variations in brightness properly. Such a long exposue does however tend to accentuate what you would see with the naked eye: nevertheless this process does give an answer to the question ''have the partial burn marks COMPLETELY disappeared?''.
The photo of the TV displaying a grey screen:
Reminder of images displayed on the previous two tests:
 |
 |
| Image from the test carried out almost four weeks previously | Image from the test carried out two weeks previously |
Today’s photo on a grey background, with comments:
1 – Logo sphere from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
2 – The word “Versus” from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
3 – The word “Numeriques” from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
4 – White “LesNumeriques” logo from the test carried out 4 weeks ago, displayed for 8 hours
5 – Vertical bar that framed the new image in the test two weeks ago, display for 1 hour
The photo was taken under different conditions to those of the photo taken two weeks ago, which explains the obvious difference in the two. We have also moved from webcam monitoring to a shot taken with an SLR – the SLR detects brightness variations more precisely.
Obviously, even if the photo accentuates what you see with the nakes eye, the traces of ghosting resulting from the 8 hour test have not completely disappeared. However, the traces of the 1 hour test have almost totally disappeared, as we also noted on the day following the test after “only” 45 minutes. Many viewers would have no problem at all with this. Others would however focus on it and fixate on the occasional mark, ending up hating their TV.
We now have to decide what to do next. Should we continue with the test or not?
- Yes: we’re now restarting the testing over one hour with a fixed image, at cinema setting, so as to determine whether display followed by uniform grey, snowy screen or nothing at all is preferable for removing the traces that result from display of the fixed image.
- Beyond that more 1hour tests? Probably not. We no longer see the point, at least on this Samsung plasma, of redoing a test over 8 hours, or even a full week as we had initially planned.
Many of you have suggested that we burn a last generation Panasonic plasma. Many are willing to bet their little finger (imprudent!) that these plasmas won’t be affected by any burning, in contrast to the Samsung that we had on hand.
Strangely, Panasonic don’t seem to be in any hurry to lend out a V10 for us to put through its paces. Who can blame them?
We shouldn’t however conclude from our test that all plasmas are subject to the same problems as this Samsung PS42C96HD. It was never a very high-end model, just a great product attractively priced. We have been told by a plasma manufacturer that cheaper screens are much more subject to burning than higher-end products. Why not…
What should be retained from all this is that some care does need to be taken with a plasma. Although you can leave an LCD TV on the same channel or game for hours at high settings, it isn’t advisable to do the same with a plasma. Plasmas are however great for cinema use. Colours, the blacks, viewing angles are all what you’d hope for. However, we recommend gamers, who play the same game for hours on end, to go for an LCD TV. Naturally, it's up to you!
Of course, the tests are not yet over. We are now carrying out the two further tests with fixed images for one hour and we are going to try and put our hands on an even more recent plasma, higher end, ideally a V10, to at least carry out the one hour test. So watch this space!
