Panasonic P50V10: 8 hours!

Let's burn a Panasonic plasma, season 2, part 2! The P50V10 came out unscathed from the the first test: exposure to the same test card for an hour. We’re now going to put it through the second, 8 hours of static logos in cinema mode.

Obviously such a test is extreme. No one would put their TV through such an ordeal on purpose. Unless perhaps you were to link it up to a computer. Well, we’ve decided to push the envelope. We are after all looking to find how far you can go with plasma technology. Will the TV be able to return to an unblemished state, perhaps after a period of rest, even after this rather unrealistic test?

 

After the test, no surpise, the panel did show signs of burning. It was already slightly burned after just one hour in any case. Hopefully this is just temporary! Which is of course why we’re doing the article: to see if the marks are permanent or not, as was the case with an entry level model in the Samsung range.

After 8 hours with our static test card, we put our plasma out to grass. For technical reasons, rather than turning it off completely or showing a snowy screen, we displayed a neutral, grey, image for the whole of the following night. We set up our webcam to film the screen and pick up on any improvements in the display.

Here’s a breakdown of what was picked up:

As you can see, the burn marks disappeared over time. Still visible after 1 hour 42 min, then they disappeared. In under two hours the plasma returned to normal following exposure to a fixed image for 8 hours. A miracle! The Panasonic Viera TX-P50V10 is as good as new.

You can even see that the situation improves enormously in the first few minutes. Traces are visible because of our uniform grey display. With a film, these marks would be more or less invisible and you’d be very unlikely to see them unless you were looking.

We can only conclude that excellent progress has been made with plasma technology, at least in so far as Panasonic TVs go.