Plasma screens don't burn in the same way that CRTs do, but they do have an effect that is similar. Basicially if an area of the screen dosen't change over time, but the rest does, it causes uneven wear to some component. It can easially be undone by displaying the same color over the entire screen for a while.

This is all going off what I remember offhand from the Plasma FAQ on AVSForums.com.

Fair enough. Undoable burn-in, I suppose, is much preferable to permanent burn-in.

Aha, the exact FAQ link I needed is here

(Internet connection is being flakey lately)

I was considering getting a Plasma display at one point but dismissed it when I saw one that had the Fox News Channel logo "burned in." This was due to that channel being on 24/7 the week of 9-11. I just assumed that a $6000 display was now trashed. I'm glad you pointed out this FAQ that suggests otherwise. Can you say hello Gateway?

Anyone want to buy a 47" 16:9 1080i rear projection?

I'd find docs as to how to undo burn-in on it before I bought it, if I were you.

Advice taken.

I'd love to get a Plasma now, even a low end one like the Gateway one for DVD watching. One problem. They seem to enjoy buzzing when they get this high up above sea level. Talking to some sales people at a high end AV store, they recommended waiting till late next year, as almost every one they had was buzzing. The one at the Gateway country store was as well, though the sales person didn't know why.

The one at the Gateway country store was as well

You know, I didn't even think of going to the Gateway Country store. If I were to buy that TV, even though the chance is low, I would have bought it blindly. Now I can check it out in person (which may end up pushing me over the edge).

No, there is no point in getting a progressive scan DVD player for either of those TV's. There will be no difference. Hell, to tell you the truth, I could hardly tell the difference when we'd hook progressive scan's upto HD sets. Back then, Progressive Scans were pricey, $400 - $600. Now it might be worth it if you have an HD set, as you can get a pretty nice sony or mistubishi progressive scan for under $300.

Phoenix42 writes: But keep the advise rolling people. I still need a matching DVD player, and is there any point in getting a Progressive scan DVD player with either of thoes TV? Bear in mind this will be the main TV and I won't be jumping to get a HDTV set when they hit the shores. Granted the price differance between Progressive scan and thoes with out is pretty narrow...

My dad and I both got the Panasonic RP-56 (~$225). There's also an RP-82 that adds DVD-Audio support. At least as of last year, the RP-56 was one of the cheapest progressive DVD players that didn't have many of the common bugs that occur in these players. For more on this, you need to read HomeTheaterHiFi's report on the chroma bug. See also their progressive scan report. The only minus for the Panasonic is that it doesn't seem to appear on the lists of easy-to-mod systems. If you care about removing Macrovision or watching DVDs from outside your region, then you want something else.

27" tv tubes are cheap enough these days that you won't be too stressed if you toss it / sell it / give it to your kid sister in two years (versus buying a $6K plasma screen today and discovering that it doesn't have the DVI/Firewire/SonyMagicFoo connector that becomes standard in two years). Just make sure you've got an S-Video input jack. The difference you see going from composite to S-Video is massive. The difference you see going to progressive scanning isn't nearly as dramatic. Of course, by that same logic, you don't really need progressive scanning now, so you can save $100 and get something cheaper today, possibly one of the cheap Taiwanese Sampo players that are easily hacked for region-freedom.

I've had a 32" WEGA widescreen for three years. It was trouble free until a couple of months ago when the line output transformer blew - but I doubt that's a WEGA specific issue.

Overall it's a very nice TV. Sony make some good gear, although I prefer to catch new models early in the life cycle - the first generation are usually the best built, and then they gradually get cost reduced.

Rob

It can easially be undone by displaying the same color over the entire screen for a while.

Interesting - I went to the auction of stuff from the Greenwich Milennium Dome and was put off the "C" graded plasma screens because they had severe burn-in - they had been used for information and you could clearly read the words that had been on the screen and see various logos. I took a few flash photos and they showed it up very well.

In the end they weren't sold because they were kept back to be sold with the dome itself. As far as I know they are still in a container at the site - pity because they are now worth a heck of a lot less than 18 months ago (like half).

Gareth

I went to the auction of stuff from the Greenwich Milennium Dome and was put off the "C" graded plasma screens

I've tried bidding for a few times for plasmas in the various Enron and ITVDigital auctions. However, without fail, there is always a bunch of idiots fighting to bid 9,000UKP for screens that retail for 7,000UKP new...

Watch out for that cheapo plasma TV from Gateway. I use 'cheapo' in the "relative to other plasma tvs" sense here.

I have a Sampo 42" plasma (which AFAIK is what the Gateway is) which for the most part is really cool, but there are some drawbacks.
It has trouble with very dark scenes which causes patches of single colors to appear as it struggles to figure out what shade of grey/black/brown to display.

The fan is really noisy for quiet scenes.

It is only 480P and has to fit higher resolutions into that screen size.
All of this is not a problem if you are not worried about HDTV as 480P is fine for DVDs.

Since I could not afford the extra $2000 needed to buy a Panasonic or a Sony, I can live with these problems and enjoy my really nice wall mounted TV

Just been sorting through my photos and found some of the plasmas from the Dome:

[image][/image]

Gareth

Thanks all for the clear cut advice, I did end up getting the Wega on Friday night when it happened to be selling for an additional $27 less. Add that to the $50 coupon from the Best Buy flier it came down to quite a nice price.

I also had the pleasure of giving one of these coupons to some random person in the store who was looking at buying the same TV....the look on thier face was fantastic!

Also picked up a Toshiba SD-3800 DVD player, now all I need is my Series 2 DirecTV TiVo.
All this is a great step up from the 13" we used to squint at.