Burn-In Tips
Here are some tips that will help you avoid burn-in if you like playing games.
* Take extra care during the first 100 to 150 hours of your plasma TV's life. If possible, don't play any games during this time. Let your TV break-in, and just watch regular TV programming.
* Tone down the Contrast and Brightness levels of your TV. Often, plasma TVs come with higher than normal settings, which are well-suited for the showroom but excessive for your home. High contrast and brightness levels will make your plasma screen more susceptible to burn-in.
* Buy a good brand of TV with a good set of anti-burn-in features (or burn-in resistance). These features include anti-burn-in circuits, proprietary phosphor technology, and pixel shifting, among others.
* Speaking of anti-burn-in features, activate them once you start playing games. These include the orbiter feature (auto pixel shift), inversion, and whitewash ("all white").
Gaming on a Plasma TV
* Try to diversify your gaming portfolio. This will help ensure that no same images are repeatedly onscreen for long periods of time. We know, we know, you might just love to play a certain game for ten hours straight, day in and day out, but play other games and switch between them every few hours and so, for the sake of your plasma TV. Besides, a little of everything in gaming is always sweet.
* Don't leave your console dashboard onscreen and leave it at that. This will surely net you a burn-in. Enable the dashboard screensaver.
* Downloading from the PS3 online store or Xbox Live? Switch to another screen while the download is in progress. This is the same case as with the dashboard screen. If you can't leave the download screen (because the download will be cancelled), just switch to regular TV shows until the download is finished.
* Turn off HUDs if possible. If you're a true blue gamer, you know what HUDs are. For the uninitiated, HUD means "Heads-Up Display", where you get to see important info such as character health, items, ammunition, and so on. Some games give you control over the HUD's opacity, and even if it displays on the screen at all. Some games don't, but minimize the risk of burn-in by changing the HUD's colors or animated textures from time to time. Of course, you can't really pick the games which you'll fall in love with (they'll just suck you in when they want to), so go through your games' options to check if there are any for HUDs.
