Audio Video News

So, you've read all the reviews, scoured all the forums, even asked your know-it-all next door neighbor for his opinion. You agonized for months, debating back and forth between plasma and LCD. You finally got permission from the significant other in your life to spend the bucks to get whatever you want, and you made up your mind. You go plasma. Woo-hoo! You get it home, set it up, invite your buds over for a day of gaming, and that night, that very first night, you settle in with your honey for a nice movie. What the ??? Remnants of your games are still quite visible on the screen. Our friends over at DVICE were in the know way before you were. Why didn't anyone tell you about this?

Well, they did...  if you read the fine print. While most people have heard the horrors of screen burn-in that were associated with early plasma screens, image retention isn't talked about at all, except in the depths of your owner's manual. They'll talk about a break-in period, where for the first 100-200 hours, you need to turn down the contrast, use gray instead of black for sidebars, and even limit gaming. That's like buying your first Porsche and having to drive the first 1,000 miles under 55mph. While ghosting is temporary and isn't as fatal as burn-in, it still just sucks. Nothing worse than watching a few hours of CNN and having the news ticker as a shadow in your movie that night. You can get rid of it easily enough by watching the TV, or even leaving a black screen on for a while, but it could take up to 24 hours to erase the ghosts. That's a lot of wasted energy, and time that you might not have. Caveat emptor indeed.-Leslie Shapiro

DVICE