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Plasma Break-in: How To Properly Break-in Your New Plasma Display

157K views 96 replies 35 participants last post by  Dixon Kuntz 
#1 ·
This thread will help explain the best methods to prepare your new Plasma Display Panels (pdp) for a long life of service.

It's common knowledge that a good break-in period should be done to prevent image retention and stabilize your plasma panel. Most video experts and calibrators recommend running your new pdp for a minimum of 150 hours with full motion video content running the TV for 24 hours per day for at least 6 days straight. Many experts say pdps can take up to 1000 hours before they are stabilized to a point that is safe to run content with static images, like gaming and CinemaScope 2.35:1 - 2.40:1.

Many folks have used Evangelo's break-in slides to age each sub-pixel evenly. Evangelo made a file of alternating full screen solid panels of Red, Green, Blue and White colors that change in intensity as they continually rotate in a non-stop loop. Choose the right media for your display, USB thumb drive, SD card or DVD and set-up the slides to run on a continuous loop. For example, if you have Panasonic's Viera Connect TV you can use a USB thumb drive. Once you have the file loaded on the USB insert it into one of the three available USB slots in the side/back of the TV and follow these instructions:
  • Power the TV on
  • Press the "Viera Tools" button
  • Use the left/right navigation buttons to select the "Media Player"
  • Then select "Photos"
  • Then select the "Red" button (Slide Show). This will make the slides loop continuously
  • Select "Start Slide Show"

Before Evangelo made this brilliant RGB & White solid panel slides I had recommended running the HD Discovery channel as it stays on 24 hours a day in full 16:9 aspect ratio with only occasional translucent logo ID. Since 2008 we have been aging pdps with Evangelo's slides to prepare our clients' pdp for our professional in-house calibration with great success.

Sample of the slides:



Here's the link to download Evangelo slides, which can be burned onto an SD card, USB thumb drive or a DVD.

No special settings are required, however, some schools of thought are to lower the brightness to break-in the panel slowly while others believe setting the brightness higher will break-in the panel faster and since 150 hours is possibly not enough time to fully stabilize the panel they justify the brighter break-in settings to escalate the time required to more thoroughly stabilize the panel.

Enjoy the slide show!

-Robert
 
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#4 ·
Here's the link to download Evangelo slides, which can be burned onto an SD card, USB thumb drive or a DVD.

No special settings are required, however, some schools of thought are to lower the brightness to break-in the panel slowly while others believe setting the brightness higher will break-in the panel faster and since 150 hours is possibly not enough time to fully stabilize the panel they justify the brighter break-in settings to escalate the time required to more thoroughly stabilize the panel.

I think the single channel slides (red, green, blue) are absolutely redundant, as white is composed from RGB but with a Red slide, you age the red sub-pixel only which is a waste of the precious time (you usually want to get it done as fast as possible - but still safe, of course, I don't say you want to melt down the power supply or blow up the glass :D).

I usually recommend (and use at home but I don't change my PDPs too often...) a full-screen 100% white image and a Contrast setting which is as high as brave you are (some people fear that the TV will melt down / blow up if left like this ->) Of course, it's not a bad idea to ensure good ventilation in the room and monitor the temperatures form time to time and lower the contrast if you feel that either the room temperature or the TV itself is too hot. (But today's PDPs are often have aggressie APL, so you could probably set the Contrast to max and close the doors of an unacclimatized room during a hot summer for weeks without problems...)


It's not a bad idea to do a fast white point calibration at the beginning on that full screen white image (set the RGB Gains to produce D65 with that content - after a few hours of warm up) and monitor the actual color temperature, so you can consider it done when the WP is quays-constant since ~12 hours.

My Pana G30 drifted from 6500K to ~6200K during ~50 hours of this break-in but it's fairly stable since then. I guess I would have to use the colored slide-show for a week to achieve the same.


More precisely I used two images for a slide-show on the Pana: one with 99% and one with 100% to avoid the auto-dimming with the internal picture viewer of the Panasonics (dimms the picture if you leave a static image on the screen). But the TV practically produces the same color shade, as APL cuts back a lot with these images at maximum contrast setting.

The Pana G30 has active cooling, so it wasn't really hot. My Samsung D550 was, but not horribly so.


I don't see the point in a gray-only slide-shows either. The address voltage is constant, the difference between brightness levels is how many times the pixels fire during a refresh. But the duty cycle is never 100%. And you can control the power consumption / heat output with the Contrast setting.
 
#5 ·
Hi. New member here and this is the first post I have read here and already I'm having issues. I downloaded the slide show to a thumb drive and the GT30 says it can't read it. I do use a Mac laptop if that makes a difference. Every other frame showed a black n white "!" so I'm not sure what to do next. The 16gb drive was empty and it's always worked otherwise.
 
#6 ·
Welcome to HTS!

I am not sure what the issue might be, but I did just download the file again and extracted it to a folder on my computer and got the following files:



So it seems the file for downloading is good. You might download the file again, extract the images to a different thumb drive and see if you still have the problem. If so, at that point I might suspect it is something to do with the computer. I am not sure if the display accepts NTFS formatting, so you may have to format the thumb drive FAT32, if it isn't already.
 
#7 ·
When I downloaded the file to the thumb drive I tried the slide show on the laptop first and it played ok so it did download ok. But the tv now doesn't even show that the drive is inserted in the usb slot. So, you may be right about the format. SD card doesn't work either. Thanks very much for the info. I do appreciate it.
 
#9 ·
Hello, new to this forum and also a new Plasma purchaser. (Viera GT50 50")

I tend to be a picky person and want to do things right.

After reading various forums I have decided to properly break in the TV using Evangelo slides.

Am I understanding this correctly as far as running full motion video for 24 hours straight for 6 days - does this literally mean don't shut off the TV for 6 days running the slides? Seems a little extreme but I will do what ever is best for the life of the TV.

Running it for that long a period of time doesn't cause any heat issues?

Biggest problem with that for me is, I am just receiving this tomorrow and would of preferred to enjoy using the TV over the weekend. Should I avoid doing this and instead run slides all weekend?

Sorry for any ignorance on my part in the matter, new to this side of the spectrum.

I am actually returning a Samsung PN51E8000 and trying out the GT50. While I was impressed by the overall Color / Contrast on the Samsung - I was disappointed by the glare on 3D pop out effects. Hoping 3D performs better on the GT50.

Thank you for any help / information.
 
#10 ·
It is true that PDPs age somewhat and become less likely to experience burn in after the first few hundred hours. They also change color temp slightly. Whether you use these slides or just watch the set, you should be ok if you don't run the set in vivid or other high contrast modes on sustained images for the first few hundred hours. There is no reason why you should not enjoy the set during this period. Just don't calibrate it and expect it to not change at all and don't run it wide open. I just bought a 50ST50 and have not calibrated it yet but am watching and enjoying it immensely.
 
#11 ·
Is this practice recommended for cheapie domestic plasma screens too?

I have a 42" LG (42PT353K), and I notice some (I presume temporary) retention of image when the video source is stopped (noticeable in the dark), but I've not seen any permanent burn-in -although I do worry about the litle letterbox strips with film ratios.

The screen is only for watching videos (mostly animations with my daughter), I'm an audio engineer so I spend my money on the sounds rather than visuals, it's probably only had 100 hours or use in the six months we've had it -is it still worth putting through this burn-in process?

>
 
#14 ·
i am running the slides at the moment, but i did have a question, the first slide (white) seems to have a grayish look, and i have tried the post calibration settings and the samsung settings and it seems the same, the tv is not calibrated, and i know each panel is different, but on hd programs the clouds are white, white shirts and letters look correct, but if a white background is shown it also has that grayish tint like the white slide. Is there any setting or remedy for this without calibration, and is it ok to run the slides like this. The tv is a 60" samsung pne6500 plasma with many advanced setting and 10p white, but i don't have any meters or experience with calibration

thanks for the slides! we are watching tv and running the slides the rest of the time all week
 
#16 ·
thanks for the response, the windowed pattern is white, so i guess it is a limitation, and more reason to calibrate, i think for a first timer i will try the disney wow disc.. the tv looks great and again i am glad for the slides i got here, i just had to turn off the auto power off so the slides will run longer than 4 hours a stretch ;)
 
#17 ·
I recently bought a Samsung PN60E8000 plasma television. I had no idea that a break in period and process was necessary but stumbled upon a thread mentioning it while searching for the best settings for the television.

So I downloaded the break in slides. I play that during the night while I sleep. And I've been watching varied content (tv shows, blu ray moves, sports, netflix content). Mostly full screen stuff. Some letterbox stuff. I have not noticed any image retention at all. I'm at about 100 hours with moderate to low brightness and contrast settings.

Am I doing it right? Any suggestions? Can I turn up the brightness and contrast yet?
 
#18 ·
good tv, i choose the E6500 for the price, and i did not need the extra features (although cam/skype would have been nice) , they both have the same panel as far as i know, i followed the break in instructions for 200 hours and tv viewing, but with high contrast and picture settings from expert reviews (after calibration) , i only have had one retention issue, the tv station we view the most has a semi transparent logo that could be seen, that is, by me knowing it was there staring at white/light backgrounds, it was almost invisible to the naked eye. I ran the samsung scrolling for an hour, and walla!, it was gone.., I even watch a lot of stuff in letter box or stations with logos, without any problems. The best thing I got out of the break in, was that i could see an improvement in color and picture afterwards, like the experts say here the tv seems to mature and just get better after time. I have no regrets over my plasma choice, although i do not know what it will do to my electric bill yet, there are no cons for me.
 
#20 ·
i think so, some experts say it will burn in faster with the higher settings, but you should avoid static images , logos, text for long periods of time, i set my pixel shift to 2-2-2 now, but during break in i ran it on 4-4-1 or whatever max is, that is to say it shifts the pixels vert. and horiz. very often... 4 vert, 4 horiz, 1 minute between. i have had the tv since the summer, watch a soccer match now in HD, I am still amazed with the picture,.. good luck and enjoy
 
#21 ·
All experts will tell you the truth, that high contrast ratios and sustained viewing of static images will cause phosphors to age differentially. Plasmas have phosphors. The precise degree of "burn" is hard to predict and does vary with the age of the phosphors. You are much more likely to have noticeable aging in the first few hundred hours of use.

The frequency of having problems is not as great as it once was, particularly with properly calibrated displays. It is still possible, and more likely than many plasma proponents would believe, that users who use very high contrast ratios and leave static patterns in place will see lasting screen damage. I just recently saw a USA logo on a very new PDP.

Turn your contrast down and vary your viewing. Calibrate the set properly and don't worry too much about it, but be aware that if you watch the same patterns constantly you will age the phosphors in that pattern eventually. Just like CRTs.
 
#22 ·
Hi Folks- I'm brand spankin' new here :) I just ordered my first plasma - A Panasonic P50ST50 which should be arriving at my local Sears in the next few days. I'm doing my research and this thread was exactly what I needed. I've downloaded the slides and will have a thumbdrive soon. It looks like I need to format it to FAT32 for it to be read - and so I will be doing that s well.
My plan is to bring it home, power it up, slap the thumbrive in it and see if I can get the TV to read and display... and then just set it aside to work for... what? 5 or 6 days? Is it best to run the slides for at least 5 days before actually putting a blu-ray movie in? Is there a list of suggested settings by TV somewhere on this site?

Great to be here!
 
#25 ·
What's up shacksters! Bought a new 50GT50 last week. It arrived last Sunday. T-minus two days and the break in period is over. The great thing about breaking a plasma in is that you can get it calibrated much sooner than an LCD (unless you ran that for over 100 hrs straight too). Since I can't display my bedroom setup due to space conditions in the signature, here it is:

Panasonic TC-P50GT50 PDP,Harman Kardon SB-16 soundbar w/subwoofer, Directv HR20 DVR, Sony BDP-550 Blu-Ray player, Toshiba A20 HD-DVD player, Sony Playstation 3 160GB (slim), Logitech Harmony remote 669
 
#26 ·
Well The break in period is over! I've tweaked the settings using both AVS as well as DVE. Unless blue is running especially hot and is causing the green and red to be off, then after getting blue correct and using tint to get green and red right, red is still off (This is in THX cinema mode). In custom, the colors are WAAAY off! Now that the break in has been completed, the next step is getting my man Ray Coronado (SoCal HT) down my way to calibrate this baby.
 
#27 ·
Hello all,

Am new to this site and new to becoming a videophile (if that's correct).
Have been into audio (am most definitely an Audiophile) since the 70's.

I have a question about breaking in a Plasma TV. Our first Plasma ever was delivered last week.

My Panasonic has an Anti-Retention feature.
Can I use it as a break in tool?

Thank you in advance.
 
#28 ·
That would work well if it stayed on longer, ^^ but unfortunately it only runs for a few minuets. The best break-in is the solid RGB and White panels and let it run for 5 to 6 days.

-Robert
 
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