Built In Screen Burn Prevention Features.
More and more manufacturers are including screen burn prevention
features with their Plasma and LCD TVs. This section will cover the
most common ones, how they work and how to use them.
Pixel Shift
This does exactly what it says it does. It moves (shifts) the entire
picture(made of pixels) to the left, right, up and down. Most go left,
then down, then right and finally up. This means that any static images
are shifted and made less(static). Beware! This is usually only by a
few pixels each way(4 is common) so any static image bigger than 4
pixels still has a significant impact on the potential for image
retention. However every little does help and if your TV has it I would
recommend using it all the time.
In your TV menu you will probably have the option to set how often the
screen shifts and by how many pixels. I would set the number of pixels
to whatever the maximum is and the time delay between shifts to no more
than 5 minutes. The shift is usually totally imperceptible and it will
help a bit with the screen burn problem.
All White
These features are a bit like screen savers only they can actually 'rub out'
screen burn. Please be aware however that it is still easily possible to cause
irreversible image retention. 'Signal Pattern' and 'All White' are however
fantastic tools.
'All White' is great for checking to see if you have got
any screen burn as it shows retained images very clearly. It is also the
quickest way for removing minor screen burn. Quite simply when you select 'All
White' the screen goes.. well.. all white. This is simple but very
effective.
Signal Pattern
Signal pattern makes a pattern of black and white repeatedly
across the entire screen. This is slower then 'All White' for removing screen
burn but if you have been caught out and got a nasty bit of image retention then
a good blast (perhaps an hour or more) of 'Signal Pattern' might reduce or even
remove it.
The built in protection features of a TV are not a replacement
for precaution and I definitely still recommend turning down the brightness,
contrast and colour when you set up the TV. These features are however extremely
useful. So much so that I would consider that they are top of my list of
requirements when choosing which screen to buy.
