How to Prevent and Remove Plasma TV Black Bar Burn-In

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Aspect Ratio Diagram

Look at the picture above along with the aspect ratio diagram at left. What you are seeing above is a broadcast in standard definition (12:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio) being displayed on a TV that is designed to accommodate high definition widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) programming.

By default, your widescreen TV may fill the screen by placing black bars to the left and right of the image. Such an image is said to be pillarboxed. The black bars provide good contrast against the centered image, and allow you to view the broadcast in a non-distorted format with no part of the picture missing. However, over the long term this will have a bad impact on your TV.
Step 2

A Common Black Bar Burn-In Pattern

Look at the picture at left to see what happens if you leave the black bars on your screen for too long, especially during the initial hours of viewing time which your model of TV may specify as the "breaking in" period. The phosphors in the center have had a chance to "burn in" from use, and are therefore dimmer in comparison to the phosphors along the left and right bars which were never or rarely lit. If you later watch a widescreen program, you will see a distinct difference between the center of the screen and the outer bars, which is somewhat distracting and not pleasing to look at.
Step 3

There are a few ways of avoiding this. One way is to use the Stretch, Widescreen, or 16:9 setting on your TV when watching a program in standard 4:3 format. This will fill the entire screen with the broadcast, but will distort the image by stretching it horizontally. Most TV aficionados aren't thrilled with this option.
Step 4

Another option is to use what your TV may refer to as the Zoom 1 (or similar) setting. This also fills the entire screen with the 4:3 broadcast, but does not distort the aspect ratio. In other words, faces will not appear "stretched." The only way to accomplish this is for the TV to zoom in on the image, therefore cutting off a little bit from the top and bottom.

For most programs this is really not a big deal, but if you are watching a news broadcast that has a ticker on the bottom, or a sporting event that has the score on the top, it will likely get cut off. Some models of TV allow you to move the zoomed image up or down to compensate for this, but then you'll be losing even more off the top or bottom. In these cases the stretch option is probably the better choice.
Step 5

A third option is to watch your 4:3 broadcast without any alteration at all, but change your settings so that the sidebars are gray instead of black. You may need to do this in both the settings of your cable/satellite receiver, as well as your TV settings which will take affect when you watch a 4:3 DVD or other auxiliary device. By doing this you will burn in the phosphors along the outer bars along with the ones in the center, but the ideal choice is to watch constantly-moving, full-screen images as often as you can.
Step 6

Even if you use the gray bar option, make sure that your 4:3 broadcast doesn't include any narrow black bars within the 4:3 viewing area itself. This has been observed with networks such as Boomerang and ESPN Classic, among others. Your receiver box should have a setting which will stretch the 4:3 broadcast to fill the entire 4:3 area.
Step 7

If you didn't follow these steps with your TV, you might already have this burn-in problem. It will be most noticeable when watching scenes in widescreen programs which are mostly white or brightly lit. Your TV may include a special feature which helps to remove image retention, but that is somewhat different than what this problem is. Image retention can occur when a static image such as a logo remains on the screen for too long. Usually this goes away on its own after viewing moving full-screen images, or by using your TV's built in repair feature.
Step 8

If you have the burn-in pattern shown above (which is the most common), you can usually repair or improve it by setting your TV to show gray bars along the sides, and a black or mostly black image in the center. This will allow the phosphors along the side bars to "catch up" in burn-in to the ones in the center.

If your cable/satellite company offers music channels that display a mostly black screen saver, you can use that. You could also connect your computer to the TV and let it run with a screen saver or a solid black background in the 4:3 area. In all cases, remember to set the side bars to appear in gray.
Step 9

The amount of time required to repair or improve the problem is proportional to the amount of time that you allowed the center area to burn-in without also burning in the outer bars. By following the steps in this article you should be able to prevent, and if necessary repair a black bar burn-in problem. Good luck!