HDTV's and screen burn, please answer soon?

Question

I own a 42" Pioneer Plasma screen tv. I play a lot of xbox 360, and i now have minor screen burn from games like Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Ace Combat 6. I wouldn't say its major because the burn is only visible on bright screens like white, and light blue. I know there are several products you can buy or download, like PixelProtector, and JScreenFix. But i chose to go my own way and make my own on my mac. The first hour is just a blank white screen, then the last 30 minutes are a whole bunch of random colors flashing rapidly, my question here is, can the color white burn a screen if left on for an hour? Also, will it fade my color on the tv? Please give me some suggestions to help the burn if you can.

Answer 1

White can not burn a screen. WHITE is the absolute lack of color. Try to stay away from the video game until the burned image is gone. Thats why old school tube tv's blow new plasmas, CRT's tend not to burn, and also have better black levels, better contrast, and sometimes response times. I never game on my plasma.

Answer 2

Unless you left the game up for a very long time, the image will probably fade on it's own.  If your TV has a wipe function, try that.

There are two types of image retention on plasma screens.  The first, and most common, type is from the gas cells retaining a static charge.  It's caused by video that does not move.  This will cause a noticeable retained image, but will go away with time and/ or moving video.  Both will cause the charge to bleed off and the retained image will fade.  People see this and panic, but the screen really isn't damaged.

The second, and most feared, type is actual image burn.  This is also caused by video that does not move, but takes a LONG time to happen.  I mean like no movement for days.  In this case the gas cells start to weaken a bit and dim out.  This type of image retention will not fade over time.

Many people play a game for a couple of hours, get the first type of image retention and panic.  It takes a lot more than a couple of hours of game play to actually damage the screen.

Actually, when dealing with light, white is a mixture of all the colors.  Specifically it's somewhere in the range of 59% green, 30% red and 11% blue for one of the most common shades of white.  The idea with white screen is to even out the static charges on the plasma cells.  The rotation of the colors is to remove any residual charges on the screen.  IF one were to leave the white screen up for a long, long, long time, it would indeed burn the screen, it would just burn it evenly.

BTW, the old CRT screens burn too.  I can't tell you how many CRTs I've seen burned by color bars or station ID graphics.

Please come back and choose an answer from all of those submitted.