Watching letterbox movies on plasma's

[swhite]

Do you watch your DVD's in letterbox; or do you expand to get rid of the black bars because of Image Retention or Burn In?

[blutach]

You're not gunna have much burn in from a black bar.

I always watch in 16:9

Regards

[MilesAhead]

automated letterbox => 16:9?

You're not gunna have much burn in from a black bar.

I always watch in 16:9

Regards

I always kinda' wondered if there was an automated way to take letterbox mpg2 input and produce 16:9 mpg2 output with correct aspect ratio etc..

It often seems that a re-release of a film has 16:9 formatting as the major improvement.

Probably some high end authoring systems can do it but I'm looking to do it on the cheap.

[rago88]

We have a 50" Panasonic Plasma which has to be the greatest HD tv around..

After 2 yrs of watching many many movies in widescreen
we have yet to see any evidence of burn in..

Although this was an issue when they 1st came out, I don't think it's a problem anymore unless you leave it on pause for 3 weeks or you are a Circuit City salesman
and you want to scare people about Plasmas in order to sell your LCD or Rear projection models...
enjoy your Plasma.....

[admin]

Image retention is greatly hyped, particularly by LCD manufacturers. It only happens if you use the highest contrast and brightness settings (unbearable under normal viewing conditions, but is often what stores use to offset their harsh lighting), and because newer plasmas have things like automatic pixel rotations, it can be offset quite easily. CRTs suffered much more image retention, and nobody thought it was much of an issue for the 50 odd years of it's mainstream existence (mainly because by the time image retention became an issue, you would have already replaced the TV in question). Content with black bars may suffer from image retention because the actual image will use the pixels in that area more often then the black bar, and the difference of usage is what causes retention. But we are talking about maybe hundreds of hours, rather than hundreds of minutes of difference in usage, and unless you watch everything with black bars, the difference in usage will eventually even out.

If you are a new owner of a plasma, it's best to start a run-in period where you watch the TV in 50% (of the maximum) brightness/contrast, say for the first 100 hours (you'll probably find that 50% is probably just the right setting anyway). Having a run in will greatly reduce any possible burn-in/retention in the future. It's like a running in a new car.

There is also temporary image retention, which goes away after you watch something else to "wash" away the after image. LCDs also suffer from temporary image retention, or image persisitence.

When I'm watching a movie wider than the 16:9 aspect ratio, I just leave it with the black bars. Unless your movie is 50 hours long, it shouldn't cause any problems. For watching 4:3 content, the TV should have it's own "pillar" mode where it puts a grey bar down the left and right (grey is best, since it simulates a pixel being on and off evenly over time). I don't like stretching or zooming in on content.

[swhite]

Thank you fellas.
ADMIN, do you have a PLASMA or an LCD?

[admin]

Plasma

[swhite]

OK, I'm sold on this plasma set. It's a Pioneer Elite Pro 950 (42"). Its exspensive...$2700 but it will probably be the last serious set I get so I'm saying...why not!
Thanks.

[blutach]

Just make sure it is fully HD

Regards

[rago88]

Also make sure it has at least 2 HDMI inputs for
cable box, dvd player etc..

btw: Consumer reports [this month] does a report on the best HD tv's..

The best picture they have ever seen on a HD set ,Plasma or Lcd was Panasonic 50".. [ there words].
For past 4 yrs Panasonic 42"/50" have been the 2 top rated Plasmas..

50" Panny about same price as the Pioneer 42..

[swhite]

Ya, thats why I want a plasma. My brother has a plasma and it has a great picture and it isnt even full HD. Its an ED(Enhanced Def)850xsomething, not sure.
I like the store Im dealing with but they dont have Panasonic's.
The one Im lookin at is 1080p. I bought a Sony 40V3000 LCD and didnt like the overall picture once I got it home so Im making a trade up for the Pioneer Plasma.