What is burn in?
CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display and Plasma TV use phosphors which are coated on their sub-pixels (red, blue and green). In high bright settings of your TV, or when a stagnant, bright image is left on the screen for a prolonged time, the sub-pixels that produce the image can be worn out, in other words, the phosphors become prematurely aged. This results in the permanent formation of the image, known as the screen burn in. Both CRT and Plasma TV are susceptible to burn in.

Do the latest Plasma TVs suffer screen burn-n?
No, Plasma TVs, made in the last couple of years, adopt two techniques to handle this problem.

The new motion adaptive anti burn in technology makes the ghosting effects undetectable by TV viewer. It is found that the use of green phosphor increases the overall life of phosphors.

Okay, what are the precautions I should take to prevent burn-in
Dont leave still, bright images on your plasma TV for a long time. (even 10 or 15 minutes can be hazardous). If your Plasma TV is a high end one, use proper screen saver settings and power management settings.

The initial 200 hours period of brand new Plasma TV is crucial. The phosphors burn intensely resulting in easy burn in. This often happens when the bright-contrast settings are at maximum levels or a bright image is left on the screen for a long time. It is a good idea to reduce bright and contrast settings to half of the original settings (100 %), a step that will ensure the long life of your plasma TV.

Make sure you watch all the programs in full screen format (16:9) as this will prevent black bars that appear on your TV screen.

Latest high end Plasmas are more resistant to burn in and spending a little time over the plasma TV reviews available in our site may often prove helpful in this regard.