HDTV Potential Tube Damage
Dear Gary: Love your magazine and read it cover to cover! We are about to invest in an HDTV, probably a Pioneer Elite Pro 710. One concern I have is the potential damage to the screen if we don’t use an aspect ratio which fills the screen. After reading a great deal about this and talking to a friend who experienced the problem, I wonder if we are a little premature in considering this purchase. The dealer demonstrated the movie Hunt For Red October in the widescreen format. The best he could do was a picture that left a small band at the top and bottom of the screen. He made the statement that the TV compensates for this by transmitting images that prevent the bands from burning the screen. After reading several articles in you publication, I’m not sure this response is accurate.
Stan Green
Video Technical Editor Greg Rogers
Phosphor "burn-in," which is normally a result of phosphor aging, is a concern for CRT displays and plasma display panels. The more the phosphor on the screen is used, and the more light it produces, the sooner the aging process noticeably reduces the phosphor’s efficiency to produce light. Over time screen brightness is reduced in the areas used the most. Projectors that produce gray panels in unused areas can reduce, or prevent, this effect, which may be what the salesman was referring to. You can also reduce susceptibility to this problem by keeping the contrast turned down, which also improves picture resolution, using only as bright a picture as necessary for your room lighting conditions. On a 16:9 TV, it is also a good idea to view 4:3 programming using a mode that fills the entire screen with the picture. Most 16:9 TVs have several modes that can be used for that purpose depending on the picture content.
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