Plasma

New plasma advancements in cell structure and phosphor formulations have virtually eliminated image retention, also known as ghosting. Tests verify that any residual ghosting generally disappeared with normal use after a relatively short time.* If you haven’t burned images into your CRT television, there is little chance that you will with plasma. As with any electronic product, you should follow the usage guidelines in your owners manual.

* Only one model of all those tested showed any easily-seen evidence of image retention when operated in standard viewing modes for 3 consecutive 8-hour periods displaying contrast, color bar and static TV images. A second model showed a mild ghost image that was discernable after a 24-hour shutdown period. The remaining 3 plasma TVs had little or no evidence of any ghost images after the 24-hour static image test. From this test, image retention appears not to be caused by phosphor burn-in.

Rather, it appears to be an accumulated electrical charge within pixel walls. A full white image was displayed for a few hours on the two plasma TVs that showed residual images. The ghosting disappeared completely, apparently clearing the electrical build-up within the pixel walls. Had the ghosting been the result of phosphor aging, the full-white screen procedure would not have been enough to remedy the residual image retention.