www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17903877%255E28377,00.html

Network logos make sports lovers see red
Paula Beauchamp
23jan06

CRICKET and tennis coverage on the Nine and Seven networks is burning a lasting impression into plasma screen televisions.

Angry owners, who have paid up to $6000 for their sets, are considering legal action against the two networks.

They say their high-tech TVs have been permanently damaged because the networks allegedly used static logos, which they claim have burned the symbols into their screens.

"Your arrogant and bold (logo) bragging are having the opposite effect on your audience," Victorian man, Wayne Speirs, wrote in a letter to both stations.

Mr Speirs bought his $3000 plasma screen on Christmas Eve. It now permanently bears Nine's dot logo, a legacy of the Boxing Day Test, which his family watched on and off for five days. The same happened after watching the tennis on Channel 7.

It was matched by a Channel 7 sport logo last week, which appeared after one day courtesy of the tennis.

"It was silly of me to assume Channel 7 and 9 would care enough about their viewers to ensure their logos wouldn't damage our TVs," he said.

Sports fan Robert Tripodi, of East Keilor, also feels burned.

His new $6000 Pioneer plasma screen has been re-branded with the bright white 'Sport' logo used by Seven during the tennis.

Mr Tripodi said he had been forced to boycott the tennis and was likely to pursue Seven legally for the damage.

Screen burn occurs when on-screen graphics – displayed in one spot for a length of time – become seared into the plasma screen.

A ghost image then lingers on other programs, even on rival stations, because the damaged pixels glow less brightly than the surrounding pixels.

Bright, light-coloured logos, broadcast permanently during a program, cause the most damage.

Stations can avoid the damage by using a watermarked logo, in a transparent shape that adopts the colours on screen behind it.

A Seven spokeswoman said screen burn was rare.

"But if you do experience difficulties of this nature, turning down the contrast on your picture will reduce the problem," she said.

A Nine Network spokesman would not comment.

Retailers expect prices of LCD and plasma TVs to plummet by up to half this year.

The huge price drop is likely to see more Australian families buying into the digital revolution.

I'm suprised that plasma has the same probs that crt's had last decade. Burn-in on crts is all but eliminated.

Quoted: I'm suprised that plasma has the same probs that crt's had last decade. Burn-in on crts is all but eliminated.

That's what I thought until I finally figured out that the pinkish smear I was seeing on my Sony trinitron monitor was actually a burn in copy of my desktop pic.

This logo is burned into my screen.

I don't even understand why all stations now feel the need to have their fucking log in the bottom right corner at all times anyway. Like you you don't know what fucking channel you're watching.

What the fuck is the point? Even if it didn't cause burn in, it's irritating and unneccesary.

Quoted: I'm suprised that plasma has the same probs that crt's had last decade. Burn-in on crts is all but eliminated.

The plasma vs CRT thing is more about how overdriven the guns are than the difference in technology.  You can still get a CRT to burn-in.  It's just much less likely since CRT's are so much brighter than other cheaper and inferior technologies.  If the owners had run the brightness at a reasonable level, they would not have had a problem.  The problem is that from the factory, the makers that make those crap plasma displays overdrive them with the defaults.  You have to use something like an Avia test DVD to turn down the brightness and contrast to the proper levels.  Then the plasma displays last much longer and won't burn-in.

We have three plasma displays at work.  One we use about every other week for a short time, is bright enough to use in a dim office (lights on but blinds closed).  The other requires the lights to be off.  The six month old one we got from a customer for free that was run 24/7 with the default brightness settings is burned in badly with the CNN headline news screen, and it is too dim to use even with the lights off (with light leakage from an open door and through the closed blinds).  You have to be very careful with those plasma displays.  It's better to buy a real CRT, but some people want trendy rather than good.z