TE LCD "burn in"

[Torx]

after the sound fix, i started noticing games leaving "burned in" shadowy images that have been static on the screen for a while..  like the score/life areas of games (similar to the effect of rear projection tv's burn in problems)

after a black screen or two, and some pixel exercising from other images they are gone..  no biggie..  just wondering if this is normal for a TE or is there something else i need to look into??

[MrFulci]

That's not burn-in, that's ghosting. LCD's can be prone to that.

From my understanding, it's a lag from when the pixel changes from one colour to another. If a pixel is stuck on white for a while, then suddenly it changes to soemthing different, it takes a moment for those pixels to change.

Search for the words, "ghosting" and "LCD". You'll find more information about it.

[Turbo D]

whew, what a relief to learn about that, haha. I was always freaked out that I was going to have one game burnt into the screen.

[nat]

Everybody's TE/GT does that. It's a little disconcerting at first but then you get used to it.

[Torx]

ahhh  okay...  yea i noticed this lcd isnt like a standard..  the pixels actually look round.. kinda weird.

but yea thats a relief..  its okay with me, just kinda reminds me of classic technology 

[Joe Redifer]

Even my super expensive Apple Cinema Display computer monitor does that.  It perhaps gets a bit worse as it ages, but it's never to the point where it's permanent.  I wouldn't use the term "ghosting" to describe it, though.  Ghosting is generally understood as the blur that occurs on LCD screens when things are in motion.  A screen scrolls and it becomes blurry due to ghosting, or a moving character or cursor appears to have a small trail behind it.  Faster pixel response alleviates this.

[MrFulci]

Ahh, here's a 'professional' term, "retained pixel charge".


*edited to add:

That may not be exactly what is happening. To put it more simple, it's the pixels being slow to change to anoteh colour, or change out of whatever colour they had been displaying for a prolonged period of time. Others here may be able to fill folks in with more details.

[Necromancer]

I've heard it called "image persistence" and is exactly as MrFulci explained it - the pixels 'remember' what charge is required to generate a particular color and can take a little time to 'forget'.  As Joe said, ghosting is a different problem related to slow refresh rates.

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah, with my Apple LCD the faint afterimage just kind of fades away over about a minute of time (or less).

[Necromancer]

@ Joe - How old is your LCD and how long does an image have to be displayed for it to stick around unwanted?  I haven't known any modern LCDs to have image persistence problems, though my experience is far from exhaustive.  I wonder if it's related to Apple's designs or if it is just as common with other manufacturer's panels.

[Joe Redifer]

Apple's LCD monitors are usually in the top two brands of overall quality/performance (the other currently being Dell's high-end).  My monitor did not do it at all ever when it was brand new.  After it aged a few years then I began to notice it, so I do think it is an age thing, though not sure why.  If I have a high contrast image on the screen for awhile (time unknown, maybe 10-15 minutes?) and then move it, I can see the after affect... if I have a fairly solid wallpaper because it is much harder to detect on detailed surfaced.  I've seen other monitors do this as well.  Again it helps to have nice detailed imagery to lessen the effect.  If you are looking at a web page which, say, has a black stripe on one side and the rest of the page is white, you can see the effect by reading the page for awhile and then moving your browser a little to the left or right, you can see the white column in the black area for a bit.

[Necromancer]

Apple's LCD monitors are usually in the top two brands of overall quality/performance (the other currently being Dell's high-end).

I know that Apple's LCDs are good stuff - I was on the receiving end of a few dirty looks from a retailer last week when I started drooling on their 30" Cinema Display.  Damn, that thing was pretty, but $1700 is way to steep for my wallet.  I haven't noticed any image persistence on the Dell LCD that I use (with a black background), but it's only about 18 months old.

[nat]

I have a ViewSonic 19" LCD I use at home. It's rounding the 2-year-old mark and no signs of image persistence yet....

[grahf]

Temperature has a lot of effect on lcd lazyness as well.

[FM-77]

I'll just ask it here: what's that thing in your avatar Nat? It looks awesome but I have no idea what it is.