Some Questions about Plasma Screens

With the plasma TV bought just a year ago, I've got burn-in from the black pillar bars on either side of the screen. Apparently, because so many of the shows I watch are 4:3 formatted, the black bars burned in and now show up as "shadows" when I'm watching something full screen with a white or light background.

Output, was any sort or stretch or fill mode available for 4:3 on your TV? This has me worried, too, as so much content is still 4:3.

Plasmas do have burn in issues but it would not be a problem unless you have a still image in place for a long period of time. Realistically, that's not likely to occur. However, the black bar issue would be something that would concern me. I will defer to the experience of others on this.

With respect to the brown out question, I do not think it is the brown out itself that is a problem. Rather, it is the fluctuating voltage, i.e. the drop in voltage that causes the brown out, and then the spiked increase in voltage when the brown out ends. These fluctuations in voltage can damage any electronic equipment, not just plasma TVs.

As for warranty coverage, read what the warranty says. I would not believe anything the kid in a big box store says about it, unless he's a law student moonlighting for extra money.

Black bars for 4:3 no longer for me. I just stretch it. At first it bothered me, but now it is no problem. My brain accepts it just fine. (Actually I use the "wide/zoom" mode which stretches and widens with adjustments to suite me.)

Tonyptony & Markphd,

Yes, my plasma (Hitachi 42") has both the stretch and fill modes available. However, I don't use them for standard 4:3 broadcasts because they distort the picture. I wrongly thought that by using the TV burn-in protection setting (it shifts the image by a few pixels every few minutes when things are static) this would prevent the black bars burning in. Too late now.