Screen burn or image retention and what i can do about it??

[Oldboy]

TYSON5773,

That was valuable information so many thanks for posting with your experiences it's much appreciated and gives me hope! If the tv comes back with the problem then i will just give it some more time and hope it fades away eventually but it's not looking good for any more extended gaming sessions on the G20 which is upsetting as that's one of the primary uses of the tv for me...is this not the definition of not fit for purpose?? Should i need another tv for the time it takes for the plasma to stop burning images onto the screen?

It just doesn't sit very well with me that the manual is as vague as it's possible to get when it says that some images should not be put on your tv 'for some considerable time'....the last time i looked 'considerable' was not a measure of time! They might as well wrote that warning in fluent baby talk for all the use it is lol.

Of course i will keep this thread up to date so check back from time to time for a sit rep. Speaking of which....no change with the repair, 3 weeks in and i was only contacted at the end of the first week as metioned earlier in the thread and since then i have not heard from 'the comedians' so i have no idea what is going on but i do plan to contact them tomorrow to find out. Not happy though as more time has passed now with no answers

 

[D.J.KRIME]

OLDBOY not sure of the reason you can't mention the repair agent who has your TV but I'm curious as to which aera you live in as I've had/got issues with a repair agent and was wondering if it's the same outfit???

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am ready to buy a new TV and had decided on the Panasonic, but after reading this I am starting to think again. From what I read I am getting the impression I should stay away from this TV and infact all plasma's. The other option of TV was the Sony KDL-40EX503 is this going to be a better buy.

Thanks

 

[Oldboy]

D.J.KRIME:OLDBOY not sure of the reason you can't mention the repair agent who has your TV but I'm curious as to which aera you live in as I've had/got issues with a repair agent and was wondering if it's the same outfit???

D.J.KRIME,

I live in Essex sadly.....i can hear the mick taking starting as i type but i can assure you i don't own a 'pimped' Vauxhall Corsa or any other boy racer car you care to mention and my other half does not own white stilletoes lol. I haven't mentioned the repair agent for fear of upsetting mods but here goes, the comedians i have been refering to are Sound and Vision and to say i'm not happy would be an understatement....3 weeks in and no news is not good and the calls to complain are starting today with Panasonic first in line for some choice words about their useless repair agents.

Just out of interest what problems have you had with a Panny repair agent and what has gone wrong? Please don't tell me it's going to be some time before i get some answers, it's been long enough already.

 

[Oldboy]

guzzizzy:

Hi,

I am ready to buy a new TV and had decided on the Panasonic, but after reading this I am starting to think again. From what I read I am getting the impression I should stay away from this TV and infact all plasma's. The other option of TV was the Sony KDL-40EX503 is this going to be a better buy.

Thanks

I wouldn't rule out plasma guzzizzy...just be careful with your selection (the G20 is a good choice) and research the tech so you know what to expect. I have had no problems atall up untill this point so to say plasma is not worth getting is wrong, the tv has been fantastic up to now apart from some picture issues on SD (covered in another thread) and i do prefer the picture to any lcd i have owned. Perhaps i have just been a little unlucky and the issue will be resolved....i hope!

Don't get me started with the KDL-40EX503....this was the tv i had before i got the G20 plasma. I had 3 of those tv's and ALL were faulty straight out of the box!! I had 2 with backlight bleed in every corner which ruined the picture entiely and 1 of those also had several stuck pixels too, the 3rd and final attempt had a very strange problem in that the picture would cut out and be replaced by a purple screen with black and purple vertical lines running through it. I was not impressed as you might imagine and even more so because i had fallen foul of the backlight bleed the pervious year....in total i have had 9 (yes you did read that right!) Sony lcd tv's that have been faulty so forgive me when i say i would NEVER buy a Sony tv again! Oh and according to Sony backlight bleed dosen't exist on their tv's and if it is there it's not classed as a fault, still want one??

I should add that i own alot of Sony kit and am not just Sony bashing here, this is my experience with Sony's tv business only and not a reflection on all aspects of the company....but the tv side of the business does suck imo and quality control would seem to be an issue.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am in the same boat as guzzizzy, and infact these are the 2 TV's I was looking at. I have noticed that there seems to be alot more problems with the Panasonic than the Sony and as I have 3 year old twin girls who always have the TV turned onto channels which have logo's, may be I should just go for the Sony and leave the Panasonic alone. Also I do feel it is quite bad that you pay alot of money for a brand new set and have to wait between 100-200 hours of viewing before you can get the best out of it, due to having to turn down the contrast to help and I only mean help to reduce screen burn, and as it sounds you do all that and you still get screen burn. Is it worth it?

Thanks Eddie.

 

[Anonymous]

According to this magazine's poll most people think Plasmas are better than LCD TV's. I am not sure this situation is going to last much longer as LCD Tv's are getting to be so good these days. Obviously I voted for LCD!

 

[Anonymous]

Just been to Curry's to look again at both TV's. I reduced the Panasonic's contrast down to below 50% and found that it was much darker than most LCD TV's but can I increase the brightness slightly? The image they were showing was very poor and I am sure would look better running from a differant sourse and one not running through lots of TV's.

However the Sony did look good from the off untill they showed a few seconds of football and to be honest I do not watch football but I did notice alot of motion problems, which I believe I would not get from the Panasonic, but again I know the sourse is again going through many TV's.

I am going to go to Comet tomorrow and have a look at what they can offer. Is back light problems common and pixel burnout a problem on the Sony. I wish my 32" Tosh (CRT) unit was still working fine as I never had any problems with that at all.

Eddie

 

[Anonymous]

Just come back from Comet and have decided on the Panasonic, I hope I don't regret it. Only problem is that they did not have one so I am now waiting untill they come in.

 

[Oldboy]

Update

I was due to receive a call from Sound and Vision on saturday from the engineer to tell me what progress had been made with the repair and guess what....they never phoned, what a surprise!

Now i'm very angry, the service has been shocking with a total disregard for the customer....today both Sound and Vision and more importantly Panasonic UK will get the benefit of an angry customer venting their frustration at the bunch of comedians they like to call 'repair agents'. NEVER send a Panasonic tv off for repair....you will regret it!

 

[Anonymous]

Talking to Comet today, they were trying to sell me the extra warrenty and they informed me it covers screen burn.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello old boy sorry to hear you havent got things sorted yet i only wish i had seen your post sooner you may not have had to send your tv of to the clowns you are having to deal with.Over the weekend i decided to use my tv for a gaming session and if i had any issue with image retention or screenburn i decided i would do an insurance job on it and accidentally drop it.After playing cod blackops all weekend im happy to report no prolems with image retention screenburn at all however this time i had my tv set on the normal setting with intelligent frame creation switched on also tried it with that setting off so im wondering if its when you put the tv on the game setting as i had last time if thats whats causing the problem.Hope you get your tv back soon.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

eddie850:Talking to Comet today, they were trying to sell me the extra warrenty and they informed me it covers screen burn.

If it's not covered by the Manufactures warrantry then it's definatly not covered by a extended one!

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, are you saying a common fault which we all know about is not covered.

If screen burn is as bad as it sounds on plamsa ranges of TV's how the hell are they still selling them ? where is the out cry from customers wanting this issue sorted. You get programmes like watchdog moaning about all sorts of cr*p but the poor git who has just spent £500 + on a TV and as soon as he uses it as he did his 20 year old TV he gets screen burn which makes the TV unwatchable. The way things are going we are going to be soon seeing the end of plasma TV's.

Why on earth should it be a case of, thankyou sir for spending all your hard earned cash on this tv but if you take it home and just switch it on it will be recked with in a few hours, no thats not the case because when I went to co*** for the first time they did not say anything about screen burn, c***** told me that there is no problem with screen burn and c***** ****** told me that if I was worried about that then LCD's do it to. Not one store said anything about it untill I asked. It is a real shame.

 

[Oldboy]

Update

Before i reply to you all here is the current sit rep with my G20, since friday i have been on the case with the comedians and Panasonic and the good news is that it should be back with me on friday as it's currently being tested.

Now for the interesting stuff, there was indeed a fault with the tv and a new (unspecified, but i will ask) part has been fitted and being tested to make sure the problem is eradicated but hopefully i will receive it back with no further problems but i'm now wondering how many (if any) other sets may be affected...would it explain the other complaints of screen burn? Also of note here is the total lack of action or care from Panasonic's supposed 'customer support' as i was told that they would do nothing to help me, despite it being a Panasonic tv (in warranty, 4months old) and having been told to call the same firm i was calling to complain about by customer services themselves! Arrrggghhh! All they would do was put a note on the system which was very helpful indeed

So one month later and it looks like light at the end of the tunnel, i hope.

TYSON,

It didn't matter what picture mode i used...even THX mode caused it and was the cause of the EA logo but it's good news that you suffered no burn with Black Ops (love that game, PS3 or Xbox?) as i'm looking forward to getting stuck in when the tv arrives back as it will be a very good test.

eddie850 and D.J.KRIME,

I think you can safely say that screen burn and not IR is covered buy the manufacturers warranty as my experience would point to and that the comet warranty is not needed to cover screen burn. The complaint of screen burn was taken seriously and considered a fault by Panasonic and the repair agent and has been repaired so if it wasn't covered nothing would have happened, no? We will have to wait untll it comes back of course to see if the repair has remedied the problem but it was at least treated as a fault even if the repair agent does have more in common with a comedy club lol. eddie, what Panny tv did you go for in the end and have you got it yet? If you got a plasma i hope this thread hasn't filled you with dread, it's just my experience

 

[professorhat]

Nightmare! I hope the set does arrive back with you on Friday and all is well. And if I were you, I'd be trying to get through to someone senior at Panasonic for some sort of compensation for all the mucking around you've had - pointing them at this thread may help as no company likes bad publicity in such a public place and suggesting the thread could have a more pleasant ending with a gesture of goodwill from themselves might see them give something to you.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Oldboy I hope your TV comes back all fault free on friday.

All I would say is that if your Plaz did have perminant Screen Burn then the only way to fix it is to replace the actual pannel so I'm interested to see exactly what parts have been replaced.

 

[Anonymous]

I went for the same as yours, the Panasonic TX-p42g20. As they are waiting for them to come in I have not as yet paid the full price, but a depoist on a TV, Panasonic or Sony which ever I take home that day. Over all have I made theright choise?

 

[Oldboy]

Thanks Prof,

I would take your advice if i thought it would get me anywhere! The experience i had of Panasonic UK customer support via phone was that bad i would never recommend any Panasonic product to anyone i cared about BUT if i wanted to stitch someone up then i would have no qualms atall. I may try a complaint via email but that won't get my complaint any higher up the pecking order....if only i could get a direct email address of someone who might actually care at Panasonic, so far i can't find anything.

 

[Oldboy]

D.J.KRIME:

Oldboy I hope your TV comes back all fault free on friday.

All I would say is that if your Plaz did have perminant Screen Burn then the only way to fix it is to replace the actual pannel so I'm interested to see exactly what parts have been replaced.

Exactly what i thought hense why i said i would be asking what has been replaced! From reading many threads on here i was of the opinion that a new panel was the only (pricey) possible fix which has made me very sceptical as to what has been done to my tv. I'm of the opinion that the repair agent thinks it is extreme IR and not screen burn and has repaired it accordingly but i will be asking all these questions on friday if/when the tv arrives back and will report back with the answers they provide

 

[Oldboy]

eddie850:I went for the same as yours, the Panasonic TX-p42g20. As they are waiting for them to come in I have not as yet paid the full price, but a depoist on a TV, Panasonic or Sony which ever I take home that day. Over all have I made theright choise?

Well i think you made the right choice of tv as i was extremely happy with mine untill it developed this issue, it's a great tv overall for sure. I've not seen many complaints of burn or IR in the G20 and nowhere near the level of the Sony backlight problem of last year so i think you can buy in confidence. My experience would also show that if (and it's a big if) your G20 does show signs of burn it will be treated seriously, considered a fault and repaired or replaced.

It's extremely difficult for me to give a glowing recommendation of Panasonic's customer support or repair agents however as both were at best less than helpful and often useless but i would very much hope that you don't have to come into contact with either of them, and if you don't i have no doubts you will be very happy with your purchase. Do bear in mind that i have had similar experiences with Sony customer services (they denied the existance of backlight bleed last year and also denied it was a fault) so to buy a tv on the basis of the customer support is perhaps not the best idea as Sony aren't much better but whatever you get i wish you lots of happy, fault free viewing

Best regards.

 

[Anonymous]

Oldboy i hope your tv comes back to you fault free so you can relax and start to enjoy gaming on your tv again.I have both consoles so could join you for a game or 2 on either.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Oldboy and everyone else following this discussion

Me & Oldboy have communicated regarding this on a thread that I started elsewhere but might as well continue here.

Got the G20, and similar suspected IR or Screen Burn, Tv bought from RS with 5yr SuperCare. Contacted RS on monday and they arranged for an engineer to come out and look at my TV today. For a complete analysis to be carried out the engineer needed to take away the TV, but before that tried a screen wipe: a thick white line that runs across the screen from left to right on a black background.

RS offer a loan TV for £100 deposit if yours is taken away for service, so since I couldnt be bothered to go down and pick one up, decided to give the screen wipe a go. We left the TV running for 7hrs on this, and there seems to be a marginal improvement, but its not completely sorted. So Ive decided to contact the engineers tomorrow to arrange pick up off my set and will go down to RS to get a loan Tv for the duration

Im am hoping they can fix it, if not the engineer that is used by RS regularly in my part of the world did commend them on their ability to get these issues sorted with maximum customer satisfaction.

As for Panasonic, he had little positive feedback, especially since he himself as been trying to get some sort of software that would fix these issues from panasonic without any luck. He mentioned the last phonecall he made to them, as an engineer trying to get any help for his customers (us!) was meet with stonewalling and complete disregard!!

I will keep you posted on my progress with getting my set sorted, but agree that as consumers we need to act and make Panasonic aware of the poor reputation they are getting from forums such as these!!

Love the Tv, its brilliant, but to think such a modern machine suffers from such an outdated issue is mindblowing

 

[Oldboy]

Hello Marty,

That's good and bad news...good that it seems my retailer acted correctly in getting an engineer to look at my G20 but bad because i know what you are about to go through. I hope the RS engineer is better than the comedians i was refered to (i'm sure they will be when coming fron RS) and that you don't have to wait as long as i did for the repair to be carried out, if they repair it of course.

That was great info from the engineer regarding Panasonic but also VERY troubling because if that's how they treat their own engineers then it's no surprise to me atall that Panasonic's customer support is so shocking and you are right something needs to be done so i may well start a new thread on the subject. A company that are performing this badly at customer support, especially considering their size, must be held to account before other customers suffer the same poor level of service we have endured!

It is very frustrating that both our sets have suffered from a problem that should be obsolete by now...when i done my research before i bought my tv all articles pointed towards sreen burn being an issue that only old plasma tv's suffered from, the consensous seemed to be that a plasma bought in the last 5 years simply wouldn't suffer from screen burn but some IR was to be expected initially. WRONG. In some G20's this year it seems the problem is very much there from our experience

I really hope that you get the tv fixed soon and see an end to the problem, i too will keep you updated when my tv arrives back and will post with the results of the repair but in the meantime all the best Marty

 

[Oldboy]

Hello all,

Update as tv arrived back on friday:

So after a month of waiting my g20 arrived back on friday morning from the repairers, sorry for the time it's taken to update i just wanted a few days to run the rule over it. So initially the tv seemed fine with no signs of IR or burn but after a good few days with it the problem is back! When the tv first came back it was fine the first day i watched several movies without issue but was a little nervous about using the ps3 after the problems i had last time so thought i would leave that til the weekend.

The next day i booted up the ps3 and noticed that the buzzing from the screen was noticably louder than it was before i sent it away for repair so i checked the bluray player and it was the same story, i think i never noticed it initially as i was watching loud action movies but the strange thing is that when you switch over to normal tv the buzzing goes completely so it's only an issue over HDMI and better/worse depending on what HDMI socket you use so i have no idea what that is all about, any ideas? Anyway i played the ps3 for a few hours with some Black Ops and then Fifa 10 (the culprit first time around) and upon turning the ps3 off the bloody EA logo was back again....nooooooo!!

So this morning i have been back on the phone to the repair agent and should get a call from the guy who repaired it over the next few days. I did ask whilst on the phone what they done to repair it last time as i forgot in the excitement of getting the tv back to ask but that info was not on the system so hopefully the engineer can tell me when he calls but i've got to say now that i'm far from happy with this tv now as it quite clearly cannot be used with a console atall.

I will wait for the call from the engineer before i decide what my next move will be but i must admit that i have no confidence what so ever that the tv i currently own can adequately service my needs for a HD tv. I bought it to watch tv, dvd's and blurays and play my consoles in HD....sadly it seems the tv can only cope with movies and tv!!

From what i have read on the internet i have a better chance of getting blood from a stone than i do of getting a refund from Panasonic for this tv and all my retailer (Amazon.co.uk) wants to do is pass the problem on to Panasonic despite the tv being only 5 months old so i feel a bit up the creek without a paddle, any advice??? Currently i'm looking at contacting consumer direct if i'm not happy with the engineers call and then look at my situation in a legal regard, see if i have a case against Panasonic but tbh i feel i should be looking at replacing the tv for something else such is my confidence in this tv but my current finances dictate that i can only do that if i get refunded what i initially spent on the G20

This is a crazy situation to be in and i feel i should now be refunded in full with no questions asked but the chances of that are exactly zero! I'm angry now with Panasonic and want an end to my problems