tft lcd burn in brands

On August 31, 2017, we started a long-term 20/7 burn-in test on 3 TVs (OLED vs VA vs IPS). Our goal was to see how their performance changed over time, especially with static images like network logos, black bars in movies, or video games with a fixed interface.

We already test for temporary image retention, which generally subsides over a few minutes. It"s a temporary annoyance and results in some faint artifacts usually visible in high contrast areas.

Permanent image retention is a more serious issue, but it requires looking at the TV"s performance over months or years. We tested three TVs side-by-side, the OLED LG B6, the VA Samsung KU6300, and the IPS LG UJ6300 in a two-year-long test.

This test ended in 2019, as we feel that we now have a good understanding of what types of content are likely to cause burn-in. However, we still haven"t addressed the issue of longevity in general, and we don"t know if newer OLED panels are still as likely to experience burn-in. To that end, we"ve decided to start a new accelerated longevity test to better understand how long new TVs should last and what are the most common points of failure. Although burn-in isn"t the main goal of this test, we"re hoping to better understand how newer OLED panels compare to the older generation of OLEDs. It"s generally accepted that burn-in isn"t as much of an issue as it used to be, but it"s unclear just how much better the newer OLED TVs are. With new panels, new heatsinks, and even brand-new panel types like QD-OLED, there are a lot of unknowns.

The 20/7 burn-in test ran for about two years, from August 31, 2017, until November 15, 2019. The goal of this test was to see whether burn-in could happen for the three most popular TV types (VA LCD, IPS LCD, and OLED). These are the results of our experiment:

Long periods of static content will cause burn-in on OLED TVs. The red sub-pixel appears to degrade the fastest, followed by green and blue. The effect is cumulative, as even cycled logos do burn-in (but over a longer period). We investigated this further in our Real Life OLED Burn-in Test.

Black letterbox bars were displayed for almost 5,000 hours (equivalent to 208 days of continuous letterboxing). Some letterboxing is starting to become noticeable on full-screen slides, but not in normal content. As a result, we don"t expect letterbox bars to cause any issues for people. It"s due to the uneven aging of the screen. The black portions of the screen haven"t aged as much as the rest, so those dark areas appear brighter in regular content.

Some of the LED backlights of the UJ6300 died, so the image is unwatchable. To keep a constant brightness of 175 nits across these TVs, the UJ6300"s backlight was turned up to maximum, while the other TVs achieved this brightness at a lower backlight/OLED Light setting. It may mean that it has been operating at a higher temperature, contributing to the failure.

The TVs were placed side-by-side in one of our testing rooms, as shown to the right. The TVs stayed on for 20 hours a day, seven days per week, running our test pattern in a loop. They were turned off for 4 hours each day using USB infrared transmitters connected to each TV and controlled by a PC to better represent normal (but still very heavy) usage. On the B6, the "Pixel Shift" option is enabled. A single Android TV Box was used as a source, with an HDMI splitter used to provide the same material to each display.

We used our calibration settings, as shown on the review page below, but with the backlight adjusted to reach 175 nits on our checkerboard pattern and no white balance settings applied.

A 5.5-hour video loop was used as the test pattern. It was designed to mix static content with moving images to represent typical content. The base material is a recording of over-the-air antenna TV with an overlay of RTINGS logos of different opacities and durations and added letterbox black bars. These additional elements are:

Expressly designed and tested for security and surveillance environments, AG Neovo’s patented Anti-Burn-in™ technology tackles the LCD monitor burn-in effect, otherwise known as a ghost image on the screen. Burn-in images result in the polarisation of the liquid crystal material contained within the TFT LCD panel. The Anti-Burn-in technology prolongs the lifetime of all AG Neovo monitors and displays featuring this technology to secure users’ investment.

LCD Burn-In, known as image sticking, image retention, image persistence, or ghost images, is the phenomenon where fixed images displayed on the monitor screen for extended periods cause the polarisation of the liquid crystal material contained within the LCD panel, making the image to be “burnt” on screen.

Burn-in on an LCD screen occurs because pixels permanently cannot return to their relaxed state after a static image is displayed on the screen over a long period of time. When a screen keeps displaying a single image, the crystals at those pixels will get a permanent memory, and thus the image on the screen will be imprinted onto them permanently. Once it causes screen burn-in, there is no recovery in most cases. Because of this, choosing a display or monitor allowing for pixel shift, like AG Neovo’s monitors with Anti-Burn-in, can help prevent LCD computer monitor burn-in.

“Image retention” and “Burn-in” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are not precisely the same thing. Image retention, in most cases, is temporary and fixable. It appears when an image is temporarily “stuck” on the screen even if the content changes, but reversible by taking particular measures. Burn-in on the LCD screen is a form of image retention but is permanent and virtually impossible to fix. The prolonged use of static images would cause screen burn-in.

AG Neovo’s patented Anti-Burn-in™ technology tackles the LCD monitor burn-in effect, otherwise known as a ghost image on the screen. Burn-in images result in the polarization of the liquid crystal material contained within the TFT LCD panel. This technology prolongs the life of all AG Neovo monitors and displays to secure the user’s investment.

Anti-Burn-in technology is to activate the pixels to move by the designed time interval and protect panels from being seen the vaguely visible “residual image” under the static charge conditions so as to help prolong the lifetime of TFT LCD panels.

The patent on the Anti-Burn-in technology shows that AG Neovo places importance on its display quality to prevent image burn-in. To best fit the requirement of the security environment, Anti-Burn-in Technology is invented with high-level flexibility and effectiveness. There are three types of mode:

Execute faster than the Line and Dot Intervals. Frame Movement is to move the entire video frame horizontally and vertically (right/left/up/down) for a preset time interval.

Slower but more precise than the Frame Movement. Line Movement is to scan the screen starting from top to bottom and left to right with horizontal and vertical moving lines for a preset time interval.

The slowest but the most precise Anti-Burn-in mode. Dot Movement is to scan the screen with a set of “black & white” dots or pixels in left-to-right and top-to-bottom directions.

Unlike conventional displays, AG Neovo’s security and surveillance displays are built-in with Anti-Burn-in function to reduce the possibility of LCD burn-in for continuous security monitoring applications. It is not needed to create any screen saver, playback youtube video, or install additional tools to prevent burn-in effect.

Compared to the traditional LCD screen burn-in reduction tools which may cause evident interruption to the displayed images, AG Neovo’s patented Anti-Burn-in function is almost unnoticeable when applied. The specially designed three modes of Anti-Burn-in selection provide users with flexibility in choosing the optimal approach that best fits with their non-stop security monitoring.

Video surveillance is commonly used for monitoring of selected images to determine if an improper activity is occurring, such as theft, vandalism, and abnormal situations in daily operation, and any intervention is not allowed during the process. To ensure there are not any interruptions to the video monitoring, turning on a screen saver, reducing contrast/brightness or playing white static image for a particular while is not an option. Instead, selecting a security monitor with built-in Anti-Burn-in function is an efficient solution.

Burn-in on the screen is technically hard to fix. Instead, here are some tips on how to remove image persistence on LCD screens and prevent permanent effects:

Enable the “Pixel Shifting” function on your monitor or display. Most of AG Neovo monitors have a built-in Anti-Burn-in, which allows varying pixel usage by activating the pixel to move at regular intervals. If not enabled automatically, you can manually turn it on and try to alleviate any image retention problems.

Reduce screen contrast and brightness. Lower contrast allows even lighting levels across the LCD screen and thus has less strain on a specific area of the screen. Then, try to watch some different contents, and the effect of Image retention might go away on its own.

Turn on white static image for approximately as long as the persistent image was displayed; this is to use a completely white screen to overwrite the burn-in image. Or, create a screen saver that alternates between black and white images. The continuous changing of white/black across your screen can help alleviate the ghost image from the screen. The solid colour background might reset the image burn but is more likely to deal with image retention than image burn-in.

TFT LCD image retention we also call it "Burn-in". In CRT displays, this caused the phosphorus to be worn and the patterns to be burnt in to the display. But the term "burn in" is a bit misleading in LCD screen. There is no actual burning or heat involved. When you meet TFT LCD burn in problem, how do you solve it?

Burn in is a noticeable discoloration of ghosting of a previous image on a display. It is caused by the continuons drive of certain pixels more than other pixels. Do you know how does burn in happen?

When driving the TFT LCD display pixels Continously, the slightly unbalanced AC will attract free ions to the pixels internal surface. Those ions act like an addition DC with the AC driving voltage.

Those burn-in fixers, screen fixer software may help. Once the Image Retention happened on a TFT, it may easy to appear again. So we need to take preventive actions to avoid burn in reappearing.

For normal white TFT LCD, white area presenting minimal drive, black area presenting maximum drive. Free ions inside the TFT may are attracted towards the black area (maximum drive area)

When the display content changed to full screen of 128(50%) gray color, all the area are driving at the same level. Those ions are free again after a short time;

Have you ever left your TV or monitor on for days, stuck on the same image? You return to your screen, only to find an image burned into the display. No matter what you do, it won"t go away. It is a permanent image burn.

Why do monitors and TVs get image burn? Why can"t manufacturers prevent LCDs and plasma screens from a burnt image imprint? Moreover, what can you do to fix an image burn?

In some cases, you can minimize the image burn effect. In others, you can remove the image burn completely, so long as it hasn"t been burning too long.

Before flat-screens and crystal displays, most TVs and monitors featured CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) technology. In CRTs, individual pixels comprise a red, blue, and green phosphor component. Depending on the intensity of each phosphor component, the pixel appears to the human eye as a unique color.

When a particular still image remains for too long, the intensity of each phosphor component diminishes at an uneven rate. The result is a ghost image on the screen, which is known as image burning.

Plasma displays use plasma, a gaseous substance containing free-flowing ions. When the plasma is not in use, the particles in the plasma are uncharged and display nothing. With the introduction of an electric current, the ions become charged and begin colliding, releasing photons of light.

This is a very simplified version of how a plasma screen works. However, the main thing to understand is that plasma screens use phosphor material (like CRTs) to turn those photons into images.

LCD and LED do not work in the same way as CRTs, either. LCD and LED screens use backlit liquid crystals to display colors. Although manufacturers market screens using LED and LCD, an LED screen is still a type of LCD. The white backlight filters through the liquid crystals, which extract particular colors per pixel.

LCD and LED displays don"t suffer from the same type of image burn as CRTs and plasma screens. They"re not completely clear, though. LCD and LED screens suffer from image persistence. Read on to find out more about image persistence.

Before you can fix screen burn-in, take a second to understand why these images burn in the first place. LCDs and LEDs don"t suffer from burn-in as seriously as plasma screens. But static images can leave an imprint on both display types if left alone for too long. So, why does image burn happen?

First, let"s tackle plasma screen burn-in. Remember why CRTs experience image burn? When a still image remains on the screen for too long, the phosphor components in each pixel wear out at different rates. The uneven burn rates leave behind a ghost image, forever etched into the screen.

Plasma screens also suffer from phosphor deterioration. Plasma burning occurs when pixels on the screen are damaged through long exposure. The phosphor loses its intensity and only shows the light it was fed repeatedly. In this case, the still image, which causes the burn.

LCD and LED screens can also experience image burn, though the image burn process can take longer to develop into a permanent issue. In addition, LCD and LED screens suffer from another issue, known as image retention (also known as image persistence or an LCD shadow).

Image retention is a temporary issue that you are more likely to notice before it becomes a permanent issue. However, proper image burn can still affect LCD, LED, and OLED screens.

Image retention is a different issue from image burn (although it is a precursor to image burn). For example, you"re using an image of a steam train as a reference point for a drawing. You have the steam train image on your screen for a few hours before you decide to play a video game instead.

When you load up the video game on the screen, you can still see the faint outline of the steam train on the screen. The steam train image will remain for a short while, but the movement and color changes of the video game (or film, TV show, or other media type) should erase the retained image.

The other thing to consider is that LED and OLED image burn-in, when it happens, is irreversible. That"s because of how LED and OLED screens work. Individual pixels within an LED display decay when they emit light.

Under normal use, an LED, OLED, or QLED screen won"t suffer image burn. However, if you leave your screen on a single channel for hours every day, then burn-in can become an issue, as it would with almost any screen.

Issues arise when a screen shows a single news channel 24 hours a day, every day, causing channel logos to burn-in, along with the outline of the scrolling news ticker and so on. News channels are a well-known source of television burn-in, no matter the screen type.

Image burn-in fixes exist for LCD and plasma screens. How effective an image burn-in fix is depends on the screen damage. Depending on the length and severity of the image burn, some displays may have permanent damage.

The best fix for screen burn is to prevent it in the first place. Okay, that isn"t super useful if your screen is already experiencing image burn. However, you should always try not to leave your screen on a still image for too long. The time it takes for an image to burn-in varies from screen to screen, between manufacturers, sizes, and panel type.

My personal rule of thumb is to turn off the display if I plan on being away for more than 15 minutes. That way, it is difficult to get caught out, plus you save yourself money on electricity costs and monitor or TV wear and tear.

Another prevention method is to reduce screen contrast as much as you can. Unfortunately, most screens aren"t calibrated correctly, often pushing the contrast and brightness settings too high.

Lower contrast means the lighting across your screen is more even. This means less strain on specific areas of the screen, which helps protect against image burning.

If your plasma or LCD screen already has image burn-in, you can try turning on white static for 12 to 24 hours. The constant moving of white-and-black across your screen in random patterns can help remove the ghost image from your screen.

Unfortunately, this won"t work for extreme cases. Some TVs will have a built-in pattern swiping option that basically accomplishes the same thing (filling your screen with random patterns).

Pixel-shift constantly slightly adjusts the image on your screen, which varies the pixel usage to counteract image burn. You might have to enable a pixel or screen shift option in your screen settings. Pixel-shift is a handy feature for LED and OLED screens that cannot recover from image burn and should help counteract an LCD shadow.

Other modern screens feature built-in screen refresh functions that the manufacturer will advise using to remove image retention and image burn issues.

The best tool for fixing ghost images is JScreenFix. The original program helps fix monitors with dead pixels, but the same company also released an "advanced" version of the tool, known as JScreenFix Deluxe.

While the Deluxe version uses advanced algorithms to repair burned screens and prolong plasma and LCD longevity, the official site is no longer up and running, and there is no way to download the full version officially.

You can find the free version of the Deluxe app online, but it is limited to 20 minutes running at a time. Furthermore, we"re not going to link out to the versions you can find online as we cannot verify the security of these installations. If you do use the Deluxe version, you do so at your own risk.

Another option is to set a completely white desktop background and leaving to run for a few hours. The solid color might reset the image burn. A solid color background is more likely to help with image persistence than image burn, but it is still worth trying.

If you have television burn-in, you can attach a laptop to your TV using an HDMI cable, extend your desktop to the television, and share the white screensaver. Hopefully, that will shift your television burn-in.

The team over at ScreenBurnFixer offers a few different ways you can attempt to fix screen burn on your TV or monitor. As with any other screen burn-in fixes, their chance of working depends on the scale of the issue.

You can head to the ScreenBurnFixer Video page and find a video that matches your screen type, then let the video play for as long as possible (we"re talking multiple hours, not a quick half an hour blast). Alternatively, head to the Chart page and find your device or a device that matches your specifications.

There are several ways you can attempt to fix screen burn-in. The results will vary between the screen type and the level of burn-in. A screen with extensive image burn may not clear entirely, although you might see an improvement.

Some screen degradation over time is understandable. However, if you follow the steps in this guide, you"ll protect your screen from image burn before it becomes a permanent issue.

Screen burn-in isn’t as common on modern display technologies as it was in the past, but few screens are immune to its ability to ruin a perfectly good display. If you run into this irritating problem, here are some tips and tricks that might help fix it.

Screen burn-in is a noticeable discoloration or ghosting of a previous image on a digital display. It’s caused by the regular use of certain pixels more than others, leaving them to display colors slightly differently. The end result is a noticeable and often permanent impression on the display.

Time, screen brightness, and other factors can cause burn-in, but the circumstances are different for each display technology, as different screens and their pixels operate differently at the hardware level. For LCD panels, like those used in many TVs and computer monitors, burn-in can develop because pixels eventually become unable to return to their unlit state and retain a colored profile.

As for OLED and AMOLED technology, which is now used in some modern smartphones and TVs, the light-emitting pixels in the displays can dim faster than others if used more regularly, leaving a darkened ghost of an image in their place.

Colloquially “burn-in” is used as a catchall term for any kind of ghosted image on a screen. The most common form of such “burn-in” though, is technically known as image retention. While that might seem like a case of pedantic semantics, it’s an important distinction to make. Screen burn-in refers to permanent degradation of a display which is almost impossible to fix; image retention is typically fixable.

As described above, screen burn-in on a technical level is hard to fix. However, the much more common image retention is not. Here’s how to sort out your image retention problems on whatever device you have.

Enable Pixel-Shift. Many modern TVs have a built-in pixel-shift, or screen shift, which constantly moves the image slightly to vary pixel usage. If not enabled automatically, you should be able to turn it on in the settings menu. Other settings offer “Refresh” functions that can be manually run to try and clean out any image retention problems.

Play a colorful video. Running a fast-moving video with lots of color changes for a few minutes to half an hour may help if the above options don"t work.

Use a White Screensaver. Try setting your screensaver to a pure white image and leaving it to run for a few hours. That may not remove image retention entirely, but it should dampen how noticeable it is.

Try JScreenFix. Some have also found success using JScreenFix. Although designed to fix stuck pixels rather than burn-in, it may help clear up any issues you’re experiencing.

Try a burn-in fixer. There are a number of great burn-in fixer apps on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Some, like OLED tools, will try to fix image retention and check for more permanent burn-in.

Replace the screen. If none of the above works, your best bet is to either replace the screen yourself or talk to your mobile carrier about a replacement device. Manufacturers like Apple have extended the warranties on certain devices that are prone to image retention and burn-in, so if your device is fairly new, you should still be covered by the warranty.

To prevent screen burn-in on a TV, reduce the brightness to the 45-50 range, use the sleep timer and screen savers, and turn the TV off when not in use. If you have an OLED TV, turn on pixel shift and play a color-changing video that"s designed to help lower the risk of burn-in.

On Androids and iPhones, reduce the brightness to 50 percent or lower, use a screen-timeout length of about 30 seconds, and turn off your phone when not in use. You can also operate in dark mode, use swipes and taps instead of button navigation, and download a screen-burn fixer app.

On a smartphone, screen burn presents as a discolored display with pink or gray tones. On monitors and TVs, it looks like a "ghosting" of previous images remaining on the screen. Screen burn happens so gradually that you may not notice it until using a white background.

They expose to various environments, especially now that COVID-19 spreading around the world. So it"s impossible to keep a screen clean all the time. When you are going to clean an LCD display，do you have the right steps in mind？Maybe what you"ve been doing is not right！

Image persistence, or image retention, is the LCD and plasma display equivalent of screen burn-in. Unlike screen burn, the effects are usually temporary and often not visible without close inspection. Plasma displays experiencing severe image persistence can result in screen burn-in instead.

Image persistence can occur as easily as having something remain unchanged on the screen in the same location for a duration of even 10 minutes, such as a web page or document. Minor cases of image persistence are generally only visible when looking at darker areas on the screen, and usually invisible to the eye during ordinary computer use.

Liquid crystals have a natural relaxed state. When a voltage is applied they rearrange themselves to block certain light waves. If left with the same voltage for an extended period of time (e.g. displaying a pointer or the Taskbar in one place, or showing a static picture for extended periods of time), the liquid crystals can develop a tendency to stay in one position. This ever-so-slight tendency to stay arranged in one position can throw the requested color off by a slight degree, which causes the image to look like the traditional "burn-in" on phosphor based displays. In fact, the root cause of LCD image persistence is the same as phosphor burn-in, namely, non-uniform usage of the display"s pixels.

The cause of this tendency is unclear. It might be due to accumulation of ionic impurities inside the LCD, electric charge building up near the electrodes,parasitic capacitance,DC voltage component that occurs unavoidably in some display pixels owing to anisotropy in the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal".

Image persistence can be reversed by allowing the liquid crystals to relax and return to their relaxed state, such as by turning off the monitor for a sufficiently long period of time (at least a few hours). For most minor cases, simply continuing to use the computer as usual (and thus allowing other colors to "cover" the affected regions) or turning off the monitor for the night is more than enough. One strategy for users looking to avoid image persistence artifacts is to vary the activities performed on a computer to avoid static colors and hide elements on the screen which are displayed perpetually (such as an OS"s Taskbar). Another strategy is the usage of a screensaver to help during times the computer is left unattended. Covering the entire display area with pure white for an extended period of time is also a useful proactive solution.

If you spend long enough debating the merits of LCD vs. OLED display technologies, eventually, someone will touch upon the subject of the dreaded OLED screen burn in. The point made is that OLED displays will inevitably suffer from horrible-looking artifacts over time, while LCD and new technologies like Mini-LED won’t. But like most of these debates, you’ll probably hear as many overblown anecdotes as you will actual facts about the issue.

You may never have experienced it for yourself, but many consumers are wary about the possibility of burn in when pondering their next smartphone purchase. Particularly as expensive flagship smartphones have universally adopted OLED display technology. Apple, Google, and other manufacturers acknowledge that burn in can be a problem in rare cases. OLED technology has made its way to much more affordable price points in recent years, putting the issue on the radar for even more consumers.

The word “burn in” is a little misleading, as no actual burning or heat problems are involved. Instead, this term describes a display suffering from permanent discoloration across any part of the panel. This may take the form of a text or image outline, fading of colors, or other noticeable patches and patterns on display. The display still works as expected, but a somewhat noticeable ghost image or discoloration persists when the screen is on. To be considered screen burn in, these artifacts have to be permanent and are a defect caused on the display hardware side. Rather than a graphical glitch that may be caused by software, temporary image retention, or a problem with the display driver circuitry.

The term dates back to old CRT monitors, where phosphor compounds that emit light to produce images lost their luminance with time. LCD panels can exhibit similar problems, but these are much rarer due to the nature of LCD’s backlight and color matrix design.

Although not as bad or noticeable as old CRT issues, today’s OLED smartphone displays can eventually suffer from a similar problem. That being said, it’s pretty difficult and rare to notice unless you know what you’re looking for, and it takes hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of screen-on time before any such errors appear. In smartphones, pattern burn in is typically associated with always-on displays, navigation buttons, and the notification bar. The example below demonstrates a textbook case:

Although most smartphones now support gesture navigation controls in the place of the old button design. So this type of burn-in is much less of a problem than it used to be.

The cause of all screen burn in is the varying lifecycle of a display’s light-producing components. As these parts age, their brightness changes, and therefore the panel’s color reproduction gradually shifts with time. Although this can be mitigated somewhat with clever software, all displays experience some color shift as they age. But with burn in, some parts of the screen age faster than others. This can gradually shift the perceivable colors of the screen in one area more than in another, leaving what looks like a ghost image behind.

With modern smartphone and smartwatch technology, screen burn in can manifest due to the different life spans between the red, green, and blue LED subpixels used in OLED panels. As we mentioned before, areas of the display that seldom change, are bright white, or are often black and switched off, such as navigation buttons or the notification bar, are the most likely areas to notice this issue. You may also notice the effect in darkened status bars designed to hide display notches.

This is because these areas are more likely to consistently display one color, a set icon, or text. In contrast, the rest of the display produces a more random selection of colors from various websites, videos, apps, etc., over a long period of use. Therefore the subpixels in these areas see different amounts of use and thus age differently, eventually resulting in a slight variation in color reproduction. Switching to transparent and color-changing bars has the added bonus of evening out the color aging process.

Speaking more technically, the issue is that blue LEDs have significantly lower luminous efficiency than red or green pixels. This means that a blue LED needs to be driven at a higher current for a set sized pixel to achieve the same brightness as red or green. Higher current causes the pixel to degrade faster, shortening its lifespan and eventually tinting the display towards the red and green colors. Therefore an OLED display’s color doesn’t degrade evenly; it will ultimately lean towards a red/green tint.

So, if one part of the panel spends a lot of time displaying a blue or white image, the blue pixels in this area will degrade faster than in other areas. That’s essentially what burn in is. However, display manufacturers do account for this in their panel designs.

If OLED screens have a problem with burn in, why do we continue using them? Burn in is a true downside to OLED displays, but there are plenty of reasons consumers and manufacturers like them. For starters, image quality is much better than in LCDs. OLED panels can reproduce more vibrant colors, more contrast, wider viewing angles, and faster refresh rates. Colors tend to be much more saturated, and blacks are much darker.

OLED displays have a simpler design, allowing thinner, lighter smartphone designs. You can also thank OLED technology for foldable phones and curved displays. If those improvements weren’t enough, you’ll also enjoy lower power consumption with OLED.

Additionally, burn in problems are only common after prolonged periods of use. As you may already know, smartphone manufacturers don’t expect you to keep a smartphone for more than 2-3 years. Recent statistics show that consumers currently keep their phones for an average of 2.75 years.

At this stage, manufacturers are very aware of the potential issues and have already taken some intelligent steps to help avoid burn in. For starters, Samsung has been using its pentile subpixel arrangement in its AMOLED displays since the Galaxy S3. By making the blue subpixel larger, it requires less current to drive in order to provide the necessary light. Driving the LED with less current increases its lifespan, so it takes longer for any noticeable color shift to occur.

This doesn’t directly address the issue of different parts of the screen aging at different rates, but it does mean that it will take significantly longer to notice than with older or cheaper OLED panels. More expensive and modern OLED panels are built with longer-lasting LEDs and well-designed layouts, meaning flagship smartphone displays age slower. These days, it’s cheaper phones packing cheaper displays that are marginally more likely to see issues after heavy use.

There are software solutions too. Android Wear product manufacturers can enable the OS’s “burn protection” option. This mode periodically shifts the screen’s contents by a few pixels, so they spend equal time displaying different colors. Smartphones equipped with Always-On display technology employ a similar tactic. Google also suggests a selection of design guidelines tailored to avoid screen burn-in problems when designing OLED watches. The move towards gesture rather than on-screen navigation controls is also helping to alleviate one of the more noticeable burn in areas.

If your screen is already burnt in, there’s not much that can be done to undo the damage. Some apps on the Play Store claim to reverse the problem. These will end up “burning” the rest of the screen to match the colors, which isn’t a real solution.

Keep your display brightness as low as reasonable. Increased brightness requires more current and therefore shortens LED lifespans. Don’t crank up the brightness unless you have to.

Try to make it so that the screen isn’t displaying the same thing all the time, in the same areas of the screen. For example, if you have a widget that almost always looks the same, chances are it will eventually burn into the image. Move things around now and then, and try to keep the view of your phone dynamic.

All that said, screen burn in isn’t something that should concern many users if they’re looking to buy a new OLED smartphone. Modern panels have much longer lifespans than early OLED smartphones, and even then, burn in was rare. Just don’t leave a static image on the screen 24/7 with the brightness set at max.

The bottom line is that you should be looking at several years’ worth of use out of a modern smartphone display before any screen burn in will be noticeable. But it doesn’t hurt to be aware of what can happen to aging handsets and how to maximize their lifespan.

If you"ve ever left your LCD monitor on a single static screen for an extended period, say 24 hours or more, and then changed the on-screen image and seen a "ghost" of the previous screen, you"ve experienced Image Persistence. You can also sometimes see this phenomenon while traveling through an airport and seeing the flight status monitors. The good news is that the persistence is not permanent, unlike previous technologies such as plasma displays or CRTs.

The previous technologies of plasma displays and CRTs are phosphor-based, and extended static images create a "burn-in" that affects the properties of the phosphor material and create permanent damage. The damage is called burn-in, whereas static image "ghosts" on an LCD are Image Persistence. Image Persistence is not permanent damage and is reversible. Modern LCDs include design, driver ICs and chemical improvements that minimize these effects.

Image persistence can happen with any LCD panel, and almost all specifications will have some reference to image persistence. Many will have a specific criterion of acceptable levels of it.

To understand why image persistence happens, we must first understand the basic structure of an LCD TFT. Within the TFT, a voltage is applied to the liquid crystal material to align or twist the crystals in each pixel to allow light to pass through or block light, thus creating the on-screen image. By allowing a static image to remain on screen for an extended duration, the polarity of that voltage on the crystals remains. During this time, ions within the liquid crystal fluid will migrate to either the + or – electrode of the transistor (source or drain). As these ions accumulate on the electrodes, the voltage applied to the crystals to align or twist is no longer sufficient to completely change the image on-screen, resulting in a "ghost effect" from the previous image.

The best method for preventing Image Persistence is to avoid having any static images on the screen for an extended time. If the image changes periodically, the ion flow will never have an opportunity to accumulate on any internal electrode. However, depending upon the use of the display, it is not always possible to avoid static images on the screen. In cases such as these, there are steps that you can do to reduce the chance of persistence.

Switching off the displayduring periods of inactivity (sleeping mode) and arousing at necessary image changes would also be reflected as a positive side effect providing lower power consumption.

Panel manufacturers specifically test for the phenomenon and have designed the TFT cell and improved the purity of the liquid crystal fluid to minimize any effect of image persistence.

If you have a project that is considering taking advantage of any display technology, US Micro Products can provide a solution designed for your application. Send us an email at sales@usmicroproducts.com.

I just happens to some LCD monitors sometimes. I have a monitor that if you leave a webpage open for too long, the title bar will start to discolor the screen when it"s removed.

I would just turn down the brightness (for less power consumption and monitor longevity, the backlight has nothing to do with the "burn in") and leave a screen saver on overnight. On my monitor, once the screen is back to normal, it doesn"t come back for a while.

TFT stands for thin-film transistor, which means that each pixel in the device has a thin-film transistor attached to it. Transistors are activated by electrical currents that make contact with the pixels to produce impeccable image quality on the screen. Here are some important features of TFT displays.Excellent Colour Display.Top notch colour contrast, clarity, and brightness settings that can be adjusted to accommodate specific application requirements.Extended Half-Life.TFT displays boast a much higher half-life than their LED counterparts and they also come in a variety of size configurations that can impact the device’s half-life depending on usage and other factors.TFT displays can have either resistive or capacitive touch panels.Resistive is usually the standard because it comes at a lower price point, but you can also opt for capacitive which is compatible with most modern smartphones and other devices.TFT displays offer exceptional aspect ratio control.Aspect ratio control contributes to better image clarity and quality by mapping out the number of pixels that are in the source image compared to the resolution pixels on the screen.Monitor ghosting doesn’t occur on TFT displays.This is when a moving image or object has blurry pixels following it across the screen, resembling a ghost.

TFT displays are incredibly versatile.The offer a number of different interface options that are compatible with various devices and accommodate the technical capabilities of all users.

There are two main types of TFT LCD displays:· Twisted nematic TFT LCDs are an older model. They have limited colour options and use 6 bits per each blue, red, and green channel.

In-plane switching TFT LCDs are a newer model. Originally introduced in the 1990s by Hitachi, in-plane switching TFT LCDs consist of moving liquid pixels that move in contrast or opposite the plane of the display, rather than alongside it.

Relies on backlighting to provide brightness rather than producing its own light, hence, they need built-in light emitting diodes (LEDs) in their backlighting structure

The type of TFT LCD monitor or industrial display you choose to purchase will depend on the specifications of your application or project. Here are a few important factors to consider when selecting an appropriate TFT LCD display technology:Life expectancy/battery life.Depending on the length of ongoing use and the duration of your project, you’re going to want to choose a device that can last a long time while maintaining quality usage.

Touch type and accuracy.What type of activities are you planning on using your device for? If it’s for extended outdoor use, then you should go with projected capacitive touch as this is more precise and accurate. Touch accuracy is important for industrial and commercial applications.

Image clarity.Some TFT displays feature infrared touchscreens, while others are layered. The former is preferable, especially in poor lighting conditions or for outdoor and industrial applications, because there’s no overlay and therefore no obstructions to light emittance.

The environmental conditions make a difference in operation and image clarity. When choosing a TFT for outdoor or industrial applications, be sure to choose one that can withstand various environmental elements like dust, wind, moisture, dirt, and even sunlight.

As a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-quality digital displays in North America, Nauticomp Inc. can provide custom TFT LCD monitor solutions that are suitable for a multitude of industrial and commercial indoor and outdoor applications. Contact us today to learn more.

What is commonly called "burn-in" is better described as "image persistence" or "image retention." It results in a ghost of a bright image that was left onscreen too long. Technically, burn-in is a permanent form of image retention. Or, if you want to look at it the other way, image retention is a temporary version of burn-in. These distinctions are lost in current vernacular, but know that when most people talk about burn-in, they"re really talking about image persistence/image retention. This is because when it comes to current-gen plasma TVs, actual burn-in is highly unlikely and extremely difficult.

Think of the phosphors in a plasma like kids. Once you get them riled up, it takes a bit for them to calm back down. Also like kids, as they age, they calm down much faster. As a plasma TV ages (after 100 hours or so), it becomes far more difficult to burn in.

When you first get a plasma home, depending on the brand, model, and how you set it up, it"s possible you may see some image persistence. It might look something like this:

Here"s the most important fact about image persistence: unless you"re overtly negligent, it"s easily reversible. With what magic, you ask? Easy, just watch TV. Yep, that"s it. Just go back to your regularly scheduled programming (full-screen, non-letterboxed television) and it will go away by itself. Just due to being used, the phosphors will get back in line. Depending on the severity of the image persistence, it may take a few minutes or a few hours to go away.

I recently left ESPN running for 6 hours on a plasma I was reviewing, just to test this very issue. Sure enough, after the 6 hours there was a faint ghost of their sportsball ticker at the bottom of the screen (visible when viewing a black screen). Ten minutes of different content (i.e. without the ticker), and the image retention was gone.

Though it can be frighteningto see image retentionif you"ve just bought a new TV, don"t panic. Watch something else for a bit. It should go away on its own with no further effort from you (and as I mentioned earlier, it becomes harder and harder to get image retention as the TV ages).

Part of the hysteria around image retention/image persistence is that for many years it was a bigger issue. As plasmas improved, the evil-sounding "menace," ahem, persisted as manufacturers and stores tried to push their customers into more expensive LCD televisions (

Modern plasmas have better phosphors that are less likely to "burn" in the first place. They also include features designed to lessen the chance for image persistence or remove it if it occurs. An orbiter function moves the image around the screen by a few pixels. Hardly noticeable, but it minimizes some aspects of burn-in. Full white or rapidly changing colored patterns excite the phosphors evenly, greatly reducing the time it takes to remove the effects of image persistence.

Can burn-in be permanent? Yes. But you"ve got to work really hard at it. As in, you have to either be trying to burn an image in, or be forgetful enough to leave a single image on the screen for days. Because you have to be exceptionally careless to cause serious burn-in, plasma companies" warranties don"t cover it. They also won"t cover throwing things at the screen, dropping it in the pool, or lighting it on fire.

If you"re worried about it, be aware that cable news channels are the worst, as are video games that have anything static onscreen (like a HUD, or stationary avatar). Letterboxed movies have the opposite effect, with the black letterboxes remaining dark while the movie image persists. Also, find on your plasma where the anti-image retention patterns/features are, and check out how they work.

There are, but burn-in/image persistence shouldn"t be one of them. It is much ado about nothing. OK, notnothing, as it"s a realthing, it"s just not the issue some people make it out to be.

Got a question for Geoff? First, check out all the other articles he"s written on topics like Send him an e-mail! He won"t tell you what TV to buy, but he might use your letter in a future article. You can also send him a message on Twitter @TechWriterGeoff or Google+.

There are plenty of new and confusing terms facing TV shoppers today, but when it comes down to the screen technology itself, there are only two: Nearly every TV sold today is either LCD or OLED.

The biggest between the two is in how they work. With OLED, each pixel provides its own illumination so there"s no separate backlight. With an LCD TV, all of the pixels are illuminated by an LED backlight. That difference leads to all kinds of picture quality effects, some of which favor LCD, but most of which benefit OLED.

LCDs are made by a number of companies across Asia. All current OLED TVs are built by LG Display, though companies like Sony and Vizio buy OLED panels from LG and then use their own electronics and aesthetic design.

So which one is better? Read on for their strengths and weaknesses. In general we"ll be comparing OLED to the best (read: most expensive) LCD has to offer, mainly because there"s no such thing as a cheap OLED TV (yet).

Take this category with a grain of salt. Both TV types are very bright and can look good in even a sunny room, let alone more moderate indoor lighting situations or the dark rooms that make TV images look their best. When it comes down to it, no modern TV could ever be considered "dim."

At the other side of light output is black level, or how dark the TV can get. OLED wins here because of its ability to turn off individual pixels completely. It can produce truly perfect black.

The better LCDs have local dimming, where parts of the screen can dim independently of others. This isn"t quite as good as per-pixel control because the black areas still aren"t absolutely black, but it"s better than nothing. The best LCDs have full-array local dimming, which provides even finer control over the contrast of what"s onscreen -- but even they can suffer from "blooming," where a bright area spoils the black of an adjacent dark area.

Here"s where it comes together. Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest and the darkest a TV can be. OLED is the winner here because it can get extremely bright, plus it can produce absolute black with no blooming. It has the best contrast ratio of any modern display.

One of the main downsides of LCD TVs is a change in picture quality if you sit away from dead center (as in, off to the sides). How much this matters to you certainly depends on your seating arrangement, but also on how much you love your loved ones.

A few LCDs use in-plane switching (IPS) panels, which have better off-axis picture quality than other kinds of LCDs, but don"t look as good as other LCDs straight on (primarily due to a lower contrast ratio).

OLED doesn"t have the off-axis issue LCDs have; its image looks basically the same, even from extreme angles. So if you have a wide seating area, OLED is the better option.

Nearly all current TVs are HDR compatible, but that"s not the entire story. Just because a TV claims HDR compatibility doesn"t mean it can accurately display HDR content. All OLED TVs have the dynamic range to take advantage of HDR, but lower-priced LCDs, especially those without local-dimming backlights, do not. So if you want to see HDR content it all its dynamic, vibrant beauty, go for OLED or an LCD with local dimming.

In our tests comparing the best new OLED and LCD TVs with HDR games and movies, OLED usually looks better. Its superior contrast and lack of blooming win the day despite LCD"s brightness advantage. In other words LCD TVs can get brighter, especially in full-screen bright scenes and HDR highlights, but none of them can control that illumination as precisely as an OLED TV.

The energy consumption of LCD varies depending on the backlight setting. The lower the backlight, the lower the power consumption. A basic LED LCD with its backlight set low will draw less power than OLED.

LG has said their OLED TVs have a lifespan of 100,000 hours to half brightness, a figure that"s similar to LED LCDs. Generally speaking, all modern TVs are quite reliable.

Does that mean your new LCD or OLED will last for several decades like your parent"s last CRT (like the one pictured). Probably not, but then, why would you want it to? A 42-inch flat panel cost $14,000 in the late 90"s, and now a 65-inch TV with more than 16x the resolution and a million times better contrast ratio costs $1,400. Which is to say, by the time you"ll want/need to replace it, there will be something even better than what"s available now, for less money.

OLED TVs are available in sizes from 48 to 88 inches, but LCD TVs come in smaller and larger sizes than that -- with many more choices in between -- so LCD wins. At the high end of the size scale, however, the biggest "TVs" don"t use either technology.

If you want something even brighter, and don"t mind spending a literal fortune to get it, Samsung, Sony, and LG all sell direct-view LED displays. In most cases these are

You can get 4K resolution, 50-inch LCDs for around $400 -- or half that on sale. It"s going to be a long time before OLEDs are that price, but they have come down considerably.

LCD dominates the market because it"s cheap to manufacture and delivers good enough picture quality for just about everybody. But according to reviews at CNET and elsewhere, OLED wins for overall picture quality, largely due to the incredible contrast ratio. The price difference isn"t as severe as it used to be, and in the mid- to high-end of the market, there are lots of options.

LCD and OLED monitors are most vulnerable to screen burn when new, so you may want to avoid leaving the same image up for too long during the first 100 hours of use

Image retention on a phone display or computer monitor is mostly an issue for devices that display static content or are used for video gameplay with a heads-up display. Unlike with old CRT devices where the phosphor compounds would degrade over time, the “permanent” stationary object or remnant of a picture on an LCD monitor is usually a form of transient image persistence. Here’s how you can fix it and get your high-performing computer monitor back up and running.

Alternatively, if you’re trying to get your second monitor working, check out our resource article about how to fix a second monitor not detected error.

While screen burn and image retention are often used interchangeably they’re not quite the same thing. Image retention is a temporary “ghost image” that you can usually get rid of, while “screen burn” means some of the screen’s pixels are “burned out” and it is more difficult to fix, typically requiring hardware repairs, as it’s a more complicated monitor display problem to repair. Obviously it’s not the most convenient problem to have, especially if it’s happening on your best 32-inch gaming monitor, but there are ways to test it, mitigate it, and potentially resolve it

OLED screens are the favored choice for new smartphones and high-resolution TVs, but this type of screen is more susceptible to image retention than LCD screens. Irregular pixel usage can cause noticeable discoloration over a long period of time, typically of static elements like navigation buttons or news station logos. That said, screen burn-in is preventable and for most users should not deter the purchase of a new OLED monitor.

The reason for OLED screens’ being more vulnerable to screen burn-in has to do with the different lifespans and energy demands of different colored pixels. Blue pixels use more energy and tend to wear out faster, which contributes to the ghosting effect of burned-in images. Still, ghost images are generally only an issue for use cases involving static image elements displayed at full brightness for a long time. Also, double-check your warranty and/or computer insurance if you can get professional help for fixing image retention. You might even have coverage through your property insurance, and we have guides on explaining if, for example, your homeowners insurance can cover a computer.

If you’re not sure whether you have screen burn on your device, you can run a screen burn test. Several apps for Android and iOS devices help test for screen burn. Typically this involves displaying one primary color at a time at varying brightness on the device’s LCD screen.

These tips should help get rid of ghost images caused by image retention on modern LCD screens and OLED devices like smartphones, tablets, TVs, and laptops. Image persistence on LCD displays is generally more fixable than “burn-in” on a CRT monitor or AMOLED screen.

Sometimes you can fix a seemingly permanent ghost-like image on an LCD by turning the device off and then turning it back on again after several hours. Try colorful video content or fast-paced videos, or any varied content.

Setting the display brightness to a lower level or enabling auto-brightness if so equipped may reduce the appearance of screen burn or image retention.

Depending on the display technology, you can sometimes fix stuck pixels on a monitor by changing display & brightness settings, choosing dynamic screensavers or adjusting preset picture displays, and turning on auto-brightness. Some software fixes are also available. These typically involve displaying one solid color at a time, which may help get rid of image retention. You may also want to check for “dirty screen effect” and make appropriate adjustments.

On some devices, you can download apps that aim to fix image retention and help reduce the risk of burn-in. To address image persistence on an Android Phone, you can find apps on the Google Play Store that adjust display timeout, play dynamic, all black or moving screensaver images, and even test for burn-in using a white image.

Likewise, for an iPhone, you can visit the App Store for apps that help check your phone for burn-in problems and protect your phone from developing annoying image burn.

On most smart TVs there are some settings you can utilize to reduce the appearance of image retention. LG offers an option called Screen Shift for its OLED TV models, similar to Sony’s Pixel Shift technology, which shifts the image very slightly so as to minimize wear on individual pixels.

In extreme cases where you have dead blocks of pixels or significant degradation of image quality, you may want to opt for display device replacement to remedy screen burn.

There are some easy techniques you can use to help prevent screen burn-in from happening in the first place. The following tips should work on most OLED and LCD screen devices including Android smartphones and tablets, iOS devices, and laptop computers.

Manufacturers recommend keeping brightness at 50% or lower on screens that will be used to display a non-moving picture for more than a few hours at a time.

Now, I was NOT expecting this to happen after only about 2 months, but now I have screen burn in from the background and icons I keep on this display. I even run a screen saver, yet now this monitor shows definitive screen burn and it really makes me mad! I haven"t seen this issue on ANY monitor until this one, especially an LCD IPS one like this one is supposed to be. How can this happen after only 2 months use, and WITH a screen saver???? This is 2021, not 1997!! I am VERY disappointed in this monitor, and now have to live with this screen burn because the monitor can no longer be returned. I have to consider sending a complaint to Amazon, and seeing if I can get a different 8" monitor to supplement my 32" ASUS, and NOT have screen burn in like this one got. I will NEVER buy another product from this company.