I have heard that the picture of the flat screen tvs deteriete over time, is this true and should i worry about the picture fading over time?

Which flat screen TVs? Almost all TVs now sport a ruler-flat screen, but there's about a dozen different technologies available to put a picture up.

The quick answer is that every tech deteriorates over time. But they do it at different speeds, so specify.

I was meaning the lcd tvs.

I'm assuming you mean the flat panels rather than projection. They have stated lives of 50000-60000 hours these days. That's a flippin' long time. I believe that refers to the half-life of the (typically) CCFL backlight. The LCD cells ought to last virtually forever. The light does degrade over time, but that should only mean it gets dimmer. Good backlights shouldn't change colors.

They are working on LED backlights, which are already used in small stuff like calculators and cell phones. These start at half-life of 100000 hours generally and skyrocket from there, so that will be an upgrade when it makes it into TV size. (I don't think they are there, yet)

btw, half-life is when a light outputs half the lumens of its original power. Should be time to replace the lamp at that time.

thank you