I just purchased my first LCD (Sharp Aquos LC42D64U). I just had a few basic questions about it.

I've heard LCD's do not get burn in, is this true? If it's not true what settings should i be concerned about setting too high. (my parents had a mits rear projection TV and i remember reading about not setting the contrast and brightness too high)


What cleaning product should i use on the screen.

Finally I declined the warranty, should i reconsider?

Any general LCD tips or pointers would be appreciated.

thanks

LCD doesn't burn in. They do, however have something similar called image persistence. Fortunately on most cases image persistence are temporary and can be fixed by just turning the display off for some time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_persistence

Contrast and brightness... well it is advisable to calibrate your screen - at least with something like Digital Video Essential or something like that. You'll appreciate the difference.

Is Digital video Essential a disc that I put into my dvd player to calibrate my screen. If so where do I get one, if not what is it and how do I do it to calibrate my new LCD? Thanks for your help

I purchased a LCD at Christmas (a Samsung) and interestingly this is what the Samsung site has to say about burn in in their FAQ's;

Are LCD TVs Subject To Screen Burn In?

Although much less susceptible than Plasma TVs, LCD TVs are still subject to screen burn in (image retention). In general, you should avoid keeping a static picture (that is, a picture that contains no or few moving elements) or a picture with static elements (black bars, black borders, logos, etc.) on your LCD TV for more than two hours at a time. If, for example, you have your TV set to 4x3, and have black borders on the top and bottom, or on the sides, changing the picture size for a minute or two every couple of hours, say during commercials or in between shows, would decrease the chance of screen burn in. Reducing the brightness and contrast of the screen when it is displaying static elements will also decrease the chance of burn in.

IMHO, LCD's are bright. Almost too bright. So just turning that down would improve the picture and help with any retention issues. I agree getting a disc is a good idea, but you might also see if there is a calibration or tweek thread over at AVS. They have several different setting to try for my Samsung at AVS and one I really, really like. Only thing I'd warn about regarding AVS is they are at times not as tolerant to "newbie" questions. However, if you spend some time over there, use the search feature, you will likely find the answer to every possible question you could possible ask.

As for warranty I declined at the store, way to expensive. But I have been researching some on line retailer warranties. Less then 1/2 the price of the the store I purchased the tv from (besides from the terrible buying experience, I would not buy anything else from them anyway).

Thanks, For all the advice, I'll check out AVS.

I think that is more a commentary on Samsung than on LCD.

Really? There were no dead pixels out of the box, over time would they develop?

I think you probably know this, but Samsung and Sony are generally acknowledged as having the best LCDs available, which isn't surprising since both companies LCD glass is made at a joint plant.

My Sony LCD has never shown even the faintest hint of image retention, either from video games or letterboxed/pillarboxed movies (which we watch a lot of). I know there are ways to get image retention on LCDs (usually involving 8+ hours of static images) but under normal use I can't imagine it ever bothering you. I assume the "warning" from Samsung is just boilerplate text they been putting in their TV manuals since the first LCD TVs rolled off the line years ago... and when it might have actually meant something.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never heard of dead pixels developing after the first few weeks of use. It's possible you might damage your screen but hitting it with something, but that's obviously not the same thing.

Consumer Reports recommended that you NOT purchase extended warranties on LCDs or Plasma sets because >97% of them never need any service in the first 5 years.

I think you mean Sharp and Sony.

Sharps have not had a good reputation recently due to the banding problems they've been plagued with over the last couple years. Samsung has a very good reputation.

In fact the highest Sharp LCD rating on cnet is a 7.7 while the 7th best Samsung LCD was rated a 7.6. The joint Sony/Samsung LCD fabs are one of the main reasons those companies TVs are consistently rated so highly.

Nope. He's right at the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-LCD

Thanks, that was what I was thinking of.