I cannot change the brightness of the side bars on my new HDTV. The default is set to BRIGHT and I am afraid of burn in. When I go to the on screen menu that part of the menu is grey and inaccessable. I have had no luck with Panasonic. I am using HDMI connection from my cable box. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have a new Panny commercial model, and you can adjust the sidebars in the setup menu. This only applies to SD signals, you can not
stretch a 4:3 image that is broadcast 16:9 HD with sidebars already in it.
You are at the mercy of the provider in this case.

What is your cable box set to, if it 1080i or 720p, then you can not change the sidebars in the TV?

This message was edited by gmarsden on 07/13/05 11:17 ET.

The point of the sidebars is to PREVENT burn-in. That's why they are grey. If they are black, the center of the screen can burn-in. Reality is backwards from what most think. The bars don't burn-in, everything else does.

Spikey,

So black bars is an off state with Plasmas and as such does not cause burn in ?

By the way I saw my first LCD monitor with massive "Windows Screen lock" burn in. I had thought that LCD screens were not susceptible to burn in. Obviously I thought wrong.

Johnpavilik,

Do you have a TW box ? A coworker uses the stretch feature of his time Warner box to stretch HD that is being shown with side bars. I wish I could stretch HD with my Pioneer or my Samsung but I can only stretch SD.

However if Spikey is correct than I don't have to worry.

-Don B

Yes, black is off for a CRT. That's why CRT based TVs can do better blacks than any digital tech or even film. I'll bet that LCD could be recovered. They do not have burn-in the way CRTs do. They can develop a memory or ghost image, but it is typically temporary.

Keep in mind though that the center of the screen burns in since this is the section with the ON state. The bars do NOT burn in if they are black, everything else does. Gives sorta the same effect, if it is damaged you will see the black bars. But it is because they are LESS used up, not more used. The grey bars attempt to match the usage in the middle of the screen and prevent burn-in. The best solution is to set contrast and colors correctly and vary your aspect ratio viewing. Try to stay away from the 4:3 stuff, at least for a few hundred hours when the TV is new.

You'd probably have to stretch HD material with the source box. TVs don't allow that. But if they are sending HD signal in 4:3 format (like ESPN does), there aren't that many choices for stretching. Are you sure your coworker isn't downconverting to and outputting 480i stretched instead of HD resolution?

Spikey ,

I will ask him about the "downconverting to and outputting 480i stretched instead of HD ".

By the way Spikey. Why do I read so much about how Plasmas can not do true blacks. Based on what you say and which I agree with, the off state could not be any better than a true black.

Are the reviewers talking about blacks that are approaching black and the Plasma can not handle these minute transitions that are approaching black?

Don