News Ten-month burn-in testing reveals all OLED monitors and TVs suffer some amount of burn-in, but LCD monitors also have uniformity issues

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I use a Panasonic 4Κ OLED TV 42'' TX-42LZ800 as my display and it’s visually stunning.

As for burn in…, although it definitely is a thing, the risk is grossly overblown. Unless you 're playing a game that has a fixed HUD that doesn't move for 1000's of hour's day in day out, I think you'll be fine.

Don’t buy into the paranoia.

Under normal usage, your chances of burn in are virtually nil. Those reviewers parking a CNN ticker on the display for hundreds of hours and calling it a test aren't indicative of normal use.

P.S.

If you watch CNN 18 hours a day, buy a $250 LCD.
 
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LCDs should not have retention issues unless they are using organic compounds. This was a problem for Epson till they used inorganic substrates for the LCD panel. Pixels can get a little "stuck" it's due to how the crystals settle in the matrix. But cycling programs can correct this.

Or am I missing something? Did ratings run the cycling program and still have issues?
 
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With Rtings burn in test, they leave the devices on a static image for 18 hours a day, which is not a realistic use case. Under normal usage, these OLEDs should last for years.
 
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I recently exchanged my Alienware DWF OLED monitor due to permanent burn-in from desktop icons. It was a year old, normal use. Clearly visible as black square boxes, short or long pixel refresh had no effect to them.

Since it uses a Samsung panel, I am thinking Samsung OLED's will have similar issues.

While the technology is great, it is an issue under normal use and I am now using a desktop with a black background and no desktop icons, which is a bit annoying.
 
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vanadiel007 said:
I recently exchanged my Alienware DWF OLED monitor due to permanent burn-in from desktop icons. It was a year old, normal use. Clearly visible as black square boxes, short or long pixel refresh had no effect to them.

Since it uses a Samsung panel, I am thinking Samsung OLED's will have similar issues.

While the technology is great, it is an issue under normal use and I am now using a desktop with a black background and no desktop icons, which is a bit annoying.
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I have the same oled panel in my Samsung G8 OLED and it’s still perfect almost a year in. But I put the brightness to 0 when doing office work, which is more than bright enough for excel and word yet reduces the chance of temperature induced oled pixel wear, and bring it up to max brightness when playing games or movies. I also use an auto hide program so the toolbar and desktop icons disappear when not being interacted with. And finally I just have a black desktop background.
$1500 is a lot for a monitor and I have no plans on replacing for at least 5 years. I’m probably being overly cautious but OLED is such a better tech for image quality so I happily deal with my monitors work settings.
 
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An important note is that the only significant burn in they've seen in their OLED monitors is from running them with a 16:9 image (they're 21:9 monitors). I.e. running a bright image in the middle with black bars on the sides, pretty much non-stop. It seems unlikely anyone would use their monitor like this (and they've updated their methodology such that 16:9 TV content is now displayed as stretched full screen), but something to be aware of.
 
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My last few mobile phones have been oled, and in each case have had the Waze interface permanently burned in after about a year. I 'only' spend a couple hours a day, 2-3 days a week with Waze running.
 
The test they're running seems to be going over some folks heads here. They're attempting to simulate long term usage in a compressed period of time.

Image retention with desktop use of OLED is a very real problem. It is possible to adjust usage to minimize the chances of these things happening. If you're predominantly using it as a media/gaming display then the risks are quite a bit lower so long as it's not left on static/light display when not in use.
 
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My nearly $2,000 LCD oled TV developed permanent burn-in after only about 3 months. The reason? I watched stock market news on CNBC or Fox Business News during market hours. No prior warning from either LCD or independent reviewers before I bought the TV. I decided to exercise the warranty and have the screen replaced. The manufacturer told me that burn-in was not covered by the warranty. Burn-in is not rare depending on what you watch.
 
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One of the most ridiculous tests I've seen in a long time. Why bother making a test that doesn't simulate actual real world use. No one would leave their TV on 24/7 and on max brightness, lol. They basically did everything possible to get burn in, which isn't even an issue on a modern oled tv. I've got 2 LG oled tv's and they are by far the best tv's we've ever owned. I don't think I could ever go back to lcd. Haven't had a single issue and zero concern with burn in. Bit of a garbage clickbait article imo.
 
Yielar said:
One of the most ridiculous tests I've seen in a long time. Why bother making a test that doesn't simulate actual real world use. No one would leave their TV on 24/7 and on max brightness, lol. They basically did everything possible to get burn in, which isn't even an issue on a modern oled tv. I've got 2 LG oled tv's and they are by far the best tv's we've ever owned. I don't think I could ever go back to lcd. Haven't had a single issue and zero concern with burn in. Bit of a garbage clickbait article imo.
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No, they value their time, no one wants a burn-in report 5-10 years from now, we need accelerated wear testing now so consumer know how long to expect what they are buying to last. How do you simulate 5-10 years of use in 1-3 years time? Running 24/7 among other things.

It’s not the best analog to real world testing, but we don’t need real world testing, consumers are doing that already and we will know in 10 years cause we will see the burn-in ourselves.
 
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The Historical Fidelity said:
I have the same oled panel in my Samsung G8 OLED and it’s still perfect almost a year in. But I put the brightness to 0 when doing office work, which is more than bright enough for excel and word yet reduces the chance of temperature induced oled pixel wear, and bring it up to max brightness when playing games or movies. I also use an auto hide program so the toolbar and desktop icons disappear when not being interacted with. And finally I just have a black desktop background.
$1500 is a lot for a monitor and I have no plans on replacing for at least 5 years. I’m probably being overly cautious but OLED is such a better tech for image quality so I happily deal with my monitors work settings.
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Mine comes with 3 year advanced exchange, so they mailed me a new one and once I got that one tested out, I send them back my old one. No cost or downtime for me, just a few days of waiting to get my replacement. Very smooth procedure and they did not give me a hard time when I used my warranty claim. I was actually expecting them to try to stick it to me.

It's the main reason I purchased this one over a few others, because it has this easy exchange policy which is a big thing when using technology in uncharted waters.
 
The Historical Fidelity said:
No, they value their time, no one wants a burn-in report 5-10 years from now, we need accelerated wear testing now so consumer know how long to expect what they are buying to last. How do you simulate 5-10 years of use in 1-3 years time? Running 24/7 among other things.

It’s not the best analog to real world testing, but we don’t need real world testing, consumers are doing that already and we will know in 10 years cause we will see the burn-in ourselves.
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It's not a proper test if they make it so extreme in their test in order to actually cause burn-in. Modern-day oled tvs have built-in software and protection which they have purposefully bypassed. Doesn't make much sense. Have a 5 year old oled laptop I use all day every day along with 2 LG oled TVs all of which have the same amazing picture the day I bought them. Again, this is nothing more than clickbait which is getting pretty stale these days. Brings my perception of the company down tbh.
 
Yielar said:
It's not a proper test if they make it so extreme in their test in order to actually cause burn-in. Modern-day oled tvs have built-in software and protection which they have purposefully bypassed. Doesn't make much sense. Have a 5 year old oled laptop I use all day every day along with 2 LG oled TVs all of which have the same amazing picture the day I bought them. Again, this is nothing more than clickbait which is getting pretty stale these days. Brings my perception of the company down tbh.
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"For the OLED TVs in this test, we'll enable all panel-saving features, including pixel shift features and additional burn-in prevention mechanisms, like LG's logo luminance adjustment feature."

"Each TV is on for a total of 20 hours per day on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and they cycle on and off multiple times per day. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they're on for a total of 15.5 hours, to allow time for all OLED TVs to run their panel compensation cycles."

www.rtings.com

How Long Should A TV Last? Our 100 TV Accelerated Longevity And Burn-In Test

We've decided to run 100 TVs through a grueling 2-year test, turning on and off eight times a day, for a total of 126 hours per week, with each TV at its brightest settings.
www.rtings.com www.rtings.com

Do you think this test is intended to malign OLEDs? Are you aware that RTINGS has had OLED models as their "Best TV" recommendation (as well as several other 'best of' display sub-categories) for years?
 
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digitalgriffin said:
LCDs should not have retention issues unless they are using organic compounds. This was a problem for Epson till they used inorganic substrates for the LCD panel. Pixels can get a little "stuck" it's due to how the crystals settle in the matrix. But cycling programs can correct this.

Or am I missing something? Did ratings run the cycling program and still have issues?
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It's all pretty vague and clearly a dig at LCD monitors. There's only one mention of LCD monitors, at the very end of the video:

I mean in terms of picture quality they're pretty hard to beat and in terms of longevity they're at least performing how we expected them to with which is more than we can say for LCD models for now that concludes our 10-month update...
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At least tell us what exactly is wrong with LCDs!

I've an Asus VH222 that's been running strong for the past decade. If there's some color reproduction issues then, honestly, I don't see them.

Plus, I use the monitor at full brightness because it the backlight starts flickering (PWM) at 99% brightness level or lower.

Speaking of which, I just love how no one, not even Rtings, ever bothers to mention OLED's image flickering, which can cause eye strain and might even accelerate myopia.

At least an LCD's backlight can be DC dimmed for virtually no flickering + they can also use high frequency PWM. OLEDs, on the other hand, are typically limited to ~250Hz, so almost anyone can detect it, at least at a subconscious level.
 
Eezo said:
At least tell us what exactly is wrong with LCDs!
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This is from the last written update on their site:
We've also noticed far more panel issues than we expected, and it seems like LCD panels aren't as resilient as everyone hoped. Something interesting that stands out is the type of failures we've encountered. While LCD panel issues are fairly widespread, the worst performers are budget models. Component and general system failures, on the other hand, seem to mainly affect higher-end models. This generally makes sense, as higher-end models typically get a lot brighter than budget models, putting a greater strain on components like the power supply.
Seems like it's the actual panels themselves that are failing for the cheaper ones. They needed to do some investigation as to some of the striping they were seeing after 10 months so I'm guessing there will be more details in the next update.
 
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thestryker said:
This is from the last written update on their site:
We've also noticed far more panel issues than we expected, and it seems like LCD panels aren't as resilient as everyone hoped. Something interesting that stands out is the type of failures we've encountered. While LCD panel issues are fairly widespread, the worst performers are budget models. Component and general system failures, on the other hand, seem to mainly affect higher-end models. This generally makes sense, as higher-end models typically get a lot brighter than budget models, putting a greater strain on components like the power supply.
Seems like it's the actual panels themselves that are failing for the cheaper ones. They needed to do some investigation as to some of the striping they were seeing after 10 months so I'm guessing there will be more details in the next update.
Click to expand...

That makes 'some' sense. However, it's rather absurd to compare low-end LCD panels with OLEDs which typically sit in the high-end price segment.

You can have a pretty good LCD for less than half the price of an OLED. Sure, it won't have the near infinite contrast ratio of an OLED, but it should easily outlive it by at least 3x.

Regardless, I don't think OLEDs are ready for the prime time, despite their certain advantages. Not unless they do something about their flickering and burn-in issues, neither of which is poised to be addressed in the near future.
 
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