First, let me thank all the knowledgeable and helpful participants in this forum... it's great having a resource like this. I've learned so much since discovering this place!

I have a Mitsubishi RPTV, which displays gray bars on the sides of the screen when displaying normal SD programs. The TV's manual talks about black bars, not gray (maybe older models showed black bars?), and also warns of uneven aging.

Is this still relevant with gray bars? Is this something that is guaranteed to happen, or are the warnings just a CYA so Mitsubishi won't be on the hook for repairs due to this issue?

I'd say I spend most of my time watching SD on this set. I've always displayed 3 PIP windows on the right side so there was even coverage on the screen, but that gets a little distracting. I'd rather watch with the gray bars (I don't like the stretch modes), but I won't if it will damage my set.

Thanks!

Jeff

First I need to say my experience is dated on an old 1999 "first edition" Toshiba HDTV monitor and others can give you more up to date info on this long standing issue of RPTV and how newer sets combat it.

My advice is to use the 4:3 picture with gray bars on the side as little as possible or risk an uneven aging problem over time that will produce visible changes in a 16:9 display of wide screen DVD and HDTV.

In my case I used this gray bar mode a lot in the first year. I thought ( I was wrong!} that this neutral gray would age these bars about the same as the picture, based on an assumption that average picture exposure in photography light meters are calibrated to a standard gray card. The picture pixels vary from black to white and all in between so over time it should average to about gray and age the same as the bars. I WAS WRONG!. After about a year I was playing a DVD - "Dances with Wolves" to be specific and every time a wide shot of the sweeping plains came on I could see the side bars as an uneven brightness. AWG GGGG!!!!!

A long correspondence with Toshiba followed where they claimed this was burn in and not covered by warranty, and I countered the manual stated that this was the "STANDARD" mode of operation of the set for 4:3 set and I should have been warned. I finally won- they replaced the guns. But ever since I have used a display mode to fill the screen. I think newer manuals are more specific,

In TV cameras and editing there is a zone around the outside edges of the frame to define an "action safe zone" that they rarely place anything important because various TVs have overscan. I found that by a little adjustment I just lose this small zone on the top and bottom of the picture. It only becomes important on news programs with crawling news at the bottom and then I have to go to the gray side bar mode if i need it.

Maybe this is fixed now in newer sets- so I will defer to others on more modern knowledge.

Don

Don covered the gray bars, nothing has changed.

Get your contrast turned down and read this thread.

!!! Original Aspect Ratio - Black Bars, OAR and Burn-in !!!
http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/thread?forumid=213962&messageid=1032717318&lp=1045898653



Richard F. Fisher
Have you been calibrated? ISF and HAA Trained
Mastertech Repair Corporation, Lawrenceville, GA
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