AARP Hearing Center
What Is Burn-In on My TV and What Can I Do About It?
Symptoms include a ghostly logo from a channel other than the one you are watching
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I bought an expensive OLED TV a few years ago, and now it has a faded but visible outline of an image in the background I can’t make disappear. Is there anything I can do?
Your TV is likely exhibiting a case of burn-in, where a phantom or discolored image remains fixed on the screen no matter what you’re watching.
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I’ve seen this firsthand on my nearly 7-year-old 65-inch LG OLED TV. Though not always noticeable, the ghostly trace of a CNN logo is visible often enough in the bottom right corner of the screen, even when I’m on a different channel.
But burn-in may only be evident when a certain scene or background is on the screen.
Not covered by warranty. It’s a bummer, especially since the effect is typically irreversible and usually not covered by standard warranties. Replacing the screen altogether is cost-prohibitive, so if the condition is intolerable, you may have little choice but to buy a new TV.
Burn-in is possible with any display technology but tends to be more prevalent on OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays like my TV and yours has. OLEDs have a lot going for them, starting with what I consider to be the most important feature: a generally splendid picture. But burn-in can occur when pixels that illuminate the screen are damaged, often because the TV has been stuck on the same channel for too long.
It’s why you might see faint images of static stock tickers, logos or chyrons from news or weather stations, sports scoreboards or video game graphics.
If you’re lucky, the retained image you see is temporary. Alas, burn-in is almost always permanent.
You can usually tell if your TV has a burn-in problem because, well, the effect is right there for you to see. If you’re not sure, you can search for burn-in tests on YouTube. These are videos that intermittently cycle different color patterns and gradients on the screen. During a test I ran on the LG, the CNN logo artifacts (and other faint images) were visible when yellow, purple and especially red backgrounds were displayed. I could not see the logo when the test background was blue.
8 steps to reduce the likelihood of burn-in
Many newer TVs have features designed to mitigate but not completely eliminate the risk that the screen will retain these intrusive images. But by no means will everyone with an OLED, even an older set, experience the issue.
As a viewer, you can do the following:
1. Keep screen pauses short. The idea is simple. You don’t want the screen stuck on a static image or other elements for very long, whether you’re watching live TV or displaying the menus of a video game.
2. Turn the TV off when you’re not watching. Another simple step. There’s no reason to leave the TV on when your attention is elsewhere.
3. Turn on the sleep timer. Consider this a variation of the previous tip. If you tend to doze off while watching TV, a sleep timer can automatically power off the TV while you’re snoozing.
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4. Switch channels every so often. Similar principles apply here; you don’t want the TV showing the identical thing for too long. I’m certainly not telling you not to watch your favorite channels. But if you can, avoid watching the same station with a fixed banner or logo hours on end, at least without periodically dropping in elsewhere, be it other channels or other streaming services.
5. Lower the display and/or logo luminance. Maxing out on peak brightness can overtax the pixels. Consider lowering the contrast as well. TV user settings vary by manufacturer and model. Look for settings that can detect and automatically lower the brightness of static images like those banners, logos or even subtitles.
On some LG models, for example, go to All Settings | Picture | OLED Panel Settings | Adjust Logo Brightness.
6. Move the screen. I’m not speaking of physically moving the TV but rather digging into your TV’s settings and enabling Screen Move, Screen Shift, or Pixel Shift, similar tools that go by different names. At regular intervals, pixels will move just an itty bit to mitigate the likelihood of burn-in or image retention. Chances are you won’t even notice.
On my LG, Pixel Shift was also found under OLED Panel Settings.
7. Clean the pixels. This one’s kind of a maybe. Various features in user settings that may reduce the burn-in on some TVs are called Pixel Cleaning, Pixel Refresh, Panel Refresh or Panel Refresher. Sony describes its version, Panel Refresh, as a way to “automatically adjust the uniformity” of the OLED screen when you use it for long periods.
The TV must be plugged in but turned off. The process can take an hour or so. You can manually trigger these features or have them start automatically when the TV is off.
On my TV, LG included a note saying the feature won’t kick in while a show is being recorded or a software update is in progress.
So why the maybe? Sony posted a disclaimer that said people should not manually perform Panel Refresh more than once a year because it can affect the panel’s “usable life.” Check the instructions as best you can on your own television.
8. Enable screen savers. By now, you should be seeing a pattern. Once again, it’s about altering what appears on the screen for prolonged periods of time. Not every TV has screen savers. If yours does, the screen saver may automatically kick in a couple of minutes after it detects a static image.
Bonus tip: Privacy help from WhatsApp
WhatsApp, the Meta-owned global messaging app used by some 3 billion people worldwide, recently detected and took down 6.8 million accounts it said were linked to “criminal scam centers.”
To help prevent WhatsApp users from falling for future scams, Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, has begun rolling out new tools. One targets scams initiated through group messaging. If someone not among your contacts adds you to an unfamiliar WhatsApp group, you will see a safety overview with “key information” about the group: when it was created, the number of members, any of your contacts who belong, and, most importantly, a tip to watch out for scams. Meta says notifications from the group will be silenced until you indicate that you want to stick around.
Meta says it is also exploring other approaches to combat potential scammers who attempt to contact you directly. In one ongoing test, if you start to chat with a person not in your contacts, Meta will display additional context about who it is you’re communicating with.
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