That was a cool video. But if it takes over 5000 hours of time on. I doubt that as a regular user you’re going to see any significant or noticeable degradation but after several years. 5000 is just 208 days, but it has to be continuous and severe. More realistically, with off time and varied usage, the effect will never be as dramatic as with testing. So, it doesn’t sound like something critical. CRTs were worse and people coped just fine. Just use your monitor.
With my old plasma tv if I ever started to notice burn in I would set it to a channel with no signal so it would do the static “snow”. It forces every pixel on the screen to go full spectrum by alternating between white and black. Leaving it like that for like 5-10 mins would greatly reduce noticeable burn in. TV is still going strong after 14 years of doing this.
Newer OLEDs are also far less susceptible to burn in than older generations, I think much of the concern is still stigma from earlier models.
With that said, I’m sure I am not alone in saying I have a rather old OLED that I’ve just used as a normal every day monitor and haven’t experienced any issues in the 6+ years I’ve had it.
If you work 8 hours a day from home and then do a couple of hours of browsing, your 5000 hours will expire in two years. That’s a bloody joke to buy a new monitor every two years! And don’t get me started on that fucking pentile layout…
TLDR: I took the plunge on OLED TV in 2021 as a primary monitor and it’s been incredible
I’ve been using an LG C1 48" OLED TV as my sole monitor for my full-time job, my photography, and gaming since the start of 2021. I think it’s at around 3000 hours of screen time. It averages over 10 hours of on time per weekday
It typically stays around 40 brightness because that’s all I need, being fairly close to my face the size. All of the burn-in protection features are on (auto dimming , burn-in protection, pixel rotation) but I have Windows set to never sleep for work reasons.
Burn in has not been a thing. Sometimes, I leave it on with a spreadsheet open or a photo being edited overnight because I’m dumb. High brightness and high contrast areas might leave a spot visible in certain greys but by then, the TV will ask me to “refresh pixels” and it’ll be gone when I next turn the TV on. The task bar has not burned in.
Experience for work, reading, dev: 8/10
Pros: screen real estate. One 48" monitor is roughly four 1080p 22" monitors tiled.The ergonomics are great. Text readability is very good especially in dark mode.
cons: sharing my full screen is annoying to others because it’s so big. Video camera has to be placed a bit higher than ideal so I’m at a slightly too high angle for video conferences.
This is categorically a better working monitor than my previous cheap dual 4k setup but text sharpness is not as good as a high end LCD with retina-like density because 1) the density and 2) the subpixel configuration on OLED is not as good for text rendering. This has never been an issue for my working life.
Experience with photo and video editing: 10/10
Outside of dedicated professional monitors which are extremely expensive, there is no better option for color reproduction and contrast. From what I’ve seen in the consumer sector, maybe Apple monitors are at this level but the price is 4 or 5x.
Gaming: 10/10
4K 2160p120hz with 3ms lag, perfect contrast and extremely good color reproduction.
FPSs feel really good.
Anything dark/horror pops
A lot of real estate for RTSs
Maybe flight sim would have benefited from dusk monitor setup?
I’ve never had anything but a good gaming experience. I did have a 144hz monitor before and going to 120 IS marginally noticable for me but I don’t think it’s detrimental at the level I play (suck)
Reviewers had mentioned that it’s good for consoles too though I never bothered
Movies and TV: 10/10
4K HDR is better than theaters’ picture quality in a dark room. Everything I’ve thrown on it has been great.
Final notes/recommendations
This is my third LG OLED and I’ve seen the picture quality dramatically increase over the years. Burn-in used to be a real issue and grays were trashed on my first OLED after about 1000 hours.
Unfortunately, I have to turn the TV on from the remote every time. It does automatically turn off from no signal after the computers screen sleep timer, which is a good feature.
This TV has never been connected to the Internet… I’ve learned my lesson with previous LG TVs. They spy, they get ads, they have horrendous privacy policies, and they have updates which kill performance or features… Just don’t. Get a streaming box.
You need space for it, width and depth wise.
The price is high (around 1k USD on sale) but not compared with gaming monitors and especially compared with 2 gaming monitors.
Pixel rotation is noticeable when the entire screen shifts over a pixel two. It also will mess with you if you have reference pixels at the edge of the screen. This can be turned off.
Burn in protection is also noticable on mostly static images. I wiggle my window if it gets in my way. This can also be turned off.
Thank you for such a detailed writeup of your experience. I have twin 32 curved LCDs and one frame is starting to crack so I’ve been mulling over my options.
I’m in terminals all day long for work, videos and games when I have some downtime. It sounds like an OLED TV is going to be the ticket for me. I’ve been hesitant because the perceived loss of real estate losing a whole display, but that’s clearly more mindset and habit than reality.
Sharing is a concern, I do a lot with coworkers and customers, but I’m sure I can find a way around that. Even if it’s something silly like a VM that I run shares out of. Just sharing single windows won’t do the trick as I’m often sharing a web UI alongside terminals and notes.
I just watched the RTINGS video on burn-in and understand the repurcussions of my flippant attitude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa7V_OOu6B8
Interesting watch. She recommends only use the monitor for gaming, but NYEH!
That was a cool video. But if it takes over 5000 hours of time on. I doubt that as a regular user you’re going to see any significant or noticeable degradation but after several years. 5000 is just 208 days, but it has to be continuous and severe. More realistically, with off time and varied usage, the effect will never be as dramatic as with testing. So, it doesn’t sound like something critical. CRTs were worse and people coped just fine. Just use your monitor.
Sounds like it’s time to break out the bouncing word screensaver again.
With my old plasma tv if I ever started to notice burn in I would set it to a channel with no signal so it would do the static “snow”. It forces every pixel on the screen to go full spectrum by alternating between white and black. Leaving it like that for like 5-10 mins would greatly reduce noticeable burn in. TV is still going strong after 14 years of doing this.
That’s a genius use for static
Newer OLEDs are also far less susceptible to burn in than older generations, I think much of the concern is still stigma from earlier models.
With that said, I’m sure I am not alone in saying I have a rather old OLED that I’ve just used as a normal every day monitor and haven’t experienced any issues in the 6+ years I’ve had it.
I have a newer OLED and the pixel layout is trash for text.
It’s beautiful when gaming or watching video though. So it balances out imo
Yeah plasma had the same issue, by the time I even heard about it everyone said it was awful for burn in. But that wasn’t true at all buy mid 2000s
If you work 8 hours a day from home and then do a couple of hours of browsing, your 5000 hours will expire in two years. That’s a bloody joke to buy a new monitor every two years! And don’t get me started on that fucking pentile layout…
TLDR: I took the plunge on OLED TV in 2021 as a primary monitor and it’s been incredible
I’ve been using an LG C1 48" OLED TV as my sole monitor for my full-time job, my photography, and gaming since the start of 2021. I think it’s at around 3000 hours of screen time. It averages over 10 hours of on time per weekday
It typically stays around 40 brightness because that’s all I need, being fairly close to my face the size. All of the burn-in protection features are on (auto dimming , burn-in protection, pixel rotation) but I have Windows set to never sleep for work reasons.
Burn in has not been a thing. Sometimes, I leave it on with a spreadsheet open or a photo being edited overnight because I’m dumb. High brightness and high contrast areas might leave a spot visible in certain greys but by then, the TV will ask me to “refresh pixels” and it’ll be gone when I next turn the TV on. The task bar has not burned in.
Experience for work, reading, dev: 8/10
Pros: screen real estate. One 48" monitor is roughly four 1080p 22" monitors tiled.The ergonomics are great. Text readability is very good especially in dark mode.
cons: sharing my full screen is annoying to others because it’s so big. Video camera has to be placed a bit higher than ideal so I’m at a slightly too high angle for video conferences.
This is categorically a better working monitor than my previous cheap dual 4k setup but text sharpness is not as good as a high end LCD with retina-like density because 1) the density and 2) the subpixel configuration on OLED is not as good for text rendering. This has never been an issue for my working life.
Experience with photo and video editing: 10/10
Outside of dedicated professional monitors which are extremely expensive, there is no better option for color reproduction and contrast. From what I’ve seen in the consumer sector, maybe Apple monitors are at this level but the price is 4 or 5x.
Gaming: 10/10
4K 2160p120hz with 3ms lag, perfect contrast and extremely good color reproduction.
FPSs feel really good. Anything dark/horror pops A lot of real estate for RTSs Maybe flight sim would have benefited from dusk monitor setup?
I’ve never had anything but a good gaming experience. I did have a 144hz monitor before and going to 120 IS marginally noticable for me but I don’t think it’s detrimental at the level I play (suck)
Reviewers had mentioned that it’s good for consoles too though I never bothered
Movies and TV: 10/10 4K HDR is better than theaters’ picture quality in a dark room. Everything I’ve thrown on it has been great.
Final notes/recommendations This is my third LG OLED and I’ve seen the picture quality dramatically increase over the years. Burn-in used to be a real issue and grays were trashed on my first OLED after about 1000 hours.
Unfortunately, I have to turn the TV on from the remote every time. It does automatically turn off from no signal after the computers screen sleep timer, which is a good feature.
This TV has never been connected to the Internet… I’ve learned my lesson with previous LG TVs. They spy, they get ads, they have horrendous privacy policies, and they have updates which kill performance or features… Just don’t. Get a streaming box.
You need space for it, width and depth wise. The price is high (around 1k USD on sale) but not compared with gaming monitors and especially compared with 2 gaming monitors.
Pixel rotation is noticeable when the entire screen shifts over a pixel two. It also will mess with you if you have reference pixels at the edge of the screen. This can be turned off.
Burn in protection is also noticable on mostly static images. I wiggle my window if it gets in my way. This can also be turned off.
Thank you for such a detailed writeup of your experience. I have twin 32 curved LCDs and one frame is starting to crack so I’ve been mulling over my options.
I’m in terminals all day long for work, videos and games when I have some downtime. It sounds like an OLED TV is going to be the ticket for me. I’ve been hesitant because the perceived loss of real estate losing a whole display, but that’s clearly more mindset and habit than reality.
Sharing is a concern, I do a lot with coworkers and customers, but I’m sure I can find a way around that. Even if it’s something silly like a VM that I run shares out of. Just sharing single windows won’t do the trick as I’m often sharing a web UI alongside terminals and notes.
Well I literally just ordered an ultrawide OLED for work, but I guess I’ll have to play some games then to protect the monitor…