4:3 content on 16:9 screen harmful?

[Creamu]

Hey there,

a friend told me that having alot of 4:3 content on your 16:9 screen can cause issues in the long run since the screen is used unevenly and therefore degrades in an uneven way. Is this true?

Best regards

 

[Deleted member 435036]

Maybe if you keep a 4:3 image on screen for like a month straight it will burn into the middle and not the black bars at the sides but other than that you shouldn't see any other wear. If you're concerned you just try putting some sort of border around you 4:3 content.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Nah, that's nonsense. While TV screens do technically "degrade", the ridiculous amount of time it takes for that degradation to actually reach a noticeable level is so long that you'll probably have upgraded your TV like 5 times by the time you'd notice anything. I think LED/OLED TVs have some ridiculous number like 40,000+ hours worth of calculated lifespan or something ridiculous like that

So long as you're not keeping a still 4:3 image on your screen 24/7 for months at a time (thus causing burn-in), it's not going to cause any real problems, and by the time it might you'll probably have a fancy 16k TV or something to use instead.

 

[raging_chaos]

a friend told me that having alot of 4:3 content on your 16:9 screen can cause issues in the long run since the screen is used unevenly and therefore degrades in an uneven way.

That's exaggerated nonsense, burn in only applies to still images left on the screen for endless hours at a time with a very high brightness. With all do respect tell your friend to stop hating on proper aspect ratios. That's officially the 2021 version of what I used to hear as a kid from my parents which was that, "playing Nintendo for too long on color TVs will ruin the colors ". Never fell for it since I knew they just wanted me to go to bed and I had read the warnings in the manual regarding still images anyway.

 

[Creamu]

Thank you for replies!

About 50% of content I enjoy on my TVs is 4:3. I wanted to make sure this isn't an issue. This is good news and I will inform my buddy about this. I always was paranoid about playing 4:3 indie titles on my Vita because of this...

 

[raging_chaos]

About 50% of content I enjoy on my TVs is 4:3.

I've been using my plasma that way for years, you'll be perfectly fine bro. Game on.

 

[Creamu]

I've been using my plasma that way for years, you'll be perfectly fine bro. Game on.

Nice! I will do so!

 

[D34DL1N3R]

A lot of these replies are semi-accurate. I don't believe for a second that someone with a plasma or OLED that has a ratio of 50% 4:3 material has ZERO issues.... unless they have taken proper steps to prevent the burn in or image retention from happening.

If you're using an LED you're fine. If you're using a plasma or OLED burn in might not happen for a while, but it WILL happen (if you don't take caution.) Image retention on the other hand is more likely and that can be eliminated by switching up your viewing content to full screen material or running one of the many different "image retention wipe" videos out there.

 

[Creamu]

My vita has oled, my TV are LED. I guess I'll be careful with the vita.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

My vita has oled, my TV are LED. I guess I'll be careful with the vita.

The reason it's not a problem for the majority is because most people view enough other content to where it doesn't happen aside from maybe some very slight image retention. Imo 50% 4:3 content would be enough to just make sure you're careful. Maybe run one of those screen wipers once in a while. Remember this one single thing and you won't have anything to worry about: You can't fix it, but you can very easily prevent it.

 

[VinsCool]

The only time I could it would be from using a plasma display turned on for days at time always displaying the same static image.
I used to have an old plasma HDTV, one of the earliest on the market actually, and it was almost always in 4:3 mode (or stretched when I hated myself), with lovely horizontal bars 99% of the time, and even that wasn't causing any problem.

The worst outcome would be a temporary image retention that goes away after a couple minutes, and that is also not always happening either, especially with modern displays with built-in technology to prevent any burn-in damage.
LCD displays are pretty much more durable for that matter. I think I have that tiny HDTV turned on almost 24/7 since 2012 and it's still not showing a single sign of failure or damage from displaying static images for extended periods of time.

So yeah, there is nothing worry about.

 

[pcwizard7]

OLED TVs if you watch a lot of 4:3 content, the leds will degree unevenly. I just stretch 4:3 content on my oled

 

[Creamu]

OLED TVs if you watch a lot of 4:3 content, the leds will degree unevenly. I just stretch 4:3 content on my oled

Doesnt it look like this then:

 

[Creamu]

 

[raging_chaos]

Doesnt it look like this then:

Like stated previously that all depends on not only the brightness you drive the screen at but also the quality of the OLED panel to begin with as well. The Pixel 3 is notorious for its defective LG screens that would turn white colors into pink. For the most part you're going to be fine if you were susceptible to burn in you would have noticed it by now. Avoid doing anything that makes you turn the brightness all the way up like playing outside under direct sunlight or in an attempt to make the colors unnaturally vibrant.

If you're wondering what damage looks like when you do that it looks like this picture. That line it's pointing to is actually called burn out not burn in, and you can clearly see the blue colors have degraded across the entire screen from playing with too high of a brightness. Why has blue degraded? It's because blue subpixels wear out at a faster rate than the others and high brightness speeds up the process. In terms of priority, on an OLED (and Plasma) you should be worried about power and static images more so than the aspect ratio of the content you are playing. OLEDs are designed to last 1000s of hours just like any other screen but not when you drive them at full blast.

 

[pcwizard7]

Doesnt it look like this then:

I know oled has protection tech built-in, in just being overly causes. And it depends on the 4:3 like if it was original recording onto tape or vhs. like star trek next gen you stretch it, and it looks like a 16:9 image

my oled cx allows manual stretching and you can go in all directions up down left right

 

[raging_chaos]

Not a fan of stretching 4:3 to 16:9 it looks unnatural. People aren't supposed to look stubby and fat, squares are not supposed to be rectangles and circles aren't supposed to look like ovals. If one really wanted to maintain square pixels they would be using a form of pan and scan or cropping, not stretching. It the end people are going to do what they want with their screens but fearmongering others into conformance is silly. Playing 4:3 on any screen isn't going to make it wear out any faster than 16:9 unless you're doing everything stated previously.

 

[pcwizard7]

you can also allow go diagonal, which is like cropping

 

[Creamu]

Thanks for the replies. I now know what to look out for.

That being said I strongly advice against streching 4:3 content to 16:9. Doing so will alter your brain tremendously making you incapable to function as a normal member of society and your reasoning skills will be greatly impaired. Also your spacial thinking will be dimished if that is of any concern to you.

 

[raging_chaos]

Thanks for the replies. I now know what to look out for.

That being said I strongly advice against streching 4:3 content to 16:9. Doing so will alter your brain tremendously making you incapable to function as a normal member of society and your reasoning skills will be greatly impaired. Also your spacial thinking will be dimished if that is of any concern to you.

That legit got a loud laugh out of me, I'll have a good day today!