Does Playing the Playstation on an HD TV Ruin It?

Previously, video games systems were known to damage television sets, but changes in television construction has practically eliminated the worry of a video game damaging an HDTV.

Before high-definition televisions, nearly all television sets were made using cathode ray tubes (CRTs). These CRT televisions used a phosphorous-based display, which had several limitations. One such limitation was that it was susceptible to "burn-in," the ghosting of an image that was displayed on the set for too long. Because video games that were popular prior to HDTVs often had static images that rarely moved, such as a score display, they earned a reputation for ruining television sets.

Most HDTVs are built differently than traditional CRT sets. LCD, LED and DLP HDTVs do not use phosphorous-based displays, completely eliminating the worry of screen burn-in from video games or other static images. A still image could be paused on one of these HDTVs for days at a time without resulting in a ghosted or burned-in image.

Plasma TVs, which still use phosphorous-based displays, are the only kind of HDTV susceptible to damage from video games. Typically, burn-in is threat only for the first 100 hours of use. After that time has elapsed, any burned-in image that is caused by a static image will usually vanish within a few hours.