monitor burn in , how long is too long

[mrserv0n]

I have a arcade monitor in my setup, I sometimes leave it at windows for extended periods of time, never thought about it, I have no burn in at all but wondered how long does it take for a arcade monitor to do damage sitting idle on a fixed screen?

[Brian Hoffman]

I have a arcade monitor in my setup, I sometimes leave it at windows for extended periods of time, never thought about it, I have no burn in at all but wondered how long does it take for a arcade monitor to do damage sitting idle on a fixed screen?

Quite a long time. Ive had monitor burn in... Even LCDs.. id say weeks to months .

But never using MAME because the games change and you dont always have the same places illuminated all the time.

[bkenobi]

You would be looking at minimum of hundreds of hours, and more likely thousands. The machines I remember with burn in most are computers at the library running on the old dos type input screens. They never turned them off. If you want to prevent burn in, just make sure you have a screen saver running that doesn't have anything constantly the same color on the same location. I wouldn't worry about it unless "extended time">days.

[mightypeniz]

I've seen burn in on a SCADA workstation (CRT) monitor after 2 weeks.

LCD's take a lot longer, and (perhaps not suprisingly) some LCD "burn" can be reversed. I came across a Java app once which basically played tv snow/static - you run it fullscreen, or at least in the area the burn is visible in.. helps with stuck pixels & bright pixels too. Didn't think it'd work, but after a week, it had removed most traces of the burn mark.

I usually opt for a blank screen or using power management to turn off the monitor after x mins.

[Sir Auros]

I don't worry about it because the attract mode in GameEx rarely crashes, when I do have it in Windows the screensaver comes on, and I usually turn the TV in my cabinet on and off with a remote I have velcroed under the CP.