Surely the concept of burn in or screen burned sounds familiar to you, a phenomenon suffered by some types of screens that results in a kind of residual image remaining, produced when a static image has been shown for a long time. In this article we are going to tell you what it is, what causes it and if it is something you should worry about.
Surely you have seen many examples of this phenomenon, in which a screen is seen as a background, “burned”, a “ghost” image of something other than what is being shown on the screen. For example, on a TV that has had the news channel on for a long time, the network’s logo and the lower banner showing information may appear in the background.
What is screen burn in and what causes it?
The cause of screen burns has to do with the variable life cycle of the components that produce the light in the screen. As these parts age, their brightness changes and therefore their representation of colors does too. When an image has been static for a long time on the screen, the pixels that compose it have been working at a different rate than the others and, therefore, have aged more than necessary.
This means that on screens with organic components such as OLEDs, screen burn-in is much more pronounced as these components “suffer” greater wear, especially in static images. Of course, this effect is also pronounced on AMOLED screens, although these are more frequent on smartphones than on monitors or PC screens.
Should you worry? Can it be repaired?
However, and although it is more pronounced in some types of screen, it can happen in any technology in reality, since all have more or less pixel wear. Many of you will say that you have been using the same LCD monitor for years and have not had any type of burnout, and this is true because in LCD screens, the crystals have a natural state and this can change depending on the amount of current used to generate the color wanted. As long as these colors change periodically, the crystals for that pixel should fluctuate enough so that the image is not permanently fixed on the crystals.
However, if you have a screen – whatever the technology – that has an always fixed image, you can assume that it will end up having a screen burn effect sooner or later.
Therefore and answering your questions, if your PC screen has OLED technology, we do recommend that you be careful not to leave it with static images for too long, since screens with this technology are the ones that suffer the most from burn in. If your monitor has any other screen technology, it is not a phenomenon that you should fear, unless you always have it on with a static image.
For example, if you have a work PC in which the screen is on for 10 hours a day on the desktop, it is possible that after a certain time the start menu area begins to suffer some burn in. However, if you also change that static image often (for example with a game or a video in full screen), it will be enough for the LCD screen to “fix” this problem on its own, so you can be using the monitor for years and years without suffering this problem.