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If an image is displayed long enough on my TFT screen, a "shadow" of it is still visible like a semitransparent overlay for some time. The longer it is shown, and the brighter the image, the longer the "burned in" image stays. This is under Linux. What is the cause if this?

  • Could it be that the monitor is running at a non-native frequency (Hz)?
  • If not, any other theories as to what could be the cause?
  • How do I check which frequency my monitor is running?
  • How do I change the frequency?

If it matters, I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 but the relevant settings are probably in some settings file of the X server.

Also, bonus points to anyone that knows if this phenomena has a name, would make it easier to search for info.

mizipzor
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2 Answers2

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I just happens to some LCD monitors sometimes. I have a monitor that if you leave a webpage open for too long, the title bar will start to discolor the screen when it's removed.

I've found that leaving a solid black or solid white image on the screen overnight generally fixes the problem.

I would just turn down the brightness (for less power consumption and monitor longevity, the backlight has nothing to do with the 'burn in') and leave a screen saver on overnight. On my monitor, once the screen is back to normal, it doesn't come back for a while.

Grant
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Good question on phenomenon name. When I started by googling "ghosting" (motion blur) and "burn-in" (essentially permanent), the results were not as helpful as when I searched for "image persistence". In case anyone else lands here like I did, just wanted to share what worked for me.

I was able to fix the image persistence on my monitor by disabling all the automatic screen features (auto response time, adaptive sync, HDR), setting the refresh rate to the maximum the screen supports, and reducing the brightness and contrast to 49 and 49. I tried these individually, but I had to do all of these for it to work as well with DisplayPort as it does on HDMI. Even the OSD was hanging around until all the settings were aligned, so it must be how the pixels are refreshed.

Once it was fixed, the last ghost still took time to disappear, and apparently I was not alone in seeing that. Also, testing was a lot easier when I switched to using a middle gray background.

theSparky
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