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AMOLED burn-in

Alex1S
Honored Guest
Hi all, I'd like to hear your opinion.

It appears that AMOLED displays can be very susceptible to irreversible burn-in: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/realworld/386635/are-amoled-displays-at-risk-of-burn-in

The damage sets in quite quickly, when illuminating the same pixels for prolonged periods of time, especially when heated. For example look at this picture:

The screen burn in the photo above was the result of setting an AMOLED phone to leave the screen on while charging, and happened after just a couple of weeks.

I imagine this kind of screen damage will be very bad for presence in VR. Do you think Rift DK2 may have a problem, or will the typical Rift usage pattern prevent this from happening?

EDIT: Ok, burn in does not appear to be a huge problem, especially if the development guidelines to have no fixed GUI are followed. However dark splotches that appear only in dark environments with mostly pitch-black screen still bother me:

Any comment on these?
19 REPLIES 19

Gerald
Expert Protege
thanks for the warning, I shall not heat my DK2 then (at least not for prolonged periods while having a static image) 😉
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Crespo80
Explorer
the key parts are:

PenTile screens contain twice as many green subpixels as reds and blues, and since it’s the blue subpixels that degrade most quickly, PenTile displays are less susceptible to screen burn than the RGB type of AMOLED screens.


if you leave your AMOLED screen turned on while charging, within a few weeks you’ll see faint images of the icons appear on your homescreen, with the Android soft keys burned into your display
[...]
items such as car cradles, docking stands and even satnav apps are troublesome, too.


So, it is a problem only if you leave your screen ON for several hours every day with static images at high brightness, and it's really serious only on RGB-stripe screens, while the Samsung pentile AMOLED of the Rift is much less affected.
Nothing to really worry about, your rift will be outdated well before, and CV4 will be around by the time your CV1 screen starts showing any burn-in :lol:

MrMonkeybat
Explorer
If the developers follow the best practice guide any HUDs should be fixed in space instead of tracking with your head, so the should not be in a static place on your screen burning in.

paulg100
Honored Guest
probably worth mentioning that the effect if low persistence in turning the display on and off would also reduce this problem.

MrMonkeybat
Explorer
With low persistence the pixels are never at full power indefinitely so it should help. Guess having the outside light blanked out helps viewing a dimer screen.

PenTile screens contain twice as many green subpixels as reds and blues, and since it’s the blue subpixels that degrade most quickly, PenTile displays are less susceptible to screen burn than the RGB type of AMOLED screens.


That does not make sense that means the blue sub pixels are dimmer to start with before they start degrading.

ThreeEyes
Explorer
I don't know how much low persistence will help since the display is also being driven harder to get the same average brightness. But the brightness can be less since no ambient is being let in and eyes can dark adapt. Need to actually experience one to really know how bright it's being driven.

But another thing is even if there is burn in, against a complex screen image instead of a solid color field, it should be less noticeable. Eyes will tend to focus on the larger image I would believe.

It is something to be aware of, though, and I'll make sure not to run with static screens for long. One thing is whichever screen goes in, if it is available aftermarket like at the online phone parts places, we should be able to replace them fairly easily if it comes to that. Depending on how the first months go, maybe even pck up a spare to have on hand just in case.

My guess is like the others - usage patterns will be different enough from phone use that it won't be an issue.
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mstdesigns
Honored Guest
I also found out that a lot amoleds have black splotches that you are able to see if the room is dark (and the picture is black), which would make being able to see the splotches inside the rift a given. I hope the quality of the screens is really good so there is no such effect.

jojon
Honored Guest
"mrmonkeybat" wrote:
With low persistence the pixels are never at full power indefinitely so it should help. Guess having the outside light blanked out helps viewing a dimer screen.

PenTile screens contain twice as many green subpixels as reds and blues, and since it’s the blue subpixels that degrade most quickly, PenTile displays are less susceptible to screen burn than the RGB type of AMOLED screens.


That does not make sense that means the blue sub pixels are dimmer to start with before they start degrading.


I suppose that is the point; Drive the blue (and to a lesser degree: red) fields at lower power per unit of surface area, to make them last longer, and compensate for this by making them cover larger areas, compared to the more resilient greens, in order to achieve the same net output as they would with smaller, more intense ones.

No reason one can't do the same with full RGB (my phone, e.g, has full RGB, with different-sized subpixels in a "S-stripe" layout (green over above red and blue to the side of them both)) -- I guess there is additional motivation (EDIT: ...for pentile); saving on driver circuitry and routing, perhaps...

Alci
Honored Guest
CRT has the very same problem. Was anyone really bothered with this in real life? Because in reality it never got noticeable on mine heavily used one. Add some software screensaver when Rift is not moving for 10s and problem's solved.