Personalised burn-in risk · calibrated against Rtings
Will your use profile
cause OLED retention?
The risk-by-use-case table on our burn-in page is a generic answer. This estimator takes your actual hours, content mix, brightness preset, panel generation, and ownership horizon and converts them into one number: equivalent static-content hours over your ownership window, compared against the threshold where Rtings test panels start showing visible retention.
5-year LG burn-in warranty applies (varied content only)
Below the threshold Rtings has associated with visible permanent retention. Continue letting the pixel refresher complete after long sessions and you are unlikely to see retention within the planned ownership window.
Model is calibrated against the Rtings 3-year longevity test profile: brightness exposure × static-content fraction × panel-generation efficiency × mitigation cycle effectiveness × years. The Rtings retention threshold of ~4,200 equivalent static hours reflects the point at which their test panels began showing visible permanent retention on uniformity measurements. Real-world variance is significant; treat the number as a comparative tool, not a precise prediction.
How the risk band is calculated
Five inputs drive the model: how long the TV is on per day, what fraction of that time is showing static content vs varied content, how bright the panel is being pushed, which panel generation you have, and how long you plan to own it. Two checkboxes refine the result based on whether the built-in mitigation systems are actually doing their job.
static_fraction = Σ (content_pct × static_factor)
annual_static = annual_hours × static_fraction
total_equivalent = annual_static
× brightness_mult
× panel_generation_mult
× pixel_refresher_mult
× logo_dimming_mult
× years_owned
Calibration multipliers
- Static-content factors: news ticker 0.85 · gaming HUD 0.55 · mixed TV/movies 0.10 · desktop 0.95 — derived from typical persistent-element coverage of each content type.
- Brightness preset: Cinema 0.55x · Standard 0.85x · Vivid 1.30x — emitter degradation is non-linear with luminance; Vivid pushes ~2.4x faster than Cinema.
- Panel generation: 2020-21 1.35x · 2022-23 1.00x · 2024-26 0.70x — pre-MLA panels degrade faster; current-gen panels with MLA and refined emitters degrade slower.
- Pixel refresher allowed: 0.78x when allowed to run — completing the compensation cycle materially extends panel uniformity life.
- Logo dimming on: 0.90x — channel logo / persistent UI dimming reduces local emitter wear by ~10%.
Where the 4,200-hour threshold comes from
Rtings publishes an ongoing 3-year longevity test running panels at 20 hours per day across multiple content profiles. Their measurements show uniformity changes (the precursor to visible retention) begin appearing on current-generation panels at roughly 4,000-4,500 equivalent static-content hours. The estimator uses 4,200 as the conservative midpoint. Retention is gradual, not a step change — but it is a reasonable threshold above which most viewers begin to notice. Real-world variance is significant; treat the output as a comparative tool, not a precise prediction. Source: rtings.com/tv/learn/oled-tv-burn-in-test (verify dates and current methodology before relying on it).
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