I've never been at all careful about this issue and I've owned plasmas since they first came out, then LCD's later. I've never seen or heard of a problem. I know it was an issue early on, but has anyone had a problem in recent times?
Image Retention on modern Plasmas isn't
permanent, but I've already had issues with mine after using Theater View for a night without having the screen saver enabled. Theater View was closed, but you could still see the UI on the screen, even when the set was turned off.
It lasted two days. Can't say
that's not annoying.
Using a Screen Saver set to blank certainly prevents the issue (and that's what I do now), but it is annoying in other ways. Theater View has the option to disable the Screen Saver while in use (defaults on). This is useful because it also keeps my display from sleeping. Since I'm using HDMI out, when the display goes to sleep, it cuts out the audio too (and makes MC good and angry as well).
But I can't leave that option enabled, or else I get Image Retention. So, I must disable it, but this means that if I'm not paying attention and I'm playing music in the background at a gathering, the display will eventually go to sleep and the music stops and MC gets all angry and must be restarted. The only other option is to disable the sleep entirely, but I don't want to do that because I do want the display to sleep when not in use at the Windows desktop.
There is no good solution.
This idea is on our list of good intentions.
So please feel free to bump this once a month until it's done.
Thanks!