I too own a 52" wide HD, had it for over a year...common sense is the best advice I can give you, bro...like KKK said, don't leave shit paused for extended periods of time or at least turn the TV off. Now by extended I'm talkin over a couple hours...I've left games paused for almost 2 hours without problems...I watch movies on it constantly and have never had issues with black bars...the one thing I will tell you though is that every once in a while the screen will flicker...it's very slight...VERY slight, but it does happen and you will notice...i only catch that once every 3 hours or so of straight viewing...