I installed android SDK and plugin on eclipse 4.4, and LogCat shows only the first letter from each message.
an screenshot:
I replaced/overwrote the com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.prefs file:
~/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.prefs
with one from a previous Eclipse installation. It worked. This is the content:
com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.explorer.data=82
com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.explorer.info=1193
com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.explorer.name=663
com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.explorer.permissions=94
com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.explorer.size=58
com.android.ide.eclipse.ddms.explorer.time=46
ddms.logcat.auotmonitor.level=error
ddms.logcat.automonitor.userprompt=true
devicePanel.Col0=378
devicePanel.Col1=56
devicePanel.Col4=1273
eclipse.preferences.version=1
logcat.view.colsize.Application=98
logcat.view.colsize.Level=67
logcat.view.colsize.PID=54
logcat.view.colsize.TID=54
logcat.view.colsize.Tag=168
logcat.view.colsize.Text=1001
logcat.view.colsize.Time=196