This only applies to color CRTs that use a shadow mask or aperture grille. Monochrome CRTs, and the few color CRTs that don't rely on a piece of metal to ensure the electrons hit only the correct phosphors, are completely immune to lasting damage from a magnet (although in theory a strong enough magnet could alter the magnetism of the existing magnets that correct the set's deflection). A magnet will still distort the image of a monochrome set, but once you remove the magnet, the image should return back to normal.
Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct, the field of the Earth is weak and won’t mess up the image on the TV.
Incorrect. The earth's magnetic field definitely affects Cathode Ray Tubes and many other things. High end CRT computer monitors came with a built in degaussing system and some had controls for aligning the R,G & B electron beams. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing https://hackaday.com/2016/05/25/wtf-is-degaussing/ From personal experience, I took a 20" Sony Trinitron from Los Angeles to New Zealand in the mid…
It's much more likely that your TV suffered in-transit knocks and bumps that rendered it out of alignment, and too out of alignment to be able to be re-aligned.
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#33> There are many CRTs in your TV or monitor. They are each aimed to deliver electrons to a precise spot on the back of your TV where they excite the phospor in the tiny spot on your TV that the electron hits. Magnets are used to guide the electrons to that precise (and tiny) spot. The excited phosphor molecules at that spot then emit light. All the CRTs working together generate the picture on your TV. That's incorre…
Not the only incorrect statement in the article.
> For example, LED TV use individual LEDs to switch on and off to construct a picture.
Nope.
Unless they're talking about microLED TVs, which is almost certainly not the case.
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#34When I was a kid in the mid 80's we had a ball lightning incident. Some family was over visiting and the adults were sitting in the adjoining dining room with us kids in the living room by the TV. Lightning struck somewhere close by and a tennis sized ball of electricity entered the dining room through the outside wall. It crossed the room in about a second, went through the wall to enter the living room and then acc…
From what I can tell, ball lighting doesn't exist. We have lots and lots of people who think they've seen it. But there doesn't seem to be any legitimate footage, which is pretty damning considering there are cameras everywhere now.
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#35When I was a kid in the mid 80's we had a ball lightning incident. Some family was over visiting and the adults were sitting in the adjoining dining room with us kids in the living room by the TV. Lightning struck somewhere close by and a tennis sized ball of electricity entered the dining room through the outside wall. It crossed the room in about a second, went through the wall to enter the living room and then acc…
From what I can tell, ball lighting doesn't exist. We have lots and lots of people who think they've seen it. But there doesn't seem to be any legitimate footage, which is pretty damning considering there are cameras everywhere now.
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
A magnet will bend the electron beams, but that isn’t permanent. A permanent color change made by a magnet only happens by imposing a magnetic field on a metallic component of the monitor, so that the beam is always deflected by it. One component not shown in that diagram is the shadow mask, which divides the screen into discrete dots to be activated by the electron beams. This is a very thin piece of metal (or a gri…
> This is a very thin piece of metal (or a grid of thin wires in certain cases) that is easily magnetized. Worse, a strong magnet (especially a modern rare-earth magnet) can bend the shadow mask, causing color distortion which can't be corrected by degaussing.
Oh my goodness, I wonder if that’s what I did to my parent’s TV as a kid? I remember clearly playing with a large hard drive magnet near the TV and causing the TV to change colours - we ended up with a purple blob in one corner that never went away even after many rounds of degaussing and power cycling.
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#37> There are many CRTs in your TV or monitor. They are each aimed to deliver electrons to a precise spot on the back of your TV where they excite the phospor in the tiny spot on your TV that the electron hits. Magnets are used to guide the electrons to that precise (and tiny) spot. The excited phosphor molecules at that spot then emit light. All the CRTs working together generate the picture on your TV. That's incorre…
Not the only incorrect statement in the article. > For example, LED TV use individual LEDs to switch on and off to construct a picture. Nope. Unless they're talking about microLED TVs, which is almost certainly not the case.
And they only recently came into existence! (In tv sizes that is, plenty of large ‘macro’ led panels for large sizes.
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#38When I was a kid in the mid 80's we had a ball lightning incident. Some family was over visiting and the adults were sitting in the adjoining dining room with us kids in the living room by the TV. Lightning struck somewhere close by and a tennis sized ball of electricity entered the dining room through the outside wall. It crossed the room in about a second, went through the wall to enter the living room and then acc…
From what I can tell, ball lighting doesn't exist. We have lots and lots of people who think they've seen it. But there doesn't seem to be any legitimate footage, which is pretty damning considering there are cameras everywhere now.
what about the 2014 spectrum discussed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning ?
Re: Did I destroy my friend's TV with a magnet? (2022)
#39There's a throwaway comment in here about the earth's magnetic field affecting CRTs and turning the TV upside down, is that actually true? I would have thought the earth's magnetic field would be incredibly weak in comparison to the deflecting coils.
I've got a cocktail video game, and the top (which the screen is mounted to) is on a hinge. There's a decent degauss on start, so if you start it with the screen up, it's fine, and if you start it with the screen down, it's fine, but if you move it while it's on, the colors get weird.