Is Monitor Burn-in Really Irreversible?

Well? I mean, is there nothing that can be done?

The burn in is a result of the phoshpors on the inside of the crt being permanently damaged. (permanent high intensity of the electron beam(s) hitting the same spot is the cause)

Unfortunately there is no way to reverse this.

ttooddddyy is correct, it's irreversible.

But there is one thing you can try ...

You could use smoked (aka tinted) glass, lexan or plexi as front glass for your cab to hide the burn-in. Dunno how good it works, but some people swear by it.

Check the forums at http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm they have quite a few threads about this subject.

I wonder if its possible to sort of make a mask of the burn in area and then get it copied onto some clear sticky plastic substance. What I'm talking about is the type of stuff you stick on the inside of car windows to tint them. If you could get the mask of the burn in area onto that so the burn in area is darker than the rest to correct it. Once done you could simply stick it onto the front of the monitor.

Has anyone ever tried anything like this?

Raz

Wouldn't rejuvinating a CRT somewhat reduce the burn in?

Raz, the problem with your idea is twofold:

1. the edges of the burned area are often indistinct. Shadow mask monitors spray electrons pretty willy-nilly, and as components fail over time what was a static image tends to drift.

2. burn-in isn't evenly distributed. A static mutli-colour or greyscale image will create different levels of burn-in. You can carve a greyscale picture into a tube this way. This combined with things like alternating images (game/over alternating in the same space for example) create different 'shades' and a mask would have to be pretty sophisticated.

As for burn-in in general (not directed at Razoola)... A used replacement 19" monitor from a dealer was $100 USD last time I checked. If you can't afford that you prolly shouldn't have gotten into arcades anyway. =D

ResOGlas said:

Wouldn't rejuvinating a CRT somewhat reduce the burn in?

Click to expand...

No, if anything it may look even worse, as the unaffected phosphors will illuminate more on a rejuved crt possible making the burnt out phosphors even more noticable.