Page 1 of Colour "Blobs" on TV?? Any advice please.

Here goes and any help gratefully appreciated.
We have an 18 Month old Toshiba 28WDB. Excellent so far in terms of pic quality etc. However, last night there appeared to be "blobs" down the right hand side. Thes blobs turned flesh colours pruple, Greens to Reds, blues to reds and so on. This was on input from satellite, aerial, VCR and DVD player. Luckily (for now) the blobs have gone this morning! 2 things I`m after your joint expertise on:
1. What the h*ll were they?
2. Any idea on my rights with Toshiba as it`s past the 12 month guarantee period but i would expect a tube on a £550.00 telly (a bargain at the time) to last longer than 18 months. Last Hitachi we had lasted 6 years and the only problem we had with that was a faulty On / Off switch in the 6th year.
This is worrying me, so please, ANY advice more than gratefully received.
Thanks everybody!!

My thomson does this aswell occasionally. It is even mentioned in the manual but I can`t remember their reasoning for it (magnetic something or other). I just switch it off and back on again.

Pete

Thanks Pete, nothing mentioned in the Tosh manual about it and absolutely nothing whatsoever magnetice is close by. Cheers for your input though mate.

Some TVs degauss themselves automatically when turned on, if yours does this then switching off and on again (as with Petey`s) may solve the problem, as to how it`s magnetising itself that`s another issue. In some TVs degaussing is a menu option, though many can`t do it.

Dave

Thanks for that Dave,
Specifically for me in pure idiot terms, can you please say what "degaussing" is.

Much obliged for your assistance mate.

Flyer
You`re lucky that these blobs disappeared overnight.
I still have a small patch on my TV - thanks to me having placed some loudspeakers a couple of inches away from it. When I moved the speakers, the patches lessened, but one is still there.
Did you have any magnetic items placed close to your TV, by chance?

Regards

Chris

All TV`s degause when switched on this is done to demagnetise the metal bits in the tube which would deflect the beam slightly causing coloured patches. If you moved something with a magnetic field from near your TV when the TV was working it would leave coloured patches which would be remouved when next degaused. (the TV has to be left to cool usually overnight before the degause circuit kicks in).

Steve..

Either magnetic interference from speakers etc.


OR


Turn down your contrast, thompson (eg my TV) and some other TVS have a problem whereby if its bright for an extended time and the contrast is too hight then you get funny colours, mine used to do this, turned the contrast down a few notches and now it`s fine.

On most sets, the degausing circuit only works from main on/off switch (i.e. NOT STANDBY) & the set has to be cold on switch on.

You`re gonna love this! Little 5 yr old Flyer has been doing the iron filings thing at school this week. Guess what we found him doing this evening? "Look Dad, when you put the magnet near the tv it makes the people go purple!!!" Ahh, Bless `em all eh? Bl***dy releived though.
PHEW!!! Thankyou to everybody who offered me advice on this. It was all very gratefully appreciated. Would still be intersted to know where i stood, rights n`stuff as to the tv only being 18 mths old and potentially bust. Thanks again...