Can security devices harm DVDs and electronic devices?

No.

-- jayembee

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DVDs are purely optical devices and are unaffected by magnetic fields. Your vacuum cleaner has magnetic parts but to be damaged the magnetic field would have to be so powerful as to actually bend something... not going to happen from a security device.

DVD and CD disks are purely optical devices. You can run these through an MRI, and they will still play very well.

The bottom line is a big NO for harming DVD's and CD disks with a magnetic field.

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Jerry G. ======

But the magnetic field could also induce current in the vacuum's electronic components... would that be harmful to the vacuum at all?

Ask the vacuum cleaner!

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I've never heard of electronic components being harmed by a magnetic field. Electric fields, yes, but not magnetic. I think the field would have to be enormously strong to cause harm.

The only kinds of devices which could be harmed by magnetic fields are ones that are magnetic-based themselves, such as floppy disks. Don't worry about it.

TVs and computer monitor screens can be damaged too. Degaussing will usually fix it, but not always.

-Jon Purkey -

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If the built in degausser doesn't fix it, find an old time TV technician and have him dig out his manual degausser. One of those will degauss anything.

Agree: But keep magnetic fields away from the magnetic stripe on your bank/credit cards! One guy laid his credit card on top of a hardware store check out security tag cancellation device and the card got 'wiped'!

Yeah I read that the magnetic field generated by an MRI could damage electronic devices, so I was just wondering if it is possible that a weaker one could also do some damage.

BTW, when you say "electric field", do you just mean static electricity?

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An electric field can be either static or dynamic. Any time you have voltages of opposite polarity present, there is a field between them.

Thanks for your answers, everyone.