We all have days when we mistakenly peel off our brand-new Samsung TV screen. Well, maybe only some of us do, like Kelsey, who mistook her expensive TV screen for protective film and peeled it off without blinking an eye. The video of the incident became a viral sensation after she posted it to her TikTok account.
It Wasn’t a Protective Screen
Watch as Kelsey, a beautician, accidentally peels off the TV’s polariser, and her equally confused husband joins in on the ritual to finish the job, only to discover that this supposed screen protector is, in fact, a screen optical filter. Samsung and other LCD TVs often have this polariser film, which enhances the television’s display by filtering and adjusting the direction of light, restricting the type of light that reaches the LCD’s pixel layer.
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An Easy Mistake To Make
In the video, Kelsey mentioned that she didn’t want to post the video (apparently two years old) because she didn’t want the upload to go viral. She posted it recently anyway, and it went viral with over two million views. “We thought this was the protective plastic because it really looked like that,” explained Kelsey, adding, “So, we started peeling it off, and we did not realize that that was the actual screen that we were pulling off.”
In a follow-up video, the lash queen claimed that the polariser was already slightly peeled; this and the couple’s previous experience where their other TVs came standard with a protective film made them assume that the peeling polariser was a protective screen, the same as before.
In fairness, pulling off the polariser is a common mistake many people make when buying a new TV. Samsung even has an installation service where the company offers to install your new television to prevent this and other such incidents. So, while Kelsey and her husband received a lot of flak and criticism online, in the real world, people routinely mutilate their television sets unwittingly because they assume every cellphone or television comes standard with a protective film.
In almost all cases, reattaching the polarizer is tricky. A technician or someone experienced in the field should access it to determine whether the screen is salvageable or a new filter is needed. The other grim reality facing the unfortunate victim is the cost – quality polarizers are expensive. These screens are often the most pricey component of the TV’s filter kit; they don’t come cheap, folks. Insurance should cover the damage, but let’s hope your coverage is comprehensive and that they cover such unfortunate incidents caused by ignorance and a lack of labelling by the manufacturer.
Samsung has been accused of not labelling the latest LCD televisions to demarcate where the polariser is. Kelsey feels the same, saying in the follow-up video, “This would be such an easy fix, to just put a small sticker that just says, like, ‘not a protective screen,’ or, like, ‘do not pull it’, “But there was nothing there,” she said. Let Kelsey’s tragic tale be a warning for the rest of us. Be careful what you peel off; it could be your TV screen.
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