CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Person99]

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[ecrabb]

Agreed on the burlap. I don't like it, either. Not only is the burlap very porous (letting some of the fiberglass fibers fly if you bump or brush the panel), but the burlap itself is even a little messy, giving up it's own fibers if disturbed. I decided against the burlap right off the bat because I've had bad experiences with burlap in completely unrelated applications... like a Halloween costume or a table runner (don't ask). It can be a mess.

On my ATS "designer" panels, it's a tighter weave material - almost like a really light canvas. It looks like something sofa pillows or chair cushions would be made of. I've seen no signs of fiberglass fibers escaping the panel if I touch, bump or pat the panel. As long as you don't use burlap or some other really open weave of fabric, the fabric should pretty well encapsulate the fiberglass. Plus, if you use fiberglass board (as opposed to bat), it's naturally a little more cohesive and doesn't give up fibers so easily.

Brian, I think the bpape DIY panels with the precut 2x4 panels and a nice fabric of your choosing are the way to go if you want to DIY. You're not going to do it for much cheaper than $20/panel.

Here's bpape's company web site:
http://www.gikacoustics.com/

You should also be able to find OC703 (or Knauf equiv) duct board or Linacoustic locally since you're in a metro area. Not shipping the stuff would bring down your cost a little, too.

SC

[ecrabb]

Agreed on the burlap. I don't like it, either. Not only is the burlap very porous (letting some of the fiberglass fibers fly if you bump or brush the panel), but the burlap itself is even a little messy, giving up it's own fibers if disturbed. I decided against the burlap right off the bat because I've had bad experiences with burlap in completely unrelated applications... like a Halloween costume or a table runner (don't ask). It can be a mess.

On my ATS "designer" panels, it's a tighter weave material - almost like a really light canvas. It looks like something sofa pillows or chair cushions would be made of. I've seen no signs of fiberglass fibers escaping the panel if I touch, bump or pat the panel. As long as you don't use burlap or some other really open weave of fabric, the fabric should pretty well encapsulate the fiberglass. Plus, if you use fiberglass board (as opposed to bat), it's naturally a little more cohesive and doesn't give up fibers so easily.

Brian, I think the bpape DIY panels with the precut 2x4 panels and a nice fabric of your choosing are the way to go if you want to DIY. You're not going to do it for much cheaper than $20/panel.

Here's bpape's company web site:
http://www.gikacoustics.com/

You should also be able to find OC703 (or Knauf equiv) duct board or Linacoustic locally since you're in a metro area. Not shipping the stuff would bring down your cost a little, too.

SC

[Rdean]

Thanks for the info guys. But I am not finding on that site where to buy the unmounted forms, only the mounted GIK 242 Acoustic Panel which is obviously more expensive.

Is it special order?

[ecrabb]

I think if you PM bpape on AVS, he can set you up with about anything you want.

SC

[ecrabb]

I think if you PM bpape on AVS, he can set you up with about anything you want.

SC

[Brian Hampton]

Hey,

Thanks for all the info about treatments.

Ecrabb,

Our theaters are very similar. (You have better seating to be sure.) And seeing the good workmanship you have presented in your theater has me interested and inspired to get back to trying to improve mine.

My HDMI AVR (Denon 788) is coming today via UPS and even so I can never stop buying Blu Rays day after day so buying the panels is going to have to wait a while for me but it was good to look into it and I can't wait to get going with it. (Just have to stop buying movies for about a month which is hard for me. )

=Brian

[ecrabb]

[ecrabb]

[kal]

[kal]

[Brian Hampton]

I've got 3 kids (2,5 and 7 Years old) and haven't worked in about 6 years.

So,.. I think it's time for plan B.

Lucky for me Netflix at least keeps me from buying stuff that I will never watch. They must have really beefed up the Blu Ray stock because they get um to me quick and often on release day.

Looks like the new gas prices will soon take care of my problem though...



-Brian

[Person99]

[Brian Hampton]

Man,

I could do with some of that. I think a friend of mine recorded some of them (star wars in HD) and was planning to bring over his DVR (what a hassle) to watch them at my place but we never really got around to it.

Owning all the Star Wars the DVDs.... I could almost rationalize going to look for something like that in my cyber travels.

-Brian

[Person99]

[ecrabb]

I've got all 6 recorded off HBO HD... They're from DirecTV, so they don't look excellent by any means, but they're still star far superior to my DVD's. A friend of mine is a huge Star Wars fan, so we were playing around with them - A-B'ing between the DVDs and the HBO recording... He was pretty excited. The HBO HD recording is just good enough that you can really tell how bad some of the prop and wardrobe stuff was in the early episodes. Funny. I'll have to watch them again on the G70 and see how they look - the 'ol 1271 was probably hiding some of the crap in the recording.

I wouldn't mind buying a DVHS machine, Dave. Have you seen any smokin' deals on them lately anywhere? Can you use standard good VHS tape or do you need special tape?

SC

[ecrabb]

I've got all 6 recorded off HBO HD... They're from DirecTV, so they don't look excellent by any means, but they're still star far superior to my DVD's. A friend of mine is a huge Star Wars fan, so we were playing around with them - A-B'ing between the DVDs and the HBO recording... He was pretty excited. The HBO HD recording is just good enough that you can really tell how bad some of the prop and wardrobe stuff was in the early episodes. Funny. I'll have to watch them again on the G70 and see how they look - the 'ol 1271 was probably hiding some of the crap in the recording.

I wouldn't mind buying a DVHS machine, Dave. Have you seen any smokin' deals on them lately anywhere? Can you use standard good VHS tape or do you need special tape?

SC

[Person99]

[Person99]

Oh, and by the way, yeah, the walkers REALLY look like models in HD.

[ecrabb]

Dave,

I know it's a pain to go from DirecTV to D-VHS, but I there's some stuff I'd really like to save and play back, but is too big for a single DL DVD. Since I don't really want to go back to 1990 and have to get up and swap discs (those were the days ), D-VHS would help. I've had stuff really piling up on hard disk and I'm kind of running out of room everywhere. I could pretty easily just dump it off on tape after I've pulled it off the HD Tivo.

OTOH, for the price of a JVC 5u and some tapes, I could buy a terabyte+ of drive space. Decisions...

[ecrabb]

Dave,

I know it's a pain to go from DirecTV to D-VHS, but I there's some stuff I'd really like to save and play back, but is too big for a single DL DVD. Since I don't really want to go back to 1990 and have to get up and swap discs (those were the days ), D-VHS would help. I've had stuff really piling up on hard disk and I'm kind of running out of room everywhere. I could pretty easily just dump it off on tape after I've pulled it off the HD Tivo.

OTOH, for the price of a JVC 5u and some tapes, I could buy a terabyte+ of drive space. Decisions...

[VideoGrabber]

Dave commented:
> The beauty of D-VHS! I tell ya, I don't know why I'm the only massive D-VHS advocate here!!!! <

Probably because those of us who know how cheap and simple it is to record massive amounts of HD are too busy recording stuff!

[VideoGrabber]

One of the nice things about firewire recording of HD content from cable systems is that because D-VHS supports 5C, you can record anything to good quality S-VHS tape, cheaply.

When Hauppauge eventually gets their HD-PVR 1212 box out, we'll be able to record anything direct from the analog HD component video outputs, direct to PC in MPEG4/H.264 format (1920x1080 at 1-13.5 Mbit/sec CBR or VBR, via USB). It uses the Ambarella chip for real-time hardware analog HD encoding.

That'll be nice, since you can record from any HD STB, not just FW-equipped cable boxes. And it will finally provide a way to move 5C-restricted content from D-VHS tapes to PC hard disk.

Somebody's bound to ask for a link, so there you go.

SC, you may want to use the alternate AVCHD format (slightly reduced quality, at 1440x1080) to burn 2 hrs of HD to regular 35 cent DVDs, and play them back on your Blu-ray player (in HD, of course). Makes it convenient to dump stuff off your always full HD-DVR, to save for posterity.

[Person99]

[ecrabb]

I agree, Dave. If it's something you just have to have, then getting a recording is better than not getting a recording, but I don't really see the Hauppauge solution as a good general-use solution. Besides, as we've discussed around here so many times in the last year or so, as the CE industry trends toward standardizing on HDMI, the quality of the D/A converters used on the component outputs on CE gear has gone steadily down hill. So, unless you're using older hardware as a source, you'll probably be recording an inferior signal to begin with, let alone the 2-step A/D -> D/A conversion. I mean, you're going back to "digitizing" video. I remember those days and I don't want to go back...

Personally, if I just HAD to record something that was protected, I'd just use an HDCP stripper, and feed the unprotected HDMI right into a BlackMagic card. ALl digital all the way. In spite of the superior PQ over the Hauppage solution, it's still not what I consider a good "everyday" type of solution.

SC

[ecrabb]

I agree, Dave. If it's something you just have to have, then getting a recording is better than not getting a recording, but I don't really see the Hauppauge solution as a good general-use solution. Besides, as we've discussed around here so many times in the last year or so, as the CE industry trends toward standardizing on HDMI, the quality of the D/A converters used on the component outputs on CE gear has gone steadily down hill. So, unless you're using older hardware as a source, you'll probably be recording an inferior signal to begin with, let alone the 2-step A/D -> D/A conversion. I mean, you're going back to "digitizing" video. I remember those days and I don't want to go back...

Personally, if I just HAD to record something that was protected, I'd just use an HDCP stripper, and feed the unprotected HDMI right into a BlackMagic card. ALl digital all the way. In spite of the superior PQ over the Hauppage solution, it's still not what I consider a good "everyday" type of solution.

SC

[Person99]