CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

huggy · Last edited by huggy on Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:06 am; edited 1 time in total

Well after 6 months of using aluminium kickboards(that weren't really doing the job) with black velvet for top and bottom masking,I finally decided to build a cable driven manual masking system that will close both top and bottom in the one pull.
So I headed off to the local hardware,got some wire,shackles,aluminium strips and some 40mm pvc piping,or for you yanks 1.57480 inches Mr. Green

Got home,slapped it all together in half a day,and lo and behold the darn thing worked Thumbs Up

sure enough ,one pull and both top and bottom go up at the same time.But the real surprise was when I turned the lights off and swithed the pj on..........DAMN!!!!!!!!!!! what a bloody difference,I couldn't believe what I was missing all this time.It's like the image just floats in the air. I'd recommend anyone with substandard masking/reflections to address this asap,the difference is amazing.
Next step is to eliminate all other reflections near the screen,I thought I had a batcave,however a true batcave must be void of most if not all reflections.

Oh and I'll be adding a motor to my masking soon with IR so I never have to get off my fat ass again.

Anyway just had to express my joy Very Happy

Dave

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5198

Prove it!! Wink

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1221 Location: Calgary

If you have anything but a black ceiling then you'll need to put some black velvet up there. I use about 6' out from the screen, made a big improvement.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:25 pm Post subject: Re: WHOHAA!!!!!!!! Masking rocks!

**kal** · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:23 pm Post subject:

dropzone7 · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 1070 Location: Charlotte, NC

Pictures please!

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5135 Location: Osceola, Indiana

I agree it makes a huge difference even with the great black levels a CRT has....I just built a very simple masking system...I'll post some pics when I get home....Only problem is some BD's have subtitles in the masking area, same problem CIH guys have...I have overcome this shortcoming by ripping the disk to a file with my HTPC re-encoding the disk with the subtitles over the image. There are not that many disks with this issue but when you run into one, its irritating.

Mike

PaulB · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:49 pm Post subject:

Pics and more details would be appreciated - great work guys!

huggy · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:42 pm Post subject:

Pics you say?

Ummm.........ehemmm,did I mention I put this together in a few hours, TBH it was a very preliminary attempt to see if what I ultimately want to achieve will work,but now I know it will Thumbs Up

It's not something I would be proud of ATM nor would I post anything like this on AVS but since its experimantal I hope you guy's can overlook the botch job.
I'll take some pics after I get back from work.And will probably start a dedicated thread for DIY motorized IR horizontal masking thread for the really cheap!
Oh and will definately go ahead with eliminating all reflection points as advised.

Dave

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5198

now he is starting to back down from his wild claims. Laughing

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5135 Location: Osceola, Indiana

Don't laugh....Here are a few picture of my primitive mask. Cost was about $50, built it just to see if I liked it…Now I can’t watch a scope movie without…The good part is it only takes about 30 seconds to put up or take down…Not as cool as an electric mask but it took longer to take the images and post this information than to build the mask.

The material I used was a cedar lap siding...It's light and fairly cheap and clear of bad knots, about $10 for a 10' long piece, this is what was left over.

This is back side with showing the velvet stapled to back side. The velvet was about $25

Attached to the screen frame with this 1" aluminum angle stock, cut and attached to the velvet wrapped cedar siding. I did counter sink the screws.

Here is the bracket attached to the screen frame...The pin at both ends are just finish nails with an oversized hole to remove and insert at one end. The pin (nail) at the other end is permanently attached… Just slide the mask off the pin at the opposite end then place the pin into the frame other end. The second hole in the bracket wasn't needed because the mask hangs fine with one pin at each end. I store the masks when not in use behind the drapes.

Mark_A_W · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:33 am Post subject:

huggy · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:16 am Post subject:

Mike
That's exactly how my masking panels were done but with aluminium,did the job but just got so sick of it after a while.

OK here's some pics of FRANKENMASK

Now that I know this works,I'll tear it down and do it properly,so it looks alot neater and not so half assed,but I'm very happy with the results.

OH but the best is yet to come Wink

Dave

Mark_A_W · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:38 am Post subject:

Hey...that's just like mine!!

huggy · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:45 am Post subject:

Mark_A_W · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:18 am Post subject:

Nup, but unless you got new pics...neither is yours.

I never bothered. Sure I could build it, and control it from my PC, but really, it's not hard to pull a drawstring.

And it's MOTORISED Dave!! We spell proper here mate! Not like them damn yankees!! Wink

Actually, it's a bit different to mine, I don't have a bottom roller.

huggy · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:52 am Post subject:

Mark_A_W · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:21 am Post subject:

Are you using limit switches?

Can you stop in between? Not all movies are the same...

And it's very nice, better than mine.

We need a video showing how the window mech works!

huggy · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:27 am Post subject:

huggy · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:57 am Post subject:

Here's a vid of the actual motor in action(its actually on the side of the screen),it's a bit quicker than I'd like but it does the job just fine,but like I said I need to add a power supply with IR,somehow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKpK_wRolMY

Dave