G'day all.

I moved "house" several months ago, from a unit with a 7.4m x 3.6m living room to one that's 4 metres deep and around 4.5 wide... So pretty different.

The old curtain-rails-with-black-curtains down the side of the old room had to go, I had to drop from 4 surround speakers to 2, and the screen size had to drop from 106" to 92".

Surround speakers are Infinity BETA ES-250's which are dual-wired so that all 4 surround channels come from just 2 speakers. As there's no subwoofer, it's a 7.0 system.

So it's all a lot more "lifestyle-friendly"!



The main reason for posting these pics is to promote the idea of projection screen masking.

Having dark masking like this is quick, cheap and easy... but makes an absolutely ENORMOUS difference to the perceived picture.

There's also a layer of absorbent material behind the screen and surrounding area. Of course, this has completely changed the sound of the room, making it far less live and pingy.


Looking at the (badly taken) pics, you'll see that there's a matte-black roller blind, which comes down to eliminate letterbox bars. I had this made by a blind shop for around $80, and in my case, it's screwed to the screen's headbox (of course, you can mount it wherever you like so long as it works).

Above the headbox, there's a simple curtain rail, with two matte-black curtains on either side of the screen... That's it.

The projector has a vertical lens shift, and can zoom the picture from 75" to 92", with the bottom of the picture always in line with the bottom of the screen.

What we'll generally do is run 1.78 / 1.85 films & TV at a size of around 80 inches, and 2.35 scope films at 92 inches.


If you want to have a "common bottom-line" setup like this, one thing to be aware of is the latitude of your projector's lens shift. This just takes a bit of experimenting before you install.
I have a BenQ W5000 (which I love) but its lens shift limitations meant I had to mount it a little lower than originally intended, so that a 2.40 picture would line up with the bottom of the screen.

What about subtitles that appear outside 2.35 letterbox area if you don't have a DVD/Blu player that allows subtitle-shifting?
They can either appear below the screen onto the black area below (albeit dimmer), or the picture can be racked up with the bottom letterbox area hitting the screen.

To pull the sofa forward and adjust everything would take up to 30 seconds, but makes all the difference in the world !



EQUIPMENT LIST (pics are old):

Projector: Benq W6000
Blu-ray / Region 4 DVD: Sony PS3 Slim 120Gb
HDDVD / Other region DVD: Toshiba HD-EP10
HDTV: Sony SVR-HD700
CD: Arcam Alpha 8 (with LClock X03 mod)
Stereo pre-pro: Creek OBH-22 passive
Surround pre-pro: Denon AVR-2809
Power amps: Rotel RB-993 for front trio & Rotel RMB-1075 for 4 surrounds
Projection screen: Currently using matte-white 1-gain block out material - 2400 x 1100 mm
Speakers - Front: VAF Research DC-X for mains, and custom-made DC-X for centre (all are Generation 4, Mark II)
Speakers - Surround: Infinity BETA ES-250 (Operate as dual-monoples. Inward facing drivers act as Rear Surrounds. Outward facing drivers act as Side Surrounds)
Subwoofer: Gone !
Rack monitor: 23.6" NeonIQ LED TV (doubles as PC monitor and TV)
HT PC running a 1920x1080 desktop

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2496/4124042675_6c39906f81_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2736/4123937811_46b91b0a58.jpg

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2687/4123935897_c863223760.jpg

Hey electric, I have been looking at roller blinds that are remote controlled, that would drop down to the desired height, I am big into automation.

I found a few but they were pretty expensive. Do you know if that would work in my setup.

Im hoping the blind rod, would attach to my electric screen projector case.

And then I could make a macro in my mx-810, where the roller drops and the projector lens shifts down with the press of one button.

I just dont know if it would work, im still kind of lost, but I would like to go your route.

Nice little setup. How far is your seating from the screen?

Forgive my ignorance but assume the masking is done to minimize the effect of the top/bottom horizontal black image bars due to scaling by 16:9 PJ of much wider movie aspect ratio content.

We chose to use a gray Da-lite fixed wall screen and the gray does two significant things - in our opinion.

One is that it almost eliminates the visibility of the black bars to a very satisfactory degree and the Second is it reflects almost no light back into the viewing room which also in our opinion enhances the "Theater" effect - we were simply astounded at how much light our first screen - a white one - reflected back into our eyes and the viewing room so gray did the trick for us.
Best of Luck

dumb question - why is your projector angled like that?

Very nicely done setup! Definitely evidence that a nice FP can happen virtually anywhere. What are your mains and center?

dumb question - why is your projector angled like that?

Because the front and back walls aren't perpendicular to each other. The front wall has an angle of around 20 degrees.
The sofa also has to be angled like that when watching.

Nice little setup. How far is your seating from the screen?

Seating from the screen will vary from 2.2 metres, to 3.6 metres, which is all the way up against the back wall.

Forgive my ignorance but assume the masking is done to minimize the effect of the top/bottom horizontal black image bars due to scaling by 16:9 PJ of much wider movie aspect ratio content.

We chose to use a gray Da-lite fixed wall screen and the gray does two significant things - in our opinion.

One is that it almost eliminates the visibility of the black bars to a very satisfactory degree and the Second is it reflects almost no light back into the viewing room which also in our opinion enhances the "Theater" effect - we were simply astounded at how much light our first screen - a white one - reflected back into our eyes and the viewing room so gray did the trick for us.
Best of Luck

I'm making this bigger, for all to see...


The masking achieves a number of things...

1. No letterbox bars.

2. No pillarbox bars.

3. Allows the picture to vary in size, depending on quality and aspect of the source, number of people in the room, level of tiredness, etc.

4. Having a large area of black around the screen makes a shockingly huge perceptual difference.

5. Helps reduce the amount of light bouncing around the room.

6. Provides sound absorbtion (to a very large degree, in my room).

7. Allows a layer of acoustic material to be be placed behind to further deaden the room.

8. Actually looks a lot more attractive than just a blank wall with a plain screen.
NB: Using a more theatrical deep red material might look even better and offer more wife-approval-factor!

I've always avoided grey screens for exactly that reason - they reduce brightness way too much for my liking. They're also overpriced, and movie theatres never use them anyway.
Black masking / surrounds provides a much more theatrical effect, imo.

Very nice setup! Can you elaborate a little on your PJ mount/wiring? As you can see from my signature, I have a living room FP setup with the BenQ (W5K, but now W20K) and am setting it on wire shelving. I like how yours allows the back of the couch against the wall and keeps it out of the way.

Hey electric, I have been looking at roller blinds that are remote controlled, that would drop down to the desired height, I am big into automation.

I found a few but they were pretty expensive. Do you know if that would work in my setup.

Im hoping the blind rod, would attach to my electric screen projector case.

And then I could make a macro in my mx-810, where the roller drops and the projector lens shifts down with the press of one button.

I just dont know if it would work, im still kind of lost, but I would like to go your route.

Replied back in the Benq W5000 thread.
Not sure about the automated bit, but with a chain driven manual roller-blind, it's very little trouble.
I'd say it takes around 30 seconds to pull out the couch and adjust everything.

Very nicely done setup! Definitely evidence that a nice FP can happen virtually anywhere. What are your mains and center?

Cheers.

Front mains are VAF Research DC-X (Generation 4).
Center speaker is the same, but rather than the standard-issue DC-6, I asked for a custom-made, larger centre that's every bit the equal of the left & right.

They're very clean, efficient and accurate - and I highly recommend them.

With the DC-X, I doubt I'd bring back the subwoofer even if I lived in a house!

Very nice setup! Can you elaborate a little on your PJ mount/wiring? As you can see from my signature, I have a living room FP setup with the BenQ (W5K, but now W20K) and am setting it on wire shelving. I like how yours allows the back of the couch against the wall and keeps it out of the way.

I've just got a standard microwave oven wall-bracket (around $30), along with some small rubber strips to protect the underside of the projector.

3.7 metres of Aussieduct (any wall conduit will do), runs above and takes all six cables to the side wall, where they run down the corner and travel underneath a slab of spare carpet to the AV rack.


The only cabling running to the projector (these days) is HDMI and power.
HDMI is a 10-metre Concord cable, which sells for AU$98 at Jaycar Electronics. As you'd expect - zero difference between that and expensive snake-oil cable.

Same goes for the surround speaker cables, which are two pairs of generic medium-thickness 12-guage OFC running to each speaker.


In your room, having a masking setup would make a huge difference... except perhaps with blood-red theatre curtains for higher wife-approval-factor!
:D

I've just got a standard microwave oven wall-bracket (around $30), along with some small rubber strips to protect the underside of the projector.

3.7 metres of Aussieduct (any wall conduit will do), runs above and takes all six cables to the side wall, where they run down the corner and travel underneath a slab of spare carpet to the AV rack.


The only cabling running to the projector (these days) is HDMI and power.
HDMI is a 10-metre Concord cable, which is sells for AU$98 at Jaycar Electronics. As you'd expect - zero difference between that and expensive snake-oil cable.

Same goes for the surround speaker cables, which are two pairs of generic medium-thickness 12-guage OFC running to each speaker.


In your room, having a masking setup would make a huge difference... except perhaps with blood-red theatre curtains for higher wife-approval-factor!
:D

Aloha Haggis,

Damn you Aussies are smart! Such an easy and nice looking masking system. Just to be clear, you have the pull down shade screwed directly into your screen case? Is your screen electric?

Mahalo. And thanks for setting up this thread

Aloha Haggis,

Damn you Aussies are smart! Such an easy and nice looking masking system. Just to be clear, you have the pull down shade screwed directly into your screen case? Is your screen electric?

Mahalo. And thanks for setting up this thread

No worries.

Yep - the chain-driven manual roller blind is screwed directly to the screen's headbox.

No - the screen isn't electric. Unlike days of old, the screen never moves. Only the projector's lens shift, the blind and perhaps the side-curtains do.

Btw, I've revised my first post at the top of the page to include more details.

NICE!!

How do you keep the blind close to the screen?

Thanks,
Scott

NICE!!

How do you keep the blind close to the screen?

Thanks,
Scott

It's mounted to the underside of the headbox, so the blind is less than a centimetre from the screen surface.

So far im having trouble finding a black roller blind that can be remote operated. I did find a vinetian blind, would this work haggis?

http://www.newblinds.co.uk/content/night_sky_matt/


Or would roller blind be better.

It's mounted to the underside of the headbox, so the blind is less than a centimetre from the screen surface.


Electric_Haggis,

Can you give us a closeup shot of the matte-black roller blind? Any degree of reflections coming off of it?

Looks like this might turn into a Benq 5k/20k hangout sub thread.:)

Electric_Haggis,

Can you give us a closeup shot of the matte-black roller blind? Any degree of reflections coming off of it?

Looks like this might turn into a Benq 5k/20k hangout sub thread.:)

Done... See updated first post.

And no - No reflections as long as it's reasonably thick, black, matte material.

So far im having trouble finding a black roller blind that can be remote operated. I did find a vinetian blind, would this work haggis?

http://www.newblinds.co.uk/content/night_sky_matt/


Or would roller blind be better.

Hard to tell from their website, but I've updated the pics in the first post to include close-up of the blind.

Done... See updated first post.

And no - No reflections as long as it's reasonably thick, black, matte material.

Thanks for the closeups. Thats what I was looking for. And hell, being non-motorized is fine. It gets our butts up to get some circulation. :D

So far im having trouble finding a black roller blind that can be remote operated. I did find a vinetian blind, would this work haggis?

http://www.newblinds.co.uk/content/night_sky_matt/


Or would roller blind be better.

Murilo,
Here is a link to Power Curtain's web site & they offer IR rmt ctl motorized roller set-up, w.o fabric:

http://www.powercurtain.com/product2.html

There a couple of reseller on eBay they sell similar products.

John :D

Very clever. I'm surprised this hasn't been done before - such an elegant and simple solution. I may copy this idea.:)

Very clever. I'm surprised this hasn't been done before - such an elegant and simple solution. I may copy this idea.:)

Thanks..... but it's copyrighted.
I'll forward my bank account details, so you can deposit the royalties...
:rolleyes:

I forgot to ask before, but what do you think of your surrounds? I'm curious as to how this would sound and may attempt something similar in the future. Bookshelves are far too localizable to me as side surrounds and because of layout are too close to the ears :( Rear surrounds were never an option with seating against the back wall.

I guess I'm wondering if you lose any side presence and feel it's top/rear heavy.

Did you choose the Infinity Beta's because of this ability, or do most bipole surrounds allow you to run dual-monopole? It's not something I'm familiar with, but makes perfect sense as a compromise!

I forgot to ask before, but what do you think of your surrounds? I'm curious as to how this would sound and may attempt something similar in the future. Bookshelves are far too localizable to me as side surrounds and because of layout are too close to the ears :( Rear surrounds were never an option with seating against the back wall.

I guess I'm wondering if you lose any side presence and feel it's top/rear heavy.

Did you choose the Infinity Beta's because of this ability, or do most bipole surrounds allow you to run dual-monopole? It's not something I'm familiar with, but makes perfect sense as a compromise!

To answer your questions backwards...
* Yes, I chose the Infinity ES250 because of this. You can also use them as either dipoles or bipoles in a 5.1 setup, but of course that's a waste.
The Infinity is the only one speaker on the market that works as a dual-monopole, although JBL makes an identical "knockoff" (same parent company)...
http://www.jbl.com/home/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=P52OWS&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=SSS&ser=PER (http://www.jbl.com/home/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=P52OWS&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=SSS&ser=PER)

* In my situation, it works as well as it possibly can. The sound is diffuse, well-spread, and hard to localise, the 360-degree panning is excellent, and they blend brilliantly with the fronts.
Bear in mind that the wide lens on my camera phone tends to make them look smaller and higher up than they really are. Bear in mind also that the couch comes forward into the room when watching, and that the front speakers are huge (1.3 metres tall) with an enormous soundstage. This will always help blend the surrounds into the soundfield.

Ideally, I'd have them on the side walls, slightly closer to the floor, with the rear-facing drivers (acting as back surrounds) bouncing sound off the back wall, but it just can't be done here.
That's what I did in the last place, before eventually getting another set of bipoles for the rear wall, and just running the Infinities as bipoles. That kind of setup is absolutely ideal if you can do it.

Hard to tell from your pics, but if there's any way of having them on the side-walls (they'd be butted right up to the rear wall), running in 7.1, that'd work well.


But in a perfect world, go 7.1 with either bipoles to either side and on the back wall, or if the side walls are very close to you - dipoles to either side with bipoles on the back wall.


The best dipoles are made by Paradigm in their Monitor range. What's unique is that their tweeters run out of phase, but the bass drivers don't. This makes them harder to localise (which you want), but still allows for unmarred bass response.

For flexibility, Monitor Audio make their excellent BFX or SFX surrounds, which have tweeters that can be wired in or out of phase, leaving the bass intact.

Axiom Audio's QS8 "quadpoles" are also widely loved, and well worth considering.

To answer your questions backwards...
* Yes, I chose the Infinity ES250 because of this. You can also use them as either dipoles or bipoles in a 5.1 setup, but of course that's a waste.
The Infinity is the only one speaker on the market that works as a dual-monopole, although JBL makes an identical "knockoff" (same parent company)...
http://www.jbl.com/home/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=P52OWS&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=SSS&ser=PER (http://www.jbl.com/home/products/product_detail.aspx?prod=P52OWS&Language=ENG&Country=US&Region=USA&cat=SSS&ser=PER)

* In my situation, it works as well as it possibly can. The sound is diffuse, well-spread, and hard to localise, the 360-degree panning is excellent, and they blend brilliantly with the fronts.
Bear in mind that the wide lens on my camera phone tends to make them look smaller and higher up than they really are. Bear in mind also that the couch comes forward into the room when watching, and that the front speakers are huge (1.3 metres tall) with an enormous soundstage. This will always help blend the surrounds into the soundfield.

Ideally, I'd have them on the side walls, slightly closer to the floor, with the rear-facing drivers (acting as back surrounds) bouncing sound off the back wall, but it just can't be done here.
That's what I did in the last place, before eventually getting another set of bipoles for the rear wall, and just running the Infinities as bipoles. That kind of setup is absolutely ideal if you can do it.

Hard to tell from your pics, but if there's any way of having them on the side-walls (they'd be butted right up to the rear wall), running in 7.1, that'd work well.


But in a perfect world, go 7.1 with either bipoles to either side and on the back wall, or if the side walls are very close to you - dipoles to either side with bipoles on the back wall.


The best dipoles are made by Paradigm in their Monitor range. What's unique is that their tweeters run out of phase, but the bass drivers don't. This makes them harder to localise (which you want), but still allows for unmarred bass response.

For flexibility, Monitor Audio make their excellent BFX or SFX surrounds, which have tweeters that can be wired in or out of phase, leaving the bass intact.

Axiom Audio's QS8 "quadpoles" are also widely loved, and well worth considering.

Perfect summary, thanks. So if I understand correctly, ideally you want:

1) Bipole side surrounds, slightly rear of parallel to the sweet spot. Bipole rear surrounds directly behind and spread out properly.

If not, then:

2) Dipole side surrounds, directly parallel to the sweet spot. Bipole rear surrounds.

When seating is too close to rear wall:

3) Dual-monopole surrounds on side wall, (rear of parallel to the sweet spot?). Side surround projects toward the display and rear surround projects toward the rear wall.

And when you have no side walls available (or too close):

4) Dual-monopole surrounds on rear wall. Side surround projects outward, rear surround projects inward.

I'll take my other question here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15901943#post15901943), so I don't clutter your thread.

Hey, Electric_Haggis, I was so pleased when I found this thread. I'd been using foam sheets sprayed black, held in place with fridge magnets until now, but it was less than satisfactory. Having a W5000 also, means that your roller blind solution has worked well for me. I had a choice of blackout material (very stiff, and I suspected it would suffer from memory problems) or charcoal sun filter which isn't as black as I'd like, but that's what I ended up with. In my pitch dark room, it seems black enough. I wonder if it would be better if I gave the material a light spray with black paint? Maybe it'd turn into a royal mess? Hmmm.

I wonder if it would be better if I gave the material a light spray with black paint? Maybe it'd turn into a royal mess? Hmmm.


Only one way to find out!
Use material paint. That should be right.

Nice looking setup. Am I the only one that feels pity for that hd-dvd player getting crushed by that big Denon? lol

Funny the differences in preferences and visual perceptions - LOL - We have a Da-lite gray screen and it not only reflects almost no light back into the room the null image areas caused by scaling of different aspect ratio content a.k.a. "black bars" are almost invisible with the gray screen.

We love our screen and happy our visual experience isn't affected by scaling bars - no need for masking with our setup.

Funny the differences in preferences and visual perceptions - LOL - We have a Da-lite gray screen and it not only reflects almost no light back into the room the null image areas caused by scaling of different aspect ratio content a.k.a. "black bars" are almost invisible with the gray screen.

We love our screen and happy our visual experience isn't affected by scaling bars - no need for masking with our setup.

Almost invisible... but not completely invisible!
And you're not getting all the other benefits, as listed earlier...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15757254#post15757254

Cool stuff.

I'm so in to the benefits of masking I was masking my plasma (for 2:35:1) and using a black backdrop behind it for many years. It made a huge difference to the perceived image quality and viewing experience.

I'm getting close to finishing my HT reno, in which I'm turning a room in our house into a home theater/listening room. Black around the screen and masking is mandatory for my tastes. I'm doing a screen with a 61" tall by 124" wide screen area, with motorized 4 way masking (using a Carada Masquerade for top/bottom masking and a roller panel system for side masking from a curtain company). Using the projector zoom I can have the image masked at whatever size/shape I wish. (I found I didn't want to be limited to either constant-image-width or constant-image-height).

The ceiling is actually a dark brown fabric treatment. Fabric kills reflections better than paint and it's allowing some acoustic treatment to be put invisibly on the ceiling. Chocolate brown curtains hang on either side of the screen and can be pulled forward along the side walls, up to 8 feet or so, to cut wall reflections. Windows will have automated black out blinds. Projector will be in cabinet hidden behind sofa so it doesn't interfere with the window view during day. A lift mechanism will pop it up for viewing.

Here's a Googlesketchup of the idea:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8127/richmodsalexandriawallav.jpg

Electric_Haggis,

Your set up looks very neat and nice, but I have questions. It appears you are using the curtains as the default "side" of your screen, to vary the screen width?

I can see the warping of the side lines because the curtain fabric doesn't hang perfectly straight. Doesn't the lack of straight edge on the sides of the picture bother you?

Also, typically in masking an image you want the masking as close to the screen surface as possible, to avoid shadowing of the masks on the screen. Do you not see
this problem in your set up?

Thanks.

Cool stuff.

I'm so in to the benefits of masking I was masking my plasma (for 2:35:1) and using a black backdrop behind it for many years. It made a huge difference to the perceived image quality and viewing experience.

I'm getting close to finishing my HT reno, in which I'm turning a room in our house into a home theater/listening room. Black around the screen and masking is mandatory for my tastes. I'm doing a screen with a 61" tall by 124" wide screen area, with motorized 4 way masking (using a Carada Masquerade for top/bottom masking and a roller panel system for side masking from a curtain company). Using the projector zoom I can have the image masked at whatever size/shape I wish. (I found I didn't want to be limited to either constant-image-width or constant-image-height).

The ceiling is actually a dark brown fabric treatment. Fabric kills reflections better than paint and it's allowing some acoustic treatment to be put invisibly on the ceiling. Chocolate brown curtains hang on either side of the screen and can be pulled forward along the side walls, up to 8 feet or so, to cut wall reflections. Windows will have automated black out blinds. Projector will be in cabinet hidden behind sofa so it doesn't interfere with the window view during day. A lift mechanism will pop it up for viewing.

Here's a Googlesketchup of the idea:



Fantastic. Be sure to flick your pics through when that's finished.

Looking at your diagram, I'd ask what speakers you intend to use for the front trio (big ones, hopefully), and whether you'll be going for 7.1. The rear of your room is just destined for 2 pairs of bipoles and/or dipoles!

Electric_Haggis,

Your set up looks very neat and nice, but I have questions. It appears you are using the curtains as the default "side" of your screen, to vary the screen width?

I can see the warping of the side lines because the curtain fabric doesn't hang perfectly straight. Doesn't the lack of straight edge on the sides of the picture bother you?

Also, typically in masking an image you want the masking as close to the screen surface as possible, to avoid shadowing of the masks on the screen. Do you not see
this problem in your set up?

Thanks.

No probs with shadowing. The curtains are less than an inch from the screen surface.

There's some warping in the pics because I didn't fully correct the curtain edge as I normally would. Ideally, you'd use thicker, heavier curtains with weights sewn into the edges.

Fantastic. Be sure to flick your pics through when that's finished.

Looking at your diagram, I'd ask what speakers you intend to use for the front trio (big ones, hopefully), and whether you'll be going for 7.1. The rear of your room is just destined for 2 pairs of bipoles and/or dipoles!

I'm using Hales speakers - a defunct company who would be familiar to long-time audiophiles. I loved their product so much I tracked down probably the last existing 2 pairs of their stand-mounted "Transcendence" reference monitors and one of the few reference "Transcendence" center channels. The L/R monitors produce a super smooth, full sound and the center channel does the same but it's a monster-size and goes even lower than the L/Rs. No need for a sub (I don't want one, actually).

So I'm doing a 7.0 system, with two fx channels to the side and 2 more on the rear on the walls behind the sofa. I'm using the Monitor Audio Bronze
series for the surround channels as luckily they have a tonal signature very close to the Hales.

I'm also pre-wired for possible future channels like Dolby Height channels above the L/R of the screen.

By the way, I find another benefit to black surrounding the screen wall: making the speakers disappear visually. One thing I've noticed is that if I can see the speakers I tend to be aware of where the sound is coming from.
I've experimented with having a black background and putting black fabric on the speakers. When the lights go down the speakers utterly disappear against the back-ground. Just can't see 'em. Once this happens I find my mind just maps the sound I'm hearing on to the image much more easily.

I like the idea of an AT system for the clean aesthetics and for the sound-coming-from-the-image factor. However, I'm super picky about speakers and in-walls don't do it for me. (Nor do I have the room to do an AT screen with speakers the size of my Hales).

Hats off to you, Mr Harkness.

That's going to be an absolutely model system.

Send us those pics when you're done!
:D

Just for the record, I've recently put in two small but significant additions.

* A pair of 600 x 600mm acoustic tiles.
Helps tame rear wall reflections and looks quite decent too!

* An 850mm-wide x 1000mm-high bass trap that doubles as a corner-stand.
This is filled with triangles of 48 kg/m³ polyester bats (http://acoustica.com.au/hdbatts.html).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4124814796_64689c72b8.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2678/4124043941_3e713c1169.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/4124043269_3ec7e8d8a5.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2693/4124820434_38157feac7.jpg


I've updated the pics at the start of this thread.

Another recent addition is an upgraded acoustic panel for the back wall.

It's just a thin 1200 x 600 plywood board, onto which is glued a sheet of acoustifoam (http://www.acoustica.com.au/acoustifoam.html), followed by two 600 x 600 tiles of Cheops Pyramids (http://www.acoustica.com.au/pyramids.html).

The original intention was to use a polyester bat (http://www.acoustica.com.au/hdbatts.html), rather than the foam, but this proved a little unwieldy this time around.

It's screwed to the back wall with an air-gap of about an inch. This slightly helps its bass-trapping qualities.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/5084600669_f6b6478dd8_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/5084601133_c8dd7d623a_b.jpg

Hi Electric_Haggis,

You requested pictures when my room was finished so here you go. It was finished last spring. Here again is the Google Sketchup idea for the room:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8127/richmodsalexandriawallav.jpg

And here is the finished room, with black out blinds 1/2 way down:
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/129/dsc8741.jpg

If you click the links below my name you can see lots more photos, including the masking in action and descriptions of how I built the system in my build thread.

The screen size takes up most of the wall, with usable screen area of about 124" wide to 62" tall. I combined the Carada top/bottom masking system with a remote controlled Goelst curtain/panel system for side masking. The commands are made into macros on my RTI universal remote (which has been a Godsend). I can alter the size and aspect ratio of the screen to my hearts content. Right now I have around 16 pre-set image ARs and sizes (for various sizes of 16:9, 2:35:1 and 4:3 ARs) and don't feel the need for more. :)

If I want to change an image size from, say, a 105" diagonal 16:9 to a 118" wide CinemaScope image, I simply press the image size button I want (118" - WIDE) and the whole screen wall looks like it starts changing shape. At the same time the projector's lens pattern appears on the screen.
I just have to press zoom-out and by the time the masking has found the new shape, the image zooms out to meet the new size. One more press of the lens shift up or down and the image fits perfectly in the masking. Takes about 13 seconds from the comfort of my sofa and it's actually fun as heck to do (really impresses guests seeing the image change size like that).

I absolutely LOVE being able to vary the image size to my desire. Sometimes I want a huge image, other times depending on mood or source material/quality I like it smaller. I can watch a movie like Avatar at up to around 135" diagonal which feels downright IMAX-like from my 10.5 foot viewing distance.

As you have already extolled, there's nothing like having pitch black around the image to increase the vividness, dimensionality and professionalism of the image. The first time I put up my Carada masking, put up a 2:35:1 movie and then activated the masks to see the "black bars" disappear was incredibly satisfying. There was just something professional and "complete" about what it did for the image. Without the masking it feels a bit hackneyed.

And it still never ceases to amaze me how masking makes a difference. Occasionally if I don't get the image perfectly within the masking (say if the movie is a slightly narrower AR than 2:35:1) I can see thin projected black bars above/below the image. They are so dark I could almost imagine it wouldn't make a difference to cover them up "who would notice?" But then I jog the masks to cover those thin bars up and...wow...adding that perfect, crisp, pitch black edge around the image really DOES make a difference. It just looks better. Taking care of the little details in image presentation really does add up to a bigger difference than one might imagine.

(It's funny because guests to my place to watch movies have often viewed movies on other projection set ups at friends places. But they all say that somehow it all seems better at mine, and it's like they are focused on and taken away into the movie more, even though they can't put their finger on why).

Anyway, good stuff on your set up! That's really resourceful work on your end.

Just buy a gray screen. You can hardly see the null area "bars" as you PJ tries to scale and show wider content than its native specs.

Masking is a pain-in-the-butt, expensive and silly exercise - just IMO - totally unnecessary - bright white screens just can't do the job of a gray, high contrast screen.

That's our personal experience.

RH, that's a neat set up you have there, and I've snaffled a few ideas from your room to add to my 'consideration list' for my apartment.

Just buy a gray screen. You can hardly see the null area "bars" as you PJ tries to scale and show wider content than its native specs.

Masking is a pain-in-the-butt, expensive and silly exercise - just IMO - totally unnecessary - bright white screens just can't do the job of a gray, high contrast screen.

That's our personal experience.


Hhmmm..... Sure you've tried masking? Certainly doesn't sound like it.

Costwise, my matte white 1-gain screen costs a couple of hundred dollars.
The masking was another coupla hundred.

Labour-wise, you can knock up a setup like mine in around half a day if you play your cards right.

I've seen the hi-con gray screens in action. Personally, I'd actually rather have a lesser pj with masking than a superior pj without it.

A bit like a high-end sound system in a crap room vs a passable system in a great room, really...

Just buy a gray screen. You can hardly see the null area "bars" as you PJ tries to scale and show wider content than its native specs.

Masking is a pain-in-the-butt, expensive and silly exercise - just IMO - totally unnecessary - bright white screens just can't do the job of a gray, high contrast screen.

That's our personal experience.

It may be a "silly exercise" and "totally unnecessary" in your eyes, but not to a number of other people. I've seen almost all the gray screens in action, including the Black Diamond screens which are much darker than yours. Black bars are always visible. If you can't see them that's a fact about you, but not about others.

When you say "bright white screens just can't do the job of a gray, high contrast screen" it depends what job you want them to do, for goodness sake.

Most gray screens have their own issues. If it's a flat gray screen with no gain then you are significantly lowering light reflection and for most good quality consumer projectors this means limiting your screen size to the smallish range. Whereas with the advent of HD sources people have been going the opposite direction, looking for bigger screen experiences.

If you have a gray screen with gain then you are going to have hotspotting, uneven reflection, and typically the screen gain coating is visible as a speckled texture over the image (never seen a gray screen with gain that did not have this issue). Might not bother some people, but these things are quite distracting to others, like me. I literally would not use one if given to me for free.

With a white screen that is neutral or modest gain you can get very even reflection, no visible hotspotting, and a much smoother screen material that can be more "invisible" for a more natural looking image. Not to mention you get a brighter image, and can also have a bigger image, which is quite significant.

So one can reverse what you say and point out that "gray screens just can't do the job of a white screen." That is they can't do the job of getting a brighter image (for a bigger image if desired) while simultaneously offering wide viewing angles and reduced screen artifacts. :)

But, of course, you just need to decide which job you need your screen to do and pick the material accordingly...rather than hold rash ideas on what is "better" over all.

As to masking, it's one of those finishing touches that add to the presentation. Most people who experience something like the Carada Masquerade in action, even non-AV types, go "wow" when they see those black bars disappear (that includes people using gray screens too, like the Stewart Firehawk). Of course lots of people don't want to go the the effort of masking, but those who want to edge the presentation even further to perfection will do so. In any industry, it's always people who sweat the little details who are responsible for improving performance in anything we might end up using ourselves. Sweating what seem like the "little" details in home theater often pays rewarding dividends.

Finally, as to "pain in the ass to mask" at least with my system nothing could be further from the truth. From my sofa I just have to choose between 1 and three button presses and I'm watching an entirely new image shape, perfectly masked surrounded by pitch black. One would have to be paralyzed simply by the thought of using a remote control to consider that a PIA. ;)