Carada New Masking System - Page 4

When will you start market it outside the US? I think there will be a market for it also in europe....

Hi Heja,

I have NO DOUBT that there's a market for the Masquerade outside North America. In fact, I bet we've gotten more questions from foreign customers than domestic. Probably has a lot to do with the weak dollar. The Masquerade may be a bargain here, but for Europeans it would be an absolute steal.

I'm afraid I don't have a clear answer to "when" it will happen, but I'm fairly certain that we will ship outside North America in the not-too-distant future. Thanks for checking and don't give up!

David Giles
Carada, Inc.

For anyone interested in seeing how the Masquerade is installed, we have the installation document on our website now:

Masquerade Installation Instructions

We've tried to make the document as complete and as easy to understand as possible, but I'm sure it will continue to evolve as we get questions, comments, and suggestions from customers. So please don't be shy with your suggestions!

David Giles
Carada, Inc.

Any chance of a video showing actual deployment, jog, ect? I think it'd be nice to see the speed, noise level, and jog movements in real time VS only pictures. I sure like it though!!

We'll try to get a video posted on our website at some point. To give you an idea of the speed, my 116" diagonal takes 1.8 seconds for the masks to go from 16:9 (fully open) to 2.35:1.

David Giles
Carada, Inc.

Dave, Thanks for your quick reply to my questions in PM last night. I have another question for you. Do you have any holiday discount on Masquerade for the forum members?

You're welcome. No we don't have any discounts available (but thanks for checking though!)

David Giles
Carada, Inc.

Just a quick update, I plan to have the Masquerade System installed by mid next week. I am looking forward to giving a full report with a few pics!

Cant wait to see your review...Im trying to talk my wife into letting me spend the money on one of these.

Awesome joerod. That's some system you are putting together.

I'm planning on getting the Masquerade system too.

Your sig says the Corsinima is complete, I take it this is a LIE!!!

Do people ever contribute to your website.??

Scott

for me it will never be complete but in most peoples eyes it is complete.

i get a donation every once and a while from friends and family. I did that because they always feel bad eating all my popcorn candy and soda for free. I have a donation jar at the concession stand also. Ive raised 240 dollars so far.

I received my Masquerade on Saturday. I installed it over my 92” Da-Lite Imager screen. Here is my first impression of the Masquerade Masking System.

First, I want to say that they probably over engineered the packaging of the Masquerade. I’ve never seen anything that packaged this well. Every piece is protected.

Masquerade is a very well designed system. The build quality is great. Everything fit together every well. The installation is pretty straight forward.

The frame has a beautiful Black Hole trim. I didn’t know what it was before I ordered the system. It feels like fabric. It is pure black with every little reflection on the light. The masking panel is made of the same material. When it is down to 2.35:1, even when lights are on, I couldn’t tell it is not part of the trim from my sitting position.

The remote control works well. The masking panel moves very fast. It takes a couple seconds to change from 16:9 to 2.35:1. I wish the Jog button would move it at a slower speed. Because the panel moves so fast, it is hard to fine tune it with the Jog button.

Now for the effect of masking, what a difference it makes! I used to hate watching 2.35:1 movies because of the not so black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Let’s face it. How can your projector make those bars black on a white screen? With Masquerade, for the first time, I really enjoy watching 2.35:1 movies at home! It makes the picture stands out. Actually, the 6” Black Holy trim enhanced 1.85:1 movie too! My Da-Lite has only 2” trim.

Masquerade also reduces the light spill to the ceiling by quite a bit because it hangs in front of the existing screen. The downside of that is that I can see the shadow it casts on the screen. I learned to ignore it quickly.

Another thing that I want to mention is that if you hang your screen on a white wall, make sure you put a black fabric behind the screen. It stops the light from reflecting back to the screen. This improves the contrast a lot.

Masquerade is an expansive system although it is cheaper than other masking systems. But to me it is money well spend. It makes my new Panny 2000 projector looks a lot better. Dave and other people at Carada are clearly customer oriented. They are very quick in responding emails. Thank you, Dave!

Thanks for describing your new Masquerade system levansoft. I can hardly wait to order mine (but there are so many details to get right in my new HT before I do).


I hope it's not that hard to fine tune because I'll be using the jog a lot! I plan on a variable size system.


I find that odd. How is it the Masquerade frame casts a shadow on your screen? If the picture you are projecting is within the screen frame I don't see how a shadow could be cast.

Unless you have some other light sources on, for some ambient light perhaps?

Next up: Where's joerod with his user report?

Coming soon. Should have it up and running by Wednesday.

sounds good so far. I do hope that the jog function is not that bad. is it really that hard to make small adjustments to get it just perfect?

It all depends on how far your screen sits behind the masking panel. My screen is at least 1 behind. Given the size of the screen, unless I sit 20 ft away and look at the screen dead on, I will see some area behind the masking panel on the sides. If I project within the screen frame, I can see the thin (not so) black border that the projector produces. If I project over the screen frame, I see shadows. Either way, they look the same to me.

Along the same line, if I could, I would order a Masquerade frame that is 1 smaller than my current screen frame so that I don't see both frames.

It's not easy for me to make small adjustments. I suggest Carada to make Jog button operates at a different (much slower) speed. When I jog, I want fine control and I have patient to wait for it to move. Actually, if it is hard to separate jog with other movements, just slow down all operations. Maybe a firmware upgrade?

the jog function may be a deal breaker for me until it is fine tuned.

i know the system is reasonably priced but a jog function should allow you to fine tune the masks easily. Hopefully they can take care of it soon.

Yesterday my home theater had one of its most significant upgrades ever. And as some of you know I just added the new Sony VW200 but that is not what I am talking about. The Carada Masquerade Masking System is designed to subtract those black (really gray) bars when watching most HD DVDs and Blu rays (2.35:1 to 2.70:1) but it also adds something. I call it pure eye candy!

Unpacking the Masquerade was easy and only took about 10 minutes or so. It is packaged very well (as been reported) which is a good thing. I was going to post a few shots of the screen during installation but quite frankly you could barely see it! More on that soon.

After getting it up and running (the instructions are very easy and every single detail is explained from unpacking to plugging it in) I exercised or had the drapes JOG all the way from the 16:9 to the 2.70:1 setting. I have always felt anything mechanical (or with a motor) should be exercised fully when first tested. No problems here. The JOG button makes the drapes move in 1/2 inch increments which I think is perfect. I know it has been brought up before but I think if it went in 1/8 increments it would take longer to set it the way you want it. For example if the movie had an aspect ratio of something slightly different and you need 1 more inch it would take 4 taps on the remote instead of just 2. And lets face it a 1/2 inch is definitely good enough for making adjustments. I also thought the motor was not loud at all and when I had my sound going I could hardly even hear it. As for the remote, I really found it nice. Having the 16:9 direct button and 2.35:1 is very nice. More nice however is being able to JOG up or down an adjust as needed. The response is also very good. Other screen companies should take note on how well this remote masking system works!

So how well does it work with the movies? I first put in Riddick HD DVD then Casino Royale Blu ray. My Wife who usually does not have much interest in my electronics habit first word was WOW! When showing her what the bars looked like in 16:9 then letting the Masquerade do its magic was an eye opening experience. She later told me she never realized the bars were not really black. I had to admit I was very impressed at what this did to the image. The Masquerade literally puts you in a real movie theater atmosphere.

I have a Vutec Silverstar 120.5" screen with their visionX black frame. As the Masquerade was being installed I was shocked to realize the difference in the black velvet trims. The light was absorbed much better with Carada's Black Hole trim. This Black Hole trim does an amazing job of making your eyes just focus on the image. Whatever they do to achieve this TRUE blacker than black (BTB) look must be a secret because I have not seen another screen trim look this BLACK before.

So now I think I can say my home theater is complete (at least for awhile).
With the Carada Masquerade and my Sony VW200 combo I have achieved the level of performance I have been on a quest for. I should point out that the Carada Masking System will compliment any PJ nicely. I think one of the reports above was using the new Panny 2000. It does not matter if your PJ is 1,000 or 15,000 or 50,000 being able to completely make those black (gray) bars disappear will benefit any set up. If you want to SEE what your theater is really capable of try the Masquerade. Your EYES will love it!

Pics: 1 is the Masquerade at 2.70:1 and 2 is showing it in 2.35:1 and then 3 is of course is in the 16:9 aspect ratio... Note how deep the Black Hole trim looks. True blacker than black!

A couple more pics of the remote and then the Masquerade unpacked.

Very cool. Thanks joerod. Having played around with lots of masking, I knew the Masquerade system would be a wonderful impact, which is why I plan on getting one.

One thing caught me by surprise in your descriptions: the jog feature.

It sounds from your description that pressing the jog button moves the screen in discrete 1/2 inch steps. In other words, you push the button down and hold it, but the screen only moves 1/2 inch. For each 1/2 you want to advance the screen you have to press "jog" again. Is that correct?

If so I'm surprised. I'd figured the jog button would work more like remotes for remote controlled curtains: that holding down the jog button would cause the masking to role continuously up or down and you simply stop the masking where you want by releasing the button.

But if it's as you seem to describe - requiring many discrete button pushes - hmm...that could be good or bad for my use, since I'll be adjusting image size a lot. Having to press the jog button many times could be a bit annoying if I'm adjusting image sizes on the fly. On the other hand, it could be good if those discrete steps allow macro strings from my remote to cause the masking to end up at a variety of pre-programmed image sizes.

To clarify only if you tap the JOG buttons it moves in half inch increments. If you hold them the masking drapes move continuously without stopping until you let go. I hope that makes sense. The JOG feature works flawlessly and I have absolutely no issues with it.

SOME PICS... Notice you can see below the screen area where the pause symbol is at in pic 1. Then in pic 2 you can see where the Masquerade does an exceptional job. I left part of the pause symbol so you can tell even easier!

Oh, ok thanks joerod.

I think that could be the best of both worlds. Holding down continuously would work for adjusting image size on the fly. But if short signals to the "jog" function reliably move the masking in 1/2 inch increments it suggests I could set up pre-set image sizes with macros on my universal remote.

I just wanted to add that's one of the benefits of masking, I find, and it's hard to appreciate until you actually see it in action. You don't think the not-really-black bars being projected are any issue. It's only when they are completely removed that you realise it changes the look of the image.

There's a sort of delicious purity to an image that is completely masked by neat, black borders. It lets your eye travel all around the image, all the way out to the edges of the image without ever being distracted by extraneous competing hues (e.g. gray bars) or backgrounds. It's just addictive once you've done it.

Joerod: Thanks for taking the time to give us a very desriptive detailed review. I appreciate the feedback.

Ron

Hey no problem. I enjoyed posting my thoughts.

I would also like to point out how wonderful the staff is to work with when choosing a product and having it custom built. David Giles, thanks for being a part of AVS Forum!

Do I feel like the way Jog works now is a deal breaker for me? Absolutely not. I mentioned my suggestion to Carada because I was trying to help them to build a perfect system. I can live with the way Jog works now. If I need to jog down 1/4" and it moves down 3/4", it is okay. Because, like I said, the panel reflects little light. Missing 1/2" of the picture is no big deal for me. I wouldn’t let that stop me from buying a Masquerade.

The WOW factor of Masquerade is so obvious. My wife was very insensitive about the picture quality. She told me that my new Panny 2000 looks the same as my old VW10HT. But after I installed the Masquerade, she admitted that she could see a big difference in picture quality. She was so happy about it that didn’t even ask me how much it costs.