I want to mask the black bars on my TV. Have you tried this?

[Warm Gun]

They stick out like a sore thumb depending on the disc and my TV's local dimming. Plenty of discs aren't well enough encoded for the letterboxes to be truly black. They drove me crazy yesterday. It's 65 inches. I imagine I'd need right mats and clips that only make it as far as the 8 mm bezels, so as not to damage the screen. One pair of mats for 1.66:1 and similar, one for 4:3 and similar, one for 1.85:1 and similar, and one for 2.39:1 and similar. Can't use the same ones for 4:3 and 1.66:1 because I don't want to block the tower speakers. If you've tried this, please recommend materials.

[d3nt0n]

Buy an OLED

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Plenty of discs aren't well enough encoded for the letterboxes to be truly black.

I've never run in to this issue. I'm gonna guess you have your brightness set too high.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by d3nt0n

Buy an OLED

Because 2000 to 3000 dollars just grows on trees. Would still have the same issue with many discs. Artifacts appearing in the letterboxes, letterboxes flashing dimly, turning dark purplish or not being completely black. It's not the TV. I can observe the same things on my RGB monitor.

I've never run in to this issue. I'm gonna guess you have your brightness set too high.

My Sony's SDR brightness is only at 10/50. Gamma is -1. It's fine.

[d3nt0n]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Because 2000 to 3000 dollars just grows on trees.

I apologize if I came across as being a d*ck about, but it really is the best way to achieve what you're trying to do.

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Artifacts appearing in the letterboxes, letterboxes flashing dimly, turning dark purplish or not being completely black.

What discs specifically are you having these issues with? I've watch a lot in my setup and only ran into this problem once

[Show spoiler]and even then it was a sketchy rip I found online not a disc I bought at retail

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

My Sony's SDR brightness is only at 10/50. Gamma is -1. It's fine.

Did you use a test pattern to accurately dial in these values or just set it to whatever someone on the avforums told you to?
Also is your TV properly calibrated? idk about your TV specifically, but if you're running into issues with black and near-blacks then dialing in your grayscales could really help a lot.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

They stick out like a sore thumb depending on the disc and my TV's local dimming. Plenty of discs aren't well enough encoded for the letterboxes to be truly black. They drove me crazy yesterday. It's 65 inches. I imagine I'd need right mats and clips that only make it as far as the 8 mm bezels, so as not to damage the screen. One pair of mats for 1.66:1 and similar, one for 4:3 and similar, one for 1.85:1 and similar, and one for 2.39:1 and similar. Can't use the same ones for 4:3 and 1.66:1 because I don't want to block the tower speakers. If you've tried this, please recommend materials.

The home cinema enthusiasts use felt to mask of areas of unwanted screen. There's a cheaper option too, but I'll have to see if I can find it (it was in a a video I saw recently).

Depending on your bezel, you might be able to use some Velcro to attach the strips. 1.85:1 might be difficult to fabricate, but with letterboxing/pillar boxing build them so you can fold them to switch between ratios.

[captainsolo]

The easiest and cheapest method to try it out is to buy a black foam board, cut it to size and use pieces of painter's tape on the sides. It may look silly but when you turn the lights off it works amazingly well.

[superpacman]

You already have the back drop in place. Your next step maybe too make color adjustments/calibration to the TV.

[Warm Gun]

I'll just do 2.39 and 1.66/4:3 for now. Two 60x40 inch foam boards should be enough for both. Can simply stand the pillar boxes on top of my TV cabinet and bind/tape at the top. Will call local Office Depot tomorrow and see if they have them. All the large boards I'm finding online are 3/16 of an inch thick. Wonder if that's too heavy. Having trouble finding black ones that big.

[crutzulee]

Because I have always been a bear for OAR, and have always been sensitive to perceived contrast ratio, I have been applying mattes to my displays dating back to my use of a "massive" 27" Sony Trinitron with a Pioneer LD player. Currently, I employ vertical masking on my 130" CIH scope screen to achieve perfectly matted presentations in 16:9, 1.85:1, 2:1, 2.40:1 and everything in between using my JVC lens adjustments.

Without angering OLED enthusiasts, my brief experience with the tech suggests that you can indeed achieve a black level in which the letterbox bars completely disappear, however this, IMHO, results in an image less filmlike than what I have been able to achieve with my JVC's front projected image when externally tone mapped.

I'm not looking to debate anyone on the superiority of OLED vs DiLA. I know that I'm wrong and in the minority in my preference for the latter...LOL...Suffice it to say, that my tech and yours requires matting to achieve the best possible results. I'm a big fan of treating the room rather than treating the display.

I've used everything from simple black construction paper to black velvet in my mattes. For your setup, I would employ simple black metal strips on either side of the display and use simple magnets to position thin strips of velvet above and below the image to be framed. This would allow for multiple aspect ratios.

[Warm Gun]

Found out this morning that my setup was 15 points above the 16-235. I think. Had my graphics card connected to the receiver. After connecting the graphics card right to the TV, I was able to select RGB (0-255). So now TV content (movies) uses the correct 16-235 out of that full range 0-255. Only problem is that the graphics card only has the one HDMI port, so now I have no Atmos. It drops to stereo. My Sony 900e does not have eARC. It can send uncompressed 5.1 on to my receiver, but not Atmos. Might need to replace this perfectly fine Onkyo TX-NR575 with a new receiver, that can actually receive the RGB 4K signal and send it back to the TV without dropping to 16-235. For something so little. Edit: No, it's not just Atmos, it's all Dolby TrueHD that falls to stereo.

[Warm Gun]

Unless I set both the GPU and madVR to 16-235, but that doesn't seem right. Everything seems to be a little brighter than RGB (0-255 in both GPU and madVR) with movies then using 16-235 of the full 255.

Edit: Yeah, terri-bright if I do that. Didn't notice how bad 16-235 in both is it at first because I was using automatic cropping for black bars in the same program. The black bars become completely grey. Before, I had it 16-235 in the GPU and 0-255 in madVR. It didn't look THIS bad, so I'm still confused as to how bad the YCbCr GPU > RGB media player > YCbCr TV chain I was using is.

That automatic cropping is an awesome feature for movies with fixed aspect ratios. I don't have to see the compression artifacts in the letterboxes.

[roar]

If you want the blackest of black bars I wouldn't use felt or velvet, those are used for front projection for their absorption abilities... as well as their blackness.

You don't need to worry about trying to absorb any light... instead I'd paint a flat, rigid surface (wood?) with something like this: https://culturehustle.com/products/b...ic-paint-150ml

That could look pretty killer!

[Warm Gun]

Office Depot told me yesterday they have a 60x40 inch foam board, but it's not black. Wonder if black spray paint would stay on.

One online store charges 230 dollars for the handling on two 60x40s in black. Would like to pick it up myself from a brick and mortar.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Office Depot told me yesterday they have a 60x40 inch foam board, but it's not black. Wonder if black spray paint would stay on.

One online store charges 230 dollars for the handling on two 60x40s in black. Would like to pick it up myself from a brick and mortar.

Spray paint should work okay if you go lightly, but you're better off with Home Depot than Office Depot. I wouldn't pay hundred of bucks when you could use thick cardboard or or foam board. Don't pay too much unless you're buying actual sound board and you don't need that.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by chip75

Spray paint should work okay if you go lightly, but you're better off with Home Depot than Office Depot. I wouldn't pay hundred of bucks when you could use thick cardboard or or foam board. Don't pay too much unless you're buying actual sound board and you don't need that.

No, it's not the material that makes it so expensive, it's the shipping and handling. I like to order big things online because I don't have a car. I ride by bicycle everywhere. Will just have to take the boards onto the tram. There is a Home Depot right near that Office Depot. Will check there on Thursday.

[Warm Gun]

Came out pretty well, I think.



Haven't had a chance to try out the vertical black bars. Ran out of velcro, and I don't know if they have enough paint. Bottle ran out. Only had a chance to try 2.39 yesterday night. Used two coats on those. I could see the cardboard a little bit, but it was much better.

Thanks.

[tcripe]

OLED. You can get them for a lot cheaper now a days than they used to be.

[Warm Gun]

If I wanted another Sony at the same size, I'd be paying about 2800 dollars (A90J), almost twice as much as I paid for my 900e. Expensive for me. I'm not going with another brand. Read Sony TVs are the most color-accurate. Edit: Or maybe the 2000 dollar A80K. I don't know what the differences between those OLEDs are, because I'm not in the market. Might wait until this TV dies.

[unberechenbar]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

If I wanted another Sony at the same size, I'd be paying about 2800 dollars (A90J), almost twice as much as I paid for my 900e. Expensive for me. I'm not going with another brand. Read Sony TVs are the most color-accurate. Edit: Or maybe the 2000 dollar A80K. I don't know what the differences between those OLEDs are, because I'm not in the market. Might wait until this TV dies.

The A8H is available at 65 inches for $1375. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-65...?skuId=6401203

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by unberechenbar

The A8H is available at 65 inches for $1375. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-65...?skuId=6401203

What's wrong with it?

A demonstration of my masking:



I used an ISO of 100 and selected my custom Nvidia resolution of 3840x1632 (2.39:1) for this photo, without turning on the auto crop* for black bars in my media player, which is why there are black bars on the sides of the letterboxed 3840x2160 image. The colors in the photo are way off, but you can see the brighter window-boxing of the Sony. My masks are above and below the blueish windowbox. It's obvious by the windowbox and the image being in the same aspect ratios.

*That auto crop feature that I talked about before is kind of clunky. If I use an Nvidia resolution of 2960x2160 (1.37:1), the image of a movie in that AR becomes distorted. PGS subtitles are stretched if I use something like 3840x1632. So I'll only really use it for wider than 16:9 English/German language movies with fixed AR, so that I can stop to use my desktop if I need to.