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Screen masking systems

B

Byron

Member
Just interested in hearing what people are using for automated screen masking with CIH setups and any tips you may have.
 
Using a stewart cinecurve, 2.40 AR, 135" wide. About 30' throw distance. Very happy with it. Using their standard studiotek 1.3 gain material. Not a believer in the below 1 gain materials- just doesn't seem right to me and I have not been that impressed with the grey/fire hawk stuff Ive seen.

http://www.stewartfilmscreen.com/CineCurve.htm
 
Oh, I'm so glad this came up as I've been meaning to ask someone about it.

How well does the Kaleidescape-triggered masking really work in practice? My understanding (ok, a guess) is that the movieguide data contains info about the movie's aspect ratio of course, but does it also knows if previews and bonus materials are in a different aspect ratio (quite common) and triggers your masking to adjust there as well? Does it really work? Are there times the masking is off because the data is incomplete? That would drive me crazy and make it worse than having a system with no real masking.

I've seen so many errors in the MovieGuide system (or incomplete entries), and delays in MovieGuide having accurate data for newly released movies, that I'm not sure I'd trust it to be masking my screen if the aspect ratio data is as commonly missing or inaccurate as some of the other metadata.

Love to hear experiences of anyone who has actually used auto-masking for real with a big movie collection.

--josh
 
I harbor the same concerns so I never set that part of it up. I control the masking manually. Programmed my crestron so you tell it how you want to watch a given program- 4x3, 16x9, or 2.35:1. Tried to keep it simple in case others in the family want to watch. 4x3 and 16x9 the lens is out of the projector path and the masking does what it needs to do. Same on 2.35:1 but now the VP does its stretch and the lens moves into position. I also have an expert mode with the same choices but now the frame rate is 24fps. :)
 
This is a good topic to which I can only add that I am still doing everything manually from my Crestron panel. It has actually been a process of steady escalation as the demands that we have made--lights, masking, screen up and down, etc.--have outstripped lesser control systems. Our screen is a Stewart vertical electriscreen electrimask (these products have such cool names). For a time, with a less robust control system I would get the system all confused. When it did not respond instantly, I would simply push more buttons. Many minutes later, having forgotten what I had done earlier, the screen would suddenly come down, think again and go back up. Or the anamorphic lens would move out of place. All of this has stopped, but we still don't have the aspect ratio inserted automatically by kaleidescape.
 
MTrueblood said:
For a time, with a less robust control system I would get the system all confused. When it did not respond instantly, I would simply push more buttons. Many minutes later, having forgotten what I had done earlier, the screen would suddenly come down, think again and go back up. Or the anamorphic lens would move out of place. All of this has stopped, but we still don't have the aspect ratio inserted automatically by kaleidescape.
Click to expand...

Trying to explain to a customer the difference between an AMX or Crestron control solution over other systems like Vantage, Control 4, Pronto or RTI can be difficult. This is a perfect example where other control systems just do not cut the mustard.

If only someone could educate the reps that are currently promoting their control systems as being able to achieve the same result as AMX or Crestron.... :)

I say this because we had a rep promoting Vantage as an AMX replacement and that Vantage could do anything that AMX could........
 
it works very well. Telnet into the box and hit play on a movie and the presets are right there. It is very simple. the EXACT data where you trim +1% top -3% bottom (or whatever) was a little more complex but when i left there (2 years ago) it was more an issue of screens that could understand it. but we had it properly working in the K theatre.
 
Dizzman, can you say more about this? Do the movieguide people actually code in aspect ratio for even bonus materials, trailers, etc. for every disc? There's been plenty of moviedata errors, but they don't affect viewing the movie itself generally. But errors on this data for screen masking really will make the movie tough to watch, so i'm somewhat skeptical that all the data is there, accurately, and in a timely way upon release of a movie.

--josh
 
they code the movie. previews/trailers for the movie on the disc is usually bookmarked, but i am not totally sure about the AR info for it. so i would guess no. although confirm with them. it has been two years since i left.
 
So does K actually measure the AR, or do they go off of what the studio lists it at? For example, the studio might say its 2.4, but it is actually 2.37. And- you are saying that K accounts for a slightly off center disk master if the picture is moved down slightly from the center?

So- all of this information could be fed to a properly configured crestron unit to control a BRIC masking system and a stretch lens to really PRECISELY display the movies correct AR with a centered picture and everything?
 
they measure it. they have an inhouse app that captures where it all is. they just go to a well lit scene in the movie and it auto captures it all. And they can manually adjust if needed.

The only thing k gets from the studio is who is in it and such. everything else is captured. the art of coming up with the K synopsis is a finely tuned thing. Call in one day and ask about rejected synopsyes. (SP) All AR is a capture based upon what is coming off the disc. so slightly different, off position... no prob.

HOWEVER... how well the bric and the Xmask controller can use it is a different thing. When i was still there, trying to show them how to use the EXACT data was challenging. the presets were fine, but the exact positioning was a challenge.

THe one thing i do not know about though is how well it all translates to CIH setups. the captured info was for a 4 way masking. I am sure a small program could convert to values for a side masking screen.
 
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