Faux widescreen, cropped Academy and other catastrophes

[movielocke]

One issue to reckon with that I rarely see mentioned in these discussions is that, whatever the aspect ratio, an image looks most pleasing to the eye when it is framed in black along all sides. I believe movie theaters accomplish this by using curtains or panels to mask the areas of the screen that won't have an image projected onto them. But there isn't really a practical solution to this problem in the home theater arena yet. Case in point: I recently looked into what it would take to add remote-controlled masking to a projector screen and found that, for a screen that only cost $1,000 to begin with, the ability to mask from 16:9 down to 4:3 would run me another $4,000, and the ability to also mask to 1.66:1 would cost $2,000 more. What.

Attach duvetyne to cheap foam board and put velcro on the sides of your screen and the duvetyne masks. Voila, instant easily removable customizable masking.

[Zot!]

Not sure what the 4 grand solution entails, but I'm pretty sure the traditional solution at a theater has been black velvet curtains. How is this not similarly practical at home?

[swo17]

Geez, that was over four years ago but as I recall it would have been some kind of unnecessarily complicated mechanical solution. In any case, they make this sort of thing so someone's using it.