Cleaning up the "billboards" on HT component faceplates

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Okay, hopefully I'm not the lone ranger here.

Am I the only one irritated by all the "visual pollution" on the faceplates of most home theater components? You know, the plethora of little emblems that advertise the presense of HDMI, XM radio, DTS, and all the other seemingly endless varieties of proprietary audio or video processing? "HDMI": What, we're down to why announcing routine connection schemes now? I guess we're lucky we never saw any "RCA Jacks" or "S-Video" labeling on faceplates.

My admittedly irrational loathing of this nonsense dates back to the days of VCRs, which used to be the worst offenders: "VCR Plus," "Random Assemble Edit," "Pro-cision 19u EP Head," Advanced Auto Clock Set," were some of the proclamations plastered on the front of the high-end JVC S-VHS VCRs I had back then, that marred their otherwise stunning beauty.

These days, I think VCRs have been eclipsed by receivers. Take a look at this current-model Denon:

AVR3808CI_Front_Large_rdax_1200x494.jpg

Good grief. Can't we just consult the manual to see what all the features are? Or why can't they just put all that junk on a sticker than can be easily removed? Do you really need a daily reminder that your receiver has "AL 24 Processing Plus?"

In the interest of cleaning up the cluttered front panels of my components, my MO going all the way back to VCR days has been to black out the "billboards" before putting a new piece of equipment in my rack, giving it a clean, uncluttered look. Today I gave the treatment to my newly-acquired Yamaha DVD-S2500. Here's a "before" and "after." What do you think?

FP_DVD-S2500.jpg

Yamaha DVD 1.JPG

Regards,
Wayne

[salvasol]

I like the first picture .... second is to simple

Seriously, I think is okay to do what you did if you have that in plain view ... but in my case, all equipment is at the bottom of the TV so you can't really see them; and when I watch movies I do it in the dark (you can only see the display and sometimes just a few lights because I can turn off the display on my RXV-2700 and HD3) ...

I think is a matter of personal preference ...

[drf]

I have solved that problem to a certain degree. Here is my dvd player, cdplayer, media library, sound processor, eq and pre amp, etc:


pc1.jpg


Non of which is seen from my couch anyway.

[Mike P.]

Or why can't they just put all that junk on a sticker than can be easily removed?

I couldn't agree more!

[eugovector]

Two words: Smoked glass.

[superchad]

If thats as bad as life gets you are doing great! I used electrical tape to cover bulbs before and knew a guy who made a face plate to cover up something I cant recall but he had access to a machine shop and paint booth, but it looked great.

[salvasol]

Has anybody tried "window tint film'??? ... same used on homes and cars

Maybe I'll give it a try ... I bought some for the windows on my HT, I think the film doesn't use any glue to attach to glass; according to instructions you just need water/soap mix ... and if you want you can remove it later

[tonyvdb]

This has never bothered me, I do agree that in some cases the front face of equipment gets a bit cluttered but I never really pay attention to it. I think the worse part of it is all the wires and cables needed to plug in everything and no matter how hard you try to tidy it up you always see cords hanging out the back of your equipment rack, my two channel system is a mess

[thxgoon]

I couldn't agree more Wayne. It wasn't so bad when it was just a DD, DTS and THX logo but that Denon has 14 logos!!! It reminds me of all of the cheap htib's and stereos which advertize "10,000 watts of power!!" and just looks cheap. I wish the better brands would refrain from this kind of stuff.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

superchad wrote:

I used electrical tape to cover bulbs before and knew a guy who made a face plate to cover up something I cant recall but he had access to a machine shop and paint booth, but it looked great.

Actually, 3M electrical tape is my solution of choice. If you look closely you can see a thin strip below the drawer of the Yamaha hiding the "progressive scan" logo. Pretty much invisible in most lighting situations, especially in dimly-lit HT's.

salvasol wrote:

Has anybody tried "window tint film'??? ... same used on homes and cars

Maybe I'll give it a try ... I bought some for the windows on my HT, I think the film doesn't use any glue to attach to glass; according to instructions you just need water/soap mix ... and if you want you can remove it later

I have used it to tame overly bright LEDs before. The film does indeed have an adhesive, that's activated by the soap and water solution. That's the way to do it if you're doing the glass doors on an entertainment center. For applying directly to a component display window, don't wet it. Without the solution, it's a low-stick adhesive that's easly removal. It sticks seriously once you wet it!

Regards,
Wayne

[yourgrandma]

Personally, if I were bothered by it, I'd polish the printing off. I wouldn't wnt electrical tape on my faceplates. I agree, they do go a bit overboard. Especially since all the HD stuff came about.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

thxgoon, it's looking like we're in a small club!

yourgrandma wrote:

Personally, if I were bothered by it, I'd polish the printing off. I wouldn't wnt electrical tape on my faceplates.

Have you ever tried that? I'd be afraid of permanently marring the finish. Hmm, maybe I could do a "trial run" on my old DVD player...

Regards,
Wayne

[Otto]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

thxgoon, it's looking like we're in a small club!

Hey, I'm with you guys! I never care for all that type of badging junk. Simple is best.

[ACGREEN]

I like it. Many of them or of features that I want in a receiver. My equipment also goes into an audio/video closet, so I guess I am not staring at them all of the time.

[yourgrandma]

Wayne A. Pflughaupt wrote:

thxgoon, it's looking like we're in a small club!

Have you ever tried that? I'd be afraid of permanently marring the finish. Hmm, maybe I could do a "trial run" on my old DVD player...

Regards,
Wayne

I can give it a shot on my garage reciever. I think with a light touch and some medium rubbing compound, it should lift pretty easily. The thing is, though, that my shop reciever has a plastic face, whereas many other components would have a milled and brushed anodized aluminum plate. If you rub through the anodizing, there arent many ways to make it look good again. The plastic presents it's own challenges, though, like marring and scratching.

I'll post up later with some experimentation.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I was thinking some kind of mineral spirits, since the logos are probably silk screened. The million-dollar question would be if it would take off the black finish as well...

Regards,
Wayne