I think that's better than the plastic glare blockers.

Pretty cool.

I wonder if you could install a big sheet of this stuff between the translite and the backglass.

That's a great question. Anyone try?

I thought about doing this and buying a sheet large enough to cut 6 DMD glare guards once Mark became ill. It would come out to about $20 ea. I have his film on all my machines and I love it. The color DMDs don't need it though. I used 1/2" sticky dots from Michaels craft store. They seem to work the best out the different types I have tried.

Did you use a paper cutter to make exact straight cuts? That material is on the thick side.

Wow, that's really cool! The one question I have is whether kids still see the DMD from their viewing angle? I know when kids play my games, their head tends to be not too much higher than the glass. Would the filter block out someone looking from that angle?

--Luke

I bought a game with one installed and at first it just appeared that the display was slightly dimmer than normal. Then I saw the film of the panel.

It does work pretty well though.

Todd

The other film on the mkt that is not 3M darkens the DMD in an even more noticeable way.

it's funny that I posted this exact same thing a few months ago (seeing if people were interested in going in on a bulk buy since as stated, 3M only sets the film in "kits" of ten 17"x17" sheets), but no one ever replied (see below)

the film works great and does exactly what we need it to do (block out reflection on the playfield glass from the dmd)

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dmd-anti-glare-film-3m-vikuiti-micro-louvered-advanced-light-control

I use these on all my games and you don't really notice them after a while. The nice thing is if you sell the game you can keep it for your next game where as stick on glare film you can not. Also if you have lots of games you could get away with 1-2 glare guards and move it from game to game as well too.

That's great!. It looks really good in the pictures...almost like magic.

--Luke

I tried this. 3M does not make a sheet large enough to cover a translight. Or at least they didn't when I was investigating it. I tried to seem two sheet together and it was problematic.

The real deal breaker here is the cost. For two full sheets to assemble you're getting close to the price of PDI or Invisaglass.

Kim

For those who are interested, TheKorn did a great comparison between this stuff and the polarized stuff. Perhaps someone could provide a link to it.

http://www.thekorn.net/glare_guards/

Kim

These guys in Germany sell the sheets large enough for a translite.

http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/antiglare/index.html

Thanks, Kim!

Different material and purpose. Unless I misread that article the product is intended to reduce the reflective glare *to* the transight and DMD themselves. I didn't read anything about eliminating the glare from the playfield glass.

I have to admit the article is a bit confusing and at first I thought the same thing. Or did I miss something?

Kim

the 3M filter material has can be viewing angle of 10-12° above or below from straight on where you can see the display just fine

once the angle becomes wider than that, the microlouvers block the light

Having a look at this makes me wonder if using the 3M product for the DMD, and the polarizer for the backglass might work well. Polarized window film should be much cheaper than the prices being talked about for the 3M louver product.

Using a polarizer on the backglass should reduce reflections to the machine across from it, which was the goal of the anti-reflective film in the Pinball News link. Although in this case you would be treating the source of the reflection rather than the reflective surface.

I think that depends on the machine. A lot of games with fluorescent bulbs are way too bright and the reflection becomes a distraction on the playfield. For other games, once you put in LEDs they can be overly bright too.

I'm pretty sure that Polarized film WILL darken to backglass to much

Agreed.

I've been doing a bunch of research and testing on DMD and translite films over the past several months and there is definitely a lot of confusion on the topic (and this thread). My first batch of film was great and blocked 90%+ of the reflection while still passing a lot of the light. I tried to get more of it from another source and the quality was terrible and it didn't work well. My latest sheet from my original source is good, but not quite as good as my first batch. I would say it blocks 75%+ of the reflection. Below are some pics of the latest batch with it installed vs. not on STTNG. My pics from the first batch are in the old thread on this topic.

All my testing so far on the translites has been disappointing. Light does not come out of a translite the way it does a DMD. I'm fairly confident the 3M product would work but we would be looking at at $300+ / machine and that is at a distributor/wholesale rate. I know people spend ~$300 a game on PDI glass but I'm not sure how many people want to spend that much money to prevent translite reflections.

FYI - I wouldn't waste your time with the polarizing window film. That stuff reduces reflection at the same rate it reduces the light you see from the DMD.

DSC00206.JPG DSC00205.JPG

Yep polarized isn't the answer

If the window film worked that would be awesome because we could make these for $2 each. Check out these pics from my first batch - you really can't even see a reflection. At a price point of ~$20 each - I think these are great vs. spending $40 on the 3M stuff.

2-DSC00169.jpg

4-DSC00171.jpg

Total speculation on my part but I would reason all of these results lead to Pinball Life discontinuing to carrying them.

Kim

What size is the dot area on a DMD anyway. My biggest and only issue with the Pinball Pal filters is that they were cut so small. I mean they had to be lined up just right. There was no extra on any side of any of the dots. After it was mounted it was good to go, but having 1/8" extra for top and sides would have been really nice.

I can understand if the size of the sheet required that tight of cutting or you would lose one out of a sheet, but it seems unlikely that the sheets are EXACTLY the width of the DMD dots.

5 is good. I had cut mine at 4.5" which was enough to grab on to when lifting the filter back out, but didn't sacrifice too much material. I agree that 4 is too tight.