Red colored screen protector...

[nrubenstein]

So, I've just bought myself a 3G 20GB which I really, really like. There's just one problem: The screen is so bright, it's distracting when I'm driving. Anyone have any suggestions on where I might get some sort of clear, red laminate to protect the screen, cut light output and help it coordinate a little better with the interior of my Bimmer?

Thanks

[dbett]

Interesting idea.

Do you know why BMW's have the red lights on the interior?

Apparently, it's based on US Navy studies during WW2 that found that coastal lookouts had better night vision after sitting in a room with red light. [/useless factoid]

[nrubenstein]

Yep, and I heartily agree with it. Cars with white instrument illumination annoy the heck out of me.

I guess I'd better go look around in a photo store, or something. Years ago, I found this red adhesive laminate that worked GREAT on my laptop. It darkened the light output considerably, without making the screen difficult to read, AND it made the laptop dark room safe.

[fasterthanlight]

red is the easiest colour for your eyes to adjust to.
your best bet WOULD be a camera store or something to that effect that sells the red gels.

[xfauxsn]

You might wanna try this.. although it does require the opening of your iPod. http://www.ipodhacks.com/article.php?sid=195 I was thinking of trying it myself.. but I'm not too sure about it yet. Good luck if you do.

[nrubenstein]

Originally posted by xfauxsn
You might wanna try this.. although it does require the opening of your iPod. http://www.ipodhacks.com/article.php?sid=195 I was thinking of trying it myself.. but I'm not too sure about it yet. Good luck if you do.

Nifty, but overkill for my purposes. That and I've ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS gotten my money out of warranties on electronics.

[AndyH]

Originally posted by nrubenstein
So, I've just bought myself a 3G 20GB which I really, really like. There's just one problem: The screen is so bright, it's distracting when I'm driving. Anyone have any suggestions on where I might get some sort of clear, red laminate to protect the screen, cut light output and help it coordinate a little better with the interior of my Bimmer?

The "Rose Deep" iShade might do the trick:
http://thinkdifferentstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=7

[nihil8r]

if you got those screen protectors for pda's that everyone recommends to protect the screen display, i'll bet you could figure out a way to tint that red. or, i'll bet you could find some red plastic and just glue that to the screen.

[Bat-Hound]

you could also try a theatre lighting supply store and get the gels used in theatre lighting... a variety of colors to choose from.

Example: http://theatrelighting.com/rosco_gel.html

[fasterthanlight]

but he would have to find a way to glue it onto the ipod. i think there are much better solutions out there, like the iShades, or that tutorial.

[Bat-Hound]

I suppose. I was just assuming he'd tape the gel on when he wanted to use it the car and night and just take it off when he didn't. I didn't get the impression he was looking for permanence. :)

[nrubenstein]

I'd leave it on at all times. And I'm afraid that the iShades solution won't work for me when I get around to installing an ICELink. (i.e. when they re-release the ####ed thing.) It would interfere with the cradle.

[Rakinos]

what about cuting a small square of red gel and have that held in place by a larger screen protector?

[JBF]

Hey Guys, I'm bringing this back from the dead as I figured out a great way to make your own screen protector thats red.

Here's what you need:

Hammermill Clear Window Decals (Item # 10009-0) for InkJet Printers.

For this project I used two sheets of these.

One which I printed a large red square on, and another to put over the top of it to act as a protection layer.

The reason I used one as a protection layer is that these sheets have a layer of water soluble adhesive material on the printable side (this makes it so the ink from your printer sticks properly). Any moisture from your fingers or anything (this includes just very light moisture) will cause fingerprints or your image to ruin.

So, what I did is lay my "protection sheet" on my bathroom sink and take a small hand towel that is wet from warm runing water and basically just wipe all of the adhesive off. It may take a few minutes but it will all come off. Just be sure to drip a good ammount of water on the page so the adhesive will come off.

Once the glue is totally off, your going to use this sheet as a protection layer.

So, now that you have your protection sheet and the sheet in which you printed off your large red square (I did a rectangle) you can cut out your red square and cut out a rectangle out of the "protection sheet" that is a tad larger than the red square.

Once the two rectangles were cut out, I removed the adhesive from the "protection" square and using a credit card, applied it to the red square. If you have someone to help you keep the bubbles out, it works very well.

Anyway, once you have your protection square on top of the red square, you can trim the excess "protection" layers off of the square.

The next thing I did is measured the red square so that I could cut two pieces out of the square so that i could have two sheets that fit the screen exactly.

Now, your probably wondering why two? Well, by using two sheets you can make sure your screen is red. Otherwise it has a pink tinge to it. So, I took the two red squares (that I cut out) and removed the backing on one and applied it ontop of the other. The next thing I did was trim it up so it'd fit the iPod screen and then removed the backing and applied it to my iPod screen.

It works well enough. It's harder to read your screen in the day-time but it looks good at night. I had to turn my screen's contrast up a bit so I could read it better, but it works pretty darn well.

Here's some pics:

http://www.jedinights.com/jbf/redscrn1.jpg

http://www.jedinights.com/jbf/redscrn2.jpg

http://www.jedinights.com/jbf/redscrn3.jpg
(On this image above, this is a scrap piece of what was left of my rectangle. It's actualy a set I did earlier but I accidentally cut off two much of the sides so the blue screen showed up.

As you can see, it's not perfect. However, I personally don't really notice the small "scan line" type effect that occured due to printing.

Plus my printer is incredibly old. I'm sure newer printers could do a thousand times better job printing it.

It wasn't that hard at all. Basically in the end there are four layers of transperancy. In this order: One square protection layer, one red layer, one protection layer, and one final red layer.

I think it looks great personally. If your a driver, it should be a thousand times better for you. Best of all, there's no adhesive to the other side of these. It uses static cling. Another added bonus to this would be that it could protect your iPod's screen.