The blue and green panels pretty much mask everything behind - the red and amber panels don't. We tried darker red and amber tones, but then the display got too dim. We actually started out with lighter tones before we reached the final decision.

I did consider getting the IR receiver can blacked out with marker, but we're worried about over liberal application covering the actual lens! We can't mask the heater wires to the side of the VFD as they're actually inside the display, and masking the top of the display would ruin the viewing angle.

I use an amber player most of the time, and I've found that you don't really notice what's underneath the panel too much, unless the sun is shining onto it. The AR coat should help with this.

Rob