Paint or Screen??

[Grevlin]

All right, here it is:

I see three options for a projector screen:


1. Just paint a wall a nice clean white with regular paint. (+ border trim)

2. Paint the wall with "theater paint" (+ border trim)

3. Install a screen.


Can anyone contribute opinions on quality differences, and which one you have.

Thanks,

(I've actually seen a stretched fabric screen like 20' wide but I'll leave that option out )

[jk1138]

In my old house we just used white paint but we did not have HD yet. I understand the theater paint ,akes it look better, but I do not know for sure. Screens are expensive depending on the size, so I would go with the paint. JMO.

[Grevlin]

Thanks jk, I'm trying to get the "huge lcd" effect, and just need to figure out the screen plan.

Has anyone actually had a painted screen and then put up a regular screen using the same projector? To really notice a difference?

[Beta Man]

from a price-to-performance standpoint..... there is no reason to do regular paint vs. a "Theater Paint" mixture......

When you say "install" a screen.... is that a purchased one? I'd say you should also add "Wilsonart Laminate" to your possible screens.... if you want to build one yourself, it's probably a lot easier to work with than fabric/black-out-cloth (what I used)

If I had to do it again... it'd be either a purchased one..... or a Wilsonart one.

[Psiweaver]

Do a screen you can get way better performance out of that especially if you have a lesser projector.

[Grevlin]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

from a price-to-performance standpoint..... there is no reason to do regular paint vs. a "Theater Paint" mixture......

When you say "install" a screen.... is that a purchased one? I'd say you should also add "Wilsonart Laminate" to your possible screens.... if you want to build one yourself, it's probably a lot easier to work with than fabric/black-out-cloth (what I used)

If I had to do it again... it'd be either a purchased one..... or a Wilsonart one.

Hey Beta, just saw your new pics- that black paint near the screen really isolates it, bet it looks amazing with a blu on.

I'm really torn between painting one on and buying one. I need to check out the details on the wilsonart.

I just measured out a 120" screen in my room - a bit too big (Room is 15' x 14')

[Grevlin]

Originally Posted by Psiweaver

Do a screen you can get way better performance out of that especially if you have a lesser projector.

Leaning towards a Panny AE3000- Better to some, lesser to some as well...

I hear nothing but great things about it, including brightness.

[Oddiophile]

Your comparing apples to oranges here. But IMO a DIY screen can beat a manufactured screen if you do your home work. A good place to start is the DIY screen section on the AVSforum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=110 lots of good information there along with lots of DIY screen paint formulas members have developed. A screen is nothing more then an engineered reflective surface. The amount of light the screen can reflect is the measured screen gain, 1.0 is the average, as the number gets bigger the screen gets brighter, a 2.0+ screen gain would be like a huge plasma screen. The easy way out would be to just purchase a good quality well engineered screen but if you put in the time and money a DIY screen can be very rewarding, cost saving, and competitive with manufactured screens on the market costing $2,000 to $20,000+.


Odd

[gosawx]

FWIW

I did Behr silverscreen matte off a formula I got over at AVS forum...what really helped was adding more black further back along the walls. That really helped the contrast.

I'm sure a proper screen would outperform my set up, but I'm $35 deep into my screen investment

[Grevlin]

Originally Posted by Oddiophile

Your comparing apples to oranges here. But IMO a DIY screen can beat a manufactured screen if you do your home work. A good place to start is the DIY screen section on the AVSforum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=110 lots of good information there along with lots of DIY screen paint formulas members have developed. A screen is nothing more then an engineered reflective surface. The amount of light the screen can reflect is the measured screen gain, 1.0 is the average, as the number gets bigger the screen gets brighter, a 2.0+ screen gain would be like a huge plasma screen. The easy way out would be to just purchase a good quality well engineered screen but if you put in the time and money a DIY screen can be very rewarding, cost saving, and competitive with manufactured screens on the market costing $2,000 to $20,000+.


Odd

Thanks Odd,

Two questions:

The apples to oranges - are the two that different, paint to manufactured?

And the higher gain- if I'm looking for a "huge lcd" effect, should I consider a higher gain (over 1.0?) I don't want to narrow the viewing angle too much...

[Oddiophile]

Originally Posted by Grevlin

Thanks Odd,

Two questions:

The apples to oranges - are the two that different, paint to manufactured?

Can a DIY screen be as good as a manufactured screen? It depends on what your comparing. I have been using a blank, no texture, white wall for a while now and have over 30 manufactured screen samples here and only a handful of them can meet or beat my white wall. But on the other side of the coin if I try different types of paint the screen samples look better then a lot of the paints out there. It comes down to what your looking for and how well you do your home work.

And the higher gain- if I'm looking for a "huge lcd" effect, should I consider a higher gain (over 1.0?) I don't want to narrow the viewing angle too much...

True higher gains can narrow your viewing cone, they also raise your projectors black levels too. If you have a bright projector you may not need a high gain screen to give you that POP, or if you want to go BIG with a 200"+ screen you may need a high gain screen to make of for the lost lumens with a large screen. You have gray screens, black screen, white & silver screens. All have there positives and negatives, it comes down to what you need & like. My preference is white screens between 1.0 & 1.5 gain.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by Grevlin

I just measured out a 120" screen in my room - a bit too big (Room is 15' x 14')

You're measuring a 120" DIAGONAL screen? At 16:9, it'd be 105" WIDE for a 120" Diagonal screen......

I think you can do a 120" in a room that size, unless throw distance is the issue......

For the AE300, you'll need 14 1/2 feet to get that size If I'm looking at the right projector.... which would mean, you'd have the projector mounted on the back wall, and the screen Flush on the wall, projecting on the 15' wall..... not the 14' wall....

but either way... I'd say cutting the screen down to 110" would be better, but it's up to you!

[Oddiophile]

Originally Posted by gosawx

FWIW

I did Behr silverscreen matte off a formula I got over at AVS forum...what really helped was adding more black further back along the walls. That really helped the contrast.

Light bouncing off the ceiling, side walls and floor can bounce back and wash out the image on screen lowering your ANSI contrast. The closer you can get your room to a bat cave the better your constant will be. Blacking out your ceiling can make HUGE improvements to your picture quality. High gain screens have an advantage with there narrow viewing cones that they don't bounce much light off the ceiling & walls to wash out the image.

Also wrapping your screen frame in black velvet can make a noticable difference in picthure quality compaired to just painting the frame black. The better you can stop light from reflecting the better the image quality will be.

[Beta Man]

^^^----

absolutely....

I painted my ceiling, back wall, trim etc. black, and the rest of the room flat brown....

I used the velvet on the screen.... etc..

it's a huge difference when light is introduced into the mix..... I have can lights on a dimmer, and I can slowly turn the knob and watch the image wash out......

I just painted my speaker wires for the fronts too!!!!! it's amazing what reflects light!!!!!

I plan on replacing the carpet with "Flat Black" as well.


Your theater room, movie room, media room... what-not... should be one in which you can turn out the lights, during the middle of the day....... and not be able to see your hand in front of your face....

If you achieve that, it make projecting a quality image a LOT easier (and cheaper, because some of the higher end ( $30k plus) projectors can perform fairly well with a bit of ambient light because of their high light out-put)

[Grevlin]

Beta,

It will be projected onto the 14' wall, and the 105" wide swallows up my speakers. I could look at an electric that hangs in front of the speakers (outer wall, no room to put the speakers in the wall) but I would have to ditch my plans and start from scratch. (And add a few K onto the budget most likely)

Plus the 14' 2" throw would be cutting it close to get the 120"

I'm probably going to mount it and throw onto the current beige wall to test out sizes. (That's where paint gives me the room for odd sizes)


Odd,

I do plan to darken the walls and especially the ceiling with a total paint job.



Just researching these screen sizes has made my 40" seem like a postage stamp - real torture

[bhampton]

I would not paint.

I can paint but I find it to be messy and not fun and I have a hard time doing it right so forget about the type of perfect I would want for a screen.

I recently removed the MDF panel I was using for a screen because it was hot spotting with my new projector and I built a blackout fabric screen. It was cheap and easy... only took a couple of hours (mostly to get the frame togeather).

I've used Blackout fabric for most of the time since getting my first pj in 1999. I had some Parkland Plastics material for a while,... That Wisonart stuff looks fun too but I don't have it locally.

=Brian

[garlad]

Check out this DIY job!!

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=98551

[Disky76]

Originally Posted by Grevlin

All right, here it is:

I see three options for a projector screen:


1. Just paint a wall a nice clean white with regular paint. (+ border trim)

2. Paint the wall with "theater paint" (+ border trim)

3. Install a screen.


Can anyone contribute opinions on quality differences, and which one you have.

Thanks,

(I've actually seen a stretched fabric screen like 20' wide but I'll leave that option out )

You could always hold off on buying the screen, project onto the wall and see how you like it, and then purchase the screen if you don't like the results of projecting onto the wall.

Me personally, I would always opt to go with a screen, but I do know there are members in this forum who project onto walls with fantastic results.

[[1080-p]]

Originally Posted by Grevlin

All right, here it is:

I see three options for a projector screen:


1. Just paint a wall a nice clean white with regular paint. (+ border trim)

2. Paint the wall with "theater paint" (+ border trim)

3. Install a screen.


Can anyone contribute opinions on quality differences, and which one you have.

Thanks,

(I've actually seen a stretched fabric screen like 20' wide but I'll leave that option out )

how about metal screens? http://www.bikudo.com/product_search...c_screens.html

[Grevlin]

I do plan to order the proj first, mainly to test out placement and screen size potential.

I've been thinking about this screen:

http://www.projectorpeople.com/scree...roductID=22882