What paint is the best for projecting direct onto a wall

[Penners]

Hi All

I'm a little confused as to which paint/colour I should buy to give me the best possible image/contrast from my Infocus DLP projector.

It will be mainly used for sat tv and videos.

I've been searching the net and so far I've found a paint made by goo systems which is specifically made for getting the most out of projecting direct to walls.

After reading some AV forums some suggest that the paint is well over priced and you can obtain the same results using Dulux brilliant white.

So I'm now completely confused should I be using gray paint or white paint and does it need to be specifically designed for PJ's ?

All help / advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Hejira]

I'd go with Brilliant White Matt emulsion, (In fact I have). A glossier finish reflects to much!

Only a Good quality screen will show a marked improvement over that IMHO.

 

[Penners]

I'd go with Brilliant White Matt emulsion, (In fact I have). A glossier finish reflects to much!

Only a Good quality screen will show a marked improvement over that IMHO.

Thanks for the info mate what do you think about using gray paint I've read that it improves the dark scenes in films ?

I'm still confused

 

[Hejira]

I have never come across a proffesional front projection screen other than white, so I'd say loada bollox! Rear projection screens are gray but working to a different principle.

I have projected front projection on a rear projection screen and IMHO no where near as good a picture but as stated different principle. Only way to really know is do a comparison. Get some cheap tester pots!

 

[elkopite]

i bought a 6 ft white matt vinyl window blind brand new for £20.00 and attatched it to the wall (onto a strip of timber) and it's brilliant, i use it for HD xbox, cable, dvd's and stuff..

you can roll it up when not in use and i have a 6ft x 4ft screen....

 

[Penners]

i bought a 6 ft white matt vinyl window blind brand new for £20.00 and attatched it to the wall (onto a strip of timber) and it's brilliant, i use it for HD xbox, cable, dvd's and stuff..

you can roll it up when not in use and i have a 6ft x 4ft screen....

Yeah the blackout blinds are good as that's what I used previously but because we've just had the room fully plastered I thought it would look better without a big blind on the wall.

A lot of the AV forums are talking about mixing

4 parts Delux illumitec
1 parts alluminium based paint.

Supposedly this dramatically reduces screen wash and greatly improves the dark scenes.

The yanks are all on about this and it seems to be filtering through to the UK too.

Has anyone had any experience with mixing alluminium based paint for the use as projector screen ?

Thnks for the replys so far peeps.

P.S has anyone got any access to a spectro analysis machine ? This would instantly tell us if what their harping on about has any big benefits.

 

[Penners]

I have never come across a proffesional front projection screen other than white, so I'd say loada bollox! Rear projection screens are gray but working to a different principle.

I have projected front projection on a rear projection screen and IMHO no where near as good a picture but as stated different principle. Only way to really know is do a comparison. Get some cheap tester pots!

Here's a link that explains gray screens

Should I use white or gray projection screens?

 

[martsmall]

i stapled a white bed sheet on my wall with velcro @ the top 4 when its up & the metal hole things ( sorry mental block on what thier called ) put in it for when its down to keep it stretched

 

[Hejira]

Here's a link that explains gray screens

Should I use white or gray projection screens?

Shite ya done ya homework! Stewart are prob the top choice for profesional screens and they do the best gray screen, but to use this screen to it's max your complete setup needs to be taken into consideration, ambient light conditions, projector mounting point etc. Put in it's simplest terms Gray Screens are used to reduce reflection from ambient light. IMHO if you are using a projector for your home cinema you should be controlling the ambient light and there should be none while viewing! Just like the cinema!

A better quality screen also has a texture that helps with gain you are unable to achieve when painting a wall.

Personally I would make a screen from a sheet of mdf or ply and frame it, should still look quite nice when the pojector not in use. Paint with white first then paint half with your gray mix n see if you feel there is an improvement.

This will be the only way you will be sure that a gray screen suites your projector and room conditions with the min outlay.

 

[Munkey]

Penners, the 'Paints,Brews and mixes' thread over at AV forums is the most relevant to us as all of the products can be bought over here. I played around with DIY screens and found them to be excellent using their formula's. This was from the original thread and not part II though.

I joined two sheets of MDF together (as I was making a large curved screen), filled the joint and applied a few base coats before I experimented with the various mixes. Just make sure that you leave plenty of time for the mix to dry before you test otherwise you may think you are seeing hot spotting when in fact it is still wet paint.

After all of my playing around I bought a Panoview Greywolf II which has a gain of 2.8. I then bought a Stewart Firehawk G3 again in grey. The Stewart screen is the rolls royce of screens and simply can't be touched for that deep black viewing experience (I think the gain is x0.9). You need to have a think about your seating positions as some screen like the Greywolf II are retro reflective (the light from the PJ hits the screen and usually bounces back to where it came from), this means that it has a very narrow viewing angle. The G3 does not have any issues regarding reflection. I now use a Stewart AT screen lol

It seems that you're going to go the DIY route so I'm guessing but the screen gain will be roughly x1.0. Use this calculator to input your PJ make/model and screen size along with the throw distance. Play around with the gain setting to see what kind of fL you get. People prefer around 15-20 but many videophiles prefer around 10fL which is quite a dim image. Consider how your bulb will age and how much of an effect this will have on your projected image (you can always adjust bulb settings or crank up the brightness but then the PJ has to be re-calibrated)

I understand people can't turn their front rooms into bat caves so grey screens make sense to me but the DIY option is the best, room permitting. I'd paint directly onto a wall before you make any DIY contraption, you might not like the resulting image if you are used to seeing 16fL or more.

 

[Penners]

Thanks for all your responses guys

@ Munkey

Bloody hell the "'Paints,Brews and mixes' thread over at AV forums" what a thread I've lost about 15 hours of my life reading all that info. Very very usefull though.

I've decided to paint 3 walls plus ceiling in Dulux Cookie Dough

And the wall that I'm going to projects onto is going to be a 4:1 mix of Dulux Matt + Hycote Alliminium

How long would you guys reconmend I leave the plaster to dry before I paint ? Its been dryin for 5 days now.

Again thank for all the replys and have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

[Hejira]

Penners, the 'Paints,Brews and mixes' thread over at AV forums is the most relevant to us as all of the products can be bought over here. I played around with DIY screens and found them to be excellent using their formula's. This was from the original thread and not part II though.

I joined two sheets of MDF together (as I was making a large curved screen), filled the joint and applied a few base coats before I experimented with the various mixes. Just make sure that you leave plenty of time for the mix to dry before you test otherwise you may think you are seeing hot spotting when in fact it is still wet paint.

After all of my playing around I bought a Panoview Greywolf II which has a gain of 2.8. I then bought a Stewart Firehawk G3 again in grey. The Stewart screen is the rolls royce of screens and simply can't be touched for that deep black viewing experience (I think the gain is x0.9). You need to have a think about your seating positions as some screen like the Greywolf II are retro reflective (the light from the PJ hits the screen and usually bounces back to where it came from), this means that it has a very narrow viewing angle. The G3 does not have any issues regarding reflection. I now use a Stewart AT screen lol

It seems that you're going to go the DIY route so I'm guessing but the screen gain will be roughly x1.0. Use this calculator to input your PJ make/model and screen size along with the throw distance. Play around with the gain setting to see what kind of fL you get. People prefer around 15-20 but many videophiles prefer around 10fL which is quite a dim image. Consider how your bulb will age and how much of an effect this will have on your projected image (you can always adjust bulb settings or crank up the brightness but then the PJ has to be re-calibrated)

I understand people can't turn their front rooms into bat caves so grey screens make sense to me but the DIY option is the best, room permitting. I'd paint directly onto a wall before you make any DIY contraption, you might not like the resulting image if you are used to seeing 16fL or more.

Woz waiting for your input Munkey, thought you might have a more informed and detailed response! I'm still a bit of a sceptic but happy to be proved wrong.

I'm gonna have to have a closer look at this, I'm a casual projector user @ home and don't have a dedicated room, I've always found the image more that acepable on my white wall (I'm happy to turn my flat into the bat cave LOL), as with others that posted and I assume most casual projector users cheap option's are a first step (Paint, sheets, blackout blinds etc, Must Break your Heart!) but maybe would be prepared to have an experiement with gray if costs and effort were reasonable in an effort to improve picture quality.

I'd be happy to stick a sheet of mdf in a frame, Would you offer a general paint mix that the heathan's among us could try?

So is your latest stewart screen gray?

@Penners please let us know how much you think the image is improved.

 

[Penners]

@ Hejira

The image on a night is fantastic with the white blackout blind but what I have noticed already is that if I just project my image onto the freshly plastered wall I seem to get a noticed improvement in the dark scenes as opposed to the blackout blind.

Although currently my ceiling is white and as I understand this can cause a bit of whitewash

 

[Hejira]

@ Hejira

The image on a night is fantastic with the white blackout blind but what I have noticed already is that if I just project my image onto the freshly plastered wall I seem to get a noticed improvement in the dark scenes as opposed to the blackout blind.

Although currently my ceiling is white and as I understand this can cause a bit of whitewash

Keep us informed m8, I'm really interested in your thoughts, you'll notice every imperfection for ages I'm sure, I feel this exercise has the potential to snowball in the persuit of your perfect picture against the misses perfect decor! LOL

I'd luv to be able to dedicate some time to my av setup but @ the mo I'm after minimum effort maximum reward! I can see the logic and I'd paint a sheet of mdf to see for myself if I'm spoon fed a mix, lol, So if you come back with glowing results I'm in, If only to be satisfied I was wrong!

 

[Munkey]

I've decided to paint 3 walls plus ceiling in Dulux Cookie Dough

And the wall that I'm going to projects onto is going to be a 4:1 mix of Dulux Matt + Hycote Alliminium

How long would you guys reconmend I leave the plaster to dry before I paint ? Its been dryin for 5 days now.

I'd wait long enough for the cracks to appear

If the heating is on a few days should be sufficient for the plaster to dry out. Unfortunately I can't be too specific on the paints I used, it was a long time ago and I dare not read all of the threads again. As long as you follow the most recent formula I'm sure you'll be OK, Custy et al know what they're talking about.

Here's a screenshot taken from some testing I did a while back, I posted it on AVforums but can't find a link to the thread. It shows the different types of black and white levels (as well as colour differences) from differing fabrics all of which all have various gain. You should be able to get a good idea from this what type of picture you can expect as you lean towards off white.

Check out the blacks on the Disney screen shots, they show the power of a good grey screen.

I'm gonna have to have a closer look at this, I'm a casual projector user @ home and don't have a dedicated room, I've always found the image more that acepable on my white wall (I'm happy to turn my flat into the bat cave LOL), as with others that posted and I assume most casual projector users cheap option's are a first step (Paint, sheets, blackout blinds etc, Must Break your Heart!) but maybe would be prepared to have an experiement with gray if costs and effort were reasonable in an effort to improve picture quality.

I'd be happy to stick a sheet of mdf in a frame, Would you offer a general paint mix that the heathan's among us could try?

So is your latest stewart screen gray?

@Penners please let us know how much you think the image is improved.

Sorry but I am unable to enlighten you with any words of wisdom regarding paint choice, you'll have to figure that out with Penners evil: Maybe you could work shifts to read the mountains of info over at AVforums, I have a wife and kids that need me over Christmas not to mention all the imaginary charity work I'll be doing.

I'm working on my dedicated room now, well dedicated means gym/cinema room and I will not be painting my walls black, that is for hardcore HT aficionados. I've tried blackout blinds and they work great, if you decide to go down the bat cave route I can assure you either you'll turn into a goth or Mrs Hejira will divorce ya.

Months of testing showed me there is very little between screen surfaces and a plain white wall almost works as well as a high end matte white screen. Either way I would worry too much thinking you are missing out on spectacular imagery just because you've gone the budget route, most of the 'maximising image contrast' posse are anal over the tiniest of details that make minute differences. Just make sure there is no stray ambient light shining directly onto your wall and you should be OK.

I'm using a curved 2.35:1 Stewart acoustically transparent screen. I did some testing with speaker placement and found that the largest gains in terms of viewing experience come from having the sound fired at you from the screen itself. So I made cutbacks on PJ choice, speakers and everything HT related and used the money saved on an AT screen. I ended up will mainly second hand gear but I didn't fancy shelling out three grand for a piece of fabric and more on speakers. I still have my G3, it will end up being a hand me down to my mum as it doesn't cut it for gaming. In the gaming room/loft I use a Draper high power screen with a 2.8 gain, it makes FPS games playable without having to turn all the lights off or you can watch TV with a few guests with just dimming the lights a tad. Bat caves are anti social..

 

[Hejira]

m8 those photo's are stunning in there own right! What size would that projected image acutally be?

I have a wife and kids that need me over Christmas not to mention all the imaginary charity work I'll be doing.

That'll be hiding from the inlaws, falling asleep on sofa your so stuffed, know you shouldn't have another mouthful of that beer but can't help yaself oh n a brandy (It is Christmas!).......... LOL

No really m8 I didn't expect, I just hoped you might have a quick solution to have a try, I might just copy @Penners dependant on results sounds like he's already put in a fair bit of leg work and I so don't want to get caught in the anal trap!

You only really start seeing all the imperfections when you start changing the image your eyes are used to seeing, so on the basis I'm up for a change and I've wanted to build a framed screen to hang on the wall for a while, this thread may just bring change a bit sooner than I expected!

Bat caves are anti social

I dunno I've been quite social in me Bat Cave PMSL

 

[Munkey]

That was and old 16:9 screen ebay jobbie, 6' wide with x1.0 gain. I calibrated the PJ to D65 using a cheap colour meter and free software, the results were stunning with accurate colour and awesome shadow detail.

You guys have it good, two years ago it was all guesswork trying to find matching paints to what the Americans were using, I was projecting onto the back of a King Kong poster and thought I was living it large.

Oh and if you guys know how to spray paint onto your walls or MDF I've heard that the finished surface is even smoother than if you use a roller. Take care to prime the surface and take it nice and slow.

I look forward to seeing some finished results guys, no matter how botched your attempts may be.

 

[avid]

I love to remodel my home every year that is not an easy task. But you know I take online help for this that suggests me from every side. Right now I am also looking for home remodeling near me in Delhi. Have you any idea about this?

Thread is eleven years old. Might be better to start a new one