Matt white screen material from DRH

[Tempest]

Thank's to another forum member I've been looking at the matt white projection screen fabric from:

http://www.drhscreens.co.uk/screenfabric.html

I'd be interested to hear your views on this product when used with a LCD projector (AE200 in my case)

I understand you don't want a hi-gain fabric as (so I believe) you will loose the blacks even more.

I thought about making a wooden picture frame, and lightly stretching this fabric over the frame using a stapel gun on the back to hold the fabric onto the frame.

Just trying to think of any drawbacks to this approach

Anyone else using this material ?
I assume it MUST be better to use this fabric as outlined above than to paint a sheet of wood with our favorite dulux ice storm paint.

[Tempest]

As a follow up.........

Just done the maths (6 - 7 foot wide 16:9 screen)
We're looking at about £70 for the fabric :(

That paint is looking good again :)

Seriously. I will need to have my projector set up and projecting onto a ripple finish white wall in the 1st place anyway, so I may well try a few different things before deciding on the best value/performance of screen colour/material to go with.

Always interested to her others findings on the DIY front.

[buns]

I dont know it is necessarily right to assume that the material would be a better way of doing it..... you may find that a grey screen is better for your purpose in which case painting your own would be better, it also allows you to try various shades which you wont be able to do with the material unless you want to paint your material (which would be a bit of a waste frankly).
I have the wooden framed variety and it has worked well, fiven me plenty of chance to experiment..... i now have a custom masked system that will do me until I can restart with a whole set of knowledge and be in a position to make something properly special

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[Tempest]

Thank's Buns.

You say wooden framed, meaning what ? screen material or paint or what ?

Yes, as you say I can even buy some match pots and hold up sample sheets of white painted hardboard with a rolled coating of various paints and see what happends.

Or course I understand from various postings about a non white screen giving a better black. But I'm worried a better black also means a darker image and less white white.

I will be assessing this in a pitch black room, so don't know how dark a surface the AE200 can project onto and the whites still looking very white.

Very dark films (space type/monster) are what I'm worried about. Want to see what's happening and not just a black/grey/brown mess going on on-screen.

[buns]

I mean a frame with blackout material stretched over it then painted...... I would have done a big MDF sheet and may well try it next time, but i couldnt fit it in the car!

I wouldnt worry about using a light grey, the grey of my screen doesnt look grey because it is beside the black masks.... that said the next icestorm i thought was a bit too dark.

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[Tempest]

Originally posted by buns
I mean a frame with blackout material stretched over it then painted...... I would have done a big MDF sheet and may well try it next time, but i couldnt fit it in the car!

I wouldnt worry about using a light grey, the grey of my screen doesnt look grey because it is beside the black masks.... that said the next icestorm i thought was a bit too dark.

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So what icestorm colour (name in the shop so I can find it) is the one you used ?

The smoothest surface seemed to be a sheet of melamine covered 15mm chipboard, but lifted a sheet of 8x4 feet we use at work and boy, it weighs a ton....

White hardboard would be lovely and thin & cheap too!, but it's really bendy and floppy. Not sure how a screen that's not DEAD flat would perform, if you might see the slight bends on-screen (as it were)

A sheet of MDF, say 5mm or so is nice and cheap and flat, but I bought some a while ago and painted one side. It then went like a banana !!! the moisture in the pain causing it to deform... Grrrrrr.

In reality a wooden frame (say 1/2 thick by 1" or 2" wide pine_ fitted to the wall. Then some of that white painted hardboard places on top and panel pinned all round the outside. Then painting a black matt boarder of a couple of inches around the outside and over your nails might give something that looks like a screen. But no idea how it will work.

We have some offcuts of white coated hardboard at work, will bring some home for testing later in the week.

First got to calculate where to fit the projector though.
I don't want to use any keystone at all.

[Mr Jason B]

hmmmm,I was gonna go for the pj screen stretched over a picture frame(skillfully constucted by myself:zonked: )but I just dont know anymore:confused:

[Tempest]

Originally posted by Mr Jason B
hmmmm,I was gonna go for the pj screen stretched over a picture frame(skillfully constucted by myself:zonked: )but I just dont know anymore:confused:

Yeah I know, it's a pain in the bum.......

I've just also been reading about the Hoya Filter and how it improves contrast so there's me thinking I'll have to get one, then I read you can only adjust the green level on the computer input so that's out the window... arghh why is everything so complicated :suicide:

Back to the screen front. My 1st job will be to mount my projector. It will then be beaming? onto a white emulsion wall.
Guess I will then spend many days fiddling and messing about untill I find a nice surface material/colour that makes the whites look nice and white without hurting the blacks.

[Cool-hand]

Shootandshow will soon be selling a goo-ey paint which they say is ideal for this exact thing.

call - 01403756777

S.

[Tempest]

Cheers for this Snowman....

[Gary Lightfoot]

Jason - I built a frame from wood, then stretched and stapled blackout cloth over it, and it works a treat. I've since added some 1.2 gain material to it and I've not had any problems.

There's some pics on my website if you're interested.

Gary.

[buns]

Im trying to find the number of icestorm i used...... I think it is literally the first one off white, but i cant find my pot.

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[Mr Jason B]

Originally posted by Gary Lightfoot
Jason - I built a frame from wood, then stretched and stapled blackout cloth over it, and it works a treat. I've since added some 1.2 gain material to it and I've not had any problems.

There's some pics on my website if you're interested.

Gary.

I checked out your web site a few weeks ago,and your set up is very impressive,tbh it was 1 of the things which helped me jump off the fence.Unfortunatley I dont have the spare readies lying around that you must have so cant quite match your standards:blush: ,but hopefully my set up will keep me happy:rotfl:

I must admit,I have been surprised how many peopel do actually prefer the diy option,even people who obviously arent short of a few quid go for the permanent diy job,so im thinking there must be something to it.I just have to decide wether to go for the proper material or painted blackout material.Im just afraid that the painted option is just providing me with another thing that can go wrong :confused:

[cyberheater]

Generally folk use Dulux Icestorm 5 or 6. The darker you go the better your blacks are.
I used a I used some blackout blind material over a home made frame.
3 x coats of pure white emulsion and then one coat for Icestorm #5.
The idea is that it's using a layered paint technique where the low energy light output simply gets obsorbed by the grey paint but the high energy stuff gets partially thru the grey layer and reflected back by the white so given the best of both worlds.

It's really hard to quantify but it does give a great image.

[Tempest]

Originally posted by cyberheater
Generally folk use Dulux Icestorm 5 or 6. The darker you go the better your blacks are.
I used a I used some blackout blind material over a home made frame.
3 x coats of pure white emulsion and then one coat for Icestorm #5.
The idea is that it's using a layered paint technique where the low energy light output simply gets obsorbed by the grey paint but the high energy stuff gets partially thru the grey layer and reflected back by the white so given the best of both worlds.

It's really hard to quantify but it does give a great image.

What do you use to paint with ?
Is it a special type of roller ?

[cyberheater]

I'm on rev .3 screen now and in the past I have used both brush and roller. A good quality roller gives a great finish and is very quick to put on.
I also did some light sanding between coats to get a better finish. I also thined the paint a tad which helps when painting cloth.

I was better off with 3 thin coats then 1 think coat. It gives a better finish.

[Tempest]

Out of interest, why did you use cloth (which could shrink/stretch etc) when painting rather than say a sheet of wood and painting that instead ?

[Gary Lightfoot]

Jason,

The blackout cloth screen only cost me £28 including staples and screws, the wood was from B&Q and the cloth was from Alders, though most any curtain shop will do it.

When I got my first pj, I wasn't sure what size or type of screen would be best, so went the DIY route just to get an idea. I ended up using the screen for about two years as it was.

It wasn't until I got a new projector earlier this year that I changed to 'proper' screen material with a gain of 1.2 because the new pj had lower lumens.

For £28 you've really got nothing to lose, and it'll get you started :)

Gary.

[buns]

I think at least one person got themselves some sort of paint gun..... if you happen to have one this is likely to be better than brush or roller.

The reason I went DIY was because a cheap screen will be a pull down which was fine but it bugged me the way everytime a door in the house opened, the screen rippled on me! A cheap fixed is still up towards £1k and I wanted it masked so you are talking way more...... you will do your first screen and it will likely turn out not bad, you will be able to look back on it though and see so many places for improvement, so next time you do it, you will just get better and better. I find it difficult to imagine how a manufactured screen can be much better if better at all.

Oh and I dont adhere to the layering idea..... I covered the material in white to start with just to cover the bare material, then i think 4 coats of icestorm (i think it must be number 5). To my mind, if I painted a pane of glass with the icestorm, it will be pretty much opaque, so I dont believe theory. In a simple way, I look at it that the grey screen is yes an absorber so will absorb an amount of all the light. This will reduce the blacks obviously but will likely also reduce the brightness. To my mind this works because whites are generally pushed (i think crushed is the word eluding me) so a drop in overall light isnt going to be terribly noticeable up here.

But the theory is irrelevant, the icestorm diy is unquestionably worth a try.

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ps. buy a staple gun! It takes ages trying to tack it together!

[Mr Jason B]

Cheers lads,I think it will be the black out material painted with 1 of the ice storms for my first attempt.If it goes pear shaped at least I wont be too out of pocket:p

[Gary Lightfoot]

Don't forget to post pics and a rundown of how you get on ok? :)

Gary.

[Tempest]

Originally posted by Gary Lightfoot
Don't forget to post pics and a rundown of how you get on ok? :)

Gary.

Yeah, when I get this black and blue room painting over with. Then it's to work with a mount for my AE200 (still thinking of different designs)
Then when I have modified the mount so the projector is beaming the image just where I want in on the opposite wall. I can then start work on the screen.

I'll enjoy that part, this painting the room all around my electronic gizmo's is a pain in the arse....

[avanzato]

Ooooo I hadn't noticed the new screens forum before now.:blush:

Anyway I have a DRH matte white manual screen. The fabric was chosen after looking at several manufacturer samples and other screens in local shops. I really didn't like the way grey screens messed up the white even though they somewhat improved the darker sceens. An optically brightened Harkness hall sample was good (nice and bright) but it washed out the blacks more than the DRH did. So the DRH is the one I got.

For its bright image and impact I liked the high gain material, black level wasn't as good but it was much brighter so that didn't really matter. However it is retroreflective and wasn't any use to me as my PJ is ceiling mounted.

Foam core art board takes a paint finish very well. I would think it could make an excellent screen if you can get it in large enough sheet.