Do I buy a Screen or make my own? Advice sought.

[Phil Hinton]

Hi Guys,

I will have a Barco 800 at the end of July (hopefully!) and i am busy planning how it will be Installed.

I plan to turn my Large Bedroom into a HC room and move into the smaller Room. The room is 14ft x 13.5ft and i am planning on a 89" x 50" 16:9 screen which will be fixed to the wall. I have many prices being quoted from £500 to £6000 (those nice Stuartscreen are very expensive).

I have however recieved an e-mail from a forum member (wont mention names or quotes here) who has stated that just buying the screen material will be 60% cheaper and would just require building a frame myself.

So the question is do I build one myself and save some money or go with a proper already built screen.

Has anyone here built there own screen? What would be the advantages/disadvantages of building my own.

I would love some advice as this in theory looks like the best route for someone as skint as me.

The gain being used would be 1.5.

Any advice or thoughts. :D

[Roland @ B4]

This is going to depend on your ability to make a frame that is true.

The set builders at staging and rental companies often make their own screens by stretching material them across a frame. but it only has to last afew days!

I guess your sigle greatest challenge is going to be getting the screen with no wrinkles and evenly stretched.

I have seen screens made from painted walls and bed sheets. These screens were perfectly acceptable to their respective owners.

I would have a go and let us all know how you get on. You can always upgrade to a "proper screen" if you are not happy with the results.

[Phil Hinton]

^ Cheers mate! Anybody else got some advice, my diy skills are really bad, but how hard can it be................

I made a screen for work! We needed one in a hurry but we haven't bothered changing it.

I made a 6" wide 16:9 frame from some 2x2" timbers, took a roll of A0 paper and cut a large sheet off it and pinned it to the frame. Then took a sheet of matt plotting film, again frame an A0 roll, placed it over the paper & pinned it on. Then cut some beading with a mitre saw and screwed it to the frame, sandwiching the paper/film to the frame. Finished the beading with some matt black paint, screwed it on the wall and hey presto, a fully functional screen for about £10.

When it gets dirty I just pin a new sheet of paper/film on it.

Meat

[jlcrawford]

I have made two frames the first from a Da-Lite model 4:3 which went ok but the material is flimsy and I didn't dare stretch it fully so it has a ripple in it but is totally acceptible.
The second I bought stewart screen without the frame off AVS and this had snappers sewn into the seam I made a huge 4x2.5 frame and an upholsterer covered it with black velvet I got the material perfectly tensioned and it is 100% perfect and flat overall cost was £850 but I got stung by customs.
But this is cheap for a 16:9 96x54 microperforated Stewart 1.3gain beauty