I plan on making my own screen for my projector, what is the best kind of fabric to use?

Is there a tried and tested fabric that *everyone* goes for?

Obviously i'll want one that doesn't allow light to pass through it, and is white or whiteish.

Is there any particular retailer I should visit?

Cheers.

[colinstone]

I've just made my projector screen - and it depends on how you are going to mount it. Mine is mounted on a 8ft wide standard roller blind roller - 38mm diameter - bought from the blind man with a side chain drive. The screen material is a fibreglass backed, so light proof, hi contrast grey sprayed screen specifically for LCD and DLP projectors and produced by www.harknesshall.com, in Elstree. If you are going for a permanent screen, then they also do a PVC version which stretches over the frame. I have a PVC screen with the same Hi Contrast 0.8 size 1.97m x 1.83m, which is now surplus.
I can email you a pic if you like - PM me.

[Gary Lightfoot]

A cheap material that works well for fixed frame DIY screens is white 'blackout' cloth.

You can get it from most good curtain shops at around £5 per linear meter (54ins wideIIRC), and I stretched and stapled it over an 84inch wide x 47.25inch high wooden frame. It worked well with my first pj (well over 2 years), and I've recently replaced it with a 1.2 gain 'proper' screen material due to a newer projector with a lower lumen output.

Harkness Hall gets mentioned here a lot (see above) but I got my screen material from www.ellie.co.uk. The price seems to have more than doubled since I bought mine though.

Gary.

Could you paint the cloth with that dulux "Icestorm" paint?

[ajw000]

i just made my first screen a couple of days ago and got blackout cloth from fabric warehouse(i think theres loads of them around). it was £4.99 per sq metre. Worked out pretty well, as long as you stretch it out in the correct way....

[Gary Lightfoot]

I didn't paint mine, but some have. Spraying may be better than a roller as the paint will go on differently where the frame is compared to the unsupported areas.

ary.