Screen or Wall

[phlashman]

Hi,

I'm getting a project (ae200) and I'm thinking of projecting it onto the wall. But I have a few questions.

1. Is a screen better than a wall? and why?

2. Is there a special paint color or will just Pure brillant white (matt) be fine.

Thanks

[Gary Lightfoot]

It depends on the wall, but fixed screens are generaly flatter. Pull downs or electric ones may have ripples. It depends on how much you wish to pay.

Matt white paint will be OK, but if you want deeper blacks with the advantage of improved apparent contrast and ambient light rejection, then Dulux Ice Storm 5 or 6 works quite well.

Of course, a proper screen can have more gain than paint, and make the picture brighter looking, so that could be an advantage. Higher gain may degrade black level though.

Some have also reported that compared to a white screen, a grey screen can reduce screen door. By how much I've no idea, but the same effect can be seen when using a lens filter apparently.

HTH

Gary.

[phlashman]

thanks.

My house i very new and (i hope) the walls are quite straight/smooth.

I'll try with some pure brilliant white first and then prolly try the other paint and try and hire a screen from a projector place.

I'll try to take some pics of each one if they are dramatically different.

[Gary Lightfoot]

Good idea - would be useful for others to be able to compare.

Is a fixed screen is out of the question? What about a pulldown one? If the screen you borrow looks much better, you can make your own, or get some good value screens fom various suppliers.

Gary

[Kramer]

If you can accomodate a "fixed" screen then you can experiment Either the wall (provided it's very flat & surface defect free) or a "frame" attached to the wall with blackout lining etc..

Everyone raves about a 50/50 mix of Icestorm 5/6, but IMO it zaps too much life from the picture (& I've seen it with an AE100).

Many (inc. myself) have windows etc.. to deal with, so a manual/electric screen is the only option.

Making your own screen is also very cost effective (£30ish) where as manual & electric screens run from £150 to well over £1000

Loads of info available here but will require some browsing & use of the search facility.

Best of luck

Hi Phlashman
I couldn't believe the difference it made to my picture (92x52) when i moved from using a wall painted in icestrom 6 to my grandview screen.
Although the icestorm was ok, my pic has now really come to life and appears to have much more depth, The colors are much brighter.

I got mine from www.intoav.com very good service and good prices too

Hi Kramer
I understand what you mean about icestorm zapping the life out of the pq now i moved to a screen, well better late than never

[phlashman]

Does any one know where I can Get a cheap fixed screen? I don't need a pull down one as I can have it up all the time.

[tonytigerrr]

I went the DIY route for a screen to go with my lovely new AE300. It took about a day and I got the exact screen size I wanted (16:9 80" by 45").

I used wood I already had to make the frame and stretched over it some black-out blind material I bought from the local fabric shop. It was a very rewarding experience and the pictures are pretty impressive. Total cost was the huge sum of £13.

I may upgrade to proper screen material (keeping my frame though) in the future when I can get a demo too see if the picture is noticably better. I have occasionly thought I saw a bit of grain on large areas of uniform colour, but I'm not sure whether it was the screen or not - it may be scanline artifacts or vertical banding.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend it to anyone on a budget - I cant imagine the picture being much better. There are plenty of threads on these forums and AVS, I loosely followed the instuctions at this link:

http://members.shaw.ca/danhanson/The...eenproject.htm

[Gary Lightfoot]

I made a DIY screen too, using wood from B&Q and blackout cloth. It was meant to be a temporary thing until I got a 'real' screen, but I've had it for well over two years now.

I've just ordered some 1.2 gain screen material from Ellie which seemed reasonably priced, and when I've attached that to my existing frame, I'll let you all know what I think of the results.

I may do some blackout v 1.2 gain pics if there are any obvious differences - I'll use my Canon A1 with fixed settings so that hopefully the only differences will be what's on the screen. I'll post them on my web-site if they come out OK.

Gary.