Dissapointed With Grey Screen

J

Jim Cheese

Guest
I did a search in this forum for home-made screens.

I cobbled together some large hardboard samples and painted them the shades of Dulux matt grey recomended (No.5 and No.6) and put them against a cheap Jessops PJ screen so the screen was a composite of the 3.

Aimed the 400:1 contrast ratio, 2000 lumen portable PJ (XGA) at the screen and played computer games of my choice. Freezing frames and inspecting both fluid and static image.

Whilst I agree the contrasts are improved (and black is better) the loss of brighness, colour richness and colour vibrance was a dissapointment.

What is my point? as I've now rejected a home made effort....will a better quality PJ screen be much of an improvement over the Jessops cheapo?

(I play only computer games). TIA gents.

Rgds

Jim
 
I think you might be sabotaging the grey options by trying them out in this way. I think the grey screens work because your eyes adjust to the different absolute white and black levels so that whites look pretty much like whites even though in reality they're light grey. When you compare the grey screen side by side with a white screen your eyes will be "calibrated" to the white screen, and so the grey screen(s) will look crap by comparison.

Dunc
 
Have to partly agree with your post there Jim. I've been running my AE100 on a grey no 5 wall for the last 6 months and have been impressed and totally satisfied. I have just finished my loft where I had some surplus whiteboard so I opted to give this ago. I was immediately struck by the vibrancy of the colours, and on an Xbox (PGR) you need those colours up man!! Not tried a film yet but I am wondering whether I'm missing something? Further investigation is required. (I'll prolly conclude that blacks look utter ****e on a whiteboard, hence the reason why icestorm grey was recommended in the 1st place!)
 
I agree after doing some testing that Icestorm 5 for <800 lumen projectors maybe too dark, Ive changed to Icestorm 6 now and whites are white now, and the blacks are still very good (cant see much difference really).... main benefit is proper whites which I didnt have with Icestorm 5.

Try Icestorm 6 matt finish, I think you will prefer it.
 
I am using a shade of gray between IceStorm 5 & 6 and the Contrast and colours have improved significantly. As far as the loss of brightness goes, yes you are going to lose some, but it really depends on your use.

I can now achieve 100% light blockout in my room, so I am going darker again (probably IceStorm 5, Matt).

At the end of the day, the best screen is going to be the ones you eyes like, not what anyone else recommends or thinks.

Good Luck and Happy gaming!!

Best Regards
Amelia
 
>>Try Icestorm 6 matt finish, I think you will prefer it.

Is there a particular reason for specifying "matt" finish and not something like a "satin" finish? I have gone through the grey and white screen thing too and settled on white in the end (that was with my previous AE100 where I felt the grey screen looked too washed out). All along I've used "satin" rather than "matt" to get a little gain out of the screen.

Now that I have a TW100 (well almost) I might give the grey a try again.

Any thoughts on the matt vs satin ( I always applied the paint with a roller to get a nice texture)?
 
I think the TW100 will benefit less from a grey screen than the AE100... I've not seen it myself, but it's supposed to have very good contrast and black levels isn't it?

Dunc
 
Originally posted by dunkyboy
I think the TW100 will benefit less from a grey screen than the AE100... I've not seen it myself, but it's supposed to have very good contrast and black levels isn't it?
Not so ! The TW100 benefits a lot from a grey screen. I've tried them both (home made MDF white & grey), and the latter gives you more contrast and a "much blacker" black. As a bonus you get deeper and richer colours, and in my case the white is still white. And yes, you do loose some of the brightness, but compared to what you get, the decision is quite easy.

Xander, don't miss out on getting a truly GREAT PQ. Give the grey screen another chance !
 
I too found that my Icestorm 5 MDF screen picture lacked life and have reverted to a Da-lIte white screen.

Yes, the blacks were better but i found that the picture looked 'flat' and life-less.

I've got a Hoya filter and a Pro-V to try next but my projector is still being repaired.
 
PennyLane (or anyone), any chance of getting the "colour recipe" for Ice Storm 5? Down in New Zealand, the Dulux agents don't know what I'm talking about...?

And, YES the TW100 has far better blacks than the AE100 has. I last night tuned the TW100 to the settings posted by LoFi on AVS and the picture was brilliant - the best I've ever had. It was so film-like (watched Kids World)...!!

Thanks in advance
Xander
 
Originally posted by xander
>>Try Icestorm 6 matt finish, I think you will prefer it.

Is there a particular reason for specifying "matt" finish and not something like a "satin" finish? All along I've used "satin" rather than "matt" to get a little gain out of the screen.


Any thoughts on the matt vs satin ( I always applied the paint with a roller to get a nice texture)?

I nearly mentioned this in my previous post actually. The whiteboard I tried was the equivalent of a gloss finish and this appeared to add to the vibrancy (gain?) I couldn't tolerate a gloss wall finish as there would be too much 'reflection', but something in between matt and gloss (satin?) would perhaps be ideal.

Any thoughts on this anyone?
 
xander:
I have no clue whether this will help, but in Finland (and some stores in Sweden) they can mix the grey colour X073 (Tikkurila) which is widely recommended in Swedish forums.

I painted a MDF-board with this colour and my TW100 looks great on this screen. Tonight I will try LoFi's settings, and next week I'll get my CC20R-filter. :cool:

I'll check the paintcan tonight and see how they mixed it.
 

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