I was totally wrong on the material, went down and bought 2.5 yards of the white today and put up in the BT (haven't checked yet as timers full on 622 and watching football in the HT)100% Polyester.
diy screens
- Thread starter dfergie
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White worked pretty good... I was in Wal Mart in automotive (next to crafts) and ended up with 2.5 yards of a shinier 100% polyester material... worked even better, now to build a frame and stretch... (might take a while, many irons in the fire) 
Get a sheet of WilsonArt Designer White laminate and frame that up. You will get less light loss and a great DIY screen.
Here's someone who did it and posted the instructions as an example.
110" Diagonal Wilson Art Designer White DIY Projection Screen - Derek's Blog on Games, Home Theater and Programming
Here's someone who did it and posted the instructions as an example.
110" Diagonal Wilson Art Designer White DIY Projection Screen - Derek's Blog on Games, Home Theater and Programming
I built a frame Monday evening very much like the above with a few differences, stretched the grey material over, then the white and ended up with an off size screen but I am happy with it for the bedroom for now... it is 96" x 70".
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Been tweaking it lately, stretched a little and put Black cloth (glare) on the sides, screen size for 16:9 now is 110" (reduced) happy with it.
My first serious foray in the home theatre "business" had to do with a DIY screen. It was the reason I registered at AVS and made my first post
Hard Torus: the math behind the string method (long) - AVS Forum Archive
Since the X1 was the only projector I could afford, I wanted to maximize light reflection and went with a torus screen. That meant to dig into the paint mixes and everything related to it.
This lasted for a couple years but eventually I returned to the very first ME mix with very minor changes - it was simply impossible to make a "scientific" comparison.
I have the fourth projector by now but still use the same screen. I think it does the job (and I wish I'd stopped at the first try).
To those interested in going this route - I'd recommend trying a torus.
Diogen.
Hard Torus: the math behind the string method (long) - AVS Forum Archive
Since the X1 was the only projector I could afford, I wanted to maximize light reflection and went with a torus screen. That meant to dig into the paint mixes and everything related to it.
This lasted for a couple years but eventually I returned to the very first ME mix with very minor changes - it was simply impossible to make a "scientific" comparison.
I have the fourth projector by now but still use the same screen. I think it does the job (and I wish I'd stopped at the first try).
To those interested in going this route - I'd recommend trying a torus.
Diogen.
Nice, I originally used 4' x 8' sheets of Melamine (or a like material) with my X1 and HD1000U (and they did hot spot) CES had me chomping at the bit for some of those screens, but I like the size of my diy screen and it works pretty good in the BT. Now I need to expand my HT room as I can only get a 73" picture right now due to space...
I don't, and Wal Mart took all the material out of the crafts department a couple of weeks ago... I should have written down the exact name as I would like to do same thing when I expand my HT (and will swap FPTV's when I do from BT to HT)
Hiya Jim! You're here too huh?
I can do quite a bit with something as large as 10x10" - gain reading, calibration readings, etc. Anything smaller I could just give you a spectro reading.
Let me know if you want me to pm you my address. :up
That is probably too big to spare as I had maybe a couple of inches after stretching left all the way around except the bottom and I would lose tension if I trimmed there... & covered with black cloth...
Screen is working great, I need to either paint the ceiling black or put a masking material up for the glare...
You do not have to go black if it will not go with your decor. A flat dark color works well. I use a flat medium dark brown on my ceiling. Not quite as good as black, but goes with the decor much better.
Agree. My walls are a medium tan. The flat paint makes a big difference. If it was glossy it would be reflecting like crazy.
That was a good discussion on use of a perforated screen material.
I did research before I broke down and bought the Elite screen. Most people's options probably come from the following:
1. painted wall. You need to sand, fill and sand again. The paint selected is important. This is the lowest cost, but probably the most labor intense option. It is also easy to get it wrong when applying the paint. The AVS thread has a lot of info on buying the proper sprayer, how to apply, finish sanding, care, etc. Tyhe biggest long term advantage I see is that if you decide to rearrange the room, you get to start over, as it can't be moved. Some have gotten around this by painting laminates. These folks usually have built a laminate screen and are trying to get around some shortcoming.
2. laminates. This may be the most popular option, with WilsonArt designer white and fashion gray materials being the leading choices. You can get the laminate in sheets up to 5' by 12', so a 120" 16:9 or 140" 2.35:1 screen is doable. My big problem here was mounting it. The laminate is thin and tends to bow against the wall. Many have built lattice grid backings of poplar and pine, but you can see cupping between the grid elements develop over time. The consensus seems to be to mount it with a plywood backing. If you want to do a 120" screen, you will need to do more than one sheet of plywood as it comes in 4x8 sheets. That generally means sandwiching 2 layers of 1/4" plywood with the junctions offset between layers. Lots of work and heavy. You still need to build a frame, but it can be screwed to the laminate. Some complain about hot spotting from Wilson DW screens. It usually means the projector is too close and too low. If you go with this screen, you really should go with ceiling mount for the projector. Finally, the cost is getting up there. I estimated that a 120" Wilson screen was going to cost around $250 plus a month of labor. The Elite cost $320 delivered and was on the wall in less than 2 hours. That is what finally tipped it for me.
3. Other Boards. Homeite is a popular choice. It is light, easy to use and cheap. It has a low gain. Downside is that you will be imiited to a 96" screen as it doesn't come larger than 4x8. Other materials have been tried and suggested as well, but none seem to have caught on.
4. Fabric coated laminate. That's the one Don is using. Looking at his thread, it appears you can do a good job of fine tuning laminates this way. Lots of material choices available. The material gets rid of the hot spots and working with various whites and grays can let you tune your gain, thus your tolerance to ambient light.
5. Commercial screen material. Lots of places out there selling raw material. The SeymourAV site is one of the more reputable ones. The commercial materials seem to fall into 3 camps. First is a non-glossy vinyl sheet. This is the material on my Elite. It has several advantages. The most obvious is that it can be kept at a fairly high tension and is wrinkle resistant when properly stretched. The disadvantages are that it can tear easily and can be damaged by stretching if it is hit. Probably not a good choice if small kids or drunk friends are around a lot.
Second choice is the same vinyl, but with small perferations punched at regular intervals. The reason to do this is when you want to place speakers behind the screen. That leads to better sound imaging, but it is more complicated.
The third choice is a woven screen fabric. The can be acoustically transparent, but some apply a vinyl coating over the fabric, so know what you are getting. These generally provide the best results. They are available in a wide range of gains and grayness. They can also be difficult to mount, and as the SemourAV site says, they can generate moire patterns on some projectors.
6. Final one. Lots of folks have used blackout cloth. This is the backing material for light blockking curtains and it is generally white or off-white with an interior plastic that blocks all light. It is quick, easy and cheap. Lots of folks build a frame and stretch the cloth over it, like the commercial materials.
There has been lots of discussion on stretching material over a frame to avoid wrinkles and artifacts. I think that is something we should discuss, but this response is too long already.
