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Should I make my own front projector screen, buy a cheap one or paint one on the wall?
I am in need of a fixed projector screen for my deticated home theatre. I am building my theatre and i am trying to keep it as low cost as I can while still making it nice and functional. I am in need of a projector screen and I really do not want to spend 2,000 or even 500 dollars for a screen. I have read that you can make your own using photo paper and a black frame for about a $100. I also know that I can paint one on the wall using goo kits for a couple of hunderd dollars as well. My other thought was to buy an inexpensive pull down screen and cut it from the mechanism and fram it.
What is the best option here and what is going to give me the best bang for the buck? Any other suggestions for making a good home theatre projection screen for a low price?
The first answer is a good approach. I also recommend the AVS DIY Screen forum. However, I chose to paint my own screen The two approaches (blackout cloth and paint) have different advantages and disadvantages ... which I'll address at the end of this response.
I wanted as large as possible a a 4:3 screen (that is the native format of my projector) so I can show 4:3 images height while also showing 16:9 (or other widescreen images) full width (vs 4:3 as a subset of 16:9, and therefore much smaller).
I have a dedicated home theatre so I was able to use an existing wall for the screen.
In brief, I figured out the maximum width of screen I wanted based on my seating distance (You want the screen to cover a 36-40 degree angle left to right). In my case this was 96" wide. So for a 4:3 screen I needed a 72" height (more than possible with 54" blackout cloth). I made sure the drywall was smooth and then painted a 98" x 74" rectangle with three coats of a 3:1 mix of Behr Siverscreen and White Opal Pearlescent paint (wet sanding between coats).
I then fine tuned the projector to centre the image on the slightly oversize painted "screen" and masked the surface to a 96" by 72" size by painting the surrounding wall a medium blue-grey (the colour of the room).
I did not bother with black masking because:
- I project a wide range of image sizes and aspect ratios, so no single masking size works, and I was not interested/willing to build a motorized masking system
- I have not found a black border to be necessary.
So ... I made a fixed screen in several hours over a couple of days for about $50 in paint.
How does it perform? I'm very satisfied. Movies and HDTV look great. I even taped samples of commercial screen material on the surface and compared, and frankly could see no difference. As far as I'm concerned I have a screen equivalent to at least a $500 commercial screen, for 1/10 the price.
Ok, to the advantages and disadvantages of the blackout cloth and paint approaches:
- blackout cloth is limited in width and you can't vary the screen colour.
- paint can be any size and adjusted for specific conditions (e.g. I wanted a light grey screen rather than white).
- The paint approach doesn't require carpentry skills, but does require some familiarity with drywall and painting skills.
- The blackout cloth approach yields a portable, or at least movable, screen, while paint is fixed in place.
- Arguably paint is cheaper.
See the links below for some pictures / screen shots and the AVS DIY Screen forum.
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