Infocus 7210 owner looking for screen recommendation DIY

[shaolin95]

First of all, thanks for the amazing job you are doing!
I got an Infocus 7210 and my screen size is about 103" wide. The calibrated lumens for my projector is 880 (1000 with some lamps)...btw, the projectorcentral review was TOTALLY OFF in many respects including that one.
Based on the infocus calculator with the Designer White I should be getting about 26.3 ftl which is brighter than the 12-16 recommended movie brightness but is perfect if I use a Hoya HMC ND2 filter while the lamps dims a little.
My room is totally light controlled but my ceiling is white. The column right -above the screen though has a black fabric.
Do you think the DW will be a good choice? I tried a silver sating cloth and liked the blacks but I dont have the hoya filter yet and my previous screen was a blackout cloth...I expect some improvement with the DW.
Thanks for the help
Here you can see some pics:

[shaolin95]

Here is an outstanding reply I got via PM from wbassett and thus decided to open this thread:

First, welcome to the Shack!

You are right, that is a very bright projector.

You mentioned specific fL values, did you have readings done in your room? Just curious is all.

26fL is pretty bright and with extended viewing would most likely result in eye fatigue. I see you already mentioned an ND filter to knock it down some. As a former DW owner and user with a bright projector and white walls and ceiling I can tell you that you will get scatter light rebounding around. Surprisingly it doesn't wash the image out all that much, but it does affect the screen image.

My situation was the screen was so bright and with white walls and ceiling my room was lit up like I had all the lights on. That's probably why there wasn't much of a difference between lights on and lights off viewing. Were the real tell tale differences occur is when the sun is up. I could barely make out images on the screen.

With the right room and setup though, Designer White is an outstanding screen and will give you extremely accurate color reproduction and whites beyond belief, but the price to pay is like any white screen, especially one with a little gain- Black levels can suffer some.

The black column above the screen is good, but as you can see in your picture the ceiling gets lit up well beyond that, and that light will impact the screen.

Let me ask you this, you already have BOC up, which is a very good unity gain white screen as well, so you can evaluate this seeing that you have a current reference. How do you like the image overall? If it looks fine to you and and you are happy with the blacks, then with an ND filter and DW (as well as extending the ceiling treatment out just a little bit more) you will be very happy with Designer White. The ND filter will also help extend your bulb life. As the bulb ages you can remove the ND filter to retain the same brightness image throughout the life of the bulb.

If you are not satisfied with the black levels then you're a gray man, the question is what shade of gray. If you feel the blacks only need a slight improvement then something a little darker would suit you better. Do you have any adversions to painting or do you want a simple substrate screen? If you don't want to paint then I would take a look at Fashion Gray, but with your brightness you may need to put a matte poly coating on it or still use an ND filter, but a bit lighter than you would have with the Designer White. As a test to see if you prefer gray better, go to Lowes and have them call up True Value's Winter Mountain and get a quart of that in either the Valspar flat enamel or a quart of the Valspar Signature series and paint the screen area behind the BOC. It's a very inexpensive way to determine if you like a gray screen better of not.

Make sure to recalibrate to the gray screen though or you may not get true results. From here you now can decide if you want to go with Designer White or Fashion Gray... or perhaps the Valspar Winter Mountain may surprise you and you may stick with that since it is an actual DIY recommendation.

Another option that looks like it may be right up your alley is Black Widow, but again I don't know if you have any adversions to painting or not.

So right now what you need to do is evaluate your preferences and decide if you are satisfied with your black levels or not. And yes... you will see some improvement in some areas with DW because it has a higher gain than BOC, but I see some hot spotting and blooming whites in your image with BOC, so without the ND filter I can guarantee you'll hot spot and bloom. Designer White is comparable to a StudioTek 130 and other good quality commercial white reference screens. If you have hot spotting issues with it or don't like the black levels, you will certainly encounter the same issues with similar commercial screens but it will cost you more to find that out with them is all.

Why don't you start a thread and that way Jim and some of the other guys can provide their input as well? There are a a lot of good DIY options out there and we'll get you set up with the right one, don't worry.

Also, what is your budget? That will also help when it comes to recommendations.

[shaolin95]

My reply to the comments and questions by wbassett:

You mentioned specific fL values, did you have readings done in your room? Just curious is all.

I based my lumens at the minimum known calibrated output from this projector. There seem to be two lamp outputs you could get, one at 880 the other at 1000. This was tested by a very respected AVSFORUM ISF tech.

26fL is pretty bright and with extended viewing would most likely result in eye fatigue. I see you already mentioned an ND filter to knock it down some. As a former DW owner and user with a bright projector and white walls and ceiling I can tell you that you will get scatter light rebounding around. Surprisingly it doesn't wash the image out all that much, but it does affect the screen image.

I agree, currently I should be getting about 21fL..I made my screen as big as possible to lower the output to about 17 or so and still loved the image.

The black column above the screen is good, but as you can see in your picture the ceiling gets lit up well beyond that, and that light will impact the screen.

I am planning to cover that part of the ceiling all the way to the sitting area.

Let me ask you this, you already have BOC up, which is a very good unity gain white screen as well, so you can evaluate this seeing that you have a current reference. How do you like the image overall? If it looks fine to you and and you are happy with the blacks, then with an ND filter and DW (as well as extending the ceiling treatment out just a little bit more) you will be very happy with Designer White. The ND filter will also help extend your bulb life. As the bulb ages you can remove the ND filter to retain the same brightness image throughout the life of the bulb.

I agree with this as well. I currently like the IQ although blacks are sometimes a bit light since I am getting about 21fL and the white ceiling doesnt help. My calculation was that assuming I lose half the output, then I will get about 10.5fL but I get the ND and DW I will have about 13 FL (which falls in the 12 to 16fL recommend for HT) and I when the bulb dims...I will remove the ND to get the same output again.

f you are not satisfied with the black levels then you're a gray man, the question is what shade of gray. If you feel the blacks only need a slight improvement then something a little darker would suit you better. Do you have any adversions to painting or do you want a simple substrate screen? If you don't want to paint then I would take a look at Fashion Gray, but with your brightness you may need to put a matte poly coating on it or still use an ND filter, but a bit lighter than you would have with the Designer White. As a test to see if you prefer gray better, go to Lowes and have them call up True Value's Winter Mountain and get a quart of that in either the Valspar flat enamel or a quart of the Valspar Signature series and paint the screen area behind the BOC. It's a very inexpensive way to determine if you like a gray screen better of not.

I got a Fashion Grey sample and while I liked the extra black performance and no noticeable damage to whites compare to my BOC, the weird effect when you move from side to side or up and down from the image is not for me.

Another option that looks like it may be right up your alley is Black Widow, but again I don't know if you have any adversions to painting or not.

Black Widows is very interesting but I have no tools and no skills for this type of thing. Never even painted my own house!

So right now what you need to do is evaluate your preferences and decide if you are satisfied with your black levels or not. And yes... you will see some improvement in some areas with DW because it has a higher gain than BOC, but I see some hot spotting and blooming whites in your image with BOC, so without the ND filter I can guarantee you'll hot spot and bloom. Designer White is comparable to a StudioTek 130 and other good quality commercial white reference screens. If you have hot spotting issues with it or don't like the black levels, you will certainly encounter the same issues with similar commercial screens but it will cost you more to find that out with them is all.

The images in real life dont have the hot spotting nor blooming whites..blame that one on the picture taken
Thanks a lot for the help.