Some C&S Screen Shots

Here are few screen shots from my 110" Cream & Sugar screen. PJ is an Optoma HD70. Shots are from Digital Video Essentials DVD on pause. Running 720P connected via HDMI.



Small white dots on left and right are reflections off the speaker mounts. I have since painted them flat black to avoid this. The apparent curvature is due to the wide angle lens on the camera.















The projected pictures are actually quite a bit better in person. These pictures were down-scaled to fit HTS max file sizes. The full camera shots have better resolution (although these are not bad to my eyes). As you can see, the blacks are great. The whites are bright and the colors seem quite true to my eyes. I had the PJ adjusted pretty close to flat on color settings (no bias, no gain).

[Harpmaker]

Thanks very much for the photos Phil!

Like the Black Widow mixes, C&S is a neutral color screen so colors should look MARvelous.

[mechman]

Looks good Al!!

[Harpmaker]

mechman wrote:

Looks good Al!!

How embarrassing... Thank for the photos Al.

Hopefully Phil can post some as well.

Harp

No problem. I can understand why you got confused. I do it all the time (I could blame it on age, but I've always been that way).

[muzz]

Al,

Question is, how do you like it in comparison to what you had before it, and what was that?

Muzz,

The short answer is compared to what I had I like the C&S screen on both the white and black ends and the colors are great.

I started with an off-white wall (just to determine screen size). It was not evenly painted or smooth. I flattened it with drywall compound and painted it with Kiltz 2 in prep for either C&S or BW. While this produced an acceptable screen, it had its problems: durability and it peeled off when I removed the masking tape. I had already decided my PJ (HD70) needed a little help on the black end but was concerned (and still am) that it is not bright enough for BW when running in economy mode (the fan is too loud in full mode and I like the idea of extending the bulb life). Anyway I redid the sreen in C&S and to my eyes it looks better than the Kiltz did, not to mention the surface is harder and you actually can wipe it off. I've been meaning to do a Kiltz panel to make a comparison, but with all the other stuff I've got going I'm not sure when I will get to that. Between new projects and old maintenance there just is not much time left.

[Philnick]

Very nice, Al.

Got to the rustic lakeside cottage in Maine where we're vacationing this week at 1 AM and to bed at 3 AM. Just got up.

Took copious screen shots yesterday, both of movie (SD DVD upscaled to 1080i by my Denon 2910 DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio/HDCD player) and 1080i HD cable images and of test patterns from my AVIA DVD. (I'll get a Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-Ray player next month after the price hopefully drops after new product introductions at CES.)

The test patterns were shot by aiming the PJ - a Panasonic PT-AE2000U that converts interlaced signals to 1080p/24 - higher than normal to cover both part of the C&S screen and part of the untreated wall above, so the effect of the C&S (as opposed to the Tru-Value flat white I painted the room with 6 years ago) on colors and contrast is visible. The original paint also looks good. The improvement with C&S is subtle but real.

I'll post some of my pix in the next day or so.

PS - I shoot RAW files with my DSLR, which makes it easier to shoot without worrying about getting the exposure exactly right, since RAW files have broader range for subsequent adjustment than JPEGs - essentially similar to the wider latitude of color negatives than slides. (I'll convert then to JPEGs for posting here, of course.)

PPS After taking my pix, I noticed, under regular room light, a few vertical bands that where my C&S roller didn't hit the wall, due to surface irregularity (where drywall panels met), so I used the still-damp residue of the paint in the tray to go over those areas sideways to make it more uniform.

Phil

Phil,

Looking forward to your shots. Sounds like you have a much better PJ than mine.

My HD70 will take 1080p but it is native 1280X720 so it down-converts. I've always found that running a monitor or PJ at it's native resolution is the only way to go, something is always lost in any conversion. Anyway, I went with the HD70 for several reasons: price ($750), form factor (16:9), reasonable quality, and it matches my laptop resolution (almost, it's 1280x768). The next bump up in the Optoma line would do better, but it cost almost twice as much. I looked at other higher end models and decided I could wait a few years when they will undoubtedly be much less expensive.

The main reason I wanted a PJ was to be part of a "virtual reality" bike trainer system -- that system is supposed to be delivered some time this week. Somehow I felt a small monitor or my laptop just would not hack it as a display device. I've done that before with a small set watching TV while riding my trainer -- it's not what I like. I wanted as large a picture as possible for max realism, but could not justify (to myself or my wife) spending a fortune on it. Of course, I'll be using the PJ to watch DVD's and HD TV when not riding or when I get bored with the VR system. Not to mention reading the latest HTS posts and other Email.

[foraye]

Great looking Screen Shots!