New here, What do you guys think?

[tonyvdb]

Hi everyone, I just bought a house and started setting up my home theater in the basement.
I decided that going the paint on screen was my best option and that way I could get the 96" diagonal size I wanted without breaking the bank. Buying the exspencive screen paint was a no go so I did some research including looking at the info on this site and found it to be great. I went with the Bahr "silver screen" paint option. and am thrilled with the results.

The ceiling is made up of 40 4'x4' "tectum" panels that are used to prevent sound transfer and the right wall is drywall on the lower half and carpet underlay on the top half with insulation behind the entire wall. The basement theater is 15' wide and 35' long and has a 9' ceiling.
I set up my Audio control 3rd octave eq's and ran a pink noise test signal using a 3rd octave spectrum annaliser with mic. and found the room to be very flat in response with just some very minor dips an peaks in the eq's after setting them up properly to flatten the rooms sound.

[Tiddler]

What projector do you have?

What base did you get the "Silver Screen" mixed up in? #1050 or #1850?

Have you seen the results of applying a matte polyurethane top coat over Behr "Silver Screen"?








Sorry Tony, I tend to have a one track mind.

Welcome to the shack!

Your home theater is looking good!

[mechman]

Looks good Tony and Welcome to the Shack!

mech

[tonyvdb]

tiddler wrote:

What projector do you have?

What base did you get the "Silver Screen" mixed up in? #1050 or #1850?

Have you seen the results of applying a matte polyurethane top coat over Behr "Silver Screen"?

Thanks for the welcome,
I dont remember the code but it was Behr Ultra white eggshell finish. The projector is a Sanyo Z2. I am happy with the blacks but find it still could be blacker but Its a limitation with the LCD of that time. the Silver screen paint was a good compromise to give me a slightly grey screen for better contrast as apposed to going with just white.
I have not tried any of the polyurethane top coats, do you think I should do it?

[Tiddler]

tonyvdb wrote:

Thanks for the welcome,
I dont remember the code but it was Behr Ultra white eggshell finish. The projector is a Sanyo Z2. I am happy with the blacks but find it still could be blacker but Its a limitation with the LCD of that time. the Silver screen paint was a good compromise to give me a slightly grey screen for better contrast as apposed to going with just white.
I have not tried any of the polyurethane top coats, do you think I should do it?

NO! The eggshell is a higher gain. If you are not getting any hot spotting then there would be no benefit. {Read on, I change my mind later as I think about the characteristics of your projector.}

The best way to get darker blacks is to darken the ceiling and walls to prevent any rebound ambient light. The Silver Screen is already a fairly dark gray as far as screens go. My buddy has a Z2 as well, so I know what you mean about the blacks not being very black due to light leakage.

You could try a low sheen finish though. Just a sample at first. It would cost you a piece of 2'x4' 1/8" whiteboard from Home Depot and a quart of UPW #1050. I would try the following tint:

===============
Quart Custom Tint
Behr UPW #1050
0 5 0 Lamp Black
0 2 0 Yellow Oxide
===============

OR . . . . If you feel like doing a little experimenting let me know and I will tell you what to get to try several different shades of gray until you dial it in for your room and projector. If you want to do this let me know and I will post everything you need to know here.

My thoughts: Whenever I added gain I noticed that it does not care where the light comes from. Since you used a Behr Eggshell, which is more like Glidden's semi-gloss, it reflects more light back at you. Normally that is goog except that your projector is not capable of turning the light off completely for black. Since your screen is efficient at reflecting light back it does so with the light that is where there should be none. Therefore the blacks look washed out. So with a flat finish it is more absorbent. It should look darker with the same black light leakage. If the gray is more neutral it will actually look brighter for the light areas. So my hypothesis is that a flat finish will actually look blacker where it should.

Another approach would be to apply a coat or two of Behr Matte Polyurethane #780. It would actually reduce the gain a bit in your case. It will also make the overall gray a bit darker. The slight yellow color that some have reported seeing in the poly will actually help to neutralize the SS. By decreasing the gain it will reduce the overall brightness of the screen though. You would then want to do a brightness and Contrast calibration. More than likely you would end up increasing the brightness a bit. Again if you want to be sure then make up a sample first. With your screen size there would be plenty of poly to do a 2'x4' sample as well as the two coats over your screen. I am assuming you probably have some of the Eggshell SS left to make a sample.

I gave my buddy some sample to take home and try. They are neutral gray with a pearl clear coat. In his case it is a very dark room and he is using a matte white screen now. Based on your experience I am wondering if I should have given him some darker samples too. The ones I gave him were white, (0 1 1 LB + 0 0 1 YO), and a (0 3 0 LB + 0 1 0 YO). Silverscreen has around 0 8 0 Lamp Black per quart, so those are quite light gray in comparison. If I hear anything from him I will let you know.

[tonyvdb]

tiddler wrote:

I gave my buddy some sample to take home and try. They are neutral gray with a pearl clear coat. In his case it is a very dark room and he is using a matte white screen now. Based on your experience I am wondering if I should have given him some darker samples too. The ones I gave him were white, (0 1 1 LB + 0 0 1 YO), and a (0 3 0 LB + 0 1 0 YO). Silverscreen has around 0 8 0 Lamp Black per quart, so those are quite light gray in comparison. If I hear anything from him I will let you know.

Thanks for your input Tiddler,
My wife has told me not to spend any more time on the screen for now and I have to agree I'm actually very pleased with it for now. The Sanyo Z2 works better than I thought given the lumins being only 800, the basement was a good place for it as I can make it almost totally dark even during the day. I have even been able to close the iris a bit to help with the contrast and blacks.
The only strange thing I have seen is when the video is black there is a slight almost lens flair look like a reflection on the left of the screen and I have narrowed it down to the projector its self. Could this be dust on the inside?
Anther problem is on Sunday night we watched a family movie with some friends and after the movie was over it would not shut off, I finally had to switch it off using the power switch and of course that kills the fan as well so there is no cool down. I dont want this to happen again as thats not good. Any ideas?

[Tiddler]

I'm not sure if there are any dedicated projector threads here at Home Theater Shack. I would post these Z2 questions in the Home Theater Projectors section here at HTS. If you don't get a good answer then try posting the questions in this

I searched for an official Z2 thread but could not find one, so just start a new thread called "Sanyo Z2 Problems . . Need Help", or something like that. I'm sure someone will help you out.

[tonyvdb]

Thanks again, I have posted the question.

[mechman]

Tony,

If you're happy with your screen don't change it! Or else you will turn it to one of us wacky folks here!

The poly top coat is a trade off. Looking at the gain chart Todd posted you'll see it kicks it up .1 on axis and quickly drops below the paint itself at around 20 degrees. At about 14 feet out in my room that would be at the edge of the seat next to the on axis seat. My third seat goes out to 30 degrees on the outer edge. So, to do all this poly coat stuff and potentially screw up what you have, and what you're proud of, doesn't make sense as it will really only benefit maybe one seat in the room.

With regards to you projector question, see if you can get a picture and send a pm to <^..^>Smokey Joe, he can answer your questions regarding that.
**edit** I sent smokey a pm to look at this thread **edit**

mech

[tonyvdb]

mechman wrote:

I sent smokey a pm to look at this thread

mech

Thanks for that

Tony