Wilsonart Platinum

[basementjack]

Anyone have any opinions on Wilsonart Platinum?

My story:

I got some 2"x3" sample chips from Home depot for Designer white -
I found it really hotspotted, wasn't really any brigher than my current da-lite screen (Certainly it's darker than a US sheet of 8.5x11 paper like you'd use in a copier)

I was about to dismiss wilsonart, but was encouraged by some good guys here to try it with a bigger sample - so I ordered 8x10 samples of DW, FG and Platinum from the wilsonart contractor site.

The DW performs about the same - not much of a surprise there.

but the two grays - WOW

I was really impressed by how much darker the blacks looked on both the DW and the Platinum.

I was also surprised to note that the whites and brights didn't appear to suffer that much (and this is all with my PJ calibrated to the white dalite I have)

I also feel like some colors like Blue, benefited from the darkness, looking "deeper" and "richer"

seriously, I think they should have called the platinum - "Magic"

I know people generally like the gray screens for brigher rooms - My room is reasonably dark (no windows) but the projector puts out so much light the whole room lights up - so it really seemed to help - even with the lights off.


So now I'm thinking of rethinking my strategy on this screen I'm making.
(I was going to go to a 2.4:1 - roughly 10-11 feet wide - white screen - Now I am thinking of just doing an 8 foot wide gray screen - my thought being that if I zoom out to fill the 11 foot wide picture, there might not be enought light to look good on the gray screen)

Any thoughts?

(I have an epson 810 which is also known as the EMP-TW700 - rated at 1600 lumens, but I think Projectorreviews.com measured it closer to 2000)

- Jack

[mechman]

Jack,

What are you projecting on to now? Can you wait a bit? It seems we're getting close on the PFG. It's good enough that I believe I will be painting a screen soon!

But if you're set on Platinum, it has not been tried by anyone that I'm aware of. But neutrality wise it shows promise! Hopefully Bill or Jim will chime in here as well. I have a fight to go to and I'm hoping for a hockey game to break out!

mech

[wbassett]

basementjack wrote:

...snip
I know people generally like the gray screens for brigher rooms - My room is reasonably dark (no windows) but the projector puts out so much light the whole room lights up - so it really seemed to help - even with the lights off.
...snip

- Jack

I normally only watch movies at night when I can control light, and my personal preference is a gray screen. Everyone will have their own tastes but gray certainly can be used even with a light controlled situation. I ran into the exact same situation you are mentioning, with DW and other white screens I created my own ambient light situation. It doesn't help that my walls and ceiling are currently white.

You definitely have the lumen output to handle a gray screen, it comes down to your personal preference now .

[cynical2]

Some additional comments for you, Jack...

(1) It's not surprising that the Platinum looked even better to you than the FG. The Platinum tested more neutral than FG...and the more neutral a screen is (other things being equal), the better color balance you should see. In fact, for a grey screen, it looks like WA Platinum is the "current best reco" for laminates.

(2) That being said, I'm not aware of anyone that's tried a full Platinum screen. Be aware that you may see hot-spotting that's typical with FG...and may need a poly topcoat to eliminate the issue.

(3) I have a Panny AX100U, rated at 2000 lumens (confirmed @ ~2000 by PJCentral). It has PLENTY of light for my 137.5" wide screen (149" diagonal) in all modes running with the lamp in economy mode. I thought that Cinema2 didn't have enough light output (I mentioned this to someone...may have been you), only to find a couple of days ago that one of my kids had messed with all of the settings in that mode (and I hadn't noticed because I use Cinema1). Once I adjusted it, Cinema2 also had plenty of light. Dynamic mode is WAY TOO BRIGHT (it's the 2000+ lumen mode on full, ~1500 lumens in lamp econo-mode). How will it look once the bulb is older? I don't know...I may have to bump up to one of the intermediate modes like "Normal" or "Natural"...we'll see. The bottom line is that I wouldn't rule out getting the laminate in 5x12, if the larger screen size is appropriate for your room.

(4) I'm curious about your experience with DW. Did you calibrate the pj for it? I guess I could see it hotspotting with your pj if it's calibrated for a grey screen, but it's surprising to me if it's calibrated for DW. I know that Clarence has a DW screen, and my pj, and thinks the DW is the best thing since sliced bread. Since his pj is a similar brightness to yours, I'm just curious about the hot-spotting you're seeing.

It's great that you may have found "the screen" for you. Please keep us updated on your decisions/progress!

Jim