PJ Newbie needs help on DIY Screen

[cfrussin]

We just finished building our new apartment. 2200 sq. ft. added on as a duplex with our best friends as renters of the other side. I set up every room with Flex ENT going home run to a video closet right off the HT Room. The Room is 18 x 18 x 8. My projector sits on a custom very deep and well venitlated bookcase just behind us 4 ft. off the floor. The only two windows in the room are two electric w/ electric blinds skylights and a door facing south that has a blind on it. So daytime ambient light is moderate. Everyone calls the room dark. But it is easily darkened even more. The throw distance from the lens to the wall I want to use as a screen is exactly 18'. According to the automatic calculator on projectorcentral.com, I will end up with a 120" diagonal screen. I have a perfectly smooth flat wall for the screen. I've read for hours last nite the pros and cons of Kilz2 and almost perfect neutral grey. I have a new Lowes near me and they said they have the LATEST software to mix whatever I need. I have pretty much exhausted all available funds finishing the apartment. My Projector arrived today and is the Panasonic PT-AX200U. I've run my HDMI cables and power and am ready to start hooking up the electronics. BUT I WANT TO SEE A PICTURE! This is my first projector. I'm coming from a Mitsubishi DLP 62".
SO HERE'S MY QUESTION????
What color screen should I go with? I have a pro painter working for me so applying properly won't be an issue. I just don't know what will give me the best picture. My wife bought the projector for me and I'd really like to shock her!!! Thanks for the patience of any one who's read this entire thread.

[wbassett]

I definitely advocate doing an initial setup and calibration on a unity gain white screen to establish a baseline.

In this case it may not be feasible since you have a pro painter doing the work. Unless he doesn't mind painting the wall with a white primer and then coming back in a few days to a week to finish it. In that case I'd probably go the safe route and say get an N9 shade of neutral OTS gray. You have light control so that's not a major issue, but if you decide to have some lights on now and then you'll benefit from the slight shade of gray. Also it's not such a dark shade that with total lights out you'll see any performance hit.

So the question obviously is... what paint? That depends on what your contractor uses. Find out what brand they use and then we can give you some recommendations and get you hooked up.

[mechman]

If your ambient light is considered moderate, I'd go with either True Value Winter Mist (will come up as Tru Colors I believe at Lowe's) or Sherwin Williams Gray Screen.

Personally with all the talent here, I'm shocked no one's offered up anything before me!

mech

[cfrussin]

mechman wrote:

If your ambient light is considered moderate, I'd go with either True Value Winter Mist (will come up as Tru Colors I believe at Lowe's) or Sherwin Williams Gray Screen.

Personally with all the talent here, I'm shocked no one's offered up anything before me!

mech

I guess I should have had a more exciting question. I thought there'd be alot of help because you're definitely one of the best forums I've been on. I think the three best forum subjects on the web are reef keeping, DIY woodworking and HT.They all cost big $$$ that most of our wives discourage us spending because that's less for them and we love to find a cheaper way to do a better job than a commercially made item........... Thanks to Bill for the reply also. The pro painter actually works for my wife's company but in the winter it's dead so he helps me with the building and painting around here. He also likes the fact he can use my woodwork shop to build furniture.

The friends we live with, he's a vice P. of a glass company. So He's provided me with alot of aluminum stock that I've used to build reef lights with. I saw a post under laminates where they did just that. Or should I just paint ist and work my way up. Unfortunately, I'm not very patient and I REALLY like my music/HT. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We're actually setting up the projector now and I'm going to use my laptop w/ blue ray disc and HDMI output just to get a look at this thing.

[wbassett]

cfrussin wrote:

The pro painter actually works for my wife's company but in the winter it's dead so he helps me with the building and painting around here. He also likes the fact he can use my woodwork shop to build furniture.

Sounds like he'll work with you then.

Okay, no matter what you end up deciding on, take the time to do a baseline calibration. Have him paint the wall with Kilz2. It won't hurt anything and most likely he'd be putting a primer up anyway.

I can't stress enough how important it is to get a baseline on a unity gain white screen. Without that it's impossible to know if you made things better or possibly even worse! It also lets you get familiar with the projector and its different modes as well as play with the screen size. In your case, 120" diagonal doesn't seem like a problem at all and you could even go a bit bigger, but I think 120" would be fine for your room size.

Once you get it calibrated, make sure to watch some content in a variety of lighting conditions. That's going to tell you if you need some help in certain areas, but even that depends on how often you will have lights on.

I'm saying an N9 shade of gray. Winter Mist is the benchmark OTS N9 range we usually recommend, but your painter friend most likely doesn't go anywhere near True Value for his paints! Actually, he probably doesn't even need us to tell you a match, I'm sure he can get the color code and have it made through whatever company he gets his paint from. The paint number is 1983 Winter Mist and it's a True Value TruColors series. It's an older color code so they may need to look it up. You'll want as close of a match as possible with the lowest DE. Also a matte finish that's cleanable is preferable to just a flat finish.

Make sure you post some shots of the finished project!

Oh, if you have Kingdom of Heaven, that movie looks incredible on Bluray! Pixar and animation is always great eye candy, but you also want to see it with live action as well. Casino Royal is also another top notch Bluray to check out... As does the first Pirates movie. I personally think the first movie looks better on BD than the second, but they both look pretty good.

[cfrussin]

Pardon my newness, but what is a "unity gain white screen"? Is that using Kilz2? Again, my 15 yr. experienced painter is on staff and will repaint the wall 100 times if he's on the clock.

[wbassett]

cfrussin wrote:

Pardon my newness, but what is a "unity gain white screen"? Is that using Kilz2? Again, my 15 yr. experienced painter is on staff and will repaint the wall 100 times if he's on the clock.

Sorry about that.

It's a 1.0 gain screen that has an equal brightness across the entire screen surface. Kilz2 is a very good down and dirty quick unity gain white screen that you can use to get a baseline calibration on. I actually spoke to Panasonic, Sharp, Mitsubishi, and they all test their projectors on a plain white unity gain (1.0 gain) white screen. So if you do your calibration and baseline on the same type of screen you'll know your projector's exact performance capabilities.

Also keep in mind that right now you won't have a border, and that will make a huge difference once you get a black trim border up.

[cfrussin]

B&H Photo has 2"x60 yds. of Black Permacell masking tape. Will that do as a temporary border?

[wbassett]

yeah that will work fine and give you an idea of what the finished screen will look like too.

[cfrussin]

Thank you Bill. We've enjoyed our Mits. 62" DLP for 3 yrs. now and are hoping the projector will be as dramatic in the larger room. Scott, my painter has already sanded down the entire wall, ( it was painted an eggshell color) and will have it painted with the Kilz2 before leaving tonite. Can't wait to see it.