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Teaser of some new things coming

13K views 105 replies 11 participants last post by  wbassett 
#1 ·
I'm still well within beta testing right now so I am not going to present anything as a finished product or recommendation until full testing and readings are done.

Are you ready for the first teaser though? I just made a gray screen (actually more of a silver screen) with no pigments used. I'll let that settle in.

There were no pigments added whatsoever and this shade maybe slightly lighter than N8, I'd say somewhere between N8 and N8.5. Color reproduction was excellent on my foam board test panel. By the way, don't use these. I had them laying around from awhile back and decided to use them for tests. They curl bad when paint is applied and dries. I was however impressed enough that I am going to make a larger panel out of hard board so I have a nice straight panel.

Colors were excellent, dead on with my current screen and even seemed a bit deeper and richer. What surprised me was blacks looked darker yet whites remained white. Again, this is slightly lighter looking than Gray Screen, but the big thing is no pigments whatsoever were used. (Pigments can cause color shifting if the wrong balance is used.)

I'll be putting up some test shots tonight along with the start of my formal commercial screen reviews. I will say though that until complete testing and samples have been spectro'd, this is just an advanced teaser. ;)

Also coming are two brand new laminate screens courteous of Wilsonart. They sent me two new colors to test, an N8.5 and an N9 and in full 4'x8' sheets. They are acknowledging the increase in sales for full size sheets of DW and FG and are just as excited about laminate screens as I am. Unlike another company, they are not talking about raising their prices, but they do like the increased sales and interest in their products.

So lots of interesting things coming. Just stay tuned and 4th quarter of '07 may be a very interesting one! Some new neutrals have already been identified, two new laminates, and maybe an HTS exclusive custom screen application. :)

If the custom gray/silver screen ends up going to final stages, which I think it will at this point, I'm going to run a contest to name it. The winner will get a screen kit. I'm playfully calling it the HTSHurricane right now, so if this pans out and a naming contest is setup, start thinking about HTSxxx names!

I will also be giving away at least one of the laminate sheets if they test out well, which I am sure they will, so anyone interested look for that to be coming. Due to the size though, I probably will be asking for shipping to be covered but that's it.
 
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#88 ·
WOW! :unbelievable:

alright i have to ask a couple of things.

1. i assume the background color is your SW gray screen paint?

2. did you recalibrate the PJ for the new screen panel or is that shot with the original settings?

3. in your gray screen (neutral gray's thread) the image never seemed close to being washed out especially in the dark but the background image in those shots seemed a little washed out. i can't quite figure out if it's massive performance difference, there's ambient light that is being hidden by the camera exposure or it's related to #2 above?

man that is one nice performing screen! when you painting a full one? :bigsmile:
 
#91 ·
Todd I want to do some screen shots with more color in it too. I never shot Van Helsing before and it isn't the best one to use for screenies in my opinion... same as Charlies Angels. In both movies the director shot things with a definite colored look. Van Helsing is a very dark movie that has a blue tone to it much like Cameron did with T2.

I'll have a new thread and better screen shots as well as comparisons with other grays. Mech is doing some work with the EF tints and I don't have any of those right now or I'd throw a few of those in the comparison mix too.
 
#92 ·
austin powers is a pretty clean movie with bold colors and varying skin tones. one of my current favorite movies for image quality has been ghost rider with nicholas cage, even on dvd it looked fantastic and bluray was just killer.

aeon flux is good for screenies though i wasn't all that into the movie.

you already have into the blue which has some great image capture scenes but i tend to get a little too wrapped up focusing on jessica alba to notice them :D
 
#94 ·
Yeah correct and sorry for not pointing that out. The 3:1 is on the left and the 4:1 is on the right. What I did was I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup for the ratios.
 
#95 ·
i almost wonder how a 5:1 ratio might look? first hand experience is the best measure of all but from what i can see in the pictures the 4:1 almost seems to extract a little more detail without compromising blacks.

how do these panels look compared to your reference gray screen mix?
 
#96 ·
I agree that the 4:1 appears to be a nice balance, and yes I plan on trying a 5:1 or even higher to try and get the same shade as GS. That would be the most interesting test to me if the shades are identical. My next test though is with a poly coating and then I'll get to the others.

I also have to squeeze in my HoloVega review, so I may do that so I can get it done and out of the way.
 
#97 ·
I'd like to add a new teaser of something hopefully coming soon. CGiv Hopefully benven will do a quick write up of what it entails but I've had the luxury of doing some spectro work on a 7X10" sample and the results are incredible! It's pretty much dead ringer for N9. The only thing I know that is in it is silver. Other than that we'll have to wait for Ben to tell us! ;) But I can show you it's spectral curve!



Hopefully Ben won't make us wait too long!!

mech
 
#98 ·
And Ben said he used silver powder too... definitely something I'm interested in. Non-interference methods haven't gotten enough use and exposure in my opinion.
 
#100 ·
The new laminates are still in the box. I have to build the frames for them so I can run tests on them.

I was in NJ for work and am heading to PA for a week, when I get back I'll be finishing up the work on the PFG screen, then doing the commercial screen reviews and then the laminates.

PFG by the way was just a name chosen because it is not a 'gray' made in a conventional way using store pigments. I see it being said that the name is misleading since Kilz2 has pigments, and yes that is true, but I think it's picking nits to say that means it is a 'pigment' made gray. It could be argued that when you add anything to a paint base that is a 'pigment' but again, the point is this isn't a conventional way of making a gray.
 
#103 ·
Let's make a screen! Soup to nuts!

First this will be for a material based screen. It can be painted or used as a stand alone white screen option.

Laminates and rigid substrates will get a similar Soup to Nuts treatment. Mech already has one support frame option, but our goal is to make things lighter and we're also working on making the 'fit and trim' as close to professional as possible.

As I said, this method coming will be a frame that you can put any material screen source in, Da-Lite, SMX, Rose Brand, any fabric material that you want to use including painter's canvas and BOC.

Now what if I told you the screen itself (not including the black trim border) will weigh on average around 5 lbs or less for a 106" diagonal screen and best of all, no staples are needed? It can even be done by one person, although two people always makes the task easier.

I will say that the frame itself will need to be secured to the black trim border to make it completely rigid but as will be shown that is a very easy process. I will show the most basic way to do this as well as provide links to sources for the materials needed and even higher grade framing that is sturdier and can stand on its own. Ultimately I am looking at an all in one solution, a frame and trim border all in one that is easy to do yet professional in quality. Right now we are looking at $64 for a unity gain white screen that literally thousands of people have used, and to go from a basic white screen to a PFG will only add $40 or less. We're even working on a way to bring PFG down to the same price as a bottle of Folkart Pearlizing Medium, which is around a buck... so the price will eventually be even lower than $100. Keep in mind if you spray it and don't have a sprayer, that will add to the overall cost. If you roll you'll still need to buy rollers for that. For a basic screen using any material as is we can keep this well under $100, for sprayers it will be a bit more, so just take that into consideration.

This screen tutorial will make a basic unity gain white screen, but one that can also be painted if desired. I will be spraying this screen and covering all the steps through the spraying process. Rolling is easy and has already been covered many times in many places (If you can paint a wall or room, you can roll a screen, it's not as complicated as some make it out to be), a complete spraying tutorial is something I think many can benefit from. Still, rolling is a completely viable method and one that most people will be using, so I probably will do the same Soup to Nuts with a rolled screen, but probably not until after the holidays.

As an added teaser, and yes this is coming very soon, this screen will be a PFG (Pigment Free Gray). Keep an eye out here and for the dedicated thread as well as an up coming interview with Marshal on one of his pod casts. :)

Also keep an eye out for two new laminate screens that will be tested and full frame build outs included. I do apologize about any delays in things coming, this has been a hectic second half of 2007 for me but I think we're back on track now and there will be some exciting things coming. :)

I will start showing the frame build out and fixing the screen material to the frame, but may not get to the complete construction until after the 15th. I have to travel to PA and obviously won't be able to get it completed by this weekend. No worries though, for those that want to employ this method, it won't take weeks to do, it is something that can be done over the course of a weekend once all the materials are gathered. Hopefully this will be a fun project that people will get some useful ideas out of, and... it will be a replacement for my own personal 'temp' screen I built as a test, which seems to have been a bit more than temporary.

As we move into the age of better and better projectors with higher resolutions, texture, optical coatings and things of that nature are going to make a bigger difference. This will be a screen option that can grow with people but as of now will work fine with 720p or 1080p projectors. 2007 is coming to a close, but the ideas and methods at HTS are not!

Stay tuned, we have a lot more coming!
 
#105 ·
Jack in a nutshell I'm using screen door aluminum frame and spline instead of staples.

It's been done before but nothing really documented and aluminum extrusion was used that came to around $100. Hopefully it's a quick and easy method but it will need to be anchored to a trim border to make it rigid. I am looking for options and found a few sources that I need to call for details. Hopefully it will make more sense when I get the photos done and uploaded.
 
#106 ·
Well someone finally came through and I got my first test sample of Ti 02! A pint of it raw, now let's see what we can do with it. :)
 
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