I used Wilsonart Designer White laminate for my DIY screen. Works great.
Back after 11 years for another dose of advice. Vava UST 4k DIY screen suggestions?
Old setup: Optoma HD80, ceiling mounted, very good to excellent light control in the room, Cream and Sugar (v 2 I think?) paint rolled on a roughly 72"x128" skim coated kilz primed interior wall. Painted flat black border. Seats about 15' from screen, basically on center. Great for about 9 years. Optoma died, wall discovered to have annoying waviness and non-optimal placement of 'screen'.
New setup: Vava 4k UST on 3" platform, same room. Visual Apex 144HD screen to correct placement and flatness issues of old painted screen. Great except for creases still visible in screen after hanging under frame tension for 2 years, even with a few attempts to flatten with hair dryer (haven't tried an actual iron). Picture is great until you start to notice the creases. Projection area does not appear properly square (rectangular), can't make the corners of the projected image match up with the corners of the projection area. I don't like the looks of the screen installation when the lights are on.
Proposed solution: roughly 6.75'x12' screen, made of 3 sheets of tempered hardboard on wooden frame, seams filled with joint compound, primed with kilz, hung on french cleat. Question is what to paint it with. Initial thought after reading some is roll some Cream and Sugar Ultra.
QUESTIONS: Is Valspar Signature still the recommended base paint, tinted 115-0.67 for a quart? There are 3 flat bases listed (Signature® Interior Paint - Valspar® Paint) online; Ultra White Base A, Base B, and Base C. I am guessing the Ultra While Base A is the correct one? And Liquitex Basics Acrylic is still the recommended second component (https://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-BASICS-Acrylic-8-45-oz-Silver/dp/B07HQ2B6RB)?
Other suggestions for a color neutral screen welcome. Existing setup is plenty bright enough (way brighter than the old Optoma), so Scorpion or Black Widow might be a consideration, but I haven't noticed much problem with black levels. Oleson M.D.'s Sherwin Williams Duration Extra White (Matte) setup is a consideration as well. Occasionally have others watching, viewing positions up to 6-8' off centerline, so I worry that anything with 'gain' isn't going to work well, and I don't see much need for it. Not interested in spending $1k on buying another screen, may put the Visual Apex screen to work for occasional off-site use.
Thoughts?
New setup: Vava 4k UST on 3" platform, same room. Visual Apex 144HD screen to correct placement and flatness issues of old painted screen. Great except for creases still visible in screen after hanging under frame tension for 2 years, even with a few attempts to flatten with hair dryer (haven't tried an actual iron). Picture is great until you start to notice the creases. Projection area does not appear properly square (rectangular), can't make the corners of the projected image match up with the corners of the projection area. I don't like the looks of the screen installation when the lights are on.
Proposed solution: roughly 6.75'x12' screen, made of 3 sheets of tempered hardboard on wooden frame, seams filled with joint compound, primed with kilz, hung on french cleat. Question is what to paint it with. Initial thought after reading some is roll some Cream and Sugar Ultra.
QUESTIONS: Is Valspar Signature still the recommended base paint, tinted 115-0.67 for a quart? There are 3 flat bases listed (Signature® Interior Paint - Valspar® Paint) online; Ultra White Base A, Base B, and Base C. I am guessing the Ultra While Base A is the correct one? And Liquitex Basics Acrylic is still the recommended second component (https://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-BASICS-Acrylic-8-45-oz-Silver/dp/B07HQ2B6RB)?
Other suggestions for a color neutral screen welcome. Existing setup is plenty bright enough (way brighter than the old Optoma), so Scorpion or Black Widow might be a consideration, but I haven't noticed much problem with black levels. Oleson M.D.'s Sherwin Williams Duration Extra White (Matte) setup is a consideration as well. Occasionally have others watching, viewing positions up to 6-8' off centerline, so I worry that anything with 'gain' isn't going to work well, and I don't see much need for it. Not interested in spending $1k on buying another screen, may put the Visual Apex screen to work for occasional off-site use.
Thoughts?
1 - 5 of 5 Posts
I've been using a Cream&Sugar Ultra screen for many years, and the original Cream&Sugar before that.
I completely rebuilt my theater for 4K in the fall of 2019 with a screen wall that's 8' tall by 14' wide. As it was new construction (the old basement theater room had to be demolished to repair the main support beam across the basement ceiling), I rebuilt the room with new drywall and plastered it with a skimcoat. I primered it with Kilz Ultra Premium (might have been 2 coats) and painted it with a few coats of the version of C&S Ultra that's up here now, since that thread has not been updated for a while. It was Valspar flat white latex and Basics Silver Acrylic paint in equal proportions, with a bit of distilled water to make it rollable. A tiny amount of magenta was added to the Valspar at the paint store, per the instructions in the thread, and I mixed in the Basics and distilled water by using a plastic pail with a cover, into which I had cut a hole to allow me to thread the shaft of a stirrer through the lid and into a hand-held drill to do the mixing. All painting was done with rollers, since there's no ventilation other than air vents for the HVAC to pump hot or cold air into the room, but no exhaust.
I'm projecting onto it with the entry-level JVC lamp-based true 4K projector, the DLA-RS1000, also known as the DLA-NX5. As it's mounted 15'9" from the screen wall, it throws a 17x9 focusing grid that's 6' tall by 11'4" wide, so I have room for left and right main speakers on either side and and the center speaker underneath.
I painted the ceiling and side walls flat black to reduce bounceback that could reduce contrast.
I don't frame the image as I want to be able to show different aspect ratios at different heights. I don't notice black bars, so this works fine for me.
I sit about ten feet from this screen and I'm very pleased with the result.
PS A few paint companies, including Valspar, have latched onto the name Cream and Sugar for paints - but they're all using it not for screen paint but for light tan paint, which is totally unsuitable for the purpose.
I completely rebuilt my theater for 4K in the fall of 2019 with a screen wall that's 8' tall by 14' wide. As it was new construction (the old basement theater room had to be demolished to repair the main support beam across the basement ceiling), I rebuilt the room with new drywall and plastered it with a skimcoat. I primered it with Kilz Ultra Premium (might have been 2 coats) and painted it with a few coats of the version of C&S Ultra that's up here now, since that thread has not been updated for a while. It was Valspar flat white latex and Basics Silver Acrylic paint in equal proportions, with a bit of distilled water to make it rollable. A tiny amount of magenta was added to the Valspar at the paint store, per the instructions in the thread, and I mixed in the Basics and distilled water by using a plastic pail with a cover, into which I had cut a hole to allow me to thread the shaft of a stirrer through the lid and into a hand-held drill to do the mixing. All painting was done with rollers, since there's no ventilation other than air vents for the HVAC to pump hot or cold air into the room, but no exhaust.
I'm projecting onto it with the entry-level JVC lamp-based true 4K projector, the DLA-RS1000, also known as the DLA-NX5. As it's mounted 15'9" from the screen wall, it throws a 17x9 focusing grid that's 6' tall by 11'4" wide, so I have room for left and right main speakers on either side and and the center speaker underneath.
I painted the ceiling and side walls flat black to reduce bounceback that could reduce contrast.
I don't frame the image as I want to be able to show different aspect ratios at different heights. I don't notice black bars, so this works fine for me.
I sit about ten feet from this screen and I'm very pleased with the result.
PS A few paint companies, including Valspar, have latched onto the name Cream and Sugar for paints - but they're all using it not for screen paint but for light tan paint, which is totally unsuitable for the purpose.
See this thread:
www.hometheatershack.com
Off The Shelf Screen Paint
We are getting close to a selection, and it is narrowed down to 2 candidates: Sherwin Williams Duration Extra White (Matte) PPG Diamond Base 1 (flat white) Our Behr Silver Screen / White Opal Pearl is just too dark. These white paints really show the details better, especially skin tones. Our...
www.hometheatershack.com
Thanks for the responses;
Doc, I had indeed looked at your thread and I'm certainly considering the SW Extra White solution you wrote up, and for that matter the 60 matte Wilsonart Designer white (If I can get a big enough piece), which would save doing seam work and could always be painted, along with C&S Ultra. I like the 'measured color neutral' aspect of the C&S, though I wonder if I'm discerning enough to detect much difference from the other two in anything other than a side by side comparison. I always thought the original C&S looked pretty good with the old Optoma projector, but really noticed the irregularities (waves too big to be very amenable to skim-coating flat) with the much brighter 4k projector.
I did find my answer to my question about C&S base paint on page 8 of the C&S Ultra thread... A Harpmaker post from 2014. It's the last one on the data sheet from the page I posted earlier in case anyone is chasing the same info.
Doc, I had indeed looked at your thread and I'm certainly considering the SW Extra White solution you wrote up, and for that matter the 60 matte Wilsonart Designer white (If I can get a big enough piece), which would save doing seam work and could always be painted, along with C&S Ultra. I like the 'measured color neutral' aspect of the C&S, though I wonder if I'm discerning enough to detect much difference from the other two in anything other than a side by side comparison. I always thought the original C&S looked pretty good with the old Optoma projector, but really noticed the irregularities (waves too big to be very amenable to skim-coating flat) with the much brighter 4k projector.
I did find my answer to my question about C&S base paint on page 8 of the C&S Ultra thread... A Harpmaker post from 2014. It's the last one on the data sheet from the page I posted earlier in case anyone is chasing the same info.
1 - 5 of 5 Posts
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