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 projector is the Epson 5050UB, and the Blu-ray player is the Panasonic DP-UB820. Surprisingly, these paints also do well with black level detail.
We have three sample boards on the left, PPG Diamond. The 4 sample boards on the right are SW Duration.
The boards (sheetrock) are sitting on bar stools and chairs. Sheets are draped over the chairs to hide them.
And a couple more shots, to illustrate the lack of "Hot-Spotting" issues with the Sherwin Williams Duration Extra White Matte paint. Taken with all lights out, using the flash on my Leica Camera.
Just finished everything up, and my paint crew spent part of the last 4 days here. From set up, building the paint booth, spraying two heavy coats each of the first 3 days (6 coats total, almost 2 gallons), and take down / clean up / detail touch up, to finish the work today.
The sprayer is an electric pro model, and they run around $4000. A spray wand was employed, with a .13 tip. The paint was not reduced with water, and the pressure used was 2500 psi.
No overlap coats. None. And my painter did one continuous spray application...he did not employ a start / stop method.
For those of you who have not followed this paint exploration, you might look here first to see what got me to this point. It actually started when I taped several sheets of white cardboard on my Behr SS / WOP screen, and saw the results. https://www.avsforum.com/forum/110-d...-vs-satin.html
So in the end we chose the SW Duration Extra White, 2 gallons of Matte, and one gallon of Flat. In that 2 to 1 ratio. Strictly off-the-shelf, and very simple.
There is absolutely zero hot spotting! None at all! And the black level is about as good as it was with my Behr SS.
Doing this myself was not an option. Hiring a professional crew, with professional equipment, was my only choice. If you are good at paint rolling, or spraying, you could do this and save the money on labor. This paint can be rolled or sprayed.
This is a "one size fits all" paint. If you have a light controlled room, and want something simple, this is your solution. Off-the-shelf, no complicated mix, no fuss, readily available at your local Sherwin-Williams store. This works with 720P, 1080P, 4K. We even have an older JVC S-VHS player that looks pretty good on this screen!
We are very pleased with the results.
The hardware includes a new Epson 5050UB, a Panasonic DP-UB820, and a Yamaha CX-A5200 AV Pre-Amp Processor. Note the Epson 5050UB is set at Cinema mode (3rd brightest). In Dynamic, it is much brighter. Also, we are on the mid-power level, to extend the lamp life.
I need to mention that the screen shots above, taken from "Gladiator", were shot with ambient light in the room. Not bright lighting, but enough to walk around and not stumble into something (or someone).
This screen paint does fairly well, even with brighter lighting.
You are quite welcome. This off-the-shelf paint is nothing short of stunning for its ability to reflect what the film director intended. Rich detail, even when the lights are on. Plus it does not sacrifice black levels, which was a huge surprise to me.
My projector, an Epson 5050UB, is on a rear shelf with a throw / zoom distance of nearly 25 feet. That puts the projected image at a disadvantage as a full 30% of the brightness is lost.
If you are planning to make a room into a multi-purpose media/theater room, with less than perfect lighting, this paint will work just fine.
We are thrilled with this screen.
Glad you enjoyed the photos!
With 100 different paint formulas for the do-it-yourself crowd, you have picked out the simplest basic white color and the easiest to apply that is out there on the market, with outstanding results. It really is a waste of time to look any further to have a screen paint that's going to give any better results than what you have.
With 100 different paint formulas for the do-it-yourself crowd, you have picked out the simplest basic white color and the easiest to apply that is out there on the market, with outstanding results. It really is a waste of time to look any further to have a screen paint that's going to give any better results than what you have.
The best thing is this paint can be rolled. If you can work a roller, you can paint a screen. All of my test sample boards were rolled with a 1/4 inch nap roller. But we chose to spray, as that sometimes will give a more smooth finish.
We did use 2 gallons of Extra White Matte, mixed with one gallon of flat. That gave us the perfect balance of screen gain, with no hot-spotting issues.
This is a 155 inch diagonal screen, in 16X9 format. A smaller screen could get by with much less paint. We actually had a gallon left over.
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