Homemade projection screen

A

ajax

100+ Posts
First, I know there are lots of y'all that have home theaters here. I'm kinda curious what setup you have going.

Right now, my guest room doubles as a home theater. I was originally going to use my office, but there's just so much crap (computer, exercise equipment, guitars, amps, and drums) that that was unfeasible. Ditto family room (toys, train table, toys, lots of friggin toys), so I was reduced to using one of the spare bedrooms.

I've been basically using the wall which has a light blue tint and frankly, it doesn't look bad. I watched the Bourne Supremacy last night and was very pleased with the color. But it's time I got a real screen and I finally have the spare time to do it.

I've looked at some lower end screens (under $1,000) and they don't impress me. The higher end ones do (>$2,000) but I don't want to spend that much on a theater screen. I mostly do night-time viewing, but come football season that projector is going into overdrive, so the ability to handle daytime and ambient light is important.

So I've been spending the last several days reading AVS forums. Man, those guys are hardcore. They are so picky about the slightest defect in the image and will go to extraordinary efforts and cost to make a slight improvement.

Frankly, I'm not that picky. Really, I just want something that can handle daytime use and is aesthetically pleasing when not in use. From reading the forums, I think I've come up with a pretty good scheme - start off with a light foam panels (sold at Home Depot, used for home insulation), cover with relflective mylar (for maximum gain, aka brightness), cover that with a layer of frosted vinyl (to reduce "hotspots" aka glare from the projectoer). Finish it off with a black felt border.

From what I've read, this should yield some pretty good results. There might be some issue with blacks not looking black enough. If this turns out to be a problem, I've heard that some sheer black netting called "tulle" might work. Total size should be about 5'x7'.

My wife wants wooden picture frame like border, just for asthetics. This will come later. If there is sufficient interest, I'll report my findings back.
 
I just built a home with a media room in it. I went with a wall painted as my screen, because it fit with what I was doing. If you changed the color of paint on your wall, you could get a screen that was equal in almost all ways to most screens. I will take some pics tonight of my room, as the screen is framed out with wood logs, but it is in a log house. It might help you with some ideas.
 
Sweet looking room! Wish I had a good place for a projector at my house.

Put some Live Oak Big Bark in that kegerator and it's perfect.
 
Nice! I never even thought about mounting the center channel on the ceiling. I think I'll do that. All my other speakers are floor standing so they can't be mounted.

I wish I could put a bar in my media room, but it has to double as a guest room and we do get frequent guests.
 
Nice room. I made mine with the parkins plastic or whatever a few years ago when I got my projector. It was 80" . I moved this last year to another apartment and my projector is so far away from the wall, the smallest I can get is 120", so it if projecting on the wall now which sucks, but I haven't gotten around to getting a long throw lense. The plastic sheet thing worked good though.
 
I planned on my room for about a year. I was at a loss with what to do with the center channel, so I decided to mount it up top. I am very happy with my room and I have the entire house wired with speakers from it. Outside on the deck and in the house.

I spent quite a bit on all of my equipment and details, but I would do it over again in a minute. It works great for PPV events, PS2 and for everything else. The only problem is too much light during the day, since I do not have a door going into the living room, just the walkway.

Keep us updated ajax and let us know what you decide to do.
 
Thanks. I'm going to start making my mylar/tulle screen today. The material is cheap enough that if it turns out to be a total failure, I can simply go by a sheet of good old trustworthy Parkland Plastics. I know Parkland will yield a pretty kick-*** screen, but I really want to see what a high gain, "fusion" screen will look like.
 
You have no idea how hard it is to find big rolls of mylar. I kept going to gardening shops and they were like "no, we don't carry mylar. Now please leave."

They weren't quite that rude but that was the general attitude. I finally bought some off of ebay and the seller said they provide "discrete shipping." Why the hell does mylar deserve discrete shipping. Then I saw that the seller is in Humboldt County.

Ohhhhh, I think I get it. Turns out mylar is very integral to indoor pot growing.

Anyhow, the mylar should arrive any day now and I can start building my screen.
 
If the FBI follows it, just start flushing the toilet and see what they do. I would not have a clue what else it was used for, but I guess now I see why people were short with you.

Keep us updated, but don't use your one phone call on us.
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There is a new product on the market. It is a paint-like coating for your wall. The paint is specifically designed for projection viewing. It contains the same reflective particles that the regular screens have.

I don't have a link . . . look it up. The container (not sure what size) was $200.
 
I think you're talking about Goo paint. Not to be confused with our own Goo. That stuff is expensive. My screen will top out at about $60, with plenty of mylar, frosted vinyl, and black tulle to make a couple more screens.
The Link
 
I tried the Parkland Plastics option. It looks like *** compared to a real projection screen. Washed out colors and blurry edges (after all it's partly translucent). A plain painted wall looks better, IMNSHO.
 
I finally got around to making the screen. Now I know why people don't use foam - it's impossible to attach stuff to it. If you use a staple gun, the staples just slide out. I ended up attaching the mylar and vinyl to the foam with regular packaging tape. It doesn' t look too bad and it reflects a lot of the light back out without glare for a very high gain screen.

Now I have two problems - 1) how the hell do I attach the tulle to the foam? I might have to end up using a stapler, like a desktop one, to attach the tulle to the vinyl, and 2) how to mount it? I thought that I could use regular mounting tape but the problem is the tape would be attached to the vinyl wrapped around it rather than the foam. I'm probably going to end up nailing the thing to the wall.

This would have been a lot easier with plywood. But then it would have been impossible to get the thing up and down the stairs the thing is so huge. And constructing it in the room wasn't an option because since it's a guest room and we always have guests, I can't have a huge unfinished movie screen lying around so I have to do it in the garage. Anyhow, the whole thing in its present state probably cost me $15 so I won't feel too bad if I had to scrap it and start over with wood.
 
I've got an update if anyone is interested.

There's a reason why people don't use foam for homemade projector screens and now I know why - it's virtually impossible to to stretch the mylar tight on foam. Foam will bend, which causes ripples in the mylar. So there goes that idea.

The ripples were really annoying, but I fired up the projector to see what it looks like anyway and I found out another reason why people don't use mylar. It's called the viewing cone, or in this case, the "very narrow viewing cone" meaning that if you sat directly in front of the screen, you were treated to an awesomely bright glowing screen. It was a shimmering thing of beauty. However, if you sat a little to the side, the far end of the screen was virtually unviewable because the reflective angle causes light travel away from you. That's why very expensive screens have tiny little reflective surfaces that emit light to all angles, increasing the viewing cone. Mylar, despite being very reflective, is flat and unidirectional.

As for the color - awesome. While sitting directly in front (and trying to ignore the wrinkles on the screen), the colors were bright, warm, and the tulle made the blacks actually look black.

If I could figure out a way to mount the mylar, vinyl, and tulle onto a curved surface, that would be the perfect screen. Sorry, that's just too much effort. Something like that would have to be very heavy and rigid. I don't want to hang something like that on my wall since I'm probably going to be selling this house in a couple of years.

My next move is to explore various painting options. You know, the current projected picture onto the slightly blue wall is not bad. I just want it brighter. One possible to solution would be to apply a couple of undercoats of metallic silver paint and simply paint over it with the current light blue color. It would cause a blue-ish color shift but it doesn't bother me now.
 
Hey check out this local company. These are a couple of guys that used to work with me at A&B TV that have started up there own company. I am using one of there screens in my room currently and it is just as good as the Stewart Studio Tech 130 with the black velux surround to it. They do some very nice screens at a very good price. Check there site out and if you are interested in talking to one of the guys call them and ask for Scott Black he is a great help.The Link
 
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