I'm looking for suggestions on getting my room as dark as possible. Unfortunately I rent the house I'm in and have a feeling the owner wouldnt be happy to find I've painted the walls black. So I'm stuck with white for now. The room is 8hx15wx23l. The screen will be centered on the 15' wall. On the wall adjacent the screen wall is a 3'x5' window about 3' from the screen wall. And further back on the same wall about 17'-18' from the screenwall is a sliding glass door. The window I'm not so concerned with. If I have to I'll close the blinds wrap some frabic around some plywood and shove it in there and cover with some curtains. The sliding glass door on the otherhand I have to be able to get in and out of. Aside from blackout cloth cutains what other measures can I take to make sure no light gets in and I can still get out?

I'm in the middle of building a diy do-able board 100" screen. Which I've read has a gain of roughly 1.13. The projector I plan to use is a sony vpl-vw40. From what I've read It's best setup in a room with low ambient light.
According to the calculator on projectorcentral.com this projector with a 1.1 gain screen will give me 14fl on a 100" image. What should I be shooting for?
It will be used for movies mainly some tv and games every once in a while.

If you have any suggestions please let me know
Thanks Ryan

curtains are going to be your bets bet for somethign that darkens the room but is removable. a co-worker covered his white walls with homemade burgundy fabric curtains. IT looks nice and made a noticable difference.

As for ft-lambers, there wa sa thread on this in the projector foum not long ago. 14 ftL should be fine, but it comes down to personal preference.

How often do you need to get out of the sliding doors. If it is not often make 2 panels to block the light and place behind some curatins so you can't see them from the inside. Another idea would be to use the darkest window tint you could find, even put inside and outside. When you move just peel it off.

Thanks for the suggestions. I searched around and found this
Its vinyl cling removable window tint only 6% light transmission. Coupled with blackout cloth curtains the ambient light should be virtually none.
That takes care of the windows. Kevin how did your friend mount the cutains? A couple of long curtain rods along the walls? I'd like to keep the holes to a minimum

haha now I can post it :D
http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=272&

How did this solution work for you? I'm concidering this.

So far so good. I'm using some pretty heavy blackout cloth/black velvet cutains.I'd suggest using 2 layers of tint if you want to get it pitch black. I had to get some 1.5" rigid insulation and wrapped it with cloth to plug the window next to the screen. Too much light was shining on the screen durring part of the day. I still need to put another layer of tint on the sliding glass door to get it pitch black. But for now its pretty dark unless the sun is shining right into the windows. But even then I can still watch my pj on one of the dimmest settings and it still looks good.

So far so good. I'm using some pretty heavy blackout cloth/black velvet cutains.I'd suggest using 2 layers of tint if you want to get it pitch black. I had to get some 1.5" rigid insulation and wrapped it with cloth to plug the window next to the screen. Too much light was shining on the screen durring part of the day. I still need to put another layer of tint on the sliding glass door to get it pitch black. But for now its pretty dark unless the sun is shining right into the windows. But even then I can still watch my pj on one of the dimmest settings and it still looks good.

Sounds like a workable solution. I am going to order some.

It sounds like my basement layout is very similar to yours. I also have a window right near the screen and I am going to put some blinds up and then mount an acoustic panel over it to block it out completely. The blinds will give it a normal look from the outside and from the inside, you won't even know its there.

Yeah I was just checking out your build thread and the layout is just about the same. I only used one layer of tint on the window. If you put 2 you may not need to block it with the accustic pannel.

I was planning on doing the panel anyway as the window is right around the first reflection point. It was the sliding doors I wasn't sure what to do with.

The back wall of my theater is a 9' triple sliding glass door where only the middle pannel opens. I was thinking of using inserts to cover the outer two sections but the slider opens to one side. Still do-able but a little more complex. I have always been planing heavy curtains with a shadow box over the top but the dark window tint in combo with the rest sounds like a plan.

thanks for the link. I might go that was as well.

The tint worked ok for me... Overall it does a decent job but still requires some kind of curtains for total blackout.

I will post pics shortly.

The biggest problem i had was getting the cut right against the edge of the glass. My sliders had a small rubber beading all along it that made it more challenging. I have some gaps along the edges, but I'm not going to buy more to try again. Curtains will cover it. :)

Here is a pic with the tint installed and the door open a bit for contrast. I would say that it's just barely dark enough under full sunlight with the tint to probably watch a projector. Thankfully the screen is about 24' from the door.

Ignore my crappy cutting job on the edges... :)


http://mostlyharmless.org/theater/misc4.jpg

sweet. thanks for the link to that window film. :) never even crossed my mind to use that stuff. alot cheaper than some room darkening drapes.

That dark paint really makes a world of difference dosent it. My walls are white. Looks good. Are you going to put another layer of tint on?

how does the tint look from the outside? That's going to be my wife's first question.

Our HT windows are on the front of the house. I have the blinds closed and some heavy curtains in front, which blocks about 85% of the light. I'd like to get it closer to 95%.

I'm probably not going to put a second layer on, though it would probably help with the edges and make it MUCH darker.

From the outside during the day, the widows look almost black... like the basement is completely dark or you have limo tint on them. :)

It doesn't look bad form the outside (and my bad cutting job on the edges aren't as noticable. Maybe I'll snap a picture today.

A quick note: You need to install this on the outside of the window if it is double pane glass. This won't effect the tint levels, but may make the installation challenging if its on a second story. I also recommend a VERY sharp razor knife and a squeegee.

Shot from the outside during the day... At night, you can kind of see in with the lights on.

http://mostlyharmless.org/theater/fp1.jpg

and also - walmart sells Home theater drapes. they are heavy duty material in various colors and are backed with BOC. they doa great job of blocking out light and look pretty nice too. $15 for a 47" x 80" panel

Shot from the outside during the day... At night, you can kind of see in with the lights on.

http://mostlyharmless.org/theater/fp1.jpg

That turned out really nice.

and also - walmart sells Home theater drapes. they are heavy duty material in various colors and are backed with BOC. they doa great job of blocking out light and look pretty nice too. $15 for a 47" x 80" panel

This is what I used for my windows. Back at my old house, I was using a family room with with sliding door and tons of windows. For the sliding door, I had oversize curtains made, than added blackout cloth to it. That took out about 90% or so of the light. On 2 smaller windows facing the screen, I did a combination of room darkening pulldown windows shades and blackout cloth. That took out almost all the light. Having it oversize help reduce the amount of light that can leak in.

I thought I'd throw a couple pics up so people can get an idea of what the curtains will do for ya on top of the tint.
Doors closed one layer of tint
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q290/vrmarkii/htroom004.jpg?t=1220493256
And doors closed with curtains drawn.This picture is not at all accurate but It'll give you an idea.
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q290/vrmarkii/htroom003.jpg?t=1220493342
Really the amount light leaking through is less than half that and the curtains dont glow purple like that either...solid black.
This one is of the screen wall and is pretty close. :D
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q290/vrmarkii/htroom008.jpg?t=1220493615

Shot from the outside during the day... At night, you can kind of see in with the lights on.


Thanks for the shot! I think the Mrs. would freak out if I did that on 2 of the 9 windows on the front of the house.

I think I might tack up some blackout fabric between the blinds and the curtains. That way you would only see blinds from the street, and curtains from the room.