Pretty new the realm of projectors.
I have my home theater set up in my finished basement right now.(totally light controlled)
Drop ceiling height is just 7'6". My 106" Dalite screen is suspend from the joists above and hangs approximately 7" from the drop ceiling. Projector is a Sanyo Z2.

The ceiling is currently the standard white of the ceiling tiles.
Has anyone out there painted the ceiling darker and can give actual before/after impressions? Seems to me that there may be quite a bit of reflection from the ceiling possiblydegrading the pic quality.

Thanks for the input!

In my case I am defiantly painting my ceiling flat black at least 8’ back from the screen. The pictures below clearly show what I’m seeing and along with affecting PQ it’s distracting to see the flashes in the ceiling during scene changes. The wall behind my screen is flat black and you forget there is even a wall behind its almost like the screen is floating in mid air.

http://thumb2.webshots.net/t/44/44/2/37/1/2484237010068493142fKstnF_th.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2484237010068493142fKstnF)

It shouldn’t be to hard to paint the tiles. I think I would spray them though. What I would do is pick up a box of matching tiles and try some things out on them first.

Or you could try these.

http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/products/tiles/alphamidnight.asp

Here is another thread on the subject.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=722301

painting the ceiling a flat dark color will help with reflections and you will have better contrast.

flat black being the best.
the most important is the first 10' from screen or so. (most movie theaters do this if not 100% black/slate color ceiling)

I noticed a huge difference when I did this. Also with total blackout room it cuts down on distractions that take your eyes off the screen when objects/walls become visible.

Another thought and something I have long thought about trying but have never talked anyone into trying and I don’t have any dropped ceiling to try it on.

I have thought about cutting thin plywood (1/4”) into 2’x 2’ squares you could get 8 from a sheet. Then most of the building centers sell a really thin foamed back charcoal gray carpet. They have it in huge rolls in the carpet area and it comes 12’ wide. It looks more like what they use in offices on walls that you stick pushpins into than carpet to me. It cuts easily with a razor knife and could be glued to plywood with contact adhesive. Make your own tiles this way. I don’t know the acoustic properties of this but I would guess they would be good.

If anyone has tried this method and has any photos I would love to see how it looks.

The tracks would be easy to paint a matching color. And I think the plywood would be strong enough to hold the lighting fixtures.

Any thoughts????? :D

We were initially going to try a golden color on the walls and ceilings.
After firing up the projector the first time, I immediately knew gold was out for the front wall and the ceiling.

Now I'm looking at flat black for the wall behind the screen. The ceiling will probably also be flat black and the walls will likely be a dark flat burgundy.

Initially my wife was convinced our room would be a game room/media room. However, I think she's seeing the screen, table mounted projector and 2 rows of seating (with a 13 inch riser) as overtaking the room and I think she realizes this room IS a dedicated theater room. I don't think I'll get as much complaining about my dark colors as initially feared.

Thanks for the input everyone.

The thin carpet on the 1/4" plywood is an interesting idea, but behind my drop ceiling I already have R19 fiberglass batt insulation between the joists so any additional sound absorption really isn't a concern. I also have a feeling that the 2'x2' 1/4" plywood may experience some sagging due to the additional weight of not only the wood, but the carpet as well.

I'm still in the process of doing the other 1/2 of the basement by the game tables etc so what I think I'm going to do is get the same tile for the other side, but paint and install the painted black tiles in the home theater section, along with painting the grid. I'm going to spray the tiles laying flat out of the grid for what I think and what I read will give the best results.

Thanks again!

It seems there are differing opinions on how far you should paint the ceiling. Some people say 8 feet, other say 10 feet or a full black ceiling. I have seen a thread earlier that said any contrast gains beyond 6 feet were small at best. any ideas? I have essentially the same question as the original poster.

I just did some preliminary testing using dark sheets drapped on the ceiling to try to reduce reflection off the existing white ceiling. Seems to me that just about all the back to the ceiling mounted projector made a difference, with the closer you get to the screen being more noticable as expected. At that point I think it's better to just go all black for cosmetics. A table top projector would probably be different.

I changed my mind with what I'm going to do. After finding black armstrong tiles at Home Depot for just under $1.00 a square foot I'm installing new black tiles and using the existing tiles for the other side by the pool table etc. At that cost, it's not worth painting. The painting of the grid itself is easy.

Schab

There is nothing wrong with going all black that will be the best if the only use for the room is viewing projected images. In my case my room was and is an experiment in room design and lighting as much as it is a home theater. I was going for a setup that mimicked the family room living room of days past. I want a social setting on the people end of the room while still using a semi light controlled end for the screen.

Light diminishes in intensity by the square of the distance it travels, because it is expanding in two directions. So any reflective surface near the screen or light source near is much more important to deal with. Thus the 6 or 8 or 10 foot rule people talk about. In my case I actually want to encourage some light reflectance in the viewing end of the room it allows the feeling of some task light without requiring a lot being put out.

I have had many comments about being amazed that the image was good with the lights on etc. and people that were opposed to front projection primarily because they didn’t like the bat cave dark settings they had seen. Now they were saying we need a set up like this. I still watch alone with all lights out a lot, but when the guys come over for sports there is a fair amount of beer drinking light provided. :D

Couldn't agree more. My room is set up in such a way that keeping the same black for that side would look better. Besides, the beer drinking that takes place here usually isn't in the theater area, but over by the pool and game tables.......cheers!

I think, just for uniform sake, I am going to do my whole ceiling black and then probably 6 feet out from the walls. I think the back half I will do something dark like a gunmetal gray or something, just a little something to offset the black a lil bit without brigtening up the room a bit.

My plan is to bend a trim strip or something like that and attach it to the ceiling in a semi circle at about the 8 foot out point. Black on one side white on the beer drinking side. I do agree a black and white line down the middle of a room would not look to appealing.

My plan is to bend a trim strip or something like that and attach it to the ceiling in a semi circle at about the 8 foot out point. Black on one side white on the beer drinking side. I do agree a black and white line down the middle of a room would not look to appealing.

cool idea! any ETA on when you will have it up? I'd like to see some pics!

I like that curved trim idea. Didn't think of that. I'm gonna have to thing about that now...........

What I had in mind was to just give a bit of the illusion of the screen being inset into a stage with the curved trim. Kind of the same as guys that build a little riser at the base of the screen. I thought doing it this way might ease that high contrast edge between black and white. I have been in a lot of clubs and bars with black ceilings over the years and the ones with very high ceilings seem to pull it off pretty well but the lower ones seem to really drink up the light. I know that’s what we want to do here but if the room is to be multi purpose at all as in my case it might just be too dark. Thus the valance idea. I have a 3 day weekend coming up maybe I’ll just have to get busy and do this project I have been putting off now for 6 months.

In my case with very low ceilings my trim cant be much more than a thin feature. But for those with a bit more head room I could see dropping it down a little more and doing a rope light or something behind it even for when the projector is off.

I get these ideas and I never know if they are to off the wall and artsy. But if there is one room in the house to go a little wild in I guess it’s the theater room.

Well I got busy over the weekend and went thru nearly a gallon of flat black paint. I tried to find a good cutoff point for the transition from white to black on the ceiling and I was hopping for about 6 feet out from the screen but 5.5 was the best place to do it because of some other features in the room. I started playing around with curving the trim strips that make up the divider but remembered the floor joists above run the wrong direction so I wouldn’t have had much to nail to. So I opted to just make a straight line trim. All I used for trim was two ¾ quarter rounds back to back to form a half round. Bending them would have been easy being two parts instead of one heavy strip.

I then masked and painted the white ceiling two coats of flat black and also painted the wall to the right of the screen flat black.

I think everyone should paint a ceiling flat black once in their life. It’s amazing as you paint you begin to not be able to see what you are doing no matter how many lights you have on. And the second coat was mostly done by feel.

For those thinking of going full black, until you start painting the ceiling black you have no idea how the room will begin to close in on you. If the room is a dedicated theater and no social activates will ever be going on in there then I would say go for it. In my case as I have explained a few times I was shooting for a family room setting with mild to no ambient during viewing and good to mild lighting for other activities. This half dark ceiling is going to foot that bill well I think.

So what was the effect on PQ? IMO the paint was equivalent to adding roughly 300 lumens to my projectors output when it came to dealing with ambient light in the room. I used to for best PQ keep the row of lights over the seating area (2) 60w floods off (total darkness) up to about ¼ power. I am now getting about the same image with these lights up to half power or higher. Roughly bright enough you could easily read or work remote controls or eat etc. I’m sure a large part also came from the side wall going black at the same time. Another pleasant side note is I don’t see the dancing lights on the ceiling now. I think that was every bit as distracting as the light issue to me.

Hopefully I’ll have a chance tonight to get a few comparison pictures taken and posted.

I did my entire ceiling in flat black, but you must be warned... every time something touches it, there will be a mark. I don't regret it though, and it really improves the contrast ratio.

I took a few pictures last night of the ceiling, trim and comparison photos of screen shots before and after. I also tried to show how the black helped with ambient light reduction by only going black on the end of the room with the screen.

I started a new thread to show the images along with my concept and anyone still wanting to view the pictures click the link below.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=790374

I have medium brown walls, a flat black ceiling (Porter Paint has a standard ceiline black color), and black carpet with a brown check patter. My wife was freaked that the room would feel claustrophobic -- and it turned out great. I don't really "feel" the black ceiling -- it's like there is just a void above your head -- so you don't feel closed in.

Of course this is a dedicated theatre room -- I might feel differently out in the main basement area -- but my black ceiling turned out awesome!

I have medium brown walls, a flat black ceiling (Porter Paint has a standard ceiling black color), and black carpet with a brown check pattern. My wife was freaked that the room would feel claustrophobic -- and it turned out great. I don't really "feel" the black ceiling -- it's like there is just a void above your head -- so you don't feel closed in.

Of course this is a dedicated theatre room -- I might feel differently out in the main basement area -- but my black ceiling turned out awesome!

I'm painting my ceiling black this weekend. With 4-10 inches of snow coming my way tomorrow, wont have much else to do! :)