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Reflection from nearby wall?

post #1 of 17
1/10/11 at 11:11am
Thread Starter 
I would like to buy a "nearly" wall to wall screen for my U shaped corner.
My concern is, being only 10" far from each wall and ceiling, will the light from projector bounces from the screen to the walls and disturbs the viewing pleasure?

If so, what one should do?
Cant paint the walls/ceiling black as its not a dedicated HT room.
Maybe black (dark purple) drapes for part of the walls be a solution to be able to close while not using, but what about the ceiling?


Thanx
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post #2 of 17
1/10/11 at 1:35pm
You can hang curtains on each side of the screen on the wall and use a tie back to make it nice. That will help a little bit. I don't have a 100% dedicated room either so what I did was hang curtains on a motorized curtain track on each side of the wall and I just open the curtains up when I am watching movies and close them when the room is being used for other purposes. Worded out great! Here is a video..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZV7DUqs9U4
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post #3 of 17
1/10/11 at 2:36pm
Thread Starter 
Thanx for the reply Chrisx510, i think i should do that.
It will not only solve the reflection problem but help control the lightning too..

What about the ceiling tho, yours doesn't look like reflecting much, is it a dark red?
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post #4 of 17
1/10/11 at 8:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by motoharu View Post

Thanx for the reply Chrisx510, i think i should do that.
It will not only solve the reflection problem but help control the lightning too..

What about the ceiling tho, yours doesn't look like reflecting much, is it a dark red?

Yes its a pretty dark red.. You can see pics in my theater build. Although in the pics the ceiling looks a lot brighter red then it really is because of the flash.

I wish I could do black fabric walls and ceiling but just can't do it right now.. Looking forward to the day I can have a full dedicated room.
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post #5 of 17
1/10/11 at 9:19pm
Curtains. Best method by far if you can do them. I use dark chocolate brown velvet curtains to each side of my screen. When not in use they cover only a tiny bit of the wall to the sides of the screen adding a nice decorative touch. When watching a movie I simply pull them out along the side walls. Does a great job of cutting side wall reflections.

If you don't want to have dark walls using curtains is a sort of "win-win" situation; it allows you to paint the walls the color you want since the curtains can stay retracted from the wall, but when you do employ the curtains when watching your movie they will cut light much better than any dark painted wall.

You can click the links below my name to see how I employed curtains.
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post #6 of 17
1/11/11 at 9:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by R Harkness View Post

Curtains. Best method by far if you can do them. I use dark chocolate brown velvet curtains to each side of my screen. When not in use they cover only a tiny bit of the wall to the sides of the screen adding a nice decorative touch. When watching a movie I simply pull them out along the side walls. Does a great job of cutting side wall reflections.

If you don't want to have dark walls using curtains is a sort of "win-win" situation; it allows you to paint the walls the color you want since the curtains can stay retracted from the wall, but when you do employ the curtains when watching your movie they will cut light much better than any dark painted wall.

You can click the links below my name to see how I employed curtains.

Yes I must agree 100%!! Curtains definitely help darken up the room.. And even with dark paint you will still get light reflections off the wall but curtains absorb the light very well.

Back wall is still a light color because I can't hang curtains there because thats where the seating is so to the OP also know the rear walls do reflect light back to the screen. In my setup I am able to live with it. There are options you can do on to darken up the back wall if you can't hang curtains or paint it dark. Acoustic Panels, Dark Furniture, Paintings, something to cover up the light paint color.
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post #7 of 17
1/11/11 at 7:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by R Harkness View Post
Curtains. Best method by far if you can do them. I use dark chocolate brown velvet curtains to each side of my screen. When not in use they cover only a tiny bit of the wall to the sides of the screen adding a nice decorative touch. When watching a movie I simply pull them out along the side walls. Does a great job of cutting side wall reflections.

If you don't want to have dark walls using curtains is a sort of "win-win" situation; it allows you to paint the walls the color you want since the curtains can stay retracted from the wall, but when you do employ the curtains when watching your movie they will cut light much better than any dark painted wall.

You can click the links below my name to see how I employed curtains.
Chris and Rich,

Other than cutting the room reflections do the curtains actually improve the picture quality to a noticeable degree.

Chris, cool idea with the motorized curtains. I was trying to tell from your video if the picture quality (blacks and shadow detail, mainly) improved as the curtains were closing, but I couldn't tell. I thought it did at first, but not sure. What have you observed?

Probably still couldn't sell this to the wife. Hang on a second, she's right here.
She didn't hit me yet........she's in deep thought. So close.........shot down again. I thought I had her!

Thanks,
Greg
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post #8 of 17
1/12/11 at 9:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregory View Post

Chris and Rich,

Other than cutting the room reflections do the curtains actually improve the picture quality to a noticeable degree.

That is always going to depend on the room and how you've set up your screen. If you have light colored walls, the closer they are to the sides of your screen the stronger the light will reflect back to your image, washing it out.

In my case my screen wall is about 13 feet wide. A 100" diagonal 16:9 image would be about 87" wide, so each side would be 5.7 feet from a light side wall. But if my screen wall were narrower, or I had a much bigger image
size, then that would mean the bright side walls would be closer to the image and wash out effects would become more obvious. (I remember one AVS member who placed his screen way up high, almost touching his white ceiling, and even in his screen shots the wash out effect was extremely obvious - the top portion of his image was obviously washed out from the light hitting the ceiling and bouncing right back to the upper portion of his screen).

In other words, yes covering up light side walls will in most normal cases help image quality, but how much and how visibly will depend on the particular room/screen combo.

In my case yes it makes a visible difference. But then again, I have gone to lengths to cut room reflections, which not only include the side walls but the ceiling and floor as well.
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post #9 of 17
1/12/11 at 10:14am
Yes picture quality is very improved! The room just becomes so much darker when the curtains open up and cover the walls. In my setup it was worth the $300 I spent for the motorized tracks and curtains. I also have a dark ceiling which helps too.. I am not sure what color your ceiling is at the moment but if you can paint it a dark color that be great. Maybe post some pics of your room and we can give you some tips.

Keep in mind that a lot of us here on AVS are die hard videophiles and we nit pick everything! I know people who aren't videophiles and have theaters with light colored walls and they love the picture quality. Before I put my curtains up I still that the picture quality was amazing! I'm just always trying to do new things to improve my setup.
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post #10 of 17
1/16/11 at 7:57pm
Chris and Rich,

Thanks for the comments and the advice. Sorry getting back to you so late.......my modem died!

My ceiling is white and the wife says little hope changing that! I'll try to get pictures of the room with proposed screen location super imposed to give you an idea of the set-up.

If possible, I would like to rent a projector and a screen, maybe a couple with different gains to get an idea of how it would look. I could then experiment with temporarily covering up the walls and ceiling, one at a time to determine the effect of each surface. I would also like to measure screen brightness in foot-lamberts to correlate numbers with perceived brightness. I actually envision a large experiment, which could potentially help others facing the same questions. I'll have to see what I can come up with........could be fun!

Any more advice would be welcome.

Thanks again,
Greg
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post #11 of 17
1/16/11 at 8:32pm
Don't forget there are specially designed screens available from several companies that help with these issues. For instance the Firehawk from Stewart Filmscreen, the Black Diamond screens, the Optoma Graywolf screen (much cheaper) and others. All these will help reject light reflections from lighter surroundings if you can't use a "normal" white screen.
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post #12 of 17
1/19/11 at 6:09am
Thread Starter 
I have decided to go for Da-Lite, but now i have more questions.
Who would have thought that selecting a screen would be that complicated, well, not me

The place where i am thinking of placing the screen is at the picture.
Its 12'5" (149") wide and 8'4" (98") high.


First:
The reason i started this thread was to ask weather the side columns will reflect the light on a disturbing level if i go for the planned Cosmopolitan Electrol 65"x116" screen (to use with epson TW5500, aka 8350), which will be a little more than 1feet farther from each wall.
If the answer is "yes definitely" than i may go for a smaller size (58" x 104") which will give almost 2feet from each side.

But the price difference is so little i want to get the bigger one, and put black pull-down curtains on the side columns as you have mentined.
But it will not look nice.

However, considering my viewing distance is 16'4", do you think 65"x116" will be too big?
If it is, i can always rescale the image for a smaller size but than, i think, the rest of the white screen will reflect and disturb me, as i can not benefit from the black borders.
In that sense, is it bigger is better?

Second:
As it is not a dedicated room, i do not have light control, however i will usually watch at night with lights closed, but the room never gets pitch black, i mean you do not need a flashlight to walk.
Imagine the brightness as the light from the moon in a room with light colored curtains (veil?) closed.

Is this situation, considered as a bright room in projector terminology and i have to go for high contrast matte white from da-lite or standard matte white will do?
Or do i have to go for something with more gain, like gray?

Third:
Considering the screen will be used at home, maybe 3 days a week (in the beginning and getting less use after time) and will be closed while not watching, do you think paying exactly twice as much for tension is a must?

thank you...
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post #13 of 17
1/19/11 at 6:45pm
One you should get the projector and play with different screen sizes and see what size you like best. Your viewing distance is pretty far and you don't want to go with to small of a screen.

The wall is going to reflect light with either screen size. Do you know if the paint on the wall is Flat,Semi-gloss,Egg Shell? Semi Gloss is a no no and will reflect light all over the room. You can get away with Egg Shell but Flat paint is the best way to go.

Grey screen will help in your situation as Rich pointed out.

How many seats are you planning on having?

If it was me I think I would go with a Black Diamond screen. That screen is made for rooms with ambient light and light colored walls. It is more expensive then a da-lite screen but I think it will give you a better image in your situation.

Thats a bummer you can't hang curtains. I can see a curtain track mounted perfectly on each side of the ceiling. The curtains wouldn't even take up a lot of space once retracted.

Tell your wife the curtain tracks come in white and will match the white walls
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post #14 of 17
1/20/11 at 1:57am
Thread Starter 
Thanx for the reply.

I can put curtains, that is no problem, what i can't do is paint.
But, about the curtains i have another problem.
As you can see in the picture, heating pipes goes on the ceiling and side walls.
So i will not be able make a clean or flush-fit install.
I can put curtains on the places i painted green (seems most logical), however the sides of columns will be left open, and they are the closest areas to screen.
I can install small pull downs on the sides but it will look bad, as in cut paste (plus it will be a different kind of fabric probably.)
And whatever i do, the pipes will be visible..

If i install the screen on the ceiling instead of the wall, do you think a curtain at the back of the screen (green in pic) will help image quality, in a kind of Reno's build black on black/floating image effect?

As the tv will be installed to the wall, which is 1feet deeper than the top column, i think there will be no problems installing a curtain and a screen.
They will clear the radiator too.

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post #15 of 17
1/20/11 at 5:09pm
Black curtains covering the back wall when the projection screen is dropped down will help perceived PQ.

Your just going to have to work with what you have. Curtains along the side walls and curtains on the front wall will help a lot. Also light will bounce from the hard wood floors back to the screen also so a rug under the screen will help with that reflection.
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post #16 of 17
1/26/11 at 1:32pm
Thread Starter 
Can i use a lighter color for curtains with a kinda suede fabric to absorb light better?

I can use darker color for sides as they will be closed when not watching projector.
But i want to glue/screw a fabric/curtain type thing to the ceiling too (without lowering the ceiling too much, maybe just 1" or so), which is probably a bigger area for light to bounce.
I can glue the same fabric to the horizontal column on the right (above the desk), if you think that may cause problem too.
But as i have mentioned, in order to do so, i have to use a lighter color, probably same as ceiling (teal/tan?).

If i go all curtains for both side walls, i am thinking of putting some on the ceiling in front of projector (about 1 feet) which will be 1 feet tall to cover the box and maybe resolve some of the ceiling bounce issue, as i think the light will bounce mostly from the immediate area in front of the screen.
Or, as there is a black bar i am wrong to assume that and the light will mainly bounce from where the spots are in the pic.

Should i go with dark or lighter for the side curtains too?

edit: Surely, the desk, treadmill and other objects will be removed (sadly not the pipes)

OPEN


CLOSED


Anyway, do you think a light gray or tan colored fabric will work for the ceiling?

Thanx for your input..
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post #17 of 17
2/12/13 at 7:52am
guys, how wide most the side curtians be? is 1.5 meters enough?
i want to hang them temporary when i watched a movie.
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