[Acer H5360] My 100" DIY grey screen

I am a 1st time projector owner. I'm starting this project for 3D computer gaming, and a small amount of movie watching (proabaly 90/10 split).

The room is about 12ft x 18ft and I'm oriented the wrong way, so maximum throw is 11.4ft (to the lense), and that is where I've ceiling mounted the H5360. This gives me about 90-100" based on the zoom level. The room is not light controlled, and I'll have a moderated degree of diffussed natural light coming in from the back wall (rice paper wall....I'm in Japan). So, I chose a grey material to get better contrast. I'll be sitting as close as possible, probably about 7ft away.

I have not done very much research on DIY screen. Just read a few others build logs, and read through the sticky pretty quick and then went off to order some materials to get started.

This is the grey blackout fabric I ordered, I'm not planning to paint as I don't speak/read Japanese, and finding the correct paint would be an excercise in futility.

I also ordered this black felt totally blind....after reading a bit, I have serious doubts as to how good it will be, so I'll report back about it later.

My biggest question right now is about the framing for the screen, making sure I measure things properly and that I get the screen tight and flat. Any tips?

These are some shots of the room in progress...

I was planning to mount the projector with a store bought mount, but after I realized how simply I could make one, I did that instead.



Only needed a single screw....this puts the lens at 11.4" from the screen.



The setup is mostly for gaming, so I've got my computer desk centered on the screen at the moment. I'm using a bed sheet to get this lined up right now. The center speaker is intruding on the screen real estate with the image zoomed to the smaller size, but the screen will be positioned slightly lower when I finalize, so its a temporary problem. Lights on:



Lights off:



And here are a couple image quality screenshots:



This one shows minimum zoom for a 16x9 size of about 90"



And this one with the zoom maxed at about 103" (from the same camera perspective).



If you're curious about the red LEDs in my desk, thats my custom computer I just finished a few months ago....I published a build log here

Yeah, I finally got the new EK blocks back last week....I've only re-installed 1 of them though because of the new monitor situation....I doubt I'll need to go back to tri-SLI for now....but I'm thinking of adding two more H5360s later for surround 3D...then the other 2 580s would probably help a bit

The fabric should arrive within the next week, and I already bought some wood for the frame (in the 3rd picture on the ledge below the bed sheet). So I'll update soon.

Well, I got my fabric in today and I'm very pleased with the results. The screen turned out to be 100", and the projected image is about 98"....so just about perfect.

I have to make a correction, the felt was purchased to make a boarder, not masking as I previously reported.

I'll post up some pictures of the build process tomorrow, I'm at work now.

I started by building a 30mmx40mm wooden frame



Then wrapped the grey blackout cloth linked earlier around the frame and stapled it into the inside of the frame.



Then trimmed off the excess.



Then I took the black felt and stapled it into the back of the frame.



This is how it looks now, I have plenty of excess around the edges which I'm planning to frame into my windows frame area, but I'm still trying to decide how best to build that part, I'll update later.



After that, I cleaned and ironed the front side. Here are a few screenshots.

Thanks MM and I agree....that was with my room lighting on full blast. I was showing that photo more for screen/boarder layout than image quality. I would never use the screen with my lights on.

Although I did try it during the day today, and the ambient light coming in the wall behind me was not enough to wash out the display more than 5 or 10%....so I think it'll be perfectly acceptable for daytime use

Thanks for the honest assessment pb_maxxx.....I'm glad to hear that I'm getting expected (not worse than expected) results I wasn't expecting any miracles, and I'm no videophile, but I'm pretty happy with it from my untrained eyes....which I suppose is the most important part. Cheers

So, this is the last step I did the other day that I forgot to get a picture of. This is how I was able to position the screen in the right position on the window sill.



Today, I used some extra wood I had to build simple frames on the outer braces.




Then I wrapped the felt around to the back side, and secured it with staples.


Unfortunately, I bought only 3 yards, I probably should have bought four so I could put a bouble layer on both sides....But I was only able to doulble up the left side, the right side leaks a small amout of light.....but its not enough to be a major issue. I'll have to fix it later.

Here, I've fitted the screen back into the window sill....fit like a glove, and looks very nice for about $80 total

Thanks MM....I've been playing Batman Arkham City in 3D all day....its very nice with my 7.1 surround sound Nothing super fancy, but a pretty sweet setup for PC gaming 1080p 3D projectors cannot arrive soone enough

Thanks, I've been super happy with it


Bummer...did you use grey BOC?


I'm planning to do the full shebang when I move back to the states and I can get my hands on some paint (someday ).


Very cool