Laminate Screen Material and Testing! - Page 24

Welcome to the laminate thread stubeeef

My projector has 1700 lumens, and I'm fine. I had to back off the brightness some as compared to the painted gray screen I used to have but that was expected.

So far I have used the bare wall that was painted a cream/off white (the worse), I shot a few movies on just the Killzit primer for awhile, and that really surprised me how nice the image looked. Then again that was the first comparison from the plain wall so anything would have looked better. The next screen was a Behr Silver Screen painted screen. Blacks were incredible, but I experienced a bad color shift and blue push. I was able to get it adjusted, but it ended up being a compromise and the image was watchable but definitely not optimal. In my particular case the Killzit primer actually looked better. Now I want to note that there are others that use Silver Screen and love it, so I'm not telling people not to use it... just keep in mind some projectors seem to work better with it than others. Next was a Behr Ultra Pure White painted screen. This one was the brightest and most vivid screen so far, edging out Killzit. Colors were bright and clean... yellow was yellow, white was white...

I then put up a sheet of Designer White. First thing I noticed was I was backing the brightness off again, there was an obvious gain over all the other screens I had tried previously. Once I got things adjusted, the image quality was incredible and much better than anything I had used so far. I was really pleased to see this because it corresponded with the gain and color tests that were done, so at that point I was happy to see that the data really did back up the claims and we were no longer guessing about color characteristics and perceived gain... Since then more and more people are starting to get actual data and testing done on various DIY methods and I really think that is adding to the quality of DIY overall and it makes it easier for people to decide on one method over another.

If Designer White has too much gain and hot spots for you, most likely a 1.3 gain commercial screen would too, so in that respect you didn't spend several hundred on a commercial screen to find that out I think you would be fine with it and 1500 lumens. Anyone with 2000+ lumens may start running into some hot spotting.

I'm not really sure what is considered a 'light cannon', that changes from person to person from what I've seen. I can say that my projector is a business model projector and they are made with a slightly different purpose... that being for sharp crisp presentations and colors with high volumes of light output from the projector, enough to work with some lighting on in the conference/training room. The image quality for movies is quite good, but I know a projector that is made for home theater use will look even better so I can't wait until I upgrade projectors.

I want to do a little more checking on the differences... for instance it dawned on me that business projectors are used in rooms with florescent lighting a lot of times. Perhaps my projector's light output is designed for that light spectrum instead of incandescent lighting. That could explain why my projector as well as some others shows more of a push with some DIY methods more than other projectors. That's a bit off topic for in here, but it does kind of explain some of the characteristics I am seeing with mine.

All in all I really do think that for people that have the conditions where they can use a white screen, Designer White and Do-able are outstanding options. Each fills a niche as far as screen sizes, and both are easy to work with. I do give laminate a slight edge since it is lighter, but at under $20 for a sheet of Do-able, if you can get it in your area and want a screen that works with a 4x8 sheet of material, check into Do-able. If you want a larger matte white screen or Do-able isn't available, then Designer White is what I would recommend.

I see from the poll that there is almost an equal amount of people that want a screen that works better in ambient light as there are that want a matte white screen, so there definitely needs to be more work done with the grays, and those tests are coming

Skyman has done some comparisons between Pionite laminate, Do-able, and Wilsonart Designer White. All three are comparable, and Do-able and Designer White are almost the same specs. We're still working on getting color analysis done on Pionite, and gain tests for Pionite and Formica. (Formica does have color data but no gain tests)

Laminates come in sizes all the way up to 5x12, so there are many screen options a person can go with, including a 60x80 4:3 screen. As I have mentioned numerous times the size restriction for most sheets was the genesis of this thread. Laminates were brought back to people's attention and I am really glad Clarence and Ericglo reintroduced us to them.

There is some interesting research and testing being done with plexi that may end up being something we can use with laminates. I'm not saying it would be something everyone should run out and do, but for those wanting to raise the performance even higher this could be interesting to see how it pans out.

Clarence that is awesome.

The biggest screen from a single sheet would be 60x107 for a 122inch diagonal screen. You would need a 5x10 sheet for that.

There are some good threads in borders, as well as some posts in here. As far as mounting, I like what Clarence just posted... it even comes with a built in level.

Someone in the DIY forum did exactly what you are talking about, but I can't remember what thread that was in.