[SatelliteGuy]

After reading about people using the following Behr paint products on their DIY projection screen, I decided to do a little testing.


Behr 770E-2 Silver Screen

Behr 1850 Ultra Pure White


The result... Don't waste your time. The Behr 1850 Ultra Pure White provided whiter whites, but washed out other colors and the Behr 770E-2 Silver Screen just made whites look gray.


I am using unbleached canvas and the picture is beautiful as-is. If anyone who has unbleached canvas painted theirs and now has a better picture, please let me know what paint you used and how much the picture improved.

 

[wbassett]



Quote:
Originally Posted by SatelliteGuy /forum/post/0


After reading about people using the following Behr paint products on their DIY projection screen, I decided to do a little testing.


Behr 770E-2 Silver Screen

Behr 1850 Ultra Pure White


The result... Don't waste your time. The Behr 1850 Ultra Pure White provided whiter whites, but washed out other colors and the Behr 770E-2 Silver Screen just made whites look gray.


I am using unbleached canvas and the picture is beautiful as-is. If anyone who has unbleached canvas painted theirs and now has a better picture, please let me know what paint you used and how much the picture improved.

UPW is a good white and as any white screen it will wash out with ambient lighting. My personal experience with it wasn't that bad and it didn't wash out other colors under normal lighting conditions. With any amount of ambient light it did wash out like any White screen will, commercial or DIY. It has become the 'defacto' white paint, but if you want a white screen and want something a cut above try Rosco's Off Broadway White White. It is a vinyl based paint and not a regular latex paint and it is also comes in a matte finish and not flat like Behr. Not only does it work as an excellent white screen, but it is sold to the theater and stage community and one of its recommended applications from the manufacturer is as a screen paint. All that and for only $26 a gallon...


As far as SS, it works for some but it does has a color shift. There are other off the shelf grays that are extremely neutral and do not have to be mixed or have a special formula. They are readily available across the country without the need for any formula or mix and you can get them in a matte finish vice the typical flat finish most house paints being used for screens come in.


These may not be very popular methods, but they perform exceptionally well and are easy, relatively inexpensive, and are just as accessible as Behr products.

 

[SatelliteGuy]

Thank you for your reply. I will be doing more experimenting today and will possibly provide some screen shots. This time I am going to paint a larger test area with the Behr Ultra Pure White and see how it performs.


All tests were done with all lights completely out.


While watching the main menu of All in the Family (The Complete Second Season) the Ultra Pure White made the white background really white compared to the other side of the screen that looked beige. I was really impressed and could see the gain difference. However, I then played an episode of Gomer Pyle USMC (The Complete First Season) and the entire picture looked washed out on the Behr Ultra Pure White side and nice black and gray on the unbleached canvas side.


Now back to painting.

 

[mech]

Also remember that your image is only as good as your projector is calibrated. For example, if you're projecting onto a white screen, any gray screen will make whites look gray until you recalibrate. This image is from a gray screen

Now would you say that womans sweater looks gray? It looks white as white to me.


mech

 

[TeamSpeed]

For painted gray options, check out this link.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=776981


For samples of DIY screens, please check the registry for room setup, and sample screen shots.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=785709

 

[SatelliteGuy]

I have a Panasonic PT-AE900U projector. How would I go about performing a calibration?

 

[TeamSpeed]

Alot of THX DVDs will have the THX calibration as a freebie (like Nemo, Cars, Star Wars Episode II). Or you can buy something dedicated like this DVD.

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=VMG010712

 

[wbassett]

 http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&post8395549


A little more information about the free THX calibrator all THX ceritified discs have.

 

[wbassett]

Here is another example of a darker gray screen and how it handles whites...

The key is calibration and a gray that does not introduce color shifting. SS has been used by many, but it does cause a color shift. Some people can adjust and compensate for it, others can't or just do not like that much blue in their image. (Just an FYI, the above screen is not using Behr paints)

 

[RnB180]

wbasette is correct, gray screens can reproduce whites, as long as its calibrated,

i.e.


this is a gray screenshot

 

[wbassett]



Quote:
Originally Posted by RnB180 /forum/post/0


wbasette is correct, gray screens can reproduce whites, as long as its calibrated,

i.e.

RnB180 I don't want to beat a dead horse but the gray also has to be a well balanced gray otherwise there will be overall color shifting and not just muddy whites, yellows also get hit hard, but it's really all colors that get shifted and not just one or two. Nobody will go wrong with a neutral gray, that is a certainty. A slight green deficiency isn't a bad thing either, but I personally would look for a color balance where the red and blue color components remain equally balanced. SS is more of a light blue/gray than a true gray and the color analysis verifies this.


Whites don't hit as hard as gray as far as if a white leans a little, and I emphasize a little to one color or another, but it still needs to be a balanced color.


UPW is a very nice white paint, but I think the complaint as far as SatelliteGuy was saying is colors looked washed out. That really shouldn't be a problem with light control and once the projector is calibrated, but we all know the limitations of any white screen when it comes to lights on or daytime viewing, and again it's not just DIY white screens.

 

[Jim McC]

Is Sterling a light gray?

 

[mech]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wbassett /forum/post/0


The key is calibration and a gray that does not introduce color shifting. SS has been used by many, but it does cause a color shift. Some people can adjust and compensate for it, others can't or just do not like that much blue in their image. (Just an FYI, the above screen is not using Behr paints)

Excellent point that I neglect to add all to often! A 'well balanced' gray is what I'm using.

The FG that I use has RGB numbers of 195-188-194. Red and Blue are pretty much balanced and there's a slight lack of green or 'deficiency' if you will.

mech

 

[wbassett]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McC /forum/post/0


Is Sterling a light gray?

If you want a neutral light gray take a look at Sherwin Williams Soothing White, it is a very close match to N9.

 

[wbassett]

I don't have any color analysis on Sterling, but it is in the same color family as Silver Screen.


Here is the ColorSmart software Behr has online and in Home Depots. It is impossible from these to determine what the actual color is because online swatches are only an approximation of the color, we'd have to get Sterling spectro'd to really know.


But going on the color family it does tell us a few things...


Here is Behr Silver Screen

down one and to the right is Sterling

Both of these are listed by Behr as the blue neutral family range. Everything so far has corroborated the color analysis that was done on SS. Sterling may visually look better, but it is in the same color family as SS so it makes sense that it will have similar properties... that being a lean toward blue, which the color family indicates as well.


Like I said we'd need a spectro check on Sterling to be certain. It may have a nicer 'V' color characteristic and be a nice choice, but off hand I don't think it is going to be a neutral, at least not as close as other matches that have been identified. Like I mentioned earlier, these are more blue/grays than gray and even Behr's own color family confirms that.

 

[Jim McC]

Are there any light grays out there that only use white and black in their mix? To me, it makes no sense to use a gray that has any other colors in the mix. My HD1000 is due to come tomorrow, and I'm not sure how it will look with my UPW screen and totally dark room. I'm fishing for a neutral light gray just in case I need to repaint the screen. Thanks.

 

[wbassett]

Most shops would use lamp black for a mix like that and lamp black adds blue push (or lean). A couple of already tested examples are 11/48ths lamp black in one quart of UPW - 201 198 213, 5/48th lamp black in one quart of UPW- 211 207 221

 

[sroberts]

After trying flat white then Parkland pastic, I went with the Sterling + matte poly overcoat on drywall based upon all of the research by Tiddler and others. I could not be happier with the results and consider my HT screen wants fully satsfied. Thanks for all of your help guys.


Steve

 

[bud16415]



Quote:
Originally Posted by SatelliteGuy /forum/post/0


After reading about people using the following Behr paint products on their DIY projection screen, I decided to do a little testing.


Behr 770E-2 Silver Screen

Behr 1850 Ultra Pure White


The result... Don't waste your time. The Behr 1850 Ultra Pure White provided whiter whites, but washed out other colors and the Behr 770E-2 Silver Screen just made whites look gray.


I am using unbleached canvas and the picture is beautiful as-is. If anyone who has unbleached canvas painted theirs and now has a better picture, please let me know what paint you used and how much the picture improved.

SatelliteGuy


I started out with unbleached canvas just like you have now and progressed to painting canvas and have written a lot about both and also the issues and results of using grays. The thread you can read are listed below as links you can click on in my signature.


One of the properties of unbleached canvas is it is very diffusive to light and it has a warm color tone these two combined will produce a pleasing image and when they alter colors its not the colors you notice the most if they are off. But IMO you will be able to do much better once painted.


Below is a thumbnail of my screen during painting.




Jim McC

The paint I used was made from white base and lamp black only and was all detailed in the link below in my signature titled a simple paint solution.


As for the shade of gray that is entirely dependent on the environment of your room and the projector used. I can tell you the lamp black only grays are not true neutral but fall very close to neutral at a color temp of 7500k


As for the issue of black pigment darkening or muddying whites that's not what happens if the total foot Lambert number is kept correct for the shade of gray being used.


Below is a screen shot taken off a test screen that was coal black. The thread that details that experiment is below in my signature labeled a fun read. It clearly points out in the most extream case how white can be projected from a black surface and how that black surface works to combat ambient light.