On a lark, I was leafing through the Behr swatches at my local Home Depot, and found the "Silver Screen" paint. Light grey, seemed similar to the "Misty Evening". So, I rolled two coats on a piece of white GatorFoam, and voila, a cheap two coat solution.
In my opinion, this gives definite contrast enhancement and deeper blacks than plain blackout cloth or the white GatorFoam surface. If you are looking for a quick down-and-dirty screen for your LCD projector, this took approx 3 hours total, most of that time was waiting for the coats to dry.
--------------------------
The Surface Material:
GatorFoam Board (a foam core artist material used for poster mounting)
--------------------------
The Paint:
Behr "Silver Screen" (770E-2) mix using Ultra Pure White (UPW) flat latex
Generic Formula of Behr SS:
1 gallon flat white latex base
20/48ths of Lamp Black
20/48ths of Raw Umber (a dark, murky yellow/orange-based pigment)
2/48ths of Red
NOTE: Wait for it to cure enough (about 2 weeks) before judging it. If you do it while it's still wet, you may see hot-spotting. It's like brewing a good lager beer, let it mellow a while, then decide.
--------------------------
The Materials:
Foam Roller
Extension Pole
Paint mixing attachment for a hand power drill
--------------------------
Projector Results using Pure Behr SS paint, on varying surfaces
(gleaned from comments on this thread)
(1) Great, Love it
(2) Satisfied, OK
(3) Not fully satisfied, but sticking with it while I look for something better
(4) I'm trying something else now
Benq 6200 (1)(1)(2)
BenQ PE7700 (1)
BenQ 8700 (4)
Dell 2200mp (1)
Epson Home20 (1)
Epson PowerLite Home 10+ (4)
Epson S1+ (2)
Hitachi CP-X300 (1)
Infocus X1 (1)(1)(1)(2)(3)(4)
Infocus 4805 (1)(1)(1)(1)(1)(2)(3)
Mitsubishi HC2 (?)
NEC HT-1000 (2)
NEC MT1065 (3)
Optoma EP727 1080i DLP Projector (1)
Optoma H27 (1)
Optima H30 (1)
Optoma HD70 (1)
Panasonic PT-AE700U (1)(1)(1)(1)
Panasonic PT-L200u (4)
Panasonic PT-L300 (3)
Panasonic PT-L500U (1)(2)
Panasonic PT-L900 (1)(1)(1)
Sharp DT-400 (2)
Sharp PG A10x (3)
Sanyo Z1 (1)
Sanyo Z2 (1)(1)(1)(3)
Sanyo Z3 (1)(1)
Sanyo Z4 (1)
Sharp XR-1S (1)
Sharp XR-10X (1)
Sony HS-51 (1)(4)
Viewsonic PJ 551 (3)
--------------------------
My Theater:
Screen: 80"x45" Behr Silverscreen painted over GatorFoam (Ser # 0001)
Primary Viewing Distance: 11'
Projector: Panasonic PT-L500U LCD (via 7.5m DVI cable)
Home Theater PC (HTPC):
- AMD Athlon 2600 (overclocked)
- Asus A7N8x Deluxe Motherboard
- 1GB Corsair PC3200 RAM
- ATI AIW 9000pro (DVI)
- myHTPC Software (v24)
- TheaterTek Movie Player Software
- Two 120GB SATA Drives (internal - setup in a Raid 0 Array)
- Six 160GB SATA Drives (external - USB)
Receiver: Panasonic SA-XR25 5.1 (via SPDIF)
Speakers: Cambridge Soundworks MovieWorks 108 Speaker System
HDTV: Projected via component video cables from a Verizon FiOS Digital HDTV settop box
In my opinion, this gives definite contrast enhancement and deeper blacks than plain blackout cloth or the white GatorFoam surface. If you are looking for a quick down-and-dirty screen for your LCD projector, this took approx 3 hours total, most of that time was waiting for the coats to dry.
--------------------------
The Surface Material:
GatorFoam Board (a foam core artist material used for poster mounting)
--------------------------
The Paint:
Behr "Silver Screen" (770E-2) mix using Ultra Pure White (UPW) flat latex
Generic Formula of Behr SS:
1 gallon flat white latex base
20/48ths of Lamp Black
20/48ths of Raw Umber (a dark, murky yellow/orange-based pigment)
2/48ths of Red
NOTE: Wait for it to cure enough (about 2 weeks) before judging it. If you do it while it's still wet, you may see hot-spotting. It's like brewing a good lager beer, let it mellow a while, then decide.
--------------------------
The Materials:
Foam Roller
Extension Pole
Paint mixing attachment for a hand power drill
--------------------------
Projector Results using Pure Behr SS paint, on varying surfaces
(gleaned from comments on this thread)
(1) Great, Love it
(2) Satisfied, OK
(3) Not fully satisfied, but sticking with it while I look for something better
(4) I'm trying something else now
Benq 6200 (1)(1)(2)
BenQ PE7700 (1)
BenQ 8700 (4)
Dell 2200mp (1)
Epson Home20 (1)
Epson PowerLite Home 10+ (4)
Epson S1+ (2)
Hitachi CP-X300 (1)
Infocus X1 (1)(1)(1)(2)(3)(4)
Infocus 4805 (1)(1)(1)(1)(1)(2)(3)
Mitsubishi HC2 (?)
NEC HT-1000 (2)
NEC MT1065 (3)
Optoma EP727 1080i DLP Projector (1)
Optoma H27 (1)
Optima H30 (1)
Optoma HD70 (1)
Panasonic PT-AE700U (1)(1)(1)(1)
Panasonic PT-L200u (4)
Panasonic PT-L300 (3)
Panasonic PT-L500U (1)(2)
Panasonic PT-L900 (1)(1)(1)
Sharp DT-400 (2)
Sharp PG A10x (3)
Sanyo Z1 (1)
Sanyo Z2 (1)(1)(1)(3)
Sanyo Z3 (1)(1)
Sanyo Z4 (1)
Sharp XR-1S (1)
Sharp XR-10X (1)
Sony HS-51 (1)(4)
Viewsonic PJ 551 (3)
--------------------------
My Theater:
Screen: 80"x45" Behr Silverscreen painted over GatorFoam (Ser # 0001)
Primary Viewing Distance: 11'
Projector: Panasonic PT-L500U LCD (via 7.5m DVI cable)
Home Theater PC (HTPC):
- AMD Athlon 2600 (overclocked)
- Asus A7N8x Deluxe Motherboard
- 1GB Corsair PC3200 RAM
- ATI AIW 9000pro (DVI)
- myHTPC Software (v24)
- TheaterTek Movie Player Software
- Two 120GB SATA Drives (internal - setup in a Raid 0 Array)
- Six 160GB SATA Drives (external - USB)
Receiver: Panasonic SA-XR25 5.1 (via SPDIF)
Speakers: Cambridge Soundworks MovieWorks 108 Speaker System
HDTV: Projected via component video cables from a Verizon FiOS Digital HDTV settop box