[RobertWood]

I am very anxious to see how a gray screen will perform with my NEC LT150. Before I go spending hundreds on a Grayhawk I would like to experiment with a makeshift gray screen. Can someone please recommend a commonly available (Home Depot, etc.) off the shelf gray paint (brand and color) to use for this?


Thanks,


Bob Wood


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~ The Sultan of Cheap ~

 

[Jason Turk]

Hey there Bob!

What you can do is call up Stewart and ask for a sample of the Grayhawk. They usually will send a pretty good sized piece so that you can put it up over your existing screen and compare. I think you will be happy with the results.


Thanks!


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Jason Turk

AV Science, Inc.
http://www.avscience.com

716-454-1460 ext.204

[email protected]

 

[Cain]

Simulating a GrawHawk with a painted wall will be really tough because of the reflectivity of the GrayHawk's surface.


Don Stewart says the stright Gray color of the screen is a .7 gain, but accounting for the reflectivity, it becomes a .95 gain screen.


-- Cain

 

[RobertWood]

I'll do as Jason suggests. But when others have constructed homemade gray screens haven't some used an off the shelf paint? I just want to see what that looks like too.


Bob


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~ The Sultan of Cheap ~

 

[ckolchak]

anybody thought of using grey fabric as opposed to grey paint?

a good fabric store might carry some grey fabrics that can simulate several different gains.


just a thought

 

[programmergeek]

how can I get in touch with stwert, what is the # e-mail or website?

 

[kelliot]

I use gray fabric, but I'm close to breaking down and getting a Greyhawk.


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Ken Elliott

 

[Morbius]

The Stewart Filmscreen web address is:
http://www.stewartfilm.com/


Greg

 

[RobertWood]

Ken,


How does gray fabric look compared to using a white screen?


Bob


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~ The Sultan of Cheap ~

 

[kem]

Bob,


I did exactly what you proposed above a few weeks ago, and have been very pleased with the results. I used Glidden Evermore Latex Flat HD-9000 white plus combinations of their colorants. I bought several quarts with shades from pure white to Veil, and painted my wall with each. I also tried some of the formulas that others suggested here. Home Depot will mix these paints for you, and they take about four hours to dry. I eventually settled on "Snowfield", which is on the lighter side, but I found that the others darkened the whites too much on the LT150.


BTW, there used to be a good thread describing the paints that others used here but the link doesn't work any more.


Kevin

 

[RobertWood]

Hi Kevin,


Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately your link is not working for some reason.

If I tell the paint guy at Home Depot that I want him to start with Glidden Evermore and have him make it a "Snowfield" color is that all he should need to know?


Bob


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~ The Sultan of Cheap ~

 

[kem]

Hi Bob,


Yes, if you ask the paint guy at Home Depot to mix a gallon (or quart) of "Snowfield", he should know exactly what to do. It is a standard color. They should also have color samples in a case. Look for the flat latex section and go to the grays. There should be one with "Snowfield" on the bottom (lightest color), along with other grays. The way they mix these colors is to start with pure white (Glidden Evermore Wall Interior Latex Flat HD-9000) and add lamp black (B), yellow oxide (C), magenta (V), Red Oxide (F), ... colorants to give you the exact color that you need.


Here's the formula for a quart of "Snowfield" that they gave me:


Colorant............OZ..48..96

B...Lamp.Black.......0...3...1

C...Yellow.Oxide.....0...0...1

V...Magenta..........0...0...1


Notice that they add a small amount of C & V. These are not really necessary, and in fact others in the forum (actually in that thread that disappeared -- see below) mainly concentrated on just adding lamp black to pure white. However, when I tried the pure white+lamp black combo, I found whites in the picture to have a slightly bluish tint (I think this has to do with the poor gray scale tracking on the LT150). Adding C&V to the mixture warmed up my picture a bit, which I liked. Now, if I can figure out how to more finely adjust the gamma than just Normal, Nat1 and Nat2 (maybe via a service menu), I think I could probably fix the tracking and go back to a pure white+lamp black paint.


And, unfortunately, yes, the link does not work. Do threads usually go away after a while? Or, does anyone know what happened to this thread? This thread had some really useful info in it, but I cannot seem to find it any longer.


Kevin



[This message has been edited by kem (edited 08-21-2001).]

 

[Larry Raulston]

To Bob Wood

You might try Glidden Veil grey flat paint at Home Depot. I got the idea from those old posts on the forum which must have gone away. It looks pretty good with my calibrated G-15, but I think I may go one shade lighter in that same family of grey on the same color chart. I have an old Da-Lite cosmopolitan Boardroom electrol matte white screen and I'm beginning to think it looks better than the grey. It may be because the contrast ratio of my D-ILA is 570:1. I think I prefer the slightly brighter image of the matte white screen, but my white screen is 4X3 and too small for the new HDTV images. This whole thing is so subjective. What looks best to one person may not look best to someone else.

Larry

 

[jeeper]

I recently got a Sony VPL-VW10HT projector. Will be getting a screen sometime, but until then I got a gal. of Glidden flat white and a quart of Glidden flat black from Home Depot. I mixed to get a color that is lighter then 'Veil', but darker then 'snowfield'...it is real close to their 'universal grey' color. I have to say, the image looks great, blacks are improved, and the whites still look clean and bright. Don't think I'd go any darker then this. I used a smooth surface roller, and applied about three coats. The nice thing about mixing yourself instead of having the Depot do it is, I can play around with different shades and I still have about 1/2 Gal. of white and 3/4 quart of black to use for other projects. Plan on using the flat black for a screen boarder.


Good luck,

Steve

 

[mbrennem]



I used a quart of flat white with 5/48 oz of lamp black added to make a screen for my Sony 10HT. Painted a 4'X7'1" melamine board. Surrounded it with a black velvet border and built hinged mattes for 2.35:1 movies (those block the grey borders top & bottom)


Looks great! Everyone who comes over thinks it is a purchased screen assembly, other than the mattes which look a bit strange but work really well.


Mike