[MTyson]

I was using my X1 on a white wall at about 100" wide. It looked great at first, but percieved blacks kind of began to bother me on certain DVDs for TV shows (Angel & Buffy, which can be quite dark at time) and movies began to bother me.


I experimented with different screens and colors, and now I'm using a light-medium brown screen (except it's not really screen material). I think the picture looks much better now. I had to do a lot of adjusting, but I got excellent results. The blacks look great. The skin tones now look much better and I never get that feeling that the picture looks washed out.


It looks great now. It now feels better than being in the theater and I would say that I think the picture quality looks as good or better than my 55" HD ready set.


I would love to make a real brown screen (possibly using screen or canvas material and painting it brown) that had a little bit of gain though for days when I can't block out all of the light. Anyone know what kind of paint I could get that would reflect the light a little better?


Thanks!

 

[technut Canada]

I don't have any useful suggestions right now, sorry.


But I love the idea that someone could bring home an X1 and tell their wife "It's hardly going to cost us anything to complete our home theater! All I need now is some sewer pipe to hang from the ceiling, and a brown paper bag for a screen!"

 

[joewmaki]

And everyone now has a beautiful tan!

 

[technut Canada]

Quote:

Originally posted by MTyson now I'm using a light-medium brown screen (except it's not really screen material).

No fair! You edited your message and changed the wording! I liked it better the first way... didn't it used to be something like "a brown bag paper screen". Sorry, I didn't intend to make fun of your idea.. it just got me thinking how funny it sounded and how well it fits in with all the other inexpensive DIY projects.

 

[MTyson]

They sure do! That's my favorite part. I put white up along with the brown and everyone looked washed out in comparison. The skin color looks very good now. They seem to jump off the screen. The blacks look MUCH blacker, the skins look much better and more vivid. Reds look great. Whites aren't as good as on a white screen, but they look fine in warm mode as long as you don't put up a white screen next to it for comparison (eyes are great at adjusting). The blacks and the skin tones just look so much better that it makes it all worth it.


I watched Final Destination the other night on it and I was floored. The whole time I kept thinking "I cannot believe how great this looks!". I just wish the brown was of better material and possibly had some gain, because it suffers in ambient light moreso than a white wall does.


I hung about 3 different screens up at once then got some family and friends to pick which one they liked the best. All of them picked the brown.


I have to calibrate it for brown, but I can get very good results. I might try to get a screenshot up soon if I can take a decent one.

 

[MTyson]

Heheheh. Yeah, I thought it was funny, but when I reread what I wrote I realized when people read it they may not think "He means the color of paper bags, not paper bags themselves.". lol. Just to correct you, I said "paper bag brown" (I worded it this way so it didn't sound like "brown paper bags". lol). I really do get good results with it, but I don't really care for the way it looks.


So, I need to get a screen and paint it, but I'd like a little bit more gain. I wish I could afford a Greyhawk screen or something like that, but I can't. Well, actually I can, but I REFUSE to pay that much for a screen.

 

[cburbs]

Why don't you test some blackout cloth with different colors of browns...though I heard gray works the best....just a thought.

 

[Madsman]

Yeah, don't knock the brown paper bag! We are DIYing our screen, but there was a Bears game we had to watch, and we had just made a trip to Menards for more painting supplies... so we masking-taped up a nice white $2.98 drop cloth... and if that's too high budget for you, let me tell you, it had a $1.00 mail in rebate. It actually looks really good (we have it on a dark wall... no white walls in our family room anymore) though it is going to look terrible next to a real screen in a couple of days.

 

[Nisei]

Hm, I have a matte white screen at the moment but I smoke around 20 cigarettes a day so I guess it'll be brown in about a year. I'll let you know if it's an improvement.

 

[Insider]

Bring the paper bag, or what ever brown item that works best to the hardware store, and have them computer match it and make a custom shade of paint for you. You can try different finishes too: flat, satin might give you a little gain, semi-gloss probably would have too much sheen, but you could always experiment by sanding it with some fine grit.

 

[dpadair]

what are you using for screen material? is it naturally brown or did you paint it?


non-white screens will make blacks better, but at the expense of whites. that's why grey and silver make good colors too.


i'm glad skin tones look better now but they should have looked ok on a white screen too if the PJ was tuned properly.


anyone else tried a brown screen? i tried a paper bag when i first got my x1 and thought it was horrid. i'd rather have good whites instead of blacks (which aren't that bad anyway if ambient lighting is controlled)

 

[simmike]

Quote:

Originally posted by Nisei Hm, I have a matte white screen at the moment but I smoke around 20 cigarettes a day so I guess it'll be brown in about a year. I'll let you know if it's an improvement.

Since I don't smoke, I never considered that smoking might be a negative point with projectors, what with all that smoke being illuminated by the projector beam. Your viewing room must look like something out of a bad B-movie.

 

[MTyson]

I made the brown look pretty damn good. I figured it out. I was on Photoshop trying to make custom colors and I realized a setup I had wrong when using the brown screen. I needed to lower my green boost and raise my blue and red (made better whites). Apparently, I had to do this because the brown I'm using has a lot of green already in it and this compensates for that. It looks fantastic during night! Blacks look quite black and even whites appear to be very bright white (I'm sure they may look a little less bright with a white screen next to them).


I'd rather have my great blacks than great whites, because when I have percieved whites I can't tell they're not white unless I were to put up a white section on the screen. Not so with the black. I can tell and it bothers me. Some scenes on certain movies and shows are just so dark it looks like your looking at a giant grey blob, so I had to fix that problem.


I tried grey (although not a real grey screen), but it didn't turn out to well. The blacks looked good, but colors appeared muted. The percieved whites on the brown screen (once the X1 is adjusted for the brown screen properly) are far better than "percieved blacks". I could tell it wasn't black I was looking at so easily on the white screen, but the whites on the brown look white as long as I don't hang up some white a long with it. When I do all I can notice is how light the blacks are in comparison and how muted some colors appear in comparison.


Dpadair. It's just brown rollout paper. That's why I would like to paint a screen myself (so I could have better material and maybe some gain). I also tried grey and silver, but they weren't greyhawk or silver screen, (which costs way too much) and while they did good with blacks, colors appeared muted sometimes. I'm sure the real grey screens are much better though (but at a cost).


Also, the skins look great on the white, but skin and other things just appear more vibrant on the light-medium brown (once set up right). I adjust this thing so much that I keep having to make new presets. I think I've tried every combination in the book. lol.


One thing I realized, you have to do some major readjusting to compensate for the brown. One, boost the red up to about 60-70 (depending on your taste), dip the green down to about 35-40, & boost the blue up to about 60-70. Doing that too much green out since brown has a lot of red and green, but not a lot of blue I believe. Also, my color is at 60-75 (I change it a lot). You also have to adjust contrast and brightness for the brown. I have them set a bit higher than I would on a white screen. I keep contrast at 60-70 and brightness at 50-65. Depends on the type of movie really.


I guess I'll try to get some custom colors made. I want the best possible results.


I will see if I can get some screenshots up later. Keep in mind they won't be fromt the best camera, because I have to use my digital camcorders picture mode.