[ElvisIncognito]

I read somewhere that a little light projected onto the wall BEHIND your screen helps with perceived contrast...


I'm thinking of constructing my screen frame so that the rigid mounting piece is slightly larger than the supporting frame (leaving, say a 1" ~ 2" lip all the way around), then mounting rope lights around the frame (so that they are not visible from the front) to create a slight glow around the edge of the screen. Would this produce a desirable effect? Anyone tried anything like this?

 

[ebacherville]

Ive never heard this , What ive heard is to get felt or other deep black cloth around the screen to absorb the extra casted light... This would look pretty cool when the movie is not showing the screen edge glowing... I was considering doing this on my screen for the cool look it would give.

 

[brothermaynard]

Elvis, I think that there is something to this back lighting thing but i'm sure that you need the extra lumen's to do it, and it is probably not that much different than using a gray screen. I am going to do this as well but with red or blue neon behind my soon to be built 101" single curve screen.

 

[EricT43]

I posted this same idea about a week ago, and I intend to try it. I'm going to put a dimmer on the rope lights so that the intensity can be controlled.


brothermaynard - red or blue would look pretty cool, but part of the purpose of bias lighting is not only to make the on-screen blacks appear darker, but also to give a color reference. You want to shoot for as close to 6500K as possible. So in this case, I think the clear white rope lights are going to give the best results.

 

[Steve13]

It's called a bias light, and it a great way to improve perceived contrast and blacks. Do a search on Bias light and you'll find several threads.

 

[ElvisIncognito]

Steve - Thanks! I'll check it out.


Eric - Didn't see your post in my "ropelights" search, but please keep us all posted as to your results!

 

[TWilly]

Elvis,


I'd recess them with more than a 1" or 2" lip. If it's only 1" or 2", people who are seated off-center may end up seeing the lights.


I did this bias lighting with rope lighting. I have about a 6" recess (4' x 8' frame and then a 5' x 9' screen). Works well, but truthfully I think it helps more with eyestrain than it does with perceived contrast.


EricT has the right idea with a dimmer - definitely needed. I also echo his idea to get as close to 65K as possible. For me, that meant using blue rope lights, since WAF issues necessitated my keeping the walls beige.


Last, it DOES look super-cool when you AREN'T watching. Definite plus


Tom

 

[ralexand]

I have clear rope lights inset behind the black border around my 6 X 8 screen and completely around the theater room (15 X 18) behind cove molding about 2 inches below the flat black ceiling for indirect, low level room lighting. The rope lights work really well to mask the DLP permiter light splash and the contrast appears better to my eyes. I put them on an X10 lamp module and they can be dimmed to suit. I painted the wall behind the screen light silver to simulate the ideal backlighting. As I recall, it is 50 deg Kelvin for the ideal backlight.


My projector is an LP500 running the reduced output. I have no problem with the brightness of the picture.

 

[adamf]

Not to cross post but this just came up the other day with regards to DLP, headaches and eyestrain.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...97#post1606497


We don't here much about bias lighting with front projection (6500K is the ideal for matched RP displays, hence the ideallume lights). Not sure if it's 'cuse of the light control issue or other factors...would love to hear more...


Thanks,

Adam

 

[zamboniman]

sorry this is off topic, but is the brothermaynard screen name a "MONTY" reference?

 

[brothermaynard]

You got it Zamboniman.