The Blacker the Theater, The Better the Image

SOWK,


Great idea with the wrapping the fitness pads in fabric. My plan is to paint the entire room black... in fact I went to Lowes, purchased black paint, and had them add as much black pigment to can as possible... I'm not sure if going with dark carpet for the whole theater will case the room to be TOO dark-- but I have free reign of the room and create the blackest of bat-caves if I want.


That being said, I'm already thinking about the possibility of attaching velvet to the ceiling above screen. I had theater in my old townhouse with which I painted the ceiling dark blue. I remember doing so drastically improved the picture, but also didn't eliminate all of the light reflection from the projected image.


I saw in another thread, Zombie posted a link to some material that self-adheres to the wall/ceiling/whatever but I'm worried about it ruing the drywall ceiling. I've used self-stick conduit in the past that had a similar effect and I'd like to avoid it if possible. Though i'm also wondering if I could attach the self-adhering velvet material to a thin piece of plywood and then attach the plywood to the ceiling space.

I have tested protostar, flat black paint, black velvet and black felt and the best was black velvet. Not only is black velvet the darkest out of the bunch, but in doing the flashlight test it kills off whatever light hits it from the screen the best. Protostar was 2nd best and also worked well. The black paint and felt while much better vs light paint was not as good as velvet and Protostar.


There is some good info in this thread from a few weeks back on this topic.......

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1461420/does-it-really-make-a-difference-painting-your-movie-living-room-dark-or-even-black/30




SOWK,


Love the fitness pad idea! I need to do something like that. Right now I just have sheets of black velvet laid out on the floor which performs excellent, but looks a bit rough (with the lights on at least......cant see it when watching a movie). What you have done there looks awesome.

good idea to have a dedicated thread. I have a fresh perspective on this, having just completed this process ~ 2 months ago.

Pros - This is stating the obvious, but there is no better way to get maximum contrast. The image is very immersive when there are no distractions or reflections from adjacent walls,ceiling and floor.

Cons - DI becomes more noticeable, I can sometimes see brightness changes between scenes. Dark movie / sci-fi fans will quickly realize the limitation of the native contrast / black floor on their projector. Any recent JVC gets a full pass, HW50 / Epson 5020 a 1/2 pass (both very good for non-LCOS) and then a partial pass on DLP's like the Sharp 30K, Mitsubishi HC8000 and the BenQ W7000. When I watch these DLP's with the blacked out room, I am always wanting a lower black floor with my low APL movies / concerts.


My ceiling is a grid of 55 tiles (2x2), and some 200 sections of suspension grid. I used these new black tiles from PrimeAcoustic.






Lights are painted with High-temperature BBQ paint.





My 142" 16:9 HP is practically touching the ceiling. The white grid was painstakingly covered with the Protostar black flock material. This stuff is never coming off, be warned ahead of time that it's a permanent installation.

http://www.protostar.biz/hitack.htm


This is a shot before I finished the front titles + grid. the 'after' results are one of the few times we can say there is a day/night difference in the results. If you own a high contrast projector, you're missing out on the best possible PQ without these light treatments.

Excellent job Zombie. I've got more work to do painting my theater darker - just as soon as the wife goes out of town on business !

Basically you are saying that when your wife goes on a business trip you get down to business.

Nothing like an image floating in blackness.


Second image is with the LED's on behind the screen. Can make the LED's different colors.


The last picture is with three 65 watt flood lights on full, right above the screen. None of the pictures were taken with the black velvet on top of my subs.

@ Zombie


"When I watch these DLP's with the blacked out room, I am always wanting a lower black floor with my low APL movies / concerts."


After going through several projectors over many years this is my conclusion as well. My RS35 is adequate with close attention paid to gamma at 5-10%


In my ceiling I use black fabric about the weight of bed sheet held by flat black-painted larger thumb tacks into the dry wall. I've not as black as Fidelio velvet, but lighter and cheaper. Some day all my theater walls will be Fidelio-covered.


Of course, all LEDs and such are black-taped over and the room is a weird black hole to my wife and my daughter who is an interior designer. Another indication of marked obsession here: I have covered the sofa at the viewer end with black velvet though cheaper in quality than Fidelio. I do go short of making my guests wear black.


I recall darinp years ago commenting on how small areas of light surface (like a viewer wearing a white tee shirt) in the home theater mess up intrascene contrast ratios by some small but perceivable percentage. Back then he had High Power screens, as I do, that are more sensitive to light from the direction of the projector.

I've posted this before elsewhere, but I once measured the ANSI contrast of my setup which is a typically lightly decorated UK living room. At the time I had the JVC HD350 and I measured 75:1. Now the absolute values aren't so important (especially comparing to other people's ANSI measurements) but the difference in values when I rigged up a simple black cotton 'tent', threw some dark sheets on the floor and on the sofa to the left of the screen (not used for projector viewing). The reading shot up to 230:1 so it was literally tripled. I don't know what kind of projector I would have had to buy to get such an improvement (hampered of course by the untreated room) to achieve the same gain, or if one would even be available.


Needless to say the picture looked so much better that way. However the implementation was a bit clunky, so I grew tired of the hassle setting it up before a film. I'm planing to try to come up with something slicker that is concealed when not using the projector since I've now moved onto an X35 which does look better (even in the untreated room) but I know how good it could look having seen one at a dealer with a complete black pit of a room.


Even if you can't permanently make your room like a black hole, it might be worth considering some kind of removable treatment for the vast improvement it can give.


For now, here are some pictures showing my existing room and the 'tent' experiment (Mark H has already had a laugh at this previously, so I'm prepared for jokes at my expense ).




Older photo, but gives the idea and contrasts with the lighter room treatment above:



Quote:
Originally Posted by zombie10k  /t/1465053/black-theater-improvment-thread-once-you-go-black-you-never-go-back#post_23122951


Lights are painted with High-temperature BBQ paint.

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The reflections coming off those lights are killing your contrast. I know I could not live with knowing that. You should really put some baffles on those.

I did this to my apartment. Made a large difference IMO. Especially considering my screen is so close to the ceiling and the paint is all semi glossy white.


In addition to better contrast and such I find it just all around less distracting looking at the screen watching a movie.



Quote:
Originally Posted by drapp1952  /t/1465053/black-theater-improvment-thread-once-you-go-black-you-never-go-back#post_23124114



Another indication of marked obsession here: I have covered the sofa at the viewer end with black velvet though cheaper in quality than Fidelio. I do go short of making my guests wear black.

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Same here! I have my whole sofa covered in black velvet except the seat I sit in. I dont make guests wear black, but I have quit inviting people over since they were messing up my contrast! j/k of course. .............well somewhat.



Quote:
Originally Posted by TedO  /t/1465053/black-theater-improvment-thread-once-you-go-black-you-never-go-back#post_23124500


Zombie,


Your before and after pictures of the black ceiling don't look much diffrent, could it be the camera angles? Talking more about the T bars.

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I should have been more clear, both of those are 'before' photos, I was stating that after it looks amazing.


I'll go back and post the same scene with the T bars blacked out. The ceiling is completely invisible even though it's inches above the big 142" HP.

Great idea putting this on a new thread!