Jul 1 Podcast #485: Painting Your Projector Screen
Podcast Tags: DIY, Projectors, Screen 
For many, a true home theater is one that has a projector and screen. This type of setup can range in cost from a few thousand to tens of thousands or dollars. Most of the cost goes into the projector but a good percentage is also taken up by the screen. Ara’s Black Diamond II screen goes for about $2700 online. Today we are going to discuss a way to save as much as 95% on the cost of screen and still have a high quality experience. All you need is some specialized paint, elbow grease, and a weekend. We’re talking about painting your screen onto a wall.
Listen to the show
Today's Show:
Blu-ray Reviews:
News:
Other:
- How to make your home AirPlay compatible
- Hurtigruten: 5 day TV marathon in the midnight sun
- All-You-Can-Watch MoviePass Brings Netflix Model to Theaters
Painting Your Projector Screen
For many, a true home theater is one that has a projector and screen. This type of setup can range in cost from a few thousand to tens of thousands or dollars. Most of the cost goes into the projector but a good percentage is also taken up by the screen. Ara’s Black Diamond II screen goes for about $2700 online. Today we are going to discuss a way to save as much as 95% on the cost of screen and still have a high quality experience. All you need is some specialized paint, elbow grease, and a weekend. We’re talking about painting your screen onto a wall.
There are do it yourself kits out there that include everything in one box or you can go to your local Home Depot and really save some money. We’ll discuss the Home Depot option a bit later in the post. The two main DIY kits we have found are:
Goo Systems - Kits include
- 1000mL top and base coats (enough for 130” diagonal screen)
- 4L paint tray,
- roller handle, two roller refills,
- 250mL Ultra Black,
- foam applicator,
- 32'x2" flock tape and 60'x 2" painter's tape
Cost:
- Goo Kit CRT White $229.99
- Goo Kit Digital Grey Lite $229.99
- Goo Kit Digital Grey $229.99
- Goo Kit Ultra Grey $229.99
DIY Theatre - Kits Include
- 1 bottle of Contrast Primer/Sealer
- 1 bottle of Optical Topcoat
- 2 custom 3/8" roller covers
- complete installation manual
Cost:
- White Platinum $194.00
- Silver Eagle - Outdoor Screen with Contrast Enhancement $259
- Australian Opal - $279.00
Home Depot - Kits Includes (N/A)
Cost:
- 1 Quart Wall Primer $10
- 1 Quart Pure White Paint $10
- Border Material/Paint $15
Planning and Lay Out
Once you have found a suitable wall for the project make sure that there is enough space for the size screen you want and be sure to leave two to three inches on all sides for the border. Determine the size of your screen. You can do this mathematically but the easiest way to do it is use an online calculator. Projector Central has a nice one that will tell you what size screen your projector will support given a specified distance. Of course you can always mount your projector and turn it on and pencil out the corners of the screen. That is another benefit of painting on a screen, you can get a custom size that is perfect for your room!
Painting Prep
Mask off the area of the screen. Then use a fine grit sand paper to make the wall as smooth as you can. This will assure that you have a consistent image on the screen without any hot spots. Once you have completed the sanding clean up with dry lint free cloth. Finally you’ll want to apply the primer to the wall. Allow to dry completely.
Final Steps
Apply the screen pain to the manufacturer’s instructions and allow to dry. In most cases the drying stage may take 24 hours. Apply pain as evenly as you can. You may need two coats. Once the paint has dried you can either paint on or tack on a black border. And Voila! You have a fixed screen for a fraction of the cost.
Home Depot
One of our listeners, Nelson Wilkinson, took an even more basic approach. He really stretched to get his projector and there wasn’t much budget left for the screen. So he figured he’d just paint the wall white. He followed the steps above and rather than buy screen paint, he went with a pure white ceiling paint. Total cost including primer was less than $20.
To mark off the screen area he projected the pure white opening scene from Ice Age. He masked off the area and put on the primer and then the white. He said that if it didn’t look good he was out about $20 and some effort. Nelson, didn’t originally have a border but after some research he decided that it would give a perceived improvement in contrast. He built it out of 1X4 Poplar wood that he painted black. Six years later Nelson feels no need to change anything.
His advice for anyone doing the same:
- Prep the wall. Make sure it is smooth. Same as we discussed above.
- Get as pure white paint you can find.
- Calibrate the projector. This get you the best picture and will improve your experience.
Final Thoughts
Many people will debate the quality of these screens. But at the price its hard to beat. Sure it will cost you a weekend but think of the savings. If you really can’t live with the results you can always hang a fixed screen over it in the future. But if you need a custom sized screen without breaking the bank, this just may be the way to go.
Reader Comments (8)
I built my own screen from the following link and it has been great almost the same cost as painting one and it is acoustically transparent with my big speakers LCR behind the screen.
http://www.seymourav.com/screens.asp
I have the basement that flooded 2 years ago, pictures posted under listener's home theater's: Eric's Basement Home Theater.
Eric
I decided to go Goo in 2006. I was even able to go scope in 2008 with the leftover paint. I'm very pleased with the results.
Hi Guys,
I've had projectors for about eight years now and initially agonised over whether I needed a projector screen. I did a lot of research and took advice from a person in the video projection industry. I looked at all the options as mentioned in your pod cast. The conclusion I came to was a low sheen white paint with no border. The 'no border' or frameless option was because of the varying aspect ratios of the different programs & movies these days which would constantly irritate me if the movie or TV show didn't match the screen ratio. The rest of my room is painted in a light beige so the screen isn't obvious during time when not viewing. I discovered that projector screens were originally developed to enhance brightness and in the days when projectors were less powerful and sophisticated... In my opinion current projectors do not require screens unless there are no walls available for a permanent screen or for mobile presentation circumstances. I have a Epson TW2000 and pinch myself every time I use it... brilliant! Another thing to understand is 'rubbish in rubbish out', some DVD's, TV programs etc are not engineered or recorded to the same quality level of others and no matter how good your equipment is it cannot compensate. Please note also I have tried HDMI & Component cabling over 10 metres.... Component wins out believe it or not.... don't always believe the hype, ask for a demo or try it yourself if you can as these decisions are an expensive dissatisfying mistake you can be stuck with!
I hope this helps!
Anyone heading down this path should read the DIY screen threads on the AVS web site
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=929997
AVS Beginners guide to painted screens
The podcast talks about this and that screen and some expensive screens, but seriously I built my own with blockout cloth from JoAnn's Fabrics. A total of ~$25 and it's really good. I had Daylite send me samples of various screen materials and gotta say that the blockout cloth was pretty darn close to the commercial ones. Built the frame with 1x3's and have a 106" screen, 16:9. (92" x 52")
Forgot to mention I got the basic idea from avsforum. I built the frame similar to a screen door, shallow cuts for spline to be inserted and hold the cloth. Really worked well. Did it 6 yrs ago.
This is a good DIY project, i have been wanting to paint my own screen for a while. Thanks for the writeup