Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Projectors and screens.

I ended up getting some 1" x 4" and made a 110" screen. I took some black tarp paper for gardening and stretched it over the frame. Why I did this is because I want to make sure there was no light escaping to the back wall. My Dad helped me staple it down. We made sure there was no wrinkles.

Then we took a high thread count white bed sheet and stretched it over the tarp paper. We made sure there were no wrinkles on it either, then we stapled it down.

I think this project took me about 3 hours and it cost me around $50 to $60. I love the picture I have too. Very bright and poppy.

sweet. Looks like I don't have to spend the $500 or so on a screen.

The right type of paint combinations can yield wonderful results as well, or even black-out cloth, which is a curtain liner you can get a fabric stores to block out sun light.

If you have the room and can control your light, I would consider an Audio Transparent screen. You can make this yourself too, in the end the expense will be more than the other DIY options mentioned here but I think it is a great option you should consider.

Going AT allows you to put your speakers behind the screen, where they belong, being able to accommodate identical L/C/R speakers without having to worry about placement issues with the center channel and in my opinion, I like the look of a theatre where you can't see the speakers at all, at least the front sound stage.

The DIY options for AT screens starts with the Sun Shade material Sheerweave 4500 in the Chalk colour.

I like to look at my speakers that I've payed for... If you build your stage correctly, you can still have a perfect L/C/R soundstage.

Grunt and I have added Panasonic projectors to our HT in the last 6 months. I think we both use Carada screens as well. Bright White for me. I have the Panny 3000, Grunt has the new 4000. You can find our threads on the topics. But I will say the 3000 has been awesome, but at 900 hours I just started to get a very noticeable flicker from the bulb. I'm told it will work itself out by shifting lamp modes, but we shall see.

Bought from Projector People, and very happy at the front end. Upon this issue, getting technical help was quick and accurate, but once I asked how I use the extended lamp warranty I purchased the emails went cold. Could be the holiday season, but wanted to raise that flag for anyone looking get the lamp warranty.

In short, $2K (now) plus $700 for screen gives unbelievable results. A movie theater has nothing on this in my 15x13x9 room.

I will be able to control the light in the room since it will be a dedicated HT room. However putting the speakers behind the screen would mean that the screen has to be about 2 feet from the wall. I don't think I would like this look and it would bring the screen closer to the projector and limit the screen size I could use. My distance from projector to back wall will be only about 11.5 to 12 feet as it is.

I'd argue a perfect sound stage... at least for movie watching would have the speakers behind the screen, just like at the theatres. With the voices coming from the center of your screen from your center channel, not above, not below, directly from the the area where the mouths are moving.

I understand the space issue and not wanting to sacrafice screen size. I wasn't sure if your room was built or not and you are in a tight space already.

I can echo the comments on panasonic's I have a pt-ax100u and love it, it's only 720p, but does a great job. There were some production problems with that model and it did have to go back for repair, but I understand the ax200u hasn't had the same issues.

The 3000 is amazing, I've seen that one in action before... on a 120" DIY AT screen and it look amazing... oddly enough with a matching set of M22's for L/C/R's too

In the blind AB testing I've done argues to the contrary.

If you're blind why have a screen at all?