I've been looking into changing out my screen (which is a roll-down screen at 76" diagonal) with a fixed screen of a larger size. I've been looking at the Da-Lite "Perm-Wall" mounting with the "High Contrast Da-Mat" fabric at a size of 119" diagonal (which perfectly fits my available space, 58" X 104"). That's the least expensive fixed-screen shown on the Da-Lite website at $755 MSRP.

That's well above the price I'd hoped to pay, however. I'm not scared of making my own frame if I had a source for just the screen fabric. Has anyone else done such a project? If so, where did you get your screen fabric? What troubles did you run into that were unexpected?

Thanks,

Hey Beth - I wish I could help. The only reason I'm posting is because Jack said we should try and help you "or else".

Actually, I KNOW somebody on the forums constructed a screen with bulk-bought fabric. I seem to remember being surprised that the seller marketed through EBay. Lots of people seem to just be using paint on untextured walls, which would be cheaper yet. I always thought that would be kind of a cool, reverse way to go. Instead of pulling your screen down for use, you swing/slide/drop your artwork or other attractive covering out of the way to reveal the screen.

Sorry I can't help. I'm sure somebody smart will be along.

I built my own screen using nice oak 1 x 3's and corner braces. The material I purchased was Dazian Matte White Cinema Projection material that is secured around the screen using industrial stength velcro from Home Depot. I probably have about $100 or so wrapped up in my screen. There are also other options for DIY methods like Parkland Durotherm-Lite Panels you can find at Menards and other home improvement stores.

My screen is a 2.35 aspect ratio and is 51" x 120".

Thanks Tom. You've just avoided your monthly beating.

Beth, you probably won't get much response here, but you might find some at the AVS "Screens" forum. At the top of the page is a link to the DIY Screens Section where you should look first. Good luck.

OOPS! Thanks Randy.

Hi BethR,

At the CES in Las Vegas, I attended a demo for Screen Goo, a special paint available in several types, from www.goosystems.com. In the demo, the image quality was surpisingly good, but not as good as a couple of dedicated screens from Vu-tec and others.
The cost of the Screen Goo treatment was about $99 for a typical large image. Also check out the www.projectioncentral.com site for helpful info on screens.

Regards,

www.goosystems.com

www.projectorcentral.com

I used a DIY mix called SM/MM SilverMetallic/Mississippimud. Don't let the name fool you, actually many on the AVS DIY screen forum use it now. It has changed since I was into DIY screen technologies, however, in my opinion it beat Goo hands down in our audition we held a few years ago. I spent years testing various paint combinations with and HVLP paint gun. It was much fun, but very time consuming.

Matte White is Matte White. I'll put my Dazian up against any Stewart, DaLite, etc..

SirQuack: I checked into the Dazian and am very pleased with the price! I'm thinking of getting a sample patch of it and taking it over to one of my co-worker's houses.

He's thinking of buying Axioms and has an invite over to my place to do a listen. But he's got a Da-Lite screen and it would be interesting to drape some Dazian over a part of it and have a look at some of the Video Essentials patterns.

And another one of my sick and twisted co-workers (who I also recently found out is an Axiom owner) came up with a really perverse idea for a fabric that is very white and very matte and very cheap. Tyvek Homewrap. It sure wouldn't cost me much to try it!

I could build the frame and use velcro, just like SirQuack said. If it works, great. If not, I pull off the tyvek and drop the Dazian onto the frame.

Anyone have any comments about Tyvek?

Doesn't Tyvek have the brand name stamped all over the product?

I could be wrong but I thought I saw it being used on some new construction near me and it had the brand name stamped on one side...I am not sure how it would look from the other side...bleedthrough of Tyvek under Yoda or the Incredibles may not be desired..

Something to check into.

WhatFurrer

Tyvek is stamped all over one side, but not the other. And it's opaque, so it shouldn't show through. I'll have a look over the weekend.

In reply to:

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Tyvek is stamped all over one side, but not the other. And it's opaque, so it shouldn't show through. I'll have a look over the weekend.

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Let us all know what you discover...you may have found the next best thing.

WhatFurrer

i use goosysteme and i really love it, i use digital gray lite for a sanyo z2, digital gray lite paint for a better contrast, but when im gona move my ht in the basement im gona use the white one.

I stopped in at Home Depot and discovered that Tyvek Homewrap comes in two widths. The three foot wide stuff would need to be taped together, leaving a line across the screen, so that's out. The nine foot wide stuff should be fine. Problem is, the minimum amount you can buy is a 150 foot roll at about $150!

So although I only need about $10 worth to do the experiment, I'd have to spend as much on the Tyvek as it would take to buy all the Dazian I need.

Maybe if someone was having a house built and there was a scrap of Tyvek large enough, it might make for an interesting experiment. But until Tyvek is known to be an acceptable material for screens, it doesn't make it worth it to buy an entire roll.

If you hang out over at AVS, you could ask the question about Tyvek, I'm sure someone has tried it before. I guess my only concern would be light loss through the product. The reason many people use BlackOut cloth (drapery lining) is that no light passes through, that is what you want, otherwise the picture will suffer. The Blackout cloth is a great DIY method and can be found at most fabric stores like JoAnns.

Depending on how big of a screen your building, the best bang for the buck is the Durotherm Lite Panels from Parkland. For about $28bucks you can get a 4' x 8' piece at Menards. Just trim it to your desired size, hang and enjoy.

Randy:

I'm looking for 58" X 104". That's larger than a 4' X 8' sheet. I'd really rather not put a seam of any kind in the screen, so I'd avoid the 4' X 8' panels.

I think you've got it right with the Dazian! It would take $100 or so for me to do it in the Dazian. That's fine. To do almost exactly the same in Da-Lite would cost me $755. That's not so fine. (Da-Lite only sells mounted screens. That price is for the Da-Lite fabric mounted on a rectangular aluminum frame that would be nearly identical to the one I'd build in wood for the Dazian.)

My only thought about Tyvek was "What if my co-worker was right? If it did turn out to be close to as good as the Dazian, then it's worth doing it for $10 instead of $100." But I can't do the experiment for $10 because the minimum I can purchase is $150. If I'm gonna spend the $150, I'll buy the Dazian instead.

I'll post pictures when I'm done

I totally understand Beth, in reality a wall painted with UPW (ultra pure white) flat exterior paint works fine also, as long as you don't have any textrue. Your right, you never want seams.

The Dazian I ordered off of the Ebay store listed as 54" x 108" but actually was more like 55.5" x 120". I ended up making a 2.35 aspect ratio screen or 51" x 120". 50% or more movies are done in this cinemascope ratio anyway. This way I don't have black bars on 2.35 movies like you will have on a 16:9 (1.78) screen. This design is called a "constant height" setup where all movies display with the same height, the only masking that is required is on the sides, which is much much easier to achieve with curtains. Just like in the theaters.

However, there is nothing wrong with using a 16:9 screen. You will just have some bars when watching the wider material. Also, to achieve a constant height setup, you have to have an anamorphic lens and a DVD/Projector/ or other scaler that will vertically stretch/scale the image for constant height...

fun fun fun, but it is all worth it in the end...

With the current 76" diagonal 4:3 screen, the lens I have on the Infocus Screenplay4805 will let me zoom in to max and the 4:3 fills the screen (the side bars are on the wall on either side). But with 16:9, I zoom out to max and it fills the screen horizontally, but makes letterbox bars.

The setup I am planning on is to leave the zoom out to max such that if it's less than 16:9, it's full height and there are bars on the side. But if it's more than 16:9 then it fills horizontally and starts making letterbox bars. Once mounted on the ceiling, I won't be able to reach the zoom control or focus without a stepladder.

What A Pain.

Better get it right the first time!

Many people use the zoom feature, and that is fine. The main problem with this method is that your zooming to hide the bars. With a scaler/constant height setup, you can reclaim those 33% lost pixels taken up by the bars, which gives you a much brighter picture as your using the entire panel on the projector. Also, with zooming, you normally chop off some of the picture, depending on your setup. Have fun and enjoy...

OOH! I get it!

With it zoomed out to max, the 16:9 image fills the screen height. The screen ratio is wider than 16:9, though. At 16:9, there would be side bars.

Anything less than 16:9 keeps the same height, but makes the side bars wider.

If it's more than 16:9, it would have top and bottom letterbox bars at that zoom level. But if I zoomed in, I would fill more of the screen height and eliminate the letterbox bars (so long as the screen is wide enough to accommodate the image width). The wider the source aspect ratio, the narrower the side bars, until I hit the aspect ratio of the screen.

Did I get it right?

I would need to get an extension pipe for my projector mount, though, since it's not long enough to hang the projector low enough for me to reach the zoom and focus controls.

Thanks Randy!

My projector is not that sophisticated, though. It's the cheap one

Someday later when they get *GOOD* HDTV resolutions on DLPs at a price in my budget, I'll upgrade. I don't see that happening for a few more years.