Blackout cloth, A good inexpensive screen Options

[The Edge]

If I order 80 inches of the 1010 Blackcloth material from the Lumenlab store, what will the dimensions be?
80 inches x ???

The Edge

[piper]

Anyone ever use this Rolled Projector Screen Material? I found it on ebay. Is it the same stuff as blackout?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...3838257580&rd=1

check it out and let me know what you think.

[menuball]

If I order 80 inches of the 1010 Blackcloth material from the Lumenlab store, what will the dimensions be?
80 inches x ???

The Edge

Look VERY closely and you'll discover that it states:

"1010 SCREEN MATERIAL 110" WIDTH"

Ergo, 80" x 110"

QED

[brainchild]

They don't tell you anything about the actual material. It seems to be blackout cloth type stuff.

[joecnc2006]

Man with all that room omn the wall why such a small screen?... lol

[piper]

Maybe they don't know how big the room is.
Or maybe they just suck.

I'll stick with Joanne Fabrics for the material, but this stuff doesn't have a seem, which would be a good thing. I haven't even looked yet around here.

I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it.

[Uneek]

does JoAnn fabric compare to the Lumenlab fabric??? Does anyone have a picture of there screen with this black border?? I really don't think I'm quite getting what everyone is referring to.

[foamcows]

joann is only half of the width that the lumenlab fabric is, other than that they are the same material.

[riznich]

Just a note … I have several projectors around my church and we use a few different kinds of screens. Up in my youth room I have a rear projection stretch-screen made by Da-Light. Now I am sure that most people here wouldn't want to drop the $500.00 for the rear projection screen I picked up for my youth room - a front projection screen is much more affordable. The difference between the blackout cloth and the Da-Light screens is that Da-Light uses some crystals in the material to make it reflect more light - resulting in a crisper, brighter image even with a decent amount of ambient light. Here is a link that outlines professional screen materials. It includes viewing angle, grain etc ....The Projector Zone. The Blackout cloth is a good material. However, it does not compete very well with ambient light.

Rick Mead

[Sean]

Hey Piper I picked up the same cloth for 5.00 on ebay it was offered as flawed . it is black out cloth and shows a great picture mine 57 x 112 they have grreat packing and it came to my house with days of paying for it. I'd do business with them again.

[piper]

Thanks sean.
Was it from the same seller as the link I posted?

[Rich101]

3 pass acrlyic backed cotton or poly cotton is great to use ( you can get it in 1 and 2 pass, but the 3 pass blocks out most light) My Dad did some tests, we got some screen materials from a huge Italian theatre screen comany (www.screenline.it) and the 3 pass blockout performed just aswell as the expensive italian products. (which range from 30 to 80 Euros per sq metre) the blockout is about $6 per metre.

Budget blockout may not have a fine knit, which makes a difference on the smooth acrylic side. I found some great blockout material with a really fine square knit, so the smooth side is even smoother than the standard blockout. You can also use both sides as the front surface.

Another material which sounds great is standard matte white PVC, Ive read some reviews where people claim the foam backed pvc performs well and other say pvc without the backing performs even better - allowing some light to penetrate the screen - see this link its great reading !!! http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....threadid=262466

Also, speaking of Acrylic, you can also use what they call Plexiglass for rear projection, its a translucent grey rigid board that allows light to penetrate thru it. I got a sample of this material from Turkey at $400US per sq metre. now it may be all hype, they claim it has all these optical properties in it, and I can get this material for about $90 per sheet in australia. They are not sure if its the same grade as the expensive stuff. Though, with all the hype and bs about high gain screens I wouldnt be surprised if its just straight acrylic.

cheers !

[Register NowSir_Stinksalot_*]

Has anyone tried painting blackout cloth?

Say a slight grey tint (not reflective) just to give it a little more contrast?

It may darken the image too much to be effective but I have noticed that black is hard to portray on a white screen.

So I am not talking about changing the color for gain but for reflective less ambient light.

[Haas_man]

For a party this weekend , I used a cloth shower curtain from Target ($10). I set up the projector from the back side. Text was backwards but the results were impressive. The light was a little diffused, but we were running b/w horror films and the source was anything but clear anyway. BTW , don't use cheap extention cords, I'm using an electronic ballast and after about an hour the PJ shut down. It wouldn't restrike. I replaced them with a heavy guage 100' and that solved the problem.

[piper]

Has anyone tried painting blackout cloth?

I thought about this the other day. If anyone can comment I'd also like to know.

[The Edge]

I have not yet mounted the blackoutcloth to a frame, so it is stored folded together.. The wrinkles probably dissapears when I mount it and stretches it, but if not, is it possible to iron the blackoutcloth to straight out wrinkles, or would that ruin the material? Anyone tried or know anything about it??


The Edge

[Remdaddy]

Steamers work the best.
Depends on the type of material the blackout cloth is made of.
If its the thick Vinyl stuff ironing may melt it.

[t@s]

For a party this weekend , I used a cloth shower curtain from Target ($10). I set up the projector from the back side. Text was backwards but the results were impressive.  The light was a little diffused, but we were running b/w horror films and the source was anything but clear anyway. BTW , don't use cheap extention cords, I'm using an electronic ballast and after about an hour the PJ shut down. It wouldn't restrike. I replaced them with a heavy guage 100' and that solved the problem.

so, is blackout cloth basically the stuff shower curtains are made of? its kinda difficult to get blackout cloth here in spain..... you HAVE to tell the clerk you want a shower curtain, otherwise he'll think you're from some other planet if u ask for "blackout cloth"... happened to me a couple of days ago asking for lexan.... the guy started to stare at me like if i were a ghost...

[Dergrin]

so, is blackout cloth basically the stuff shower curtains are made of? its kinda difficult to get blackout cloth here in spain..... you HAVE to tell the clerk you want a shower curtain, otherwise he'll think you're from some other planet if u ask for "blackout cloth"... happened to me a couple of days ago asking for lexan.... the guy started to stare at me like if i were a ghost...

Blackout cloth is the cloth used in curtains to block the sunlight from shining through them.

[Haas_man]

so, is blackout cloth basically the stuff shower curtains are made of?

I was using it for a rear projection.

[neller75]

Hey,

I was just scanning the net for a way to build a better screen. I am currently using a Blackout Fabric screen I built myself. Pretty standard picture fram with the fabric stretched around the frame. My wife actually suggested this when I told her I was going to pony up and buy a screen but didn't like the idea of spening $400 on something I could likely build myself.

I guess it turns out this does work quite well. I am not displeased with the result at all. I was just wondering if spending the money on a screen was actually worth it?

I get great colours and it works very well even playing PS2. I am using a BENQ DLP 6110. This doesn't work very well in well lit rooms with natural sunlight in them but works just fine at night with lights on in the room?

I simply put it in my rec room in the basement and problem solved though...

I didn't know however, that the black line was so important. Can anyone tell me why this is so and what kind of difference I should notice. Also, since the screen image size will change depending on the movie or video game, does the border have to be tight to the image or can it simply be around the edge of the screen??

Thanks in advance,
Neller

[moose]

Hi neller,
A black border will draw your view to the image, give a clean edge to the picture, and it will improve the way you see the precieved contrast in your image (make blacks look more black and whites punchier.
It is a simple trick that is used in almost all video displays. Take a look at your tv or your computer screen and you will see this in practice.
As for the distance of the boarder you would want it right at the edge if not allowing the picture to overlap a little. The good news is that with a normal sized lcd projector the width of the picture will not change.
Trying to make a system to compensate for the different sizes/ratios of what you will be watching is a tough one. Some people have tried to make moterized systems to bring sheets of black cloth up and down, others simply hang the fabric mounted to poles off hookes at the different ratios and take them down when they are not needed.
Daylight screens manufactures a moterized screen (very expensive) that does this. They have it set up so there is about a foot of black on the bottom of the screen, the screen will roll up/down to bring the bottom edge of the boader to the ratio desired. Then a seperate top section of black (moterized) rolls down to finish the desired aspect ratio.
My self I am looking to redo my screen as well. I am trying to get sizes on some split blinds I saw at home depot. It consists of a top and bottom section of pleated fabric controled by coards. The two can move independently which would make a nice frameing boarder. I don't know if they can be bought in black or at the width needed yet, but I may have to buy the largest one they have and modify it if they don't.
Hope this helps out,
Moose

[neller75]

Hey Moose,

Thanks for the input. I did put a slight border around the edges. Didn't seem to notice a difference. Although the room is pretty dark already and the image from the DLP projector is very good. I will try to put some fabric on either side and on the bottom to see if it improves at all. Although, like I said, it is pretty good already.

What I did try is the aluminum spray paint on a test board to see if the image improves at all. It appears that the darker colours improve substantially. They seem richer and deeper. And this way just Tremclad aluminum spray paint on a piece of scrap MDF. I may try building another screen with the fabric painted with the spraypain and see if I like it better. I also read that sparying the fabric will tighten it up a lot, getting rid of any wrinkles.

Has anyone had any success with the spray paint method? I've read conflicting things. At any rate, if I try it I will post the results.

Thanks,
Neller

[brouxman]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway.

If I get a black out cloth, do I need to build a frame, or would simply nailing it tight against the wall work?

[amstel]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway. 

If I get a black out cloth, do I need to build a frame, or would simply nailing it tight against the wall work?

As long as the wall (and the screen) is flat, it should be fine.