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

The Edge

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.

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

"1010 SCREEN MATERIAL 110" WIDTH"

Ergo, 80" x 110"

QED

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 !

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

I was using it for a rear projection.

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

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

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

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.

Is it possible for me to buy one piece of blackout cloth that is 150" x 84"??

i believe you can buy that only from the lumenlab store. from joanne, you can only get a width of 54"

Wondering on what the best way to attach two sheets of blackout cloth together. I see some people use duct tape without much luck. Also as for joeann fabrics, there is a 40% off cupon in the sunday newspaper adds every week. Helps a bit with the price.

Member dergin built one and detailed some info in his plog.

I got luck 96" x 54" is 16:9 and 72" X 54" (~80" diag") is 4:3

standard BO comes on 54" rolls.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6248&hl=

I wonder what the widest width you can get those old vinyl pull down shades in.... the kind that has the annouing spring in it that when you pulled on it a little it would wind itself back up.

Home Depot and Lowes has them in 6.5 feet lengths. I tried a sample of one a while back and found the front side to be way too glossy but the backside worked surprisingly well. They're under 30 bucks... you should give one a shot if you dont mind the size.

smalls

Largest I could find local was 73" wide by 78" long (give or take some as it also had fractions of an inch as well on the measurements, I just rounded down)

$29 @ lowes

They had a couple different colors...wel not really colors more like tinges of color.... grey, white and off white..

Is the blackout cloth from the lumenlab store 110 inches wide? I assume it can be folded without permanent wringles?

anyone?

I found that you can iron Blackout cloth using a dry Iron (No Steam) on a low heat setting. Iron the back side not the fine suede that you project on.

anyone have any luck cleaning the LL DIY screen? I finally got mine up and I guess it got smudged a few times. Nothing big, but would like to get it cleaned nonetheless. Also it is on the fine suede side, which I assume is the correct side, or at least the one that is preferred...

I use suede cleaner that you buy in the shoe polish section. I have read some forums where they cleaned small sections at a time with mild soap and water.

So is the LL screen 110 inches wide on the roll? Can I use this screen to make a 10 foot wide 4:3 screen?

Yes, Yes.
But I wouldn't recommend its a larger screens are less bright (less light/sq inch) and brightness is already a problem.

10 feet wide is to wide? What do you mean i see so many here who have 10 foot wide screens with success.

dracul,
pagercam was only making a recommendation to you. keeping your screen size smaller will mean a brighter (higher lux) projection. In the end it will be where you place it and how much ambient light it will be subjected to. If you have a light controlled environment you can easily get good brightness for a 100-140" screen (well... for me anyway... )

gs

Just for clarification...

When people are talking image size, it's usually a diagonal measurement. Obviously you could not make a screen 120" wide on 110" material. However, a 120" image is (Assuming 4:3 Aspect Ratio) 96" wide and 72" tall.

Of course in terms of maxium image size the 110" BOC gives opportunities for a 182" 4:3 image, (146" by 109.5") or a 220" 16:9 (192" by 108") screens. So fitting a 120" screen is EASY.

Fitting a 10' wide screen (120"X90") screen is also possible.

Now the part that those of you who know me have been waiting for. More math...

How Big Is That?

The simple answer is this: 150" diagonal screen is 120" by 90" for 10,800 square inches. The 120" diagonal screen is 96" by 72" for a total of 6,480 square inches. This means that if you were to take the brightness of the projection on the 120" diagonal screen as "1.0" the brightness of the 150" diagonal screen would have a value of "0.6"

Nice post Supra

One thing I noticed over the past 8 months of reading is that many people say the screen can actually be too big to watch comfortably. My screen is 54"x96" (mainly because of the Joann Fabrics material size) and most think the picture is perfect. This is also true as I am using the 15" LCD PJ. I guess this affects the picture quality at a size larger than that. Also, after people watch it for a while they tend to migrate further away from the picture. This makes it more comfortable to watch. Huge pictures without alot of room probably is not desireable.

I am glad I did not make the screen bigger. Believe me the picture is amazing and big enough.
Just my two cents!

I was just wondering about the material.

I found some blackout cloth on ebay (not easy to find anywhere else) they said it was acrylic backed, but I have now received it and I don't think it is.

It is very white, material side on one side, but on the other it feels kind of "fury" / soft. Not smooth like plastic I was expecting.

Is this the wrong stuff? or should it be like this?

I think I might need to return it.

Thanks for your help.

My blackout cloth has a soft, fabric side and works wonderfully. In fact, anything that looks or feels like plastic will hotspot anyway. A little fibre is good for projectors and your diet.

the blackout fabric from walmart is the same that you will find in any fabric store (ROC-LON blackout liner) except that its pre cut and sewn edge for different sizes, where as most fabric stores only have a width of 54"

MIND YOU....the ones at walmart will be panels unless you get the patio size which is 105x80

i used the 73x78 vinyl blackout stuff from lowes...grey color, it works great except for being actual vinyl (rips) and that it has major creases in it (ones that cant be steam out) they are like small lines

get the blackout fabric, paint it, stretch it, frame it, dione

I am currently in posession of some 110" seamless blackout cloth. Please let me know if anyone needs some. I am running a special for Lumenlab and AVS forum members. I am selling 110" X 195" blackout cloth which give you a max 16:9 image of 223" diagonal for $78 plus actual shipping costs, for forum members only.

I am a lumen lab customer and an AVS forum member. I do not want to step on any toes at either place. I do not think that this DIY material is competing with anything that Lumenlab sells. Please let me know if anyone would like to get some of this material.

I run DIY HOME THEATER SCREENS ebay store. or you can send me a message on this board.

I am running my 15" DIY PJ with LL parts and a 223" blackout cloth screen. I would like to thank everyone who puts time into these forums, I love every bit of this new hobby.

I also love watching matrix when Neo walks into the military building, at 223" diagonal

Thanks,


Mark

I thought I would post a few photos of what a projections looks on either side of BO cloth.

The left side is the smooth and slightly fuzzy side. On my particular cloth, it is a very light blue in colour. The right side is the bright white side. I find that the left side has improved blacks but the right side has improved colour. If your projector is suffering from blacks and you have ample lumens I would go with the left side.

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