OT - CRT projectors

[BNAL]

Seeing that projector reminds me of the days when we first installed similar projectors on my ship in the combat information center to display contacts. We were always working to keep them focused and it made for a very low overhead. Before that we used a grease pencil on a clear display and wrote everything backwards. Now those were the days. 

[xcortes]

Progress on different fronts. First the underground room was discarded as we decided to use some other space that is already built except for one large wall. We'll add new wooden floor and furniture as well as a restroom. The room will approx 6x8 meters. The height at 2.4m will be a little bit on the short side but not terribly bad. This option will significantly reduce cost and time. It should be ready in a few months.
Second the projector has been finished including some extras like some hd mods, the hdmi card and a mod to do a very silent projector even more silent.
Third is that last night we watched The Hobbit and I spent the whole three hours comparing 2.1 vs 5.1. This is 5.1 done right with five identical Pi Pro Four speakers and five identical Paramours with MQ Ni opts. I liked the sound way more on 2.1. A much fuller sound with a better soundstage and "ambience".  I'm leaning towards going 2.1 on the new room. Moreover since stereo will allow me to use a BH dac which should wipe the floor with any ht pre/pro. I will continue doing more testing though.

[xcortes]

More testing this morning. The sound is much nicer on stereo. But the correspondence of sound and image is way better with the center speaker. And the center speaker behind the screen instead of under it would be awesome. That's the way I'll go.

[ironbut]

Happy New Year Xavier!

I think skipping the underground room is a wise choice.
I've worked on several projects that included underground rooms and it's always a nightmare. Not only does it multiply the cost and time but there's always a few surprises that come up.

[Paul Birkeland]

I've worked on several projects that included underground rooms and it's always a nightmare. Not only does it multiply the cost and time but there's always a few surprises that come up.

It's sounding like you've unearthed an oil tank or two...

[xcortes]

A dead body maybe?

[Doc B.]

Hey Xavier, check out some screens before you commit to a perforated fabric one for hiding a center channel. I like my DIY painted masonite screen a lot better than the fabric ones I have seen. We arrived at what we currently use by making a lot of different samples and hanging them over the existing screen until we found the one we were happiest with. Whichever you decide to use make sure you get one with decent gain, and then make sure your room is really dark.

[xcortes]

Thanks. I've been thinking a lot about this. The room will be completely dark so that's great. And indeed a perfectly finished matte white wall would probably work better than a commercial screen.
I can't take out of my mind how much more enjoyable was stereo last night than 5.1, in an action movie! If I decide to go stereo I will put the horns down there and do a wall screen. Not conventional but neither am I. Now that I think about it, weren't my 1940s field coil RCAs built for movie theaters anyway?

[Doc B.]

Actually you want a screen with a little gain.  A matte white wall is a very good starting point, but you can get more "pop" in the image with just a little bit of material with a higher reflectivity. You don't want to get crazy like the old glass bead slide projector screens because they will hot spot like crazy, but a little bit of pearlescent white with the clear matte overcoat made my picture go from pretty good to really rich and contrasty.

[xcortes]

Thanks.

Great ideas for experimenting!

[Doc B.]

Hmm, I suppose you could spray the pearl and matte varnish onto a matte white perforated screen and have the best of both worlds.

[madbrayniak]

Not to sound like a salesmen and I dont have any affiliation with this company at all but the Screen Innovation Black Diamond screens look really nice.

I have been researching them a bit because I wont have a dedicated room at all so I need something that can be in a standard family room type of set up.

The way that those dont reflect light back into the room is very impressive.

I dont know much about other screens yet because they just really caught my interest the other day as I started searching.

[Skip Pack]

Doc,

Just to be clear -- this is a pearlescent household paint, not a specialized HT paint. I'm working away on an HT/audio room with an audio priority and a fixed, front-wall screen is my current plan. Some months more work though.

The best HT screen I've ever seen was a big acrylic rear projection screen from a company in Japan that makes many-inches-thick acrylic panels for public acquarium use. It had a goundglass-like surface on the imaging plane, either etched or with and applied layer. Probably cost more than my entire room and its planned contents.

thanks,

Skip

[Paul Birkeland]

I can't take out of my mind how much more enjoyable was stereo last night than 5.1, in an action movie! If I decide to go stereo I will put the horns down there and do a wall screen.

I'm definitely a center channel hater, but ultimately 5.1 content really needs the center channel most of the time, otherwise the dialogue always seems to get drowned out. Ultimately, however my hatred of center channels comes from the sideways MTM, and there's no chance that you'd end up using one!

[Doc B.]

Yes, all the stuff was Behr products. IIRC I used ultra flat white, then a very thin coat of White Opal pearlescent and then a coat of some Behr water based matte varnish which after all these years has vanished from my paint can shelf. I rolled the paint onto wonderboard with a very short nap roller, with the pearl coat being applied with an almost dry roller. It worked pretty well, but I would do it with a HVLP sprayer next time to avoid the couple of overlaps that the current screen shows. We sprayed a simple ultraflat white screen for Shawn's projector and he seems pretty happy with it.

There is a ton of info, almost too much, on the AVS DIY screen forum. The formula I came up with was derived from some things I read there ten years ago followed by a bunch of my own trial and error. The projects may have progressed quite a bit on that forum since then, though the last time I looked a couple years ago it seemed more like things had stayed pretty much the same rather than evolving. For what it's worth I really disliked the gray screens I tried. The seemingly better blacks came with too much sacrifice of the whites. When in doubt start with Ultra Flat White and go from there.