Best Material for DIY Projector Screen? Experiences and Recommendations

_jta_ wrote:

Silver pigment will be no better than good white paint; the question is what the quality of these microspheres is.

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For me, white paint is not an option at all, because whatever good projector you have, and a room darkened to the max, the black on such a bright screen will still shine through with minimal light from the projector.

A daylight projection screen, on the other hand, should preferably be painted a dark grey with a reflective additive to provide some contrast and boost brightness. On the other hand, if you paint the screen white, there will be no contrast at all during the day, which is why ALR screens were invented.

I've ordered these microbeads from Allegro, so tomorrow I'll test what the effect will be, whether there will be hot-spots like with pigment at night, whether the black will be brighter than regular grey paint. I'll let you know. .

Well, and painted and tested. .

NCS 3500n paint, which is a neutral grey, on top of a sprinkling of 37-45um microspheres (0.037-0.045mm).

The conclusion is as follows, and I will actually repeat what I have written here before. Well, the reflective surface is dedicated to projection in a poorly darkened room, when we do not care about maximum blackness and contrast, but about the image being viewable at all.

The light gain on a surface coated with microbeads or silver pigment is high (with microbeads probably higher), but in a well-darkened room, this is reflected in contrast and blackness.

The image is then milky and the black is grey or, if you prefer, glowing; in addition, such a screen is sensitive when viewed at an angle - the centre is bright and the sides get progressively darker.

Personally, I prefer a darker image, but one with good contrast, satisfactory black depth and evenly displayed. .

I've included some pics of the test below - the bright square is the reflective surface with microspheres, and the rest just in grey matte.

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Hey,

I don't know if anyone else is looking here, but I've started making samples and comparisons of different configurations that I wanted to make available to everyone, such as:

- Ready mixes available on the market
- Flokart metallic paint
- Flokart metallic with glass beads
etc.

However, I have encountered a problem that makes me unable to compare anything 😕

Using Flokart metallic mixtures, made according to a 1:1:1 recipe (paint:water:varnish), when applied with a roller the samples come out very uneven, they are not uniform, despite 3-4 coats. - Samples - wood panel with white acrylic paint (base). I mixed the paints very well.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? It looks more or less like this?
Is "Polyurethane water matt" a polyurethane matt paint?

@jakubpetz Metallic paints need to be sprayed with a gun, I've never managed to get a uniform surface with a roller. The other thing is to give up on paints with light gain, this is a misunderstanding if you are watching films in a darkened room. This is only right if you want to watch most of the time in the living room, with the light on, or during the day with the windows uncovered. Buy a grey paint from a mixer, such as Tikkurilla Optiva matt in neutral shade S3000-N, and add a touch of orange pigment to recover the natural skin tone.