Building Your Own Projection Screen

I've priced out some projection screens and they are crazy-silly expensive. I have a feeling the price is wrapped up in the thought that people will pay it not knowing any better. I want a fixed wall (fixed tension) screen with no frills beyond the highest material quality - I can add my own black border. When I saw that pull-down screens were 1/3 the cost of fixed screens, I realized that the pricing is not the material.

So, I want a very high quality screen that I build myself. The ratio will be 16:9 and I don't really have any special issues as far as viewing location. Viewers will be around 9-12 feet from the screen with projection being about 12 feet back. I'm looking at the Panasonic PT-L500 projector. (850 rated ANSI, not that that means much in reality).

I need two things: (1) a source for the screen material - any retailers you know of? and (2) suggestions for the build - plans are great, but mostly I need the dos and don'ts

I'm particularly interested in your views on tensioning, materials, and fastening of course. My fall-back scinario is to buy a pull-down and take off the material. I'd probably use wood for the frame and attach the material canvas-style with staples. Thoughts?

Thanks

Screen Material

I built my own from material for sale on eBay. I paid about $35 for the material, and they included frame plans (really just 1 x 2s with metal corner brackets). The material was attached with a staple gun (with two helpers keeping tension while I stapled), and the overall dimensions were 7' x 5'.

I was pretty happy with it for a while -- especially the price/performace ratio. Then I acquired a portable, tripod-style screen from DaLite with their Cimema-whatever-it-is coating. It has a gain of 1.5. Since I only irregularly need this screen (8' x 8', ~$350) on the road, I rigged a support system for it in my HT. The quality difference was quite appreciable, in fact I was a little embarrassed that I actully liked the homemade screen before, but there's times when I'm easier to please. The increased brightness and physical resolution on the screen were the standout differences.

Look at it this way -- if you spend <$100 building your own screen and you're happy with it while you're fine-tuning your audio setup, etc., and taking more time to evaluate other screen options, you probably would be OK.

See, that's what I am afraid of. I don't want to just get something off of e-bay because I'm sure they'll send me a white table cloth and say it is from Stewart. I want the same material one can find on these commercial screens but I want to mount it myself. Maybe it can't be found...

I found a source

AV Science has sales representatives that can get you the material. The price result is around 1/2 to 1/4 the cost of buying a pre-made fixed tension screen.

I wonder if the work is worth it - to me that's the deciding factor. Considering Carada sells a $650 fixed screen and Da-Lite sells some decent pull-downs for around $250-$300 (street price) you'll have to come up with a truly inexpensive method that looks nice in order to compete. (you're right BTW, it appears that the material isn't the biggest cost factor - though I don't believe you can get many of the materials in pull-downs).

If you do find a solution or method, definitely post it here. I think it would be information that many would find helpful.

I'd opt for buying a Da-Lite pull down and cutting it out & framing it yourself. That way you'll get the right materia yet save nearly a grand off of buying their frame.

Screen

I just finished building a 100" diagonal screen with 1x4's Black Flannel, and Blackout Material and it works Great and looks even better and I spent 50.00
So Im happy

I've been using the Dazian-Matt Non-Perforated material, great stuff no hot-spotting or color-shift.

Made a custom frame out of aluminum bent to the profile I wanted then covered it with micro-velour, I then had springs made to the size I needed to tension the material like a trampoline. Works great.

cheers

Hi,

I built a 145" Screen.

Cheers

Nick