Projector screen options (1 Viewer)

Hi, newbe here.

I'm the guy who had thought about a home theater but never moved on it, and that bought a projector, speakers and screen out of the back of an SUV in a parking lot for cheap. Well it was fun, frustrating and it finally died but it got me going in this direction.

I have a long room that I can reduce to an 18 x 11.5 area. It has no windows at all. I can ether close the room with a wall or a heavy curtain. I'm thinking of the curtain in case I want to open the "theater" up on the back so others can participate in the movie from time to time.

I purchased an Epson 8350 and a little Yamaha 600watt 5.1 system. I've cobbled it together for now as this will be a long term hobby and not a full time job for a while.

Couple of questions:

1) I was told that paint-on-screens have hot spots and there's nothing you can do about it. Is this true? I'm shooting a 135" diagonal on the far wall and it's nice to have it that big. I want to keep the big area. Is there an alternative to paint to get the big area?

2) When we view a movie, the white acoustical panels in the ceiling show up (it's in a finished basement). I assume that I should just pull them and paint them flat black, but that would be ugly. Is there an alternative. Would any dark flat color do just as well to deaden them and reduce the reflection of light.

3) Should I hang heavy drapes on the walls to deaden them so that the sound we hear only comes from the speakers and not from bouncing off the walls?

Thanks, I appreciate the knowledge those have who have figured all this out the hard way.

Rich

1) Not true. You just need to use flat paint. There are numerous alternatives. Probably the cheapest is to build a wooden frame and use blackout cloth. Yes, it's available in widths larger than 54".2) Anything is better than white. I used a black flat enamel on my tiles, and I think it looks great. Next best is probably a medium or dark gray.3) What are the walls currently?

1) Just found an article about painting it and it is very comforting to know it can happen.
http://www.projectorcentral.com/paint_perfect_screen_$100.htm

2) Grey is a great idea. I guess it just needs to be very flat

3) The walls are just sheet rock right now. My girl friend complains about the volume but I realized that she may be complaining about sound bouncing off the walls and distorting the sound that comes from the speakers turning the original sound into noise. I'm a little deaf from military service so I tend to crank it up.

Yep. I send people to Sherwin-Williams and send them to that article a few times a month. I've already recommended that article, on this forum, 3 times this month.

Thanks Schan;

I'm going to give this a try.

I have other questions about screen size and acoustics but they will be under a different thread.,

Rich