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Poor contrast = light around my 16x9 screen! (1 Viewer)

cutmoney

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Cornelius Qualley
Hello, I'm new to the forums here and just wanted to see if anybody had any input on a problem that I'm experiencing. Okay, so I just moved in to my own house and renovated the old basement to include a full theatre room with a complete in-wall speaker system, 16x9 fixed projection screen, and ceiling mount projector. In my last few apartments I used a huge 4:3 screen which worked fine, however I decided that most of my content is either HD or widescreen I would switch to that format in my new install.

So, everything looks great and I love it except for one major problem that I'm just now noticing. For my projector I'm using a ViewSonic PJ551 (LCD, XGA) which is pretty much my only choice because of the fact that I need the short throw for the theatre room and for the business applications where I also use this projector. Anyway, as I'm sure everyone knows LCD = poor contrast ratio (at least with this model as compared to DLP). Although I'm fine with the image quality on the movies, I've noticed some serious light overthrow on the top and bottom of my screen. The reason being, this is a 4:3 projector and it basically just blacks out (or more like a dark grey :frowning: ) the top and bottom of the image in order to create the sudo 16:9 image.

So, what I'm wondering is if anyone has any suggestions on taking care (or covering up) the light above and below the screen, aside from a new projector. It's only noticeable when the room is very dark, but it is a theatre after all, so that's pretty much all the time. The only thing I can think of is some sort of ghetto way to cover the top and bottom of the lens, which admittedly is ridiculous. Or, to maybe install some dim strip lighting below and above the screen to make it kind of glow thereby covering up the overthrow. Please, if anyone has any recommendations on this I would love to hear them!
 

Allan Jayne

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Put black material (velvet is very classy) above and below the projected area on the screen.
 

cutmoney

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Cornelius Qualley
Actually, that's my problem this time around, the light is above and below the actual screen frame since it's a 16:9 screen and a 4:3 projector (running in 16:9 mode). So, unless I put the black material directly on the wall, it really wouldn't help in this situation.
 

Robert_J

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Put the velvet or other non-reflective material on the wall or get a true 16x9 projector.

-Robert
 

Kevin Stewart

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With a projector and screen it's recommended to paint the whole front wall (and ceiling) black anyway.
 

cutmoney

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Cornelius Qualley

Really? It's recommended that you paint the front wall black? I suppose that would definitely fix this problem as the black would kill the overthrow. The walls right now are a light brown color so it shows up quite bright on darker images. I guess I've never thought of just painting the front wall, I'm not sure what that would look like exactly, probably better than overthrow from the projector.
 

cutmoney

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Cornelius Qualley
Okay, so here's a photo of the screen side of the room. It's still unfinished (i.e. unpainted speaker grills, no carpet, etc.) but that's the idea. I probably can't paint the ceiling black at this point, and with this particular project I wouldn't want to anyway, but how about the front wall. Any input as to how that would look? Would I just hit it with a black satin paint or a darker complimentary color?

I'm on kind of a tight budget with this particular house, it's not worth putting too much in to it this time around so I'm just doing the best I can within my boundaries. Look at the photo and let me know what you think, thanks!



 

drobbins

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Dave
Many theaters are darker in color to help with the light situation. You should also use a flat or eggshell finish also. The gloss or semi-gloss reflects light.
 

cutmoney

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Cornelius Qualley

Yeah, that's kind of what I initially planned for but I was overruled since the darker colors make smaller spaces even smaller. The paint is a satin rather than semi, but still too light in my opinion (especially for a HT). I don't know, I suppose I'll just have to live with the overthrow until I move to a new house or upgrade to a true 16:9 projector. Unfortunately, I also use these projectors for work and have to have the 4:3 for that application. Oh well, I guess that's how it goes!
 

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