Wanna skip to a particular part of the video? Use the Time Stamps. :) Time Stamps 0:00 - welcome to my home theater :) 0:56 - measuring for the screen 1:16 - Carl's Place FlexiGray screen material 1:38 - we like having some lights on 1:59 - building the screen frame 5:09 - applying screen material to the frame 6:49 - hanging the screen on my wall 7:56 - time to find out how the screen works 8:18 - white wall VS FlexiGray screen with all lights on 9:16 - white wall VS FlexiGray screen with rear lights on 11:01 - white wall VS FlexiGray screen with all lights off 12:49 - the final verdict 14:24 - Thanks for Watching! Like, Share, Comment & Subscribe! :)
At last a decent side by side comparison - from what I have seen it appears grey screens are mainly for rooms with ambient light - I personally prefer the white screen image , and with the newer projectors contrast rates constantly improving , I think I will stay with my white screen . Thank you for your time and effort putting this video together .
I use my gray screen when i use projector outside, mostly for some football/basketball games with friends, and it's great when you are in brighter setting. Inside white wall or white screen will do just fine, especially with lights off.
This is the best wall vs screen comparison video. I feel other videos lean towards the screen because they spent money on it instead of saying the wall is best.
White screen with dark walls in a light controlled room for sure. I like brightness and colors of the white, but not reflected light from the walls. It's a perfect mix!
Thank you! Side by side comparison was very helpful and exactly what i was looking for. I actually expected grey screen to perform much better and was leaning towards it before watching this video. Thanks again!
I had the exact same thoughts. I keep seeing comparisons on how CineGrey has so much more contrast than Matt White and I was planning to purchase some grey material to affix to a projector screen if I needed it but seeing the comparison now I think I will be ok with just the Matt white seeing as my screen will be located in the basement where I will have a lot of control over the lighting.
great comparison i never go the projector route because i dont like pitch black room for it to work good to know the grey screen gives room for some ambient light at the seat and had similar result to a pitch black room with white screen
Nice build ! And your method to stretch the fabric on the frame is the way to go to avoid any warpage. My guess is, you should adapt the projector settings for grey screen. Gamma curve, brightness etc ... Or maybe even calibrate with a sensor. That's the best to have accurate results. Then I bet the grey will provide you the best image.
Just came across this video after completing my garage theatre. I can't get over how similar our rooms are. I have red walls on the side, white in the front. my surround sound is even set up in the exact same way. Yours is a lot nicer than mine though😜
I'm gonna start pulling my face skin to the corners so they wrinkles will go away. Man, this channel is totally underrated! Thx for the info on the screens and skin. Rock on!
I have a beige/tanned wall. The warm colors look natural and beautiful while keeping the blacks black. I like it better than white, but most people may think looking at a beige screen is strange lol.
Same here. I thought I was going to hate what I was going to project my Benq HDR projector onto since I have glossy beige wall, but like u said the image comes across as natural, beautiful and keep the blacks black.
Cool! One thing I might suggest is painting the back wall black, now that you have the new screen. While it might make little difference when actually watching content, since it's dark in the room anyway, at least when the light is on the room will look super professional. Anyway, thanks for the great video and analysis!
Great vid! If nothing else it gives your media room a more finished look. I have a similar setup (bare wall even) and I'm looking at a DIY screen so thanks for making this :)
Yes! That's it! You're so right. There was something about having the screen on the wall that felt satisfying but I couldn't put words to it and you hit the nail on the head. It really does finish the room off and make it feel complete. Thanks for watching and for the comment. Cheers man. Best of luck to you on your own screen. :)
It also depends on the type of projector you have, the lumens and general specs. My media room has 3 walls painted charcoal black and the wall I use as my screen is painted light grey. So far I've only owned dlp projectors and was very satisfied with the results.... until my last dlp projector died. I got myself a new LED projector, in theory, with the same amount of Lumens my previous dlp projector had, but the results are completely different. With my older dpl projector I had a warmer picture overall, blacks were ok, but not pitch black, meanwhile with the led projector, everything seems darker; now blacks are really black and whites aren't actually bright enough. So I had to fiddle a lot with the brightness/contrast/hue setups to achieve the overall colour range I wanted, but still not satisfied. That's why I might switch back to a white wall. Great video, thanks.
Something that isn't often mentioned is the screens gain. In a narrowish room like mine a high gain will be fine as everyone is front of screen, all light forward. But in a wide with people at side you want light to reflect to them or will be dull, so low gain.
now that you have the new gray screen you can set the white balance and brightness settings of the projector to compensate for it and it should look better and closer to what you like.
Great comparison, loved the gray screen picture, dark tones are really spot on. But I was surprised on how good the smooth wall looks like. Though my real is nowhere near this smooth 😂.
I don't know for certain as I haven't tried that, but I would guess using grey or siler paint would give you a similar result to the gray screen. After making this video I just increased the brightness of my projector and that helped improve things where I'm much happier with the way things look with the screen. Also, having the screen allowed me to put some LED backlighting around the edges which looks pretty sick. th-cam.com/video/gfzMXvHaz3w/w-d-xo.htmlm16s
I've been itching to try out grey ALR screens with my newer 4k projector but this video definitively shows that I do not need to experiment with any grey screens while ambient light can be controlled. In complete darkness, nothing seems to beat the white screen for color accuracy. Thanks for the very honest review.
Not remotely True. For example it is Not possible to get True Black on a White Screen. Using an AVR Screen will greatly improve your entire picture Quality. You will get much better contrast and your colors will be greatly improved. You will have True Black that is impossible to get on a white screen. I went to a Elite CineGrey 5D Screen. I bought the screen material for $240.00 and DIY my Movie Screen. To Buy a finished Screen from Elite Screens with the exact same Screen material costs $3000.00 for a 16:9 120 inch screen. By making my own screen I Saved a bunch of money 🤑💰. The difference between my previous Screen a Matte White 1:3 Projector Screen and this one is huge. The picture is at least 50% Brighter because the AVR Screen doesn't reflect the light against your Walls and ceiling. The Picture Quality is Outstanding. It is Like the difference between watching a 480i Old-fashioned Tube TV vs a OLED TV. Maraksot78 he went very Cheap on the Screen he bought. He spent around $60.00. He should have bought the $200.00 AVR Screen material from Carl's. He would have greatly improved his picture Quality.
@@JesusSavesSinners Actually, I gave into my itch a while back after seeing the TH-cam video titled "Grey Projector Screens vs White ( Cheapest Ambient Light Rejection )" by Home Cinema & Tech Reviews and bought the same cheap ALR screen through Aliexpress for around $30 for 120" and I couldn't believe how much difference it made, even allowing my cheaper LED projectors around 500-700 ANSI usable with some ambient lights when angled correctly although with very limited viewing angle less than 10%. I hate that it improved the projection so much because the grey fabric looks so ugly draped over my 150" Elite screen but I can't take it off! The cheap ALR screen was definitely worth the experiment for the huge improvement and I've been waiting for 150" availability. I think you might've paid too much! In complete darkness though, the white screen works perfectly fine, especially for my 3000 ANSI projector where the ALR screen becomes a bit too bright and I have to squint in some brighter scenes.
@@TW-il4vy I hardly paid too much. I paid $300.00 for my DIY CineGrey5D Projector screen. A Production made Screen cost $3000.00. My Screen is Better because it is fixed framed. I Saved $2700.00. I know ALL about White Screens. I used them for 8 years before I switched to Grey. A Good Grey ALR is far Superior. The difference is immense.
@@JesusSavesSinners I hear you and I was just joking about you paying too much comparied to my Aliexpress purchase for 30. My cheap screen material was very tough to iron out the creases. Was yours pristine? Did you go with "Ambient Light Rejecting (ALR) Projector Screen Material" from Carl's or elsewhere?
@@JesusSavesSinners I ordered samples of CineGrey 5D, 3D and plain CineGrey and they don't hold a candle to my cheapo Aliexpress ALR screen, and I'm frankly really disappointed and relieved at the same time. Paid $9 bucks for the samples but it's a peace of mind what I have is much better than the much more pricey CineGrey 5D, which frankly sucks!
Nice comparo. Confirms my experience: brightness trumps all. Just the reality that projectors aren't generally bright enough, and color accuracy is a distant second in importance.
wow👍👏great media room in basement + a library + those computer lights👏 Nice recliners as well... watching this video makes me to feel your passion...you've done a nice experiment..it was definitely hard work to assemble and put it with perfection. I am watching these black diamond screen and wondered what material they use & did all research,, saved screenshots.... I was confused about white, grey and black options...I'll go with white: 1. If anyone amongst you have a media room/home theatre..you're already cutting ambient lights...and white gives you better colours...the grey/black may give you bit better contrast & little depth but overall...white wins..also, depends on projector too.. 2. The black is good for space kinda movies but it won't give you natural tones ..like take a example of a hero or heroine skin tone... compare it yourself and you'll find .. what is natural and what is dark 3. On you tube people put holywood movies with VFX... majority of VFX are done in grey or dark shades .. because in one frame there are so many layers...so, in black screen those become more dark...whereas white gives vibrancy and as far as grey is concerned...lol...it's grey...it's best and worst of both screen experience...just that grey stands out when there's no movie played in theatre and it looks good for interior decoration purpose One more thing...black diamond screen is costly and good...I'm not disputing it .. all I'm saying is white is great for media room/home theatre where there's no ambient light... So...IMO...no more confusion on my side...I'm going with white ... Thanks for this video and happy holidays 😔👏✨🎉🖖LLAP PS: We love movies and this kind of set-up is luxury...for a budget, white screen works wonders...it's apt...and even movie theaters have white... lastly, once you watch movie...the sound ..the visuals...you forget everything and enjoy the audio-visual experience on 120 " screen... enjoy ✨ happy holidays 🕺🎥🎹👍🙏
I left the projector brightness at the same setting while making this video because I wanted to see what difference only changing the screen makes to the picture. When it was all said and done I did increase the brightness and things look great on the grey screen now. Probably should have included that in the video, but didn't think of it at the time.
great vid... just would have loved you to play with the projector settings such as setting the picture to dynamic and color temp to warm to balance out the look of the white wall... I feel like you would have likes the results more than 60% You don't get a darker screen to boost brightness (dark colors absorb light rays) you do it for the higher contrast capabilities... Which were significant in your example!!
After making this video I turned the brightness on my projector up and it looks great now. For this video though I wanted to compare the picture with the projector on the same brightness setting to see the difference between the grey screen and white wall while leaving everything else the same.
Tested both of them, and i kept the white one. The grey one looks better hence richer colors, more vibe, but lacks of brightness and many parts of a movie for me looked much darker, and the white wall provided all details needed while on grey screen, i was not able to see in them dark spots or details in that dark spots. Hence i am using my projector with all lights off, seems the perfect way. Prove me wrong if anyone else have a better opinion.
I have the same projector as you going to a 92 inch elite screen. I actually ordered sample packs of the screen material from carls. It was hard for me to decide also. I liked the black levels I got with the flexi grey but I didn't like the whites not looking as bright. It bothered me a little bit with movies but it really bothered me when I watched a hockey game. So I just decided to keep my white and start saving 4 a new projector
Thanks for sharing your experience. For all the testing I did in this video I had the color mode on the projector set to Cinema. I'm now trying it on Dynamic as it's much brighter than Cinema. I thought about re-shooting everything on Dynamic but I don't think this would change my findings/opinion. The white wall would still be brighter. I do like the way things look on the FlexiGray with our projector on Dynamic though. Colors look good and brightness is much better than on Cinema. One of the next things I want to do is upgrade our projector to 4K.
YES, my exact same experience (I have a light grey painted wall, not a screen). Colors and blacks are great on the grey wall, scecially while watching movies, BUT whites aren't ever really bright escecially while watching hockey games! That's why I' switching back to a white wall.
I painted my wall using the popular gray combo of paints. The skin tones are too blue and it seems all the highlights are the same. I might go back to white for good skin tones.
I think if the projector had more lumens the grey would out perform the white wall. People with epson hc 3800 like myself feel the drop in brightness isnt bad when u have a 3000 lumen projector. Its when ur at 2000 that just go white.
@@sko1beer yeah they just didnt have a good / bright enough projector for a grey screen. Need a higher lumen output one because its a 0.8 gain screen which means only 80% of the light is reflected back.
After making this video I turned the brightness on my projector up and it looks great now. For this video though I wanted to compare the picture with the projector on the same brightness setting to see the difference between the grey screen and white wall while leaving everything else the same.
You could always get a brighter projector with a higher contrast ratio to give you a brighter picture on the grey screen while keeping the deeper blacks 👍
Exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a projector setup on a budget and I will just paint my wall in a very slight grey. That is basically it. However, I want to give it a black border so I have no fringing light.
Thank you so much for your efforts time and money , i feel gray screen is not big deal instead i will definitely go with white wall as always its easier and cheapest with best quality
9:07 Well, in that comparison shot, right side video itself is darker. Just look at the white wall just below the ceiling. And looking at other parts like speakers, looks like the video on the right has more contrast? Same in your dark room comparison. Room itself is darker with the screen. Trying to justify your purchase?
White matt screen is better than any other screen period.Tried and tested by thousands .No brainer with lights off or on.The other grey and silver screens don't outweigh the benefits of white matt wall
Can’t blame the screen when you can make adjustments to the color from the projector. Juuuust saying there could have been more comparisons with those settings. Movie, sports, etc
Did you alter the projector brightness to make the grey pop a little more? I usually dimm my brightness until black JUST turns black. I think with the grey screen this might happen At a slightly brighter setting
All you need is a very, very lite almost white grey screen to have a very good brightness to ebol to enjoy ando do not forget to adjust the brightness of your proyector so you can really enjoy all your movies, programs tv show, enything you won't to see, greetings from Guadalajara Jalisco Mexico ();-)
I didn't see a playlist on your channel showing what your home theater was comprised of. What projector do you have? How long have you had it? Looks like a nice one. Have a review of it?
Consider checking first how a ALR fabric works before setting this up, you might want to rotate the frame 180 degrees as the ALR fabric is just a series of triangles* that redirect the projector light and remove the unwanted polarized reflected light...
Projectors are getting so good now that getting a projector screen would be a big waste of money. I went to a guy who repairs Projectors for a hobby on the side of his engineering. The brightness of the projectors are so bright that using a screen wouldn't make a big difference other than adding looks to the room. I was about to buy a very expensive screen for the projector until I watched this video, and the truth is that projector screens are a scam. I'm so glad I went to someone who knows a lot about these things instead of a store. This guy doesn't scam and tells you the straight-up truth. He had every light in his house on while the windows were open, and I could still see the projector clear as day without the screen.
Seems like a matter of taste, I am team white wall. I project on a white wall. The blacks are some what faded but the brighter colors and warmer tones make up for that(in my opinion).
I think the white wall is objectively better. If you wanted it to look better with some lights on, you'd need an ALR screen, but those can be very expensive. ALRs aren't just grey in color. Definitely not a waste of time or money though. This video is useful!
Heard that before if you have a darker screen you need a higher more expensive projector to compensate vs lower light cheaper projector. If you want better blacks.
For this video I wanted to see what the difference was without increasing the brightness of the projector to get an apples to apples comparison. Afterward I did increase my projector brightness and it looks great on the gray screen.
Older vid but I'm still going to comment. I hope you reply. Thank you for your effort, I reckon I would go for the white wall personally. So What paint ? Matt , semi gloss or full gloss ?? Would the gloss give too much rearward reflection ? This stuff is new to me. I am Handy however. This would save a costly mistake knowing which paint not to use. Thank you.
Thanks for the question. If I remember correctly had had the wall painted with a flat white, so a matte finish. It wasn't glossy at all. Not sure what having a glossy finish would do but I imagine the flat matte finish is best.
I don't think anyone has asked yet curious what your procedure for smoothing out your wall? sand down and repaint or retexture with some kind of big wide float / knock down knife and then paint..
I have done some drywall work in my time but we had our house custom built so I didn't do it. We asked for our theater screen wall to be smooth finish and the drywall contractor did it. But if I were to do it myself that's what I would do is use a nice wide knockdown knife to apply mud to the wall to smooth it out and then sand it down nice and smooth once it's dry. And as always you'd have to do several coats until it is nice and smooth.
Hey you made an interesting video and I watched the whole thing! 😃👏👏 My prediction was that the gray screen would be better, or maybe I was just thinking “that better be amazing for all that extra work!” LOL, good job on this one 👍
Thanks Terin. It's only taken me 7-ish years to finally make an interesting video. 😂 The extra work was actually fun to do. I enjoyed it. Thanks for watching the whole thing. 🙂
I have one of those under $300 1080p led Chinese projectors and the blacks come out more grey like and it's very noticeable when I play games like Batman arkham Knight etc. Would getting a grey screen help regarding this issue?
Great video. Currently I have a 100" fixed white screen with black backing. I only have a 1080p projector now. But planning on upgrading it to a 4k projector. So I thought, why not paint my wall and go big!! I'm still undecided as to whether to paint my wall or buy a bigger screen. I know I have to fill in the existing screw holes in the wall and prepare it. Undercoat, primer then 2 X top coat of special screen paint. But I do like the black velvet border around my screen. But will I notice it without? Any thoughts? Great video. Shane from NSW Australia.
Wanna skip to a particular part of the video? Use the Time Stamps. :)
Time Stamps
0:00 - welcome to my home theater :)
0:56 - measuring for the screen
1:16 - Carl's Place FlexiGray screen material
1:38 - we like having some lights on
1:59 - building the screen frame
5:09 - applying screen material to the frame
6:49 - hanging the screen on my wall
7:56 - time to find out how the screen works
8:18 - white wall VS FlexiGray screen with all lights on
9:16 - white wall VS FlexiGray screen with rear lights on
11:01 - white wall VS FlexiGray screen with all lights off
12:49 - the final verdict
14:24 - Thanks for Watching! Like, Share, Comment & Subscribe! :)
It's intriguing 🥰
At last a decent side by side comparison - from what I have seen it appears grey screens are mainly for rooms with ambient light - I personally prefer the white screen image , and with the newer projectors contrast rates constantly improving , I think I will stay with my white screen . Thank you for your time and effort putting this video together .
I use my gray screen when i use projector outside, mostly for some football/basketball games with friends, and it's great when you are in brighter setting. Inside white wall or white screen will do just fine, especially with lights off.
This is the best wall vs screen comparison video. I feel other videos lean towards the screen because they spent money on it instead of saying the wall is best.
Wall is definitely not the best. Uneven and washes out image.
Thanks for a very honest video. The white wall looks a lot better.
Under rated channel. This is the only video helped me made my decision. Going with the cheap white screen ;)
An alr screen is actually best. Went from white to alr for my laser ust, big improvement.
I have exactly the same Polk Speakers. 7.1
This has to be the best review I have ever seen!!!
White screen with dark walls in a light controlled room for sure. I like brightness and colors of the white, but not reflected light from the walls. It's a perfect mix!
What an amazing video! Quality content and your personality really comes through. Thanks!
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it! 😊
Now I can confirm my order with white screen! Thanks!
I shon my projector on a painted white wall and it was perfect. Doing the same for my new theater room with a 4 meter screen. Great video cheers..
Was it a dark color wall?
@@evangelaakins7428 people use them to get the deeper blacks.
Thank you! Side by side comparison was very helpful and exactly what i was looking for. I actually expected grey screen to perform much better and was leaning towards it before watching this video. Thanks again!
I had the exact same thoughts. I keep seeing comparisons on how CineGrey has so much more contrast than Matt White and I was planning to purchase some grey material to affix to a projector screen if I needed it but seeing the comparison now I think I will be ok with just the Matt white seeing as my screen will be located in the basement where I will have a lot of control over the lighting.
Grey is crap. An alr screen is best.
great one.. really helped to nail the decision... white wall it is...!!!
great comparison
i never go the projector route because i dont like pitch black room for it to work
good to know the grey screen gives room for some ambient light at the seat and had similar result to a pitch black room with white screen
Thanks for the honesty!!! Saved me hours and hours!!!
Thanks for doing this. I would prefer the plain white painted wall.
A video I never thought I needed but here we are. Thank you 👍
Wonderful & saved a lot of effort for me. Will keep the white wall👍🏻
Nice build ! And your method to stretch the fabric on the frame is the way to go to avoid any warpage.
My guess is, you should adapt the projector settings for grey screen. Gamma curve, brightness etc ...
Or maybe even calibrate with a sensor. That's the best to have accurate results. Then I bet the grey will provide you the best image.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for the video. I think they both looked great but I think I prefer the brightness of the just the plain white wall.
Thank you. Saves me tons of time to do the wall screen ;)
I appreciate your honesty! Im in the middle of building my media room and this video totally helped me! Subscribing!
Thank you you save me a lot work ...
nice comparison .... You have really removed all my confusions. I shall also go for well furnished white wall screen. 👌
Just came across this video after completing my garage theatre. I can't get over how similar our rooms are. I have red walls on the side, white in the front. my surround sound is even set up in the exact same way. Yours is a lot nicer than mine though😜
I'm gonna start pulling my face skin to the corners so they wrinkles will go away. Man, this channel is totally underrated! Thx for the info on the screens and skin. Rock on!
I have a beige/tanned wall. The warm colors look natural and beautiful while keeping the blacks black. I like it better than white, but most people may think looking at a beige screen is strange lol.
LoL.....this is feng shui 😔🤣
Same here. I thought I was going to hate what I was going to project my Benq HDR projector onto since I have glossy beige wall, but like u said the image comes across as natural, beautiful and keep the blacks black.
@@tintinfromindia2103 hahaha just saw this, my bad.
Cool! One thing I might suggest is painting the back wall black, now that you have the new screen. While it might make little difference when actually watching content, since it's dark in the room anyway, at least when the light is on the room will look super professional. Anyway, thanks for the great video and analysis!
Or he could paint the other walls gray or black to absorb the light from the screen
We have bay windows so the fact that the gray gives a crisper image is hopeful ☺
That's the purpose of Gray. to provide saturation so u can adjust brightness, color, contrast to your liking without washed out light colors
Great vid! If nothing else it gives your media room a more finished look. I have a similar setup (bare wall even) and I'm looking at a DIY screen so thanks for making this :)
Yes! That's it! You're so right. There was something about having the screen on the wall that felt satisfying but I couldn't put words to it and you hit the nail on the head. It really does finish the room off and make it feel complete. Thanks for watching and for the comment. Cheers man. Best of luck to you on your own screen. :)
It also depends on the type of projector you have, the lumens and general specs. My media room has 3 walls painted charcoal black and the wall I use as my screen is painted light grey. So far I've only owned dlp projectors and was very satisfied with the results.... until my last dlp projector died. I got myself a new LED projector, in theory, with the same amount of Lumens my previous dlp projector had, but the results are completely different.
With my older dpl projector I had a warmer picture overall, blacks were ok, but not pitch black, meanwhile with the led projector, everything seems darker; now blacks are really black and whites aren't actually bright enough. So I had to fiddle a lot with the brightness/contrast/hue setups to achieve the overall colour range I wanted, but still not satisfied. That's why I might switch back to a white wall.
Great video, thanks.
Best review ever super helpful! Thank you
Missed to like your video, checked my history and came back just to hit the like button for your extra efforts 🎉
Thank you I learn alot about screens.
Grey screen. I painted my wall with the mix I had found online. It's incredible. 240 in screen.
got a link? :)
Very good video, however based on what I saw... I think I prefer the white. Thanks for your valuable video /information
Something that isn't often mentioned is the screens gain.
In a narrowish room like mine a high gain will be fine as everyone is front of screen, all light forward.
But in a wide with people at side you want light to reflect to them or will be dull, so low gain.
Great video. Helped me choose grey paint and a better projector to handle the darker screen thanks 🙏
now that you have the new gray screen you can set the white balance and brightness settings of the projector to compensate for it and it should look better and closer to what you like.
Exactly
Great comparison, loved the gray screen picture, dark tones are really spot on. But I was surprised on how good the smooth wall looks like. Though my real is nowhere near this smooth 😂.
The painted wall looks more like a bright tv whereas the frame looks more like the movie theater. It's the frame for me!!
Thank you for making this video on this subject 🙏😊
How would using a Gray or Silver Color Paint work? Something lighter gray or darker gray
I don't know for certain as I haven't tried that, but I would guess using grey or siler paint would give you a similar result to the gray screen. After making this video I just increased the brightness of my projector and that helped improve things where I'm much happier with the way things look with the screen. Also, having the screen allowed me to put some LED backlighting around the edges which looks pretty sick. th-cam.com/video/gfzMXvHaz3w/w-d-xo.htmlm16s
I've been itching to try out grey ALR screens with my newer 4k projector but this video definitively shows that I do not need to experiment with any grey screens while ambient light can be controlled. In complete darkness, nothing seems to beat the white screen for color accuracy. Thanks for the very honest review.
Not remotely True. For example it is Not possible to get True Black on a White Screen. Using an AVR Screen will greatly improve your entire picture Quality.
You will get much better contrast and your colors will be greatly improved. You will have True Black that is impossible to get on a white screen.
I went to a Elite CineGrey 5D Screen. I bought the screen material for $240.00 and DIY my Movie Screen. To Buy a finished Screen from Elite Screens with the exact same Screen material costs $3000.00 for a 16:9 120 inch screen.
By making my own screen I Saved a bunch of money 🤑💰.
The difference between my previous Screen a Matte White 1:3 Projector Screen and this one is huge.
The picture is at least 50% Brighter because the AVR Screen doesn't reflect the light against your Walls and ceiling. The Picture Quality is Outstanding. It is Like the difference between watching a 480i Old-fashioned Tube TV vs a OLED TV.
Maraksot78 he went very Cheap on the Screen he bought. He spent around $60.00. He should have bought the $200.00 AVR Screen material from Carl's. He would have greatly improved his picture Quality.
@@JesusSavesSinners Actually, I gave into my itch a while back after seeing the TH-cam video titled "Grey Projector Screens vs White ( Cheapest Ambient Light Rejection )" by Home Cinema & Tech Reviews and bought the same cheap ALR screen through Aliexpress for around $30 for 120" and I couldn't believe how much difference it made, even allowing my cheaper LED projectors around 500-700 ANSI usable with some ambient lights when angled correctly although with very limited viewing angle less than 10%. I hate that it improved the projection so much because the grey fabric looks so ugly draped over my 150" Elite screen but I can't take it off! The cheap ALR screen was definitely worth the experiment for the huge improvement and I've been waiting for 150" availability. I think you might've paid too much! In complete darkness though, the white screen works perfectly fine, especially for my 3000 ANSI projector where the ALR screen becomes a bit too bright and I have to squint in some brighter scenes.
@@TW-il4vy I hardly paid too much. I paid $300.00 for my DIY CineGrey5D Projector screen. A Production made Screen cost $3000.00. My Screen is Better because it is fixed framed. I Saved $2700.00.
I know ALL about White Screens. I used them for 8 years before I switched to Grey. A Good Grey ALR is far Superior. The difference is immense.
@@JesusSavesSinners I hear you and I was just joking about you paying too much comparied to my Aliexpress purchase for 30. My cheap screen material was very tough to iron out the creases. Was yours pristine? Did you go with "Ambient Light Rejecting (ALR) Projector Screen Material" from Carl's or elsewhere?
@@JesusSavesSinners I ordered samples of CineGrey 5D, 3D and plain CineGrey and they don't hold a candle to my cheapo Aliexpress ALR screen, and I'm frankly really disappointed and relieved at the same time. Paid $9 bucks for the samples but it's a peace of mind what I have is much better than the much more pricey CineGrey 5D, which frankly sucks!
Best and most honest comparison? Did you use special white paint for the walls?
Great video very helpful
Nice comparo. Confirms my experience: brightness trumps all. Just the reality that projectors aren't generally bright enough, and color accuracy is a distant second in importance.
wow👍👏great media room in basement + a library + those computer lights👏 Nice recliners as well... watching this video makes me to feel your passion...you've done a nice experiment..it was definitely hard work to assemble and put it with perfection. I am watching these black diamond screen and wondered what material they use & did all research,, saved screenshots....
I was confused about white, grey and black options...I'll go with white:
1. If anyone amongst you have a media room/home theatre..you're already cutting ambient lights...and white gives you better colours...the grey/black may give you bit better contrast & little depth but overall...white wins..also, depends on projector too..
2. The black is good for space kinda movies but it won't give you natural tones ..like take a example of a hero or heroine skin tone... compare it yourself and you'll find .. what is natural and what is dark
3. On you tube people put holywood movies with VFX... majority of VFX are done in grey or dark shades .. because in one frame there are so many layers...so, in black screen those become more dark...whereas white gives vibrancy and as far as grey is concerned...lol...it's grey...it's best and worst of both screen experience...just that grey stands out when there's no movie played in theatre and it looks good for interior decoration purpose
One more thing...black diamond screen is costly and good...I'm not disputing it .. all I'm saying is white is great for media room/home theatre where there's no ambient light...
So...IMO...no more confusion on my side...I'm going with white ...
Thanks for this video and happy holidays 😔👏✨🎉🖖LLAP
PS: We love movies and this kind of set-up is luxury...for a budget, white screen works wonders...it's apt...and even movie theaters have white... lastly, once you watch movie...the sound ..the visuals...you forget everything and enjoy the audio-visual experience on 120 " screen... enjoy ✨ happy holidays 🕺🎥🎹👍🙏
I'm gonna go with the white screen. I wonder if Laser projectors would make a difference on the grey
Great and honest review, thanks!
would a brighter projector give better picture for the grey screen?
I left the projector brightness at the same setting while making this video because I wanted to see what difference only changing the screen makes to the picture. When it was all said and done I did increase the brightness and things look great on the grey screen now. Probably should have included that in the video, but didn't think of it at the time.
Great vid. Thank You!
Great video. This made me realize I like the Plain white wall instead, just my preference
great vid... just would have loved you to play with the projector settings such as setting the picture to dynamic and color temp to warm to balance out the look of the white wall... I feel like you would have likes the results more than 60%
You don't get a darker screen to boost brightness (dark colors absorb light rays) you do it for the higher contrast capabilities... Which were significant in your example!!
After making this video I turned the brightness on my projector up and it looks great now. For this video though I wanted to compare the picture with the projector on the same brightness setting to see the difference between the grey screen and white wall while leaving everything else the same.
Thanks for the video.
You're welcome. Hope it helped you decide what you wanna do.
Tested both of them, and i kept the white one. The grey one looks better hence richer colors, more vibe, but lacks of brightness and many parts of a movie for me looked much darker, and the white wall provided all details needed while on grey screen, i was not able to see in them dark spots or details in that dark spots. Hence i am using my projector with all lights off, seems the perfect way. Prove me wrong if anyone else have a better opinion.
Well this video just saved me money. I was gonna get a gray screen but after seeing this i dont think i will.
I have the same projector as you going to a 92 inch elite screen. I actually ordered sample packs of the screen material from carls. It was hard for me to decide also. I liked the black levels I got with the flexi grey but I didn't like the whites not looking as bright. It bothered me a little bit with movies but it really bothered me when I watched a hockey game. So I just decided to keep my white and start saving 4 a new projector
Thanks for sharing your experience. For all the testing I did in this video I had the color mode on the projector set to Cinema. I'm now trying it on Dynamic as it's much brighter than Cinema. I thought about re-shooting everything on Dynamic but I don't think this would change my findings/opinion. The white wall would still be brighter. I do like the way things look on the FlexiGray with our projector on Dynamic though. Colors look good and brightness is much better than on Cinema. One of the next things I want to do is upgrade our projector to 4K.
YES, my exact same experience (I have a light grey painted wall, not a screen). Colors and blacks are great on the grey wall, scecially while watching movies, BUT whites aren't ever really bright escecially while watching hockey games! That's why I' switching back to a white wall.
Great video ! You just got a new subscriber 👍🏽
Thank you. 🙂
I painted my wall using the popular gray combo of paints. The skin tones are too blue and it seems all the highlights are the same. I might go back to white for good skin tones.
I think if the projector had more lumens the grey would out perform the white wall. People with epson hc 3800 like myself feel the drop in brightness isnt bad when u have a 3000 lumen projector. Its when ur at 2000 that just go white.
thanks this was what i needed to know
@@sko1beer yeah they just didnt have a good / bright enough projector for a grey screen. Need a higher lumen output one because its a 0.8 gain screen which means only 80% of the light is reflected back.
After making this video I turned the brightness on my projector up and it looks great now. For this video though I wanted to compare the picture with the projector on the same brightness setting to see the difference between the grey screen and white wall while leaving everything else the same.
Yes I have short range benq mx 1819st 120 white Screen All Walls Grey and Optoma uhd 50x 4k 3400 lumens will use wall for 4k Projector
You could always get a brighter projector with a higher contrast ratio to give you a brighter picture on the grey screen while keeping the deeper blacks 👍
Exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a projector setup on a budget and I will just paint my wall in a very slight grey. That is basically it. However, I want to give it a black border so I have no fringing light.
Sounds awesome. Cheers man. :)
Thank you so much for your efforts time and money , i feel gray screen is not big deal instead i will definitely go with white wall as always its easier and cheapest with best quality
Sounds like you just need to dim your projector and keep with the white wall?
Great video. I used flat stock Menards Dutch boy ceiling white paint. $25 a gallon on sale. Works excellent. Screen size 9’ by 10’ overall wall size.
9:07 Well, in that comparison shot, right side video itself is darker. Just look at the white wall just below the ceiling. And looking at other parts like speakers, looks like the video on the right has more contrast?
Same in your dark room comparison. Room itself is darker with the screen. Trying to justify your purchase?
Can't wait to see it in person! Stupid covid is going to mess up our annual Super Bowl party!
White matt screen is better than any other screen period.Tried and tested by thousands .No brainer with lights off or on.The other grey and silver screens don't outweigh the benefits of white matt wall
I agree the pure white wall is the best. Is it just me or are those speaker towers to reflective and causing light bounce?
Can’t blame the screen when you can make adjustments to the color from the projector. Juuuust saying there could have been more comparisons with those settings. Movie, sports, etc
Thanks for doing that for us now we know
Did you alter the projector brightness to make the grey pop a little more? I usually dimm my brightness until black JUST turns black. I think with the grey screen this might happen At a slightly brighter setting
All you need is a very, very lite almost white grey screen to have a very good brightness to ebol to enjoy ando do not forget to adjust the brightness of your proyector so you can really enjoy all your movies, programs tv show, enything you won't to see, greetings from Guadalajara Jalisco Mexico ();-)
What material should you use when doing a diy screen? Blackout curtain?
I didn't see a playlist on your channel showing what your home theater was comprised of.
What projector do you have? How long have you had it? Looks like a nice one. Have a review of it?
Isn't the grey side of the sreen supposed to be on the front instead of the backside?
changing to grey might require recalibrating projection. ?
black drapes / black wallpaper / black surround enhances image.
Thanks for the effort
You just adjust on the settings to make the colors brighter. Closer to the white but with more details
Consider checking first how a ALR fabric works before setting this up, you might want to rotate the frame 180 degrees as the ALR fabric is just a series of triangles* that redirect the projector light and remove the unwanted polarized reflected light...
I wish I could acquire this material. Can't find it anywhere.
Projectors are getting so good now that getting a projector screen would be a big waste of money. I went to a guy who repairs Projectors for a hobby on the side of his engineering. The brightness of the projectors are so bright that using a screen wouldn't make a big difference other than adding looks to the room. I was about to buy a very expensive screen for the projector until I watched this video, and the truth is that projector screens are a scam. I'm so glad I went to someone who knows a lot about these things instead of a store. This guy doesn't scam and tells you the straight-up truth. He had every light in his house on while the windows were open, and I could still see the projector clear as day without the screen.
Seems like a matter of taste, I am team white wall. I project on a white wall. The blacks are some what faded but the brighter colors and warmer tones make up for that(in my opinion).
I think the white wall is objectively better. If you wanted it to look better with some lights on, you'd need an ALR screen, but those can be very expensive. ALRs aren't just grey in color.
Definitely not a waste of time or money though. This video is useful!
Heard that before if you have a darker screen you need a higher more expensive projector to compensate vs lower light cheaper projector. If you want better blacks.
For this video I wanted to see what the difference was without increasing the brightness of the projector to get an apples to apples comparison. Afterward I did increase my projector brightness and it looks great on the gray screen.
Is there adjustable hues? Whether the projector or media device.
Great video. I've made my choice
Older vid but I'm still going to comment. I hope you reply. Thank you for your effort, I reckon I would go for the white wall personally. So What paint ? Matt , semi gloss or full gloss ?? Would the gloss give too much rearward reflection ? This stuff is new to me. I am Handy however. This would save a costly mistake knowing which paint not to use. Thank you.
Thanks for the question. If I remember correctly had had the wall painted with a flat white, so a matte finish. It wasn't glossy at all. Not sure what having a glossy finish would do but I imagine the flat matte finish is best.
I don't think anyone has asked yet curious what your procedure for smoothing out your wall? sand down and repaint or retexture with some kind of big wide float / knock down knife and then paint..
I have done some drywall work in my time but we had our house custom built so I didn't do it. We asked for our theater screen wall to be smooth finish and the drywall contractor did it. But if I were to do it myself that's what I would do is use a nice wide knockdown knife to apply mud to the wall to smooth it out and then sand it down nice and smooth once it's dry. And as always you'd have to do several coats until it is nice and smooth.
Hey you made an interesting video and I watched the whole thing! 😃👏👏
My prediction was that the gray screen would be better, or maybe I was just thinking “that better be amazing for all that extra work!” LOL, good job on this one 👍
Thanks Terin. It's only taken me 7-ish years to finally make an interesting video. 😂 The extra work was actually fun to do. I enjoyed it. Thanks for watching the whole thing. 🙂
have you try to fix the colour from the video player or pc ?
How many Lumens on your proj?🤔 Also did you recalibrate your proj after hanging the screen?
Just to help - you should only consider grey/darker screens the brighter your projector is. - and thanks for the video! :)
you can't adjust up the brightness of your projector?
I have one of those under $300 1080p led Chinese projectors and the blacks come out more grey like and it's very noticeable when I play games like Batman arkham Knight etc. Would getting a grey screen help regarding this issue?
Great video. Currently I have a 100" fixed white screen with black backing. I only have a 1080p projector now. But planning on upgrading it to a 4k projector. So I thought, why not paint my wall and go big!! I'm still undecided as to whether to paint my wall or buy a bigger screen. I know I have to fill in the existing screw holes in the wall and prepare it. Undercoat, primer then 2 X top coat of special screen paint. But I do like the black velvet border around my screen. But will I notice it without? Any thoughts? Great video. Shane from NSW Australia.
For a DIY home theater, you should customize an acoustic fabric with speakers embedded inside the wall.
you try ALR material from carlofet?
So csnt you simply add the brightness over the Grey screen?
Any suggestions on PAINT? From Lowe's or Home depot
Would matte white paint work or Matte black?
I used matte white, which is what you see in this video.
Thank u so much sir.. this is really Helpful 😍
@@WecoversbacolodPH you're welcome. :)
Thanks for the video! It stops me from buying the screen. Thank you so much