DIY Home Theater Front Projection Screens

The internet is awash with varying methods of Do It Yourself projection screens. It is also awash in contradiction and silliness. In the upcoming months, I hope to put to rest some of the silliness and contradictions.

I started out in this back in late 2005 when I decided to set up my unfinished basement as a Home Theater. One of the first things I started researching was how to get the most bang for my dwindling bucks in a projection screen. Little did I know that this would become a hobby of mine!

I began my research at a forum called AVS. Which I have since denounced as nothing more than a forum of disinformation and the main source of downright silliness. AVS' DIY Screen forum can pretty much be summed up in a post made by someone at a different forum back in 2004.

Be wary of the DIY screen forum at AVS. You can get some great advice there, but there are an awful lot of obsessive crackpots that must have been alchemists in a past life ("Add just one teaspoon of Heinz Ketchup to your white paint to counteract the green shift in your lens. We call this Pennsylvania Paste. Then buy eight cans of silver spray paint. Now alternate a spray paint layer with a layer of Pennsylvania Paste, for a total of 58 layers, over a silver hand mirror. Sand each layer in a way so that the total thickness of all layers is 5". You may need to do this several times before you get the thickness right. While doing this, stand on one leg, while swinging a dead cat in your left hand, in homage to Grzboken, the patron demon of Home Theater. And whatever you do, Don't forget to stir each can of paint exactly 167 times!!!)"

Little did I know how true the above was when I signed up there! Suffice it to say that the forum has gone from a forum of helping folks to a forum of personal interest. I say personal interest because there's a chap there who, while being a commercial installer and a commercial paint dealer, is allowed to post there. Even though the rules clearly state that it should be otherwise.

The DIY Screen section is for discussion of screens made from materials not originally intended for projection screen use. This is a DIY forum for people to share DIY ideas. If you are a full or part time dealer or installer of home theater screens, this is the wrong forum section for you - please do not post here.

How can that be? More than likely it has to do with the moderator of the forum being the owner/operator of his own screen paint business. According to the Secretary of State's office in his own state this is still a fact.

So what exactly is the motive of these individuals? Help people get their DIY screen up or get more customers?

So where do I play in all of this? I'm a moderator at the Home Theater Shack and have started up a crusade to put all of the disinformation to rest buy actually using industry standards to test screens. I was asked to join by my fellow moderator and good friend wbassett and have rarely if ever looked back.

If you looking for good information on DIY projection screens I suggest going to the Shack. There is actual hard data - acquired via industry standards - on screen options. Not wild claims made in order to draw customers.