Did you know your room color is a determining factor in your home theater's picture quality? Although most folks are careful to consider eliminating ambient lighting, it's common for many to forget that the light projected from your video source is affected by the surrounding furnishings and wall colours. There's a reason movie theaters tend to come in two basic coloration: dark and darker. A darker background helps contrast and eliminates reflections. White or painted colored walls tend to reflect light back from your screen, distorting color accuracy. So when planning a home theater space, consider using a muted darker color palette of blacks, dark grays or even blood reds (appropriate for you horror movie buffs).
I'm somewhat confused. Is the suggestion to project the image onto a dark wall? This seems counter to my understanding that projectors already struggle with brightness of the image and pull down screens are always in white with a black border. Thoughts?
view ricexmm's profile
I've been wanting one of the ambilight flatscreens from Phillips and noticed they suggest a white or neutral gray wall as a background to their sets to show off the light effects. The screen image is already surrounded by a thick frame of black, so I guess that goes with what you are suggesting. Or should the wall be dark as well?
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This has to do with controlling light spill. You do want your screen to be white or sometimes silver but you want the space around that to soak up light rather than reflect it. Helps the picture to be more vibrant.
view DaveD's profile
ricexmm: you're correct in assuming the necessity of a surface with a an optimized screen gain. But assuming that the screen needs to be white is actually not true; gray screen absorb more ambient light tthan a white screen does and is ideal where total light blockage is not available.
What the post really was about was surrounding walls and even the ceiling, and how your interior paint colour choices can directly effect image perception through light spillage. Basically it comes down to eliminating reflections: pick darker, neutral/earth tones rather than bright colours when choosing an optimized viewing environment.
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