Buying a Screen? Go for the Goo

Paint a theater screen on the wall or anything else

Then it was time to fire up the projector and see how well Screen Goo actually works. For comparison, we raised a portable Da-lite screen over the bottom half of our Screen Goo paint job. We used our DisplayMate obstacle course of video tests to first get a subjective comparison of the two screens. My first impression was that the difference between the two screens was slight. The colors on both screens were saturated and true, however the Da-lite screen was noticeably brighter. At the same time, the black levels were slightly darker on the Screen Goo screen, which to me gave the images on it a more overall balanced quality. Our NEC HT1000 projector is certainly bright enough ? what we want are blacker blacks, and this color of gray paint made the blacks appear darker than on the Da-lite screen.

On the top of this image is the Screen Goo screen, and the bottom is a Da-lite screen with a gain of 2.2. As you can see with this image from the same projector taken at the same time, the two are quite similar.

Even so, the images on both screens looked excellent, and in my opinion there was not a $1000 difference between the two. Not completely trusting my subjective judgment, I decided to get out our precision light metering equipment and see what the numerical difference was between the Screen Goo screen and a Da-lite screen. The Da-lite?s screen, with a gain of 2.2, is considered an extremely bright screen, and sure enough, when we measured the amount of light coming off an all-white projected image, the Da-lite screen reflected 41 Lux compared to the Screen Goo?s 30 Lux. But it was in the black levels where the Screen Goo had its chance to shine over the performance of the Da-lite screen. Sure enough, only 1 Lux of light was reflected from the Screen Goo, while 2 Lux were reflected from the Da-lite screen.

This ANSI brightness test pattern shows the difference between the Screen Goo screen (top) and the Da-lite screen (bottom). However, notice the blacks are blacker on the Goo screen.

A major attribute of Screen Goo is its versatility in a variety of installations. On the Goo Systems Web site, there are photos of variously shaped screens painted in all kinds of situations. You can paint a screen on a wall and then place a frame around it, or you can paint your screen on one wall, and then match its color with conventional house paint and paint your entire home theater the same color as the topcoat, digital gray. This way, if you?re using a 4 x 3 projector to also watch 16 x 9 letterboxed productions, you can use an entire wall as your screen and it doesn?t matter what aspect ratio your picture is. 

Here?s one caveat if you?re deciding to buy this product: I noticed that the Goo Systems Web site advised us to buy more paint than we needed. In our Midwest Test Facility theater, the screen is 74 inches wide and 54.5 inches tall. Goo Systems advised us to buy 1 liter each of the topcoat and the base coat. We only used one third of each container, even when we placed two coats on the wall of our theater. Save your money ? for less than $100, you can get the half-liter size of each the topcoat and the base coat. Unless you?re painting an extremely large screen or making a lot of mistakes, I think the half-liter will do.

Summing up, even though this product is a lot more expensive than everyday house paint, it?s a whole lot cheaper than a $1000 screen. It?s easy to use, and it really works. Tailored to enhance the characteristics of your particular projector, it creates a superb viewing surface. Highly recommended.

The author would like to thank Midwest Test Facility writer and professional model Denise Turner for her assistance with this review.