[Rob S.]

I need to paint our basement walls which will have a front projector based HT and it'll also be a shared rec family room.   I've read that wall colors shouldn't be light colors, aside from that are there other considerations to the which darker colors are helpful to viewing along with  flat paint vs satin finish.

Any help would be appreciated.

Rob S.

[ted_b]

Rob,
When I went from my long-standing Runco crt pj to looking for a new digital one (settled on Sammy DLP for now) I showed my room to a lot of HT forum folks (AVS, etc.).  They convinced me to paint my ceiling and sloped areas (see system or gallery below) dark, so I'm doing flat(ish)black!  My walls will be dark gray....but I have no WAF (she's busy running for re-election and is generally open to anything I do in my dedicated music room/HT).  The general rule is to keep down reflections, so don't go high gloss, and that the area around the screen needs to be as dark and non-reflective as possible.  Check out some of the jpegs over on the AVS Forum's subforum called "Dedicated Theater Design and Construction".  Lots of good ideas over there.

[yooper]

A few years ago when I picked up a backlight from CinemaQuest, I remember reading a bit about the color of the ideal viewing room.  Here is the link.... http://cinemaquestinc.com/ideal_viewing.htm


Mark

[bpape]

Black front wall increases apparent contrast.  It's really nice to see the pic just pop out of nothingness when the lights are  down.

For the others yes, keep it moderate to dark.  Grey is good as it's color neutral and any reflections won't tint the screen.  Stay with flat or eggshell.  Definitely no semi-gloss or gloss.  The reflections will wash out the picture.

Bryan

[Bob in St. Louis]

Flat, Flat, Flat,..... Dark, Dark, Dark......  aa

Mine is dark gray and flat(ish). When I had the color mixed, they gave five different levels of gloss. I got the second one from the flattest and regret it. I should have gone as flat as they've got. I can see a little bit of reflection (like a glow effect) from the side walls. It's a little distracting on a bright image.

Bob

[Philistine]

I painted my HT flat gray with a matt black ceiling, my ISF calibrator couldn't get his head around his installer clients who used rich colors on the walls of their customers.  Also the floor covering has an impact - I had a gray carpet and had to buy a black area rug to eliminate light reflection.
I started a color thread on the Home Theater Shack forum a few years ago:

http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/home-theater-design-construction/703-what-color-paint-your-ht.html

Haven't read it in awhile but it may be a good resource also.

Most guys here though have nailed it.

[Rob S.]

Thanks, guys..... My interior designer just left and it was nice to have a few comments appear so quickly.  We're leaning toward FLAT plantation brown by Sherwin Williams for viewing wall and left and right side walls.  Toward the back of the room will introduce some more FLAT beige type color so not to make the entire basement turn into a dark brown hole in the ground.

I'm wondering how much a lighter/flat back wall will hurt things.  I'm hoping 3/4 walls is enough to help the picture greatly.   But this will be a rather low end room in general w/AV123 x series speakers, and a bargain 1080p projector, and likely a carada fixed screen.  I'll submit some pictures of the room soon.

Ceiling is drop type, and white 4x2 panels.  Do I need to update that also?

Rob S.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ceiling is drop type, and white 4x2 panels.  Do I need to update that also?

Big time. 

Colors:
http://www.usg.com/products/ceiling/advantageColors.jsp

Textures (acoustics):
http://www.usg.com/products/ceiling/textureSelector.jsp

Mine is the Glacier texture. Very rough. ('cause I like it rough)  aa
The color may not be made anymore, as I can't find one that looks framiliar. But it appears to be very close to the 'Safari' color.
LOVE IT love it love it! Highly recommended.

Bob