Projection Screens - whats improtant

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eg123

Audiophyte
I don't see much in these forums on projection screens. I want to get one for my projector and I was just wondering if anybody knows what to look for in a projection screen. What is important, what isn't. Any recomendations on brand would be nice too.
 
Have you checked our reviews? The cheapest screens are pull-downs, but you have to deal with sub-par material, wavy fabric due to not being tensioned, and not a lot of surround to absorb overspill...

From there you hit multiple companies. We like Carada because you get the look of the big guns for a lot less. If money is no object you have several big comapnies to choose from that offer coated screen material and of course additional options like automatic screens and electric masking systems.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
There are several good screen reviews over at www.projectorcentral.com - but not entirely comprehensive. Like other things, there is just to many screens out there to accurately test and measure them all.

Usually what you want is a screen that matches your room and typically some of the most reliable quality comes from fixed screens that hang on your wall like a picture - a very secure picture. They have rigid frames that the screen material snaps onto and you should get one with a velvet like black surround frame several inches wide to absorb any light that spills over the edge of the screen.

But, there is also pull down screens, motorized screens, and tab-tensioned motorized screens... oh, and rear projection.

Other considerations are the size of your screen and how much gain you want. Gain usually affects the viewing angle though. A 1.0 gain screen will reflect back basically exactly what you throw at it and should have a fairly wide viewing angle. A 2.0 gain screen will reflect more light back into a narrowed area which makes the image appear brighter. This may affect the viewing angle a great deal and from a single viewing position you may see the image appear darker towards one edge or another because of viewing angle differences.

The color of the screen and the material can not only affect how bright the image appears, but how dark the shadows are and the apparent contrast levels. A gray screen may help a particularly low contrast projector, but for most projectors these days gray screens aren't mandatory.

What is, and always will be mandatory is being able to make your room pitch black. If you can do that, even a white wall will look pretty good.
 
And unless you are using a really bad projector, I tend to stay away from gray screens that artificially darken the image. High gain (handy in rooms where you cannot completely control ambient light) is the other extreme, where whites are too overblown and you can get uneven hot spots.

The Studiotek 130 reference screen has a gain of 1.3. I would tend to go for that assuming you have a more recent projector with a decent contrast capability. Carada's Brilliant White has a gain of 1.4 and Da-Lite's Cinema Vision has a 1.3 gain.

While a Gain of 1.0 may seem like the best neutral gain, realize that as you go off axis the gain decreases, so it's good to have something a little higher than 1.0 to start with.
 

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Ilovemovies

Audioholic Intern
we have the cheapy pull down screne, 106", the only issue we have is that it tends to have a wave to it , we are in the process of rigging up a way with tension so this goes away

btw it really does not effect the movie whatsoever when you watch it...
 
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