Home Theater Screens

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Yes, I know this is an audio site, but a lot of us are using the audio as part of a home theater, and may benefit from my screen experience.

1. I have installed an 11'-diagonal Draper Luma II manual pull-down screen ($400, including shipping) and a ceiling-mounted NEC front projector. Since doing the installation and not being happy with movie picture quality, I've done some additional research and learned that bigger is not always better. When one is "too close" to a front-projection image, the picture does not integrate, with the result that one sees pixellation and shimmering of edges as the image pans. "Too close" is 1.5 times screen width, and that's marginal. Twice screen width is considered by many to be optimal. With an 11' diagonal screen, 1.5 times screen width would be about 14', and twice screen width would be about 18'. My general viewing position is about 14', so I've zoomed the image width to about 7'.

2. My screen has waves in it. I'd call them wrinkles, but they are smoother than wrinkles. In a complex image, the waves don't intrude. But with a scene not containing a lot of content (e.g., landscape with sky, or a Windows PC desktop), the waves really irritate. I'm letting the screen hang for a few days in hope the waves smooth out, but am not optimistic. I probably should have sprung for the "tab tensioned" version, which costs three times as much. May still have to do that and junk the current screen.

[Lwang]

My screen is 100" diagonal (4x3) (80" across) Da-lite model B rear-tensioned, and I sit roughly 11-12' away beeing fed by a XGA (1024x768) projector. That would make it roughly 1.6x distance. With a 4x3 image, image might be a little too big, but with 16x9 source, things looks pretty good.

Pixilation and various video artifacts are sometimes caused by bad de-interlacing and/or scaling. I have a Focus Enhancement Quadscan Elite that scales the source image to XGA before being fed to the projector. Not the greatest piece, but does anomorphic scaling for me. I might still see the screen door effect if I stare at it, but that could be somewhat resolved by de-focusing the lens enough so that the pixels overlap slightly so the dark areas between the pixels are not as prominent.

I got the rear tensioned pull down screen because I had the fear of screen wrinkles would cause the image to be sub-optimal. What actually happens with the tension bar is that it holds the bottom bar roughly 3/4 or the way out from the center. Pulling that section causes the tension to be applied there, thereby slightly wrinking that part of the screen right above the bar and causing a few wavy creases toward the outer part of the screen as it moves upward. Originally, I got the high contrast 1.5 gain screen. The wavy part of the screen in which it was least perpendicular to my field of view becomes noticably darker, eventually becoming annoying enough that I exchanged it for a 1.0 matt screen. Even though the waves are still visible in ambient light (especially with off centered light source that could cause shadows), they are not visible with direct light source like the projector.

It would probably have been better off for me to get a non-tensioned screen, since the tension bar forced the screen to be at only one position, which is fully extended. With most of the stuff I watch (16x9), I could probably not have the screen drop all the way down, and allow my center dipole speaker to breathe a little more.

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I have two screens made by Draper. Both are fabric with "HiDef Gray" 0.8 gain surfacing. One is a 6' diagonal tripod-mounted unit, and the other is an 11' diagonal ceiling mounted unit. The tripod unit has a friction lock. Once the position is set, you push down hard to stretch the screen, and the friction lock holds it there. This makes for a fairly flat surface. The ceiling unit just depends on a heavy dowel on the bottom to stretch the screen. That doesn't do nearly as well, and it appears there may be some inconsistencies in the attachments at the top and bottom that mean the waves will never settle out. Your tensioning bar probably has the same effect as the friction lock on my tripod unit.

Draper also sells a "tab-tensioned" screen made of coated vinyl. Each of the side edges has several tabs with a tensioning cable between the top and the dowel. They claim this results in a very flat screen. Link below.

I'd be very interested in any experience anyone has had with this kind of screen

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http://www.draperinc.com/Screen_Pages/SilhouetteC_projection_screen.htm

[Lwang]

My rear tensioned drop down screen has the same result as the tripod screen, except it has a hinged bar that straightens out to form the tension bar at the rear. That means it has one single drop down position as opposed to the multiple position on the friction lock.

Tab tensioned screens are like 5x the price, and they require alot more space, requiring it to be installed inside the ceiling.

[Retread]

The Draper tab-tensioned screen costs about three times as much as the regular screen. The cross-section dimensions of the case are slightly smaller than the regular screen. Wall or ceiling mount. To accommodate the tabs, the case must be longer, which means to fit a tabbed screen in the same length, the screen would have to be smaller (e.g., 7' width instead of 9' width).

It's long been an axiom of audio that the entire system will be no better than the speakers. I'm coming to understand that an imaging system will be no better than the screen. It appears that a great screen will cost about the same as a VTF-3R, which I have.