Jamestown or Elite Please Advise - Page 23

Haha. You are a fool for that! hahahahaha

Just screwin' around.

No pun intended.

Have any of you compared the Jamestown or Elite to the DIY Black Widow screen? It is what I have but I'm looking to upgrade.

If the differences in the screens is pretty much the screen material, can you not buy the material that is used on a $1k, $3k screen? I can buy the same leather they use to make a $10k sofa.

Just wondering.

I was wondering where you were gettin all of those pictures with the words on them but the last picture gave it away.

That's pretty much what I did by using Seymour A/V AT material with a Jamestown frame - much cheaper than a Seymour or SMX screen, but I got the AT material that I wanted. Now of course Jamestown offers the Seymour material as an option from the get go. But you could do the same thing with other materials, assuming you could buy the material separately.

So I was told last week it would ship then (week 8) and then early this week was told it would ship this week. So....

Week 9 ticks to a close and still no screen... tick tock.... tick tock....

it took every bit of 9 and a half weeks to have mine ship.

I think I've now read the entire thread and have a few quick questions. This is my first HT.

1) I'm all about bang for your buck and the Jamestown screens seem to fit the bill. I need it to be AT so I'd ask for the Seymour material, is that right? I don't see any mention of that option either on his site or Ebay so do I need to call or email him to order it? Any idea of a price for a white Seymour in 120" or 130"?

2) This might not be the place to ask this but I haven't researched it yet: If I'm going to watch movies 99% of the time should I go with 16:9 or 2.35:1?

The house won't be ready until May so I have time especially with his current ship times. Thanks for the help guys and hope you get your screens soon.

1. $550-ish based on publicly available eBay prices.
2. Unless your using a lens, you'll be doing some poor man zoom so I'd say 16:9 with masking panels to get it to 2.35. Best of both worlds type of compromise. That's what I'm doing, anyway. I'd rather pull some panels off to play XBOX in 16:9 at full screen rather than play it at half the size on a 2.35 screen. Just MHO.

On, and one more thing... I now have a tracking number. Hallelujah. If all goes as it should, I will receive my screen 10 weeks from order date.

10 weeks is way too long for a screen.. I can't wait that long.. I'd rather get an Elite and pay the extra $$$ and have it in a few days via Amazon prime

Not me. My screen would have cost me over 500 bux more going through Amazon to get an elite screen. Other than the frame, the screen is better.


Orangeballer......I would go 2.35. If you are stricly going to watch movies on it. If you want to watch tv or play video games on it you can still do that in 2.35 content. You will need a Video processor to do so at the very least. I watch all content and video games in the 2.35 format.

Screen arrived today. 10 weeks from order date. I built most of my theater by myself including hanging two sheets of drywall by myself in this time. Insane.

Screen assembly took me a solid two hours mostly due to my being overly cautious with it. What would I do if I if I needed to start this process over due to a mistake? Yikes.

The screen came with instructions that were good enough for me. Not sure that average Joe would have figured out the order of install for the center supports for the AT screen given that the directions are geared towards the non-AT material. Quality of the frame is suitable to me. I recognize the velvet border as being the same fabric I got from Syfrabics for other parts of this project. I see what folks mean now about the screw depth for mounting the frame but I don't think it's an issue. I only had one screw spin freely out of a couple dozen, so I'm happy.

The Seymour fabric is fantastic. I was using the grey spandex from Spandex World as a temp screen. Focus is now uniform across the screen and brightness is WAY better. Had to calibrate the PJ again to get the dark levels in line with the new screen. I'm also now able to properly backlight the speakers as I planned all along. The spandex didn't do it at all. Now its perfect. Big WOW factor. I'll take pics when I finish the panels on the screen wall.

The frame itself was contorted out of align when I tensioned the fabric so I, too, put two screws through the frame border to bring it in line. Sue me. All I know is that I'm sitting here right now happy at last. And the split in the top and bottom borders doesn't bother me because my whole screen wall is black velvet so it isn't noticeable at all to me.

I also don't see the weave from 9-15 feet (my two rows distance)...
Edited by Unacceptable - 2/12/13 at 8:21pm

i just replaced my jamestown screen with an elite

ok....so are you waiting for us to ask why? or do you not want to say?

to big,not sturdy enough ,crooked
went from 130" to 120" elite Ez frame

if you did not want to go smaller would you have bought the elite screen?

yes.
very easy to put together,very sturdy,very light,good looking

yes.
very easy to put together,very sturdy,very light,doesn't twist, good looking
going to play around with it a lot more this weekend but from what i saw so far i love it
but to be honest i gotta say the jamestown screen puts out a awesome PQ

I was going to ask what you thought about the differences between the screen material. Yea I agree with you on the frame part. i was not impressed at all. Nothing stripped or anything but the frame would sink down on both sides. My screen is 2.35 and is about 12 feet long so I was thinking it was because of that.

how does the elite material go into the screen frame? can jamestown material be used with the elite frame?

its very very easy to put it together.no the Jamestown material cannot be used with the elite frame.not flexible enough.

Dang it!...I'm going on 8 weeks! as of today...

You will have it soon. Not too much longer. Probably be at your door in 2 weeks.

elite 120" ezframe 1-1 gain
epson 5020

Okay all...I get this may take a while to get a screen. That said, this may not be the right place to ask this but have some technical screen sizing questions.
I spoke to James on the phone and he said that the MAX size screens they can make are:

For a 16:9 - the biggest they can build is a 153”
Viewable of 75” by 133” and total including frame of 82” by 140”

For a 2.35:1
Viewable of 61” by 144” and total including framing of 68” by 151”

So....

For a 16:9 - Viewable of 75”(H) by 133” (W)
For a 2.35:1 - Viewable of 61”(H) by 144”(W)

My concern is this..yes the 2.35 is wider but because a 16:9 uses a "greater height"...but to view 16:9 movie on this 2:35 screen and in order to get it to fit in the 2.35 dimensions, I actually have to shrink it down and it will use a narrower width, correct?

If I calculate this right it means that the viewable at 16:9 on this 2:35 screen will be 61"(H)x108"(W), correct? Again if I am understanding this correct, if I go with this 2:35, when I then watch a movie in 16:9 that means I am loosing 36" of width. OUCH!

So in the interest of the best of both worlds, (I.E. Max screen for both formats) if they can/will build the following..what if I went with a screen that had the max 2:35 width (144") but with their max 16:9 height (75")??? I'm thinking that I could then just mask (via a vertical short velvet curtain on top) for 2.35 movies and open it up for 16:9 movies??? Am I missing something? Can/will this work?

Thx in advance!

TOU

Yes it will work, its called Constant Image Area (CIA) - I did that for the same reason - mine is 136" x 64", a 2.125:1 aspect ratio. Works great and gives me the level of immersion I wanted for both 16:9 and 2.4:1 movies. I don't currently mask.

Thx Brad.

Okay I just did some more measuring. Having a 24' x 27 ' dedicated theater room with total light control, you would think I could go massive. In the end, its not the length or width of the room that ends up being the limiting factor in this decision. Nor is height or the width of the screen per se. In the end the its the total HEIGHT of the room that is my limiting factor...that and reality of viewing.

The deal is this, I have gorgeous LARGE wood book cases on each side which I want to retain...and.crown moldings on top & base boards bottom. Next to the book cases, I currently have large tower speakers which are 10.5" wide. What I am left with total is 131"(W) x 86"(H) between moldings. So...I think I have decided to go slightly smaller screen in the interest of maintaining some elevation to the screen when utilizing a 16:9 format...AND maximizing the actual viewing dimensions when 2.35:1. Does that make sense? So...if I am calculating this right...

I'm going with a 137" x 80 screen including the black borders. (3.5" black velvet borders on top, bottom and sides.) On a 16:9, this will leave me with a viewable screen 130" (W) x 73"(H) which is nearly 12.5" diagonal or +149". With 2.35:1, the viewable should be 130" x 55" with viewable 9" boarders on top & bottom which I think should be livable for the 10-15% of the time I use it on this ratio. This will elevate the viewable screen about 15" off the floor (perfect for my sub & center channel) and you won't constantly be looking down and only slightly up with 16:9 movies...but with maximum width. With 2.35:1, its even better.

Yes this maxes it against the sides of the speakers (also completely blacked out) with the lower portion of the side borders...which will all but be covered by the speakers...except 0.5" of black velvet. I'm thinking, this way if I go with smaller speakers in the future I still have an all around good screen size.

Am I off on my thinking or calculations????

Oh...and I decided against the Seymour option (additional $200) as I'm not really trying to hide my speakers anyway. I think for the price this completely custom option is a bargain & I'm really looking forward to it. Now....the wait.

Thx for the input in this thread it and others were really helpful.
Edited by TOU47 - 3/4/13 at 3:35pm

Additional considerations:

- the bigger the screen, the brighter the projector has to be, and more lumens can get expensive (keeping image quality constant)
- how far away are you planning on sitting (front row)? and how many rows of seats? you can get the same level of immersion with a smaller screen by scooting your seating closer (meaning you don't need a torch of a projector to light it up)