Anyone went from Dalite High Power to High Contrast Matte White?

If you are seeing gray that only means there's something within your field of vision which is of higher luminance. What you perceive as white is determined by the "anchoring effect" ie: the brightest is perceived as white. Once you remove that the next brightest is perceived as white and so on and so on. Case in point, many years ago when I was looking at several different screens to replace my diy blackout cloth screen I taped 4 or 5 samples of higher but relatively similar gained screens to the black-out cloth and projected a black screen then asked my wife which one had the lowest black level. She gazed at me with that look like I had recently suffered a significant brain injury and after moments of pause finally replied "what do you mean black, all the samples look white".........

I've been going through a recent theater overhaul and have taken down the 2.8 HP screen. In the interim from time to time I fire up the PJ and project on to a gyproc primed wall which is of significantly lower gain from all seating positions but the general consensus with the family that the image is far better from a perceived contrast and optical purity point of view.

My last screen before the HP was the High Contrast Cinema Vision - somewhat similar to the matte white. I would never go back. I'm keeping the HP. I still have the ol' Cinema Vision around somewhere, but I have absolutely no desire to use it.

If you go bigger, keep in mind that your brightness is going to be reduced, making the blacks appear darker. The bigger you go, the bigger that reduction in black level, so there's a great incentive for a giant screen! I went from a 120" HCCV to a 168" HP (cinemascope).

If you're finding that your blacks are too grey, you need to reduce the overall brightness from the projector, either through projector settings or if that's not possible, adding a neutral density filter. That brightness reduction can take away some of the "pop" in a situation where you have some ambient light, but has very little impact in a darkened theatre. Your eyes adjust very quickly to the brightness that is being provided, and you still will retain all of the other positive attributes of the material.

The HP spills FAR less light onto the sidewalls, and reflects far less light BACK from the sidewalls to the viewers, helping keep the blacks darker than an angular reflective screen (assuming you're not in a batcave, and set for an equivalent perceived max brightness). It also reflects the projected light back to you much better from the edges of the screen than do angular reflective screens, helping maintain a very good perceived contrast right to the edges. My HCCV seemed incredibly washed out on the screen edges by comparison - the bright sections were darker, and the blacks were also somewhat elevated from sidelight reflection.

By reducing the brightness, you should be able to get the black levels to a comfortable state and still maintain the greater "pop" that is possible with the HP.

Each person's situation, installation and criteria are unique, but the move you're contemplating isn't one that I'd make.

You're saying the image projected on the wall looks better than on your HP?

$ to donuts your problem is the pj, not the screen.

What's its CR?

I tend to agree. I would not get rid of the HP...period. I never see any advantage to using matte white, bright white, etc plain jane screens.

I went from HCMW to High Power 2.8 on my DIY frame and I would never ever consider going back to the HCMW. Keep the High Power. Unless you have light coming from behind you this screen is better everwhere to me due to percieved contrast thanks to the higher brightness of non black areas. Everyone is different however but that's my two cents.

We started with white - tested Da-lite gray - would never go back to a white. WAY too much light reflected back into the room and gray makes the scaling bars almost invisible and better performance with low ambient light on the occasions we need a bit of room light.

Agreed..........I just went from a 1.3 gain ST130 to the 2.8 HP and blacks still look great to my eyes using a RS40.

Increasing your screen size will effectively lower you black level.