screen for hd70

Silverscreen paint is definitely the cheap easy solution and gives a good picture. Based on the criteria and projector it seems like a good choice. The HD70 is a bright PJ and can use a little help with the blacks, so grey/silverscreen sounds like a good choice.

rabbi7,
I'm in somewhat the same situation. I want the HD70 for my basement, but I'm having difficulty deciding on what screen material. I've found a relatively inexpensive high contrast grey, but I'm not sure about it and have no expericence with projectors or screens. I'm hoping others will jump in and comment more.

Dalite Hi-power is a great screen. How many lumens is the HD70?

Scott

From the audioholics review of the HD70:

Brightness: 1000 ANSI lumens (high power mode)
Contrast: Up to 4000:1 (AI mode)

in the same boat as you. I'm buying a hd70 soon and need a good screen. Not sure if I wanna paint one though.

I'm using a Da-Lite 106" diag 1.3 gain with my HD70, looks fantastic and plenty bright in this light controlled room. It's way more than a few hundred dollars though.

I picked up an HD70 this weekend and after browsing through a multitude of posts I went with a WilsonArts Designer White D354-60 laminate screen. I have a local dealer so I called them up and ordered an 8'x5' sheet. Once I got that home, they rolled it up for me, I hung it up and I think it looks great. The picture is extremely sharp and I can even have the lights on and still see the picture just fine. I haven't really checked to see how good the picture is from the sides but you could check for other posts on the material to see.

One of the forum sponcers sells the Optoma Grey Wolf II for really good bargain compared to every where else. You can get the 106" diag manual pull down for 2 benjemins.

Then later if you want a more proffessional looking screen then a manual pulldown you can cut the screen material off the roller and staple it to a DIY Wood frame. Add a little Black Velvet around the edges and you have a nice 106" fixed frame for about 2.5 Benjemins total.

The Gray Wolf II will also provide the following benefits:

1. Grey screen so will improve Blacks and contrast

2. Great at rejecting Ambiant light from the sides, so daytime viewing with some shaded sunlight coming from the sides works well, or night viewing with side lights.

3. 1.8 gain if used with Table or center screen rear shelf Mounted (Using Keystone for center screen mounting)

4. If you are ceiling mounting the projector you will lose most of the 1.8 gain because of the screens retroreflective properties, but still can get in the 1 to 1.2 gain range depending on setup.


P.S. - You can also build a DIY BO cloth screen for around 50 bucks total cost and about 2 to 6 hours time depending on how handy you are with DIY projects.

do you know what sponsor that is?

Visual Apex is looks like ... I was curious myself so I clicked all the sponsors names

Okay, that sounds good. I kept seeing posts where people said you lose the gain when it's ceiling mounted, but I don't remember seeing anything about what the resulting gain would be in that case. I'm projecting onto a gray wall for now, and it still seems too bright, so I don't think I would be happy with a white screen.

For the smaller sized screen that I'll be using and the relatively low mount, it sounds as if the Graywolf will work. I will be projecting onto a 92" screen with a ceiling mount that extends up to 14" down from an 8-foot tall ceiling. Eye level is about 38", so I figure the projector would be about 42-44" higher.

i was wondering if anyone with a hd 70 could post their results with what screen they are using or have compared. It seems like there are a lot of hd70 folks out there that are interested in this info.

Also would like advice on my particular setup:
I'm going to be mounting my hd70 near the ceiling with a throw distance of 14.6' for a 106" screen or a throw distance of 16.8' for a 118" screen.

Using projectorcentral's calculator, for the 106" screen they recommend a screen with a minimum gain of 1.1 for a image brightness of 12fl
or
for the 118" screen they recommend a minimum gain of 1.4 for a image brightness of 13fl

Viewing distance will be around 12-14'
Room is only 14' wide so angle of view shouldn't be an issue
I have pretty good control over ambient lighting but would like to be able to watch with a reading light on
The walls are a dark color but the ceiling is flat white (i might consider painting the ceiling as I've read that it will make a difference but will leave it alone for now)

I'm currently projecting onto a beige wall and i'm loving this thing so a screen should be even better.

I'm looking to spend at max around $1200 but if I can get away with less that would be great also.

From what I've read, it seems like a grey screen with a gain of around 1.5 would be best overall for a bright screen while enhancing blacks. But I'm open to recommendations in gain, material, and brand. I'm also open to style of screen. Either a fixed mount or even electric if I could swing it.

I've been looking at Carada, Da-Lite, Elite, Vutec, or Draper.

Thanks

I have has the HD70 and GrayWolf II 92" pulldown screen for about a week now. The only problem I have noticed is the appearance of minute specks of bright white light on the screen. It almost looks like a pinhole in the screen with a light shining from behind. It only occurs in the bright scenes and if you move your head, it disappears.

I'm assuming it is because of the texture of the screen, but it can become bothersome.

I don't know for sure, but could it be a defective screen?

It's the texture. I see it on mine too.

I use a $35 blaclout cloth screen I made with a wood frame and flat black painted corner trim to frame it in...108" looks good with my HD70
I just gave my Behr silverscreen paint screen to my buddy to use with my old x1...it was limited in size to a 4 x8 sheet of gatorboard. It did have slightly better blacks but at the cost of a slightly crushed picture...colors and white just looked slightly dingy...But it was an excellent screen none the less and unless you had it against a white screen you really wouldn't notice it. plus the viewing on these solutions is the same brightness from anywhere in the room.

are DIY screens really that good compared to something like a Da-Lite screen?

Is there any way to fix the GrayWolf screen with regards to the small light reflection spots? Would a white screen be better for a ceiling mounted PJ?

Thanks

Not to sound like a jerk, but did you turn the brightness down?

I picked up a HD70 a couple of weeks ago to replace my wonderful but aging X1. The HD70 is decent colors out of the box, but way to bright. IMHO, just turning down the brightness give an awesome improvement.

You might check out the review at Projectorreviews.com. Art gives the setting he settled on and they are pretty good.

As for a screen, for now I'm using a white cloth screen I made for my X1. It is 94". But I really want a slightly bigger image (100-102), so I'm going to build another. I'm going to go with one of the WilsonArt laminates. Either the DW or FG, I haven't decided yet (but leaning towards DW).

While folks have posted some excellent directions on how to paint, I just suck at painting. So I'd really rather go with a cloth (BO and the such) or laminate.

Yes, of course I did try turning the brightness down. While the overall brightness went down, the blackest areas of the image weren't dark enough. This was distracting with black bars, which stayed a dark gray no matter how much I turned the brightness down.

I understand that with digital projectors you don't get a "true" black. With that combined with the ample brightness of this projector, I think it looks better with a gray screen, as you have enough brightness but with a darker black level.

Got the HD70 a couple months ago.
I painted some tile board with behr siver screen, than toped it off with a
poly/silver screen/wht layer.
It looked great for a short time till I started noticing imperfections as in: sunburned faces on people, dingy grey whites (especially Hockey Ice) & sometimes just plain funky colors.

Than I started wondering;
Is it because thats the downside of this projector?
Is it because the walls of my room are to light a color?
Is it because I had to align it and keystone to fit the screen?
Is it because I suck at painting and/or picked a bad color screen to use?
Is it because I just suck at calibrating it?
Is it a combination of all these things?
Is it because I get a headache thinking about all this?

What would be nice is if someone who switched from a DIY to a real screen would post their
thoughts.

I cant wait till later today (XMAS EVE) till someone tells me how great it looks and I start thinking of all these questions again.

I have not noticed that issue with my HD70 even using a white cloth screen. For example, I tested my settings the other night with Star Wars and I could barely tell where the "black" bars started in comparison to the dark star fields. I thought it was pretty decent blacks.

Now if you go over and look at the DIY screen section, there are some posts using the Fashion Grey from WilsonArt. No doubt the blacks are blacker. But then I got distracted by the whites being a little "dirty" looking.

I think I'm going to continue to use my white screen a little more, to see how I like it for a few more movies. The football game today looked very good on it. And in fact my X1 use to crush some whites on OTA HD, but not the HD70. But I think the HD70 (at least in my set up) would work well with a white screen.

its all in the way you have it set up...brilliant color adds a lot to the over the top whites....As for black level I think its pretty dam good, better than my x1 was. There are a lot of factors here that could effect this like the color of the screen and the size as well as room color and also the fact that some people are very very picky...they forget this is a $900 projector.. There has to be some overhead for better performance at a higher price. BTW the picture does tone down a lot around 100hrs and Arts setting do wonders to get rid of the wacky colors and sunburned faces...(projectorreviews .c*m)

I recently picked up a HD 70 for my dedicated Home Theater, replacing a JVC HX2. No, Its not in the class of this projector, as I am selling my home an equiping an affordable option for the buyer. I am amazed at this little projector and using my Hi Def Gray screen from Draper will great results. My preference would be a low gain screen like mine or any number of gray options. This projector certainly has enough light output and , with a gray screen, I 'm able to get good black levels. At the time I bought the HX 2, it was around 15,000, including the Draper Onyx Material with the high Def Gray Screen. Let me say that the gap is alott closer than you might think and the Grey screen material seems to suit it well. The main difference is in the optics and pixel fill that a Dila offers. But whata nice projector for under a thousand bucks. I havent seen it on a white screen but cant imagine it doing better than a low gain(.9) screen. Fishman

Vote for Carada BW (i have a 100" BW + HD70)

I'm using a Draper Salara High Contrast Grey manual pull down screen with my HD70. It's a .8 gain screen. I'm throwing a 92" 16:9 screen at about 12.7ft viewing distance. I'm around 12-13fL. It's plenty bright in econo mode and can get really bright with everything turned up. I've had to squint during certain movie studio intros where they have a "flash" white area. There is more than enough brightness if I don't want to completely light control the room. Whites are ever so slightly dirty, but not that you will notice unless you have a direct side by side comparison. As for the waves, you only get them bad if you keep retracting the screen when you are not using it. I leave mine down. It's not perfectly flat, but I also don't notice that it's not. If it concerns you, get a tensioned pulldown, but they are more money. My screen was $300 shipped. A little over your price range with projector + screen, but I'd recommend spending the extra money.

[quote=richard_rd]One of the forum sponcers sells the Optoma Grey Wolf II for really good bargain compared to every where else. You can get the 106" diag manual pull down for 2 benjemins.