HIGH POWER a Review! Part 1 - Page 5

My projector is 3 feet over my head while seating, it's ceiling mounted and I may be able to drop it about a feet down. Will the HP offer great quality? The viewing angle right now is about 14 degree.

Also, I want a 92" 16:9 screen, should I go with the Model B or Model C is there any real advantage for my setup with a model c?

'The HP is only about 1.0 gain when used with a ceiling mounted PJ and thus you sacrifice its main advantage, high gain.'

A bit too general of a statement, depends on the particuars of screen/pj/viewer locations.

I have been away for a trip and have not been able to write to this site. I checked the screen during the day when there is light coming into the room through the windows and now, i am convinced this is really a High Power screen. I noticed the central bright cone is extremely narrow and as soon as one is out of that small cone, the screen's brightness drops to the level of a matte white screen. The brightness drop-off happens rather immediate! I think i might have completely missed the small central bright cone
the first night i checked the screen! My understanding is that this screen's application is very limited by the room's geometry and seating locations.


Ramin

My projector is three feet above my head, as well. I went from black out cloth to the High Power. It made a tremendous difference. For the better.

Can anyone help me with the angles, I couldn't figure out how to measure them.

It's always just me and my wife sitting on a couch. It's a 52" x 92" screen (106" 16x9). Our eyes are at 36" above the floor. The screen bottom is at 36" above the floor also, so the center of the screen is at 62" from the floor. The projector lens is above the top of the screen at 90" above the floor. And the projector is right over our heads. The viewer to center of screen distance is 14' and the projector lens to center of screen is 13.5'.

I can draw out the triangle but can't figure out how to make the angles. Any help is appreciated. I think we're outside the viewing cone, but wanted to check.

I got an HP sample from Da-Lite two days ago. I was impressed by how responsive they were to my e-mail and how fast the samples arrived - just a couple of days. (Vutec has yet to respond to my e-mail.) I got samples of all their screen fabrics in a book, rubber cemented in for easy removal.

My high tech method for testing the HP sample at different screen positions was to use a bag clip, twine and a heavy stapler, which I put at different positions on top of my Firehawk, wrapping the twine to adjust for different heights.

I recently got a Sharp 20000 1080p DLP and it's a little dimmer than I'm used to. One look at the HP brightness difference was enough to sell me. I'm in the process of figuring out how to create a telescoping mount for the pj that I can change quickly and easily for different situations. I plan on bringing the pj down from near ceiling level much closer to eye level for the vast majority of viewing (without guests). For times when people are over, I want to be able to move the projector up (while it's off, of course) quickly and make a lens shift adjustment, and be up and playing in under 5 minutes.

I positioned the HP sample, then moved around the room. I paused my Dish 622 on a recorded program, so that its white progress bar was at the bottom of the Firehawk. I stepped off to the side and noted that there wasn't any appreciable difference in brightness. As I moved back and got closer and closer to the projection lens, the sample lit up like a torch. The Firehawk's gray changed to brilliant white.

I'm going to have to do a little rearranging to get the HP to give me the gain I'd like. After seeing it, though, I know it'll be worth the effort. Right now, I can't take advantage of the smallest iris setting on the Sharp, because it's just too dim with the Firehawk. After reading Greg Roger's review of the 20k, I'd like to be able to get the 7,000+ CR it's capable of. Right now I'm using the medium iris setting and eco lamp mode, and the contrast is very good, but I think the HP will make it possible for me to use High Contrast mode (fully closed iris) and still have much more gain than I have right now.

The trick is to come up with a telescoping ceiling mount. I'd also like to make it easy to move laterally. I'm going to speak with a carpenter friend to see if we can come up with something that will make it easy to go up/down/left/right easily and quickly. That is, unless someone here has already come up with such a solution. Anyone?

I went through the same gyrations you are planning on going through with the HP. Threw in the towel on the HP and got the Vutec SS. All problems solved. Great gain with ceiling mount and from all the seats in the HT.

What type of room do you have: all black/dark room surfaces, no external light, or light-colored walls or ceiling, etc.? My impression (from reading--no personal experience) was that the SS was very susceptible to ambient light, either reflected or external. What do you find? Tx, Bill

Looks to me like your viewing angle is ~18.5, which would put you outside the cone. You probably wouldn't see much difference between the HP and a matte white screen.

Thanks a ton, that's what I was thinking. Doesn't sound like it's worth replacing my $2k Cosmo Electrol Tensioned HCCV.

Tryg, Any estimate of when Part 2 will come out? Tx, Bill

That would be super! And I look forward to meeting you at the CES.

Also, if you have any influence in organizing the AVS reception, please ask them to have NAMETAGS at the entrance, and pens so that people can label themselves by their AVS name. This would be most helpful in being able to meet people who we've exchanged so many posts with!

If I adjust the location of my projector a bit, I think I can reasonably get the projector to be 12.1 degrees off my eye level. Is this acceptable for the High Power? Tryg, what is your projector to viewing offset?

My measurements will be 163" from screen to projector, my eyes will be ~35" below the projector.

Because there is so much interest in the HP, I went back to my notes taken when I measured the HP so that I could post exactly what I measured vs the generalized statement I posted earlier in the thread. See my prior posts for details on the ceiling mounting position of the PJ relative to the screen to judge viewing angle. The uniformity errors introduced by the PJ itself have been subtracted out of the results. For gain measurements I used a StudioTek 130 as a baseline for what 1.3 gain measures at.

Gain at the center of the screen: 1.17
Gain at the edge of the screen measured from the Prime Seat: 1.17
The HP is just as bright at the edges as it is in the center when measured from the Prime Seat. Of the screens I have measured the one which came closest to matching this performance was the Carada BW which was 7% dimmer at the edge than in the center when measured from the Prime Seat.

Gain measured when the viewer was seated 30 degrees to the side of the Prime Seat: .76 (which is about a 36% reduction).

Gain measured when the viewer was seated 45% degrees to the side of the Prime Seat: .75 (which is about a 36% reduction). For comparison, the ST130 experiences a 40% reduction in gain when measured the same way.

Color error introduced by the screen:
At the center of the screen as measured from the Prime Seat: +.0023x / +.0043y
At the edge of the screen as measured from the Prime Seat: +.0013x / +.0049y
At the center of the screen as measured at 30 degrees and at 45% from the side:
+.0013x / +.0033y

Color error is a numerical description of how distant a color is from the reference color. ISF standards require that the instruments used to measure the color D65 White for the purpose of gray scale calibration be accurate within .0040 in x and y. The color error introduced by the HP is pretty minor. Though there are a few screens out there with better color uniformity, the HP is better than most in this regard. It would be of no concern to me if I needed the HPs gain. Besides, if you have your PJ calibrated by an ISF who uses a spectroradiometer, it gets factored out in the calibration. Also, very few PJs come calibrated this close to D65 from the factory. However, when it comes to PJs with UHP/SHP or other mercury lamps, they tend to come from the factory too green, which is the same direction as the color error introduced by the HP.

In a previous post I mentioned a high gain Vutek screen that measured well. It is the Pearl White. It measured at 1.84 gain. It has exceptional color accuracy and color uniformity. It hot spots like most screens that have a gain higher than 1.0. In brightness uniformity it is about halfway betrween an ST130 and a Firehawk.

Glenn

glenned, thank you for posting your measurements. Looks like I would see zero benefit with the high power. Thanks for saving me a lot of money and effort. Oh, and my wife sends a BIG thank you!

Tryg,

This Highpower screen is something else. Thank you very much for all your over the top contributions. If it were not for you, I doubt I ever would have gotten around to buying this screen. Way to go man.

--------------------------------------

I had been viewing my new HP for a couple of days outside of it's optimal viewing cone and considered it nice enough. However, today I lowered my AE900U considerably, so now it's shooting only a few inches overhead. The increased brightness is very noticeable. I guess I'm seeing around a 2.4 gain. Before seeing this screen in action, I thought the graph Tryg posted of the viewing cone / gain may have represented the viewing cone to be much tighter than it probably is. However, I now consider that graph to be much more representative of this screen's performance. The screen looks nice if you're outside of the optimal viewing cone, but it looks so much brighter and IMO better when viewing within it. I'm now seeing a definite increase in perceived contrast. More of my observations to follow at a later date.

I have a Panasonice AX100 720p projector. I've thought about upgrading to
the Panasonic AE1000 1080p projector, but hasn't done so. The main reason
is that my current AX100 can project a much brighter picture than the AE1000.

Now that I'm getting the Da-Lite High Power screen, I'm starting to wonder
what the AE1000 will look like.... Perhaps it's time to think about upgrading
again?

Any High Power screen owner out there with the Panasonic AE1000 1080p
projector? How do you like the combination of these two?

Thanks!

I'm new to screen research, so I'm open minded on the subject. What about hotspotting, sparkles, consistency of light across the screen surface from different angles with the SilverStar? Is the gain consistent throughout the theater or is it significantly different depending on the seating?

I think the surgery to my projection mounting setup is very workable for the High Power. On the other hand, if I can just put up a new screen and use my existing high shelf mount, it will make things easier.

What do you think, Tryg? I read one of your threads from a few months back where I believe you said (hope I'm not misquoting), "I have five screens and I use the SS exclusively." Did I get that right? For overall image quality, how do the two compare? From the perspective of someone who has watched both extensively, what would be the obvious disadvantages in choosing a SS?

I have pretty much a batcave. Ambient light is not a problem.

One thing I don't care as much for is the look of the fixed wall frames from Da-Lite. I have a very classy Firehawk frame that I'd love to keep. Has anyone attached an HP or SS to an existing frame?

Here's a thought I've had that someone here may be able to comment on. I was thinking as I moved around in the HP cone that it might be possible to maintain a pretty consistent screen brightness over the life of a projector lamp by using a telescoping mount. Every couple of hundred hours, lower the projector by an inch or two - closer to eye level. I think this is going to be doable in my theater. Any thoughts?

I have a crt now,and are on the JVC preorder, I got samples of both the HP and SS,double seating, back 222" from screen, 52x92now, screen center 40" from ceiling, proj. Lense center 12" from ceiling. Placing both samples at top , the SS had the advantage, as the samples got lower and lower the HP seemed to loose its power gain although its seems to have much better off axis light rejection. I am looking at going larger, either 54x96 or 58x104 with the new JVC ceiling mounted similar to the existing crt. will the hp lose its power at that offset??????????Will the 58x104 be too big and lose too much foot lamberts, proj. will be at mininium distance,
Thanks,
Neil

Apparently, you and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to this screen. Poke around on the Chief website, and you'll find telescoping extension posts, laterally sliding brackets, turnbuckle strut supports; everything you could possibly need for projector positioning flexibility/effective gain control.

Thanks. Do you have a link for the Chief website? Nothing helpful comes up when I Google it.

Thanks. Very helpful!

Once you figure out everything you need, Tryg can likely get you a really good price. The only negatives I see, are an extra ( though relatively small ) investment in what will most likely turn out to be a rather ungainly looking set-up, and a very limited sweet spot. But these trade-offs are more than worth it to me for the added punch, brightness uniformity, and good color accuracy which this screen offers, along with the ability to control gain.....besides, FP is necessarily about compromises anyway.

You were right. Everything I need. Perfect!

Thanks again.

I'm planning on using my existing projector shelf. Instead of setting the projector on top of it, I'll mount it on the bottom. You're right - it won't look as elegant, but I have a few ideas to make it a little more attractive. The main thing for me is the image. I probably use the home theater for private viewing 98%+ of the time. On those occasions when I have people over, this sort of arrangement will allow me to optimize it for a larger group in a very short period of time. Then it will back to normal viewing. With these parts, I can get the projector within a few inches of eye level, or start higher and lower it as the bulb ages to keep brightness uniform.

I hope it works out the way you want it to. I plan on just using a big stalk hanging from the ceiling near max throw, as low as I can get it without object interference in the light path. I'll lose some lumens by moving it back, but that should also effectively maximize contrast, and the HP has more than enough gain to make up for whatever I lose. Of course, I may also need to slick my hair down so it doesn't make shadows on the screen.

I won't have much of a problem with the hair. There isn't that much left.