Da-Lite HCCV or Stewart Firehawk SST?

Hello Everyone!

I am new to this HT 'business', so please bear with me.

I have just purchased a Sony VPL-VW50 'Pearl' projector. 1080p, SXRD (aka LCOS), 900 ANSI Lumens. On my 'dirty' white living room wall it projects a 'Wow!', 120" wide image even on low lamp mode. Very cinema-like.

I am now trying to decide on a screen type. It must be an electric, ceiling-mounted, tab-tensioned, motorised screen, and I have narrowed it down to two choices (both 16:9, 133" diagonal, or 116" wide):

A. Da-Lite High Contrast Cinema Vision (HCCV), 1.1 gain - not cheap, but reasonably priced; or

B. Stewart Firehawk Sony-Stewart (SST), 1.1 gain, specially-designed for the Sony 'Pearl' projector - 50%+ more expensive than HCCV.

My environment is a white-walled room with minimal light control. I would be watching the projector mostly at night, from about 13-15 feet away. The projector will be ceiling-mounted.

Has anyone had experience with any of these screens and projector? If yes, your valuable feedback would be greatly appreciated and helpful for taking a decision.

Also, the other day I was watching an electric motorised tab-tensioned Stewart Firehawk screen at one of the local area dealers. What disturbed me were a series of horizontal wrinkles (4 or 5, like straight lines) spanning all across the screen that were very obvious on the projected image. The salesperson said this was normal for a rolling-up screen and that they came from the way the top of the fabric was attached, but I find this unacceptable for a $5,000 screen assembly. Would something like this be indeed normal?

Thank you.
Michael

Garman (et al.),

My white wall is not intended for the installation of a 133" diagonal fixed screen. I am using it temporarily to project on until I get a motorised screen. I had to move an entire bookshelf to clear the wall. My intention is to install the electric screen so that it drops right in front of my 40" XBR CRT TV which, in turn, is in front of the living room window. So, I could not occupy a whole wall with a big screen and also an electric screen will stay out of the way most of the time. I know the drawback: more expensive, but I have no choice (I live in an apartment building).

I would assume that my wall - very slightly pinkish with a matte aspect - has a gain in the 1.0 range. Please do correct me if I am wrong here. I am very happy with the Pearl's picture on the wall surface, even on low lamp mode (it is very cinema-like). I gather that a grey screen with a 1.1 gain would not be much different, except for providing better blacks.

A local dealer offerred me very good prices for Da-Lite screens and he would also lend me his fabric samples, so I could decide on a specific material from Da-Lite. However, he does not deal with Stewart and I was wondering if the new SST screen would be (much) better than the HCCV, in addition to being at least 50% more expensive.

Regarding the horizontal lines/wrinkles, a Stewart dealer told me that this affects all roll-up screens and it is due to the connection between the fabric and the roller (a 'bump' that leaves imprints on the fabric). But this sounds strange to me, especially when it is about several thousand dollars screens. If any of you has experience with roll-up screens, do you also get these wrinkles?

Michael

Noboby knows?...

Well, thank you all for the very interesting discussion.

But has anyone seen either the SST or the HCCV with a Sony Pearl? Is a 1.1 gain good enough on a 133" diagonal such screen? I am happy with the brightness of the image on the plain wall (although blacks are not as deep as I would like), but I am not sure whether these screens would bring any benefit to the image or actually degrade it.

How expensiveis to order samples and how responsive are the screen manufacturers to such requests?

Thank you.

Okay, so let me understand this properly. Does this mean that my plain matte wall has a gain higher than 1.1????? Because, to me, the 133" diagonal image from the Pearl on this wall looks just fabulous. Are you implying that the picture would be dimmer on either the SST or the HCCV (both having a 1.1 gain) than on my plain matte wall???... Please clarify this aspect. Thanks.

I honestly do not understand why certain people here try to convince me that a 133" screen would be too large for my Pearl. I thought I stated in plain and clear English earlier that I am perfectly happy with this size (and resulting quality) of the picture on a white-painted wall, even on the low bulb setting. It gives me a cinema-like feeling without those 'punchy', eye-straining brightness, although the image is still brighter than a cinema picture.

I was just curious if anyone would be able to estimate the possible gain value of a plain white wall. I would venture to guess that it is less than 1. In this case an HCCV should produce a brighter image than my wall.

I am projecting from minimum throw distance and my seat location is between 1x and 1.5x the screen width. Under these conditions, any higher gain screen would hot-spot and would also restrict the angle of view.

I have more than 200 hours on the bulb and I am perfectly happy with the quality of the size of the picture (133", on low bulb setting). I am not sure how much brightness loss I would see as the bulb ages, but there is always the option to zoom in and project a smaller picture on a larger screen. I suppose the other way around (i.e. projecting a larger image on a smaller screen) would be somewhat more challenging.

Regards.