The official SeymourAV center stage screen thread! - Page 2

I should be about 13 feet back from a 120 wide screen 2:35, JVC RS1

Yeah, roller deflection is about the last thing that I am concerned with . No screen material on the market could make my roller sag.

Sweet, I'd appreciate that. The Mrs. and I have been wanting to see that movie probably pick it up this weekend. Thanks for the effort on the pics.

Just got my material delivered today, a day sooner than expected. The material was packaged extremely well (this will allow for easy storage) and I was given an extra foot, I believe because it was the start of a new roll. This is great because I want to go as large as I can with the space that I have and this helps to allow for that.

Looking foward to get things rolling and this certainly gets me motivated.

OK, I've got some screenshots posted in my gallery. These are from some scenes of the HD-DVD movie "Pitch Black". Here's the link to my gallery.

mlbrand's gallery & screenshots

Screenshots look awesome. Thanks for posting.

I've just bought my SeymourAV material for my future DIY screen and I would like to point out that the service is really amazing: prompt email responses, very good packaging and fast delivery.
Chris is really helpful for any kind of problem you may have with your screen.
SeymourAV is truly highly recommended.

Just my two cents

Davide

Great job! What type of masking are you using? I know Chris will sew on black velvet. I am painting my masking on. Chris is adding the tensioning system to my screen,DIY roll down model. I am going to experiment with that and see how it works.

Thanks! I am using black velvet on the top and bottom of the screen and spray painted flat black Krylon on the sides. I am going to try using some of the black backing material to mask the sides 1.85 movies, when I get time to do it. I will probably paint the backing material with a light coat of the Krylon as well, and use velcro to hold the masking material on the screen.

If you want to see some pictures of my screen and DIY roller tensioning strap go here SeymourAV screenshots and scroll down to the last two pictures (Mike from OK). My screen is very accessible, so it's really easy to manually roll up and down.

Here is another method of attaching a screen to a fixed frame wall. We've done this a few times and it works pretty slick. Here is a picture of just the screen trimmed in 2" velvet borders. This one has the fabric tilted 15 degrees to handle higher pixel densities for the future.



The quandry is then how to attached it to a wall or fixed framing. What this customer is doing is building a false wall out and covering the framing with black GoM fabric. With Velcro bonded and stitched on the back of the screen, they then just need to attach the mating velcro to the framed opening. Here is a picture of the backside of the screen where you can see the 1.5" wide Velcro, stitched to the screen.



Here is the screen rolled up (it's a fat roll due to the thickness of the Velcro), and the mating adhesive Velcro included. While the mating Velcro is adhesive backed, you'd want to use some staples to make sure it doesn't move over time.



The installation should be a breeze, with a no-brainer way of adjusting to make sure it's drum tight. Hopefully we can get some of the installation pictures from the customer and see how it goes on the other end. But I thought with all the DIY "issues" we face out there, folks may find it interesting.

Cheers,
Chris

Thanks for posting the pics, Chris. You have earned my business!

Now I just have to get the cabinet guy to hurry so I have a final measurement for the screen to give to you. Take care!

My screen was delivered by Fed-ex. It was mangled with the fabric twisted and dirty and the tube doubled over upon itself. Fed-ex guy dropped it off and ran to his truck and took off! My subdivision is gated with only one way out. I jumped in my Jeep and waited for him to make the loop through the subdivision to exit. He was really speeding but I stopped him. He asked me how he could help me? I told him that I could not accept the package because of how badly it was damaged. His response," I didn't not do that. You must have done that because it wasn't like that when I delievered it, I would have never delivered a package like that." Can you believe that?!! Finally after a heated argument, he agreed to take the package back only if I would sign for it. I refused at first but finally signed my name with REFUSED written in. Of course Chris is first rate and is taking care of all issues for me. Not his fault, Fed-ex sucks. Chris was easy to reach and quickly jumped on top of the situation. I think you are really defined by how you handle bad situations and Chris does that well.

Chris,

Slick new screen idea! I can't imagine having DIY get any simpler than that, and as usual it looks like it's very well thought out. I would bet that this will be a very popular screen option, nice work.

Mike

I'm building my false wall today and hopefully will have some pictures of the install after the weekend. First I have to get the package from FedEx though. I had to put in a formal request for them to "hold" it at the facility because yesterday when I called with the doortag to find out when I could go pick it up I was told that FedEx home packages do not go back to the terminal overnight but rather stay with the drivers. So that kept me from getting the screen yesterday. But, if it is at least not mangled, I'll be happy.

Because that Velcro-backed screen needed to roll up into such a fat roll, I used a shipping tube that is around 8" diameter and about 1/4" thick solid walls. I think it weighed more than the screen. If gorillas hand carried it down to you, it wouldn't be damaged.

Of course if anything were less than perfect let me know.

Cheers,
Chris

Yeah, the package looked perfectly fine when I got it. I haven't opened it yet because I don't want to damage it myself. I figured inside that tube was the safest place to keep it while I'm constructing the wall. I should be ready to open it up and mount it tomorrow sometime.

Here is a shot of the screen mounted. The wall is not finished yet, but you can get the idea of how it will look/work. With a little effort I was able to get the screen what I would consider "very flat" with the exception of the bottom left hand corner. There are some definite wrinkles I was not able to get out with the amount of effort I was willing to spend. I will have to take the screen back down again to continue construction, so I did not want to spend too much time on it. When it goes up for the final time, I will spend as much time and effort as required to get it perfect.

Also, please don't poke fun at the framing. I am a computer scientist, not a carpenter. The bottom portion of the wall started out in life as a riser that I decided not to use, so that is why the beams are running the wrong way. The rest was constructed out of leftover 2x6's. They are overkill for a false wall, but I already had them so my cost was essentially zero.

Omnius,

Thanks for posting the pic of your mounted screen, what a great yet simple solution.

Do you have a projector yet? If you do, are you able to shoot any pics of it in action?

Don't worry about the framing, looks fine and it works.

Yeah, I have a Sanyo Z4 that I've had for about a year. You can't see it in that picture, but behind that screen was just a white rectangle on the wall that I have been previously using as a screen. I watched a movie with the theater as is last night just to test it out and it looked very good. With an image projected on the screen I was unable to see the minor wrinkles I mentioned before even though I knew exactly what I was looking for and where they were. So I am very pleased with that.

I have no experience with taking pictures of projected images, but I do have a tripod for my camera so I'll see what I can do when I get the time. I probably need to finish the area up so it can do its best. The wall directly behind the screen is still flat white, so I do get some light bouncing around back there at the moment. I have some black Linacoustic that will be going up there soon, so I'll wait to take pictures of it in action until after I get that up.

Anyone else have pics of their screen?

We will be exhibiting at this year's CEDIA Expo in Denver in booth 3305, so if any of you are planning to attend please stop by and say hi. I couldn't afford a booth babe, but our best looking person Steve has agreed to wear a wig, maybe even shave. Jim said he'd wear a thong if I let him go, but that would be wrong on too many levels.

We'll be featuring a Center Stage screen (what else, eh?), but in the new tab-tensioned design which will become a standard feature. More details on that will come out shortly.

Looking forward to seeing you...

Cheers,
Chris

Look forward to seeing the new design Chris! One of these days I'll finally have my room painted and stage built.

FYI, an article I wrote on center channel design is now out and linkable through avs here or here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=879041

I looked at several of the compromises that are made when redundant drivers are used horizontally in center channels. There are better, less expensive alternatives out there that can yield you a more consistent response across all of your seating. This "Thinking Vertically" makes a case for why serious audiophiles put acoustical transparency as a requirement for their screens, but also showcases best practice for everyone.

Cheers,
Chris

chris,

do you actually loose resolution since ther are perforations on the screen? (127 inch film sitting 9 ft away for both 720p and 1080p viewing).

Hi Ned -

If "127 film" means a 127" diagonal 2.35 aspect ratio, then the screen would measure 49.7"x116.9". Assuming a constant height setup, a 720p pixel would measure 0.069" square each. A 1080p pixel would measure 0.046" square. The holes in a common microperf screen measure 0.020". And finally the holes in the woven Center Stage screen fabric measure 0.007"x0.008".

With regard to the woven fabric, your pixels would (at worst) be 6x larger than the holes in the fabric. This means that you could only lose a portion within the pixel, never any full pixels themselves and no loss in resolution.

If I got your screen dimensions right, your pixels versus the holes should look like this:


You really only get into trouble when you pack your pixel density unreasonably high. Tilting can alleviate any moire effect, but if you're trying to pack a 1080p image on to a very small screen (for a projection - say, <80" image width) you can see some artifacts start to occur.

Cheers,
Chris

Chris , it is 127 inch wide. Is your screen angular or reflective? What does the 15 deg angle do?

Hi Ned -

A 127" wide image would have pixels about 9% larger than I illustrated below. You would be that much further from any issues with the holes in the fabric.

The fabric is reflective, but with a wide viewing width of 160 degrees, would be considered a "scatter" type screen like is found with unity-gain screens.

A 15 degree tilt randomizes the hole structures with regard to the fixed panel display's pixels. By effectively randomizing the interaction of the two patterns, moire can be reduced or eliminated. Realistically, it's a very uncommon effect, and only a concern for high pixel density images. As projectors' pixel fill ratios continue to increase and their structure becoming more smooth (e.g. Smoothscreen), it is less and less of an issue. Still, an easy fix.

Cheers,
Chris

Just received my SeymourAV screen. Very well packaged for transit. On the customer service front, Chris has been fantastic-- timely updates and great answers to my silly questions. I highly recommend this company.

Now a question for the group: I got just the screen with velcro, no motors or rollers (like this: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10743210 ). It'll be mounted to a lightweight frame and I plan to place it about 24" from my front wall.

I'm hoping others may have already done this and can provide a smart solution: What is the best method for placing the screen?

Should I just hang it from the ceiling with eyebolts (would I need to secure the bottom somehow?), or maybe create some sort of a frame that attaches to the front wall of the room? I'm looking for a "clean and uncluttered" installation, there is no other framing or anything at the front of my room, just a 6" tall stage.

Thanks!

- Nuke

By being retro reflective that would reduce the gain since my projector is ceiling mount. I was hopping that it would be angular reflective since I'm coming from a high power.