[garbage98]

Hi folks,


I'm in the middle of planning my new house and have to make some decissions for choosing screens. Unfortunately I have no dealer at hand which has a wide selection of brands. As I am located in Germany the most offered manufacturers are DAVISION and IMAGE.


Short explanaition what I'm looking for. I will have a dedicated home theatre in the basement which is going to be a bat cave. But this project has to stand behind building the house and is going to be finished later (building houses is quite expansive here).


I'm planning a second set up in my leisure room. And this is the project I'm needing your help now. The leisure room has quite a lot of ambient light which is dimmable but I strongly prefer not to use this option extensively. I know, there goes the black level, but this is not my main focus because for cinema there is going to be the dedicated cinema room in the basement. The main focus is to watch TV (news, dokus and a lot of sports, soccer mainly) which is material black level is not the most important thing. Of course I dont want to exclude the possibility that the setup wont be used for a few films (especially when the main theatre is occupied) but it is not the common every day usage.


Because of the combination usage the only option for the leisure room is a In-cieling screen. A big flat screen is not an option because on the one hand it cannot dissapeare like a cieling-sreen and on the other hand even a 65'' solution would be simply too small for my taste

... yes, I think size matters a lot and the flat screens are cute but nothing for grown-ups

.


The next point is, that I dont want a light cannon. Not for now but in the near future I am strongly looking for LED-based projectors because of the big advantages for every day usage (switch the projector on for watching the news or a TV show without worrying about lamps etc.). Of course I'm not going to buy the very first LED machines and I'm going to wait for brighter ones but I think 1000lumens is the magic number to wait for (to get the new projector within my lifetime is an important thing too).


The screen size should be something about 220cm to 240cm (width) but I'm willing to compromise the screen size if I have to. I'm also willing to black out direct sunlight on the screen. I also have high flexibility for mounting the projector.


I have not much expirience with screens, I have used a simply white one for a similar setup (175cm on a SIM2 HT380) which I have exchanged for a 0.8 gray one for better black level, as I am using the current setup for everything. I'm strongly playing with the thought to use a high gain solution the next time but all my local dealers are trying to talk me that out. They argue with the degree-dependence (this setup is only used for one or two viewers at the same time) and mention some kind of pearlescent colour in white areas of the picture and so on.


I know many people are very happy with their high-gain setup here in this forum. What do you think is the best solution for my problem? If you think high-gain setup is a good choice for me it would be great if you can write me some recommondation because I have to ask my dealers for these ones as they have no high-gain solution in their protfolio.


Thanks!

 

[FLBoy]

I have a family room similar to what you are describing. It has white walls and ceiling and lots of windows all around. I use a 100-inch (diagonal) Da-Lite High Power screen very effectively in this room, but I do have to close the light-blocking shades to get a decent black level during the day. My projector is installed at seated eye level and shoots over a narrow table between my two main seats. This gives me a screen gain in excess of 2.0.


Since I have to close the shades manually, I prefer to watch TV news and other brief programming on a small flat panel display in the same room. I save the big screen for special events anytime and movies mostly at night.


I think the HP screen would be an excellent choice for your situation, but you will need to block all light sources coming from behind your viewers and projector. Properly set up, the HP does a good job of rejecting light coming from the sides and from above and below, but it does not reject light coming from behind the viewers and on the viewer-to-screen axis.

 

[speciman]

I also have a Da-Lite High Power screen with off-white walls and ceiling and a Sony Black Pearl PJ. It is a retro-reflective screen so having a ceiling mounted PJ would result in a noticeable dropoff in gain. I love the screen, but I normally watch it from sundown onwards, because of the light blacks with ambient light. Although I do watch it with some side lighting, mostly because the wife doesn't like it totally dark. But the imaging is very acceptable.


I know there have been favorable reviews of Vutec's Silverstar screens, which is angular reflective, so a ceiling mounted PJ would be optimal. Some reports of sparklies have been noted, but those would appear during very bright scenes.


Screen Innovations has their Black Diamond screens with 0.8 and 1.4 gain. The Black Diamond screens are angular reflective. Those will have better blacks, but they won't have the pop that the higher gain screens have. Although, you could offset that with a higher lumen PJ.