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Help me evaluate screen samples

258 Views 8 Replies 4 Participants Last post by tlastrange, Sep 9, 2001

JJ Davis

Discussion Starter · Sep 5, 2001

I recently acquired a JVC G-1000 DILA projector and have been shooting it on a beige wall to determine what picture size best suits my viewing. Stewart sent me several screen samples that I received yesterday. I have a large piece of Grayhawk material, a smaller piece of StudioTek 130 and a piece of StudioTek 130 microperfed. I have taped them to the wall for testing - the Grayhawk roughly in the middle of the screen area with the two smaller StudioTek pieces to the left of the Grayhawk piece. I watched segments of several DVD's last night and played with Video Essentials (I'm no expert with this at all). I noticed that things definitely look different with the screen materials vs. the beige wall. However, sometimes I think the Grayhawk looks too "bluish" or maybe its really gray. I seem to notice this with white scenes.

What have other people done to audition screen materials? Do you have any "reference" DVD's that you have tested or patterns you have used? I know that the Grayhawk is considered to be the thing to have with digital projectors but before I spend that kind of money, I'd like to know for sure that I will indeed like that image.

Thanks,

John

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tlastrange

· #2 · Sep 5, 2001

I'm no expert but recently did the same thing with Da-Lite materials coupled with my NEC LT150. You can see what I did by following the "screen tests" link in my signature.

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Tom L.

NEC LT150 FAQ

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James W. Johnson

· #3 · Sep 6, 2001

tlastrange, it seems your textured wall does a pretty darn good job compared to most of the fabrics, the only fabric that stands out is the high powered..in your last pic of Woody's face the high powered fabric is the only one that rendered the true colors, also this is noticable in your Vertical Limit shot.

Could you decribe this high powered material to me, what does it consist of , is it suitable for stretching and stapling?

Thanks

Edit: its clear to me that if you could stand anything less than the high powered materials performance that a nice smooth wall painted with a carefully chosen paint could easily outperform most of the fabrics you have.

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James' DIY Speakers

[This message has been edited by James W. Johnson (edited 09-06-2001).]

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Andrew Low

· #4 · Sep 7, 2001

James, while I have a Draper M1300 screen -- I'd have to agree that a DIY solution can look really good. Its hard to beat the price performance ratio of a DIY screen.

In regards to the GrayHawk looking "bluish" (or whatever). You need to take into account that the viewing environment is going to have a huge impact on how you view things. This goes for comparing any screen material.

Human vision is very forgiving, but there are certain things that do "catch your eye". Best example of this is the extremely high brightness/contrast settings used by default in most consumer TVs. Far higher than you want/need for optimum viewing as we've all learned by using AVIA or VE. Why do the default to so bright? Sells more TVs.

What about color accuracy? Well, VE has a test sequence that shows a center window of a fixed color, and then varies the surrounding background color. As you watch this sequence you see the "fixed color" section get redder, then bluer. Hmm. Yes, it is an optical illusion.

Where does this leave the high end consumer trying to make the "right" choice? In a difficult position certainly.

Without finding a store that will demo exactly what you want (screen + projector) you're going to have to make a leap of faith.

If you can put together a home brew optical comparator this will help with your color perception. Search the forum(s) for optical comparator.

Black level and image quality you should be able to check for with the samples.

Roo

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tlastrange

· #5 · Sep 7, 2001

Quote:

Originally posted by James W. Johnson:
tlastrange, it seems your textured wall does a pretty darn good job compared to most of the fabrics

If you go with a wall, you definitely want to make sure it's smooth. Check out Woody's face in the full size image below, you can easily see the texture of the wall.
http://wsphotofews.excite.com/026/Tw/nm/LI/Rl98441.jpg

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Tom L.

NEC LT150 FAQ

My stuff, pictures, HTPC, and screen tests

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James W. Johnson

· #6 · Sep 9, 2001

lastrange , thanks for posting that large pic, what materials do you think perform best with your NEC? Since you are there you can get a better idea of what looks best, I am sure we will both agree that pics don't tell the whole story.

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tlastrange

· #7 · Sep 9, 2001

I bought a Da-Lite high power. I guess that pretty much says it all...

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Tom L.

NEC LT150 FAQ

My stuff, pictures, HTPC, and screen tests

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