I wrote this in another post, but I really wanted to ask the question directly to those who have High Power screens as I feel like I may be missing something. How do you deal with the varying brightness in images from different seating positions? Do you just calibrate your system for the sweet spot seat or do you try to do "middle of the road" settings so that the image looks decent from all seating positions? Or is my set up just not right for High Power due to the viewing angles from my front row seats and the fact that my projector is ceiling mounted?
Thanks,
Craig
Following is my original post:
"Actually I did get my hands on some Da-Lite screen samples and taped them to my screen last night. They were High Power, Video Spectra and Matte White. From any one of my second row of seats, the high power really blew the other two away with a much brighter picture and intense colors. The video spectra was slightly brighter than the Parkland screen it was taped to and the matte white looked just like the Parkland.
The problems came from my front row seats which are about 5 feet closer and 12" lower. From the center seat the high power was much less bright than from the back row and looked about the same as the video spectra. Again, the matte white looked like the Parkland. However, if I moved to either side seat in the front row, the high power dropped off to look like the Matte White and Parkland (actually maybe even a little darker), with no apparent change in the video spectra.
So it appears that with the High Power, I would have three very different images depending if you are sitting in 1. the back row, 2. front and center, 3. front and side. Given this situation, and the fact that my favorite seat is front and center, how do you set up the projector? It seems if you adjust the brightness and contrast for the front and center seat, it will be too bright for the back row and too dim for the front side seats and vice versa if you set it up for the other seats. If it was just a minor difference it would not be that bad, but we are talking about major differences in brightness here.
If I just had the one row of seats in the back I think it would be a no-brainer and I would get the High-Power. However, with my current set up, I think it would make me crazy for everyone in the theater to be seeing different images. The Video Spectra was pretty consistent from all seating locations, however, there was a "sparkliness" to the material that I am not sure I liked, and I have heard some bad stories about waves in the fabric on a pull down. The matte white was very consistent, however, it looked just like my Parkland and I would not consider it an upgrade.
Any suggestions?"
Thanks,
Craig
Following is my original post:
"Actually I did get my hands on some Da-Lite screen samples and taped them to my screen last night. They were High Power, Video Spectra and Matte White. From any one of my second row of seats, the high power really blew the other two away with a much brighter picture and intense colors. The video spectra was slightly brighter than the Parkland screen it was taped to and the matte white looked just like the Parkland.
The problems came from my front row seats which are about 5 feet closer and 12" lower. From the center seat the high power was much less bright than from the back row and looked about the same as the video spectra. Again, the matte white looked like the Parkland. However, if I moved to either side seat in the front row, the high power dropped off to look like the Matte White and Parkland (actually maybe even a little darker), with no apparent change in the video spectra.
So it appears that with the High Power, I would have three very different images depending if you are sitting in 1. the back row, 2. front and center, 3. front and side. Given this situation, and the fact that my favorite seat is front and center, how do you set up the projector? It seems if you adjust the brightness and contrast for the front and center seat, it will be too bright for the back row and too dim for the front side seats and vice versa if you set it up for the other seats. If it was just a minor difference it would not be that bad, but we are talking about major differences in brightness here.
If I just had the one row of seats in the back I think it would be a no-brainer and I would get the High-Power. However, with my current set up, I think it would make me crazy for everyone in the theater to be seeing different images. The Video Spectra was pretty consistent from all seating locations, however, there was a "sparkliness" to the material that I am not sure I liked, and I have heard some bad stories about waves in the fabric on a pull down. The matte white was very consistent, however, it looked just like my Parkland and I would not consider it an upgrade.
Any suggestions?"