[TheLongshot]

I had just gotten this in the mail. It might be of interest to some folks on here...


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Greetings Home Theater Enthusiast:


Are you building a serious home theater room in your house? If so, then you

know there's plenty of advice on the internet to help you. You can find

information on a/v manufacturers web sites, on home theater dealers sites,

from the enthusiast e-zines, and, if you visit home theater chat groups,

from other consumers. The problem, though, is how do you sort through all

this stuff for what's real and what's not? Wouldn't it be nice if there

were guides to building home theater rooms written by seasoned Custom

Installation professionals - guides that not only teach the basics but

shows how the pros do things?


The companies of Home Theater Village think there should be and have

decided to help. They have banded together to produce a series of 12 Home

Theater Design Guides that will cover all segments of home theater design

and construction. These guides will be unlike anything currently available;

they will be written specifically for the DIY home theater room builder by

practicing custom installation professionals.


The best news is that these guides are absolutely free. They are available

for download via PDF files. The bad news is that only the first one is

available now. Rest assured, however, a major effort is underway to

complete all 12 of the guides by the end of the year.


The first guide is a complete tutorial on choosing and installing front

projection screens in home theater rooms. It is a 76 page guide with ten

chapters covering all aspects involved in the design and installation of

projection screens. To download your free copy of The Front Projection

Screen Design Guide and sign up for the releases on the other 11, visit http://www.hometheatervillage.com/design_guides.html .


The folks at Home Theater Village

 

[KBK]

bump.


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goosystems.com


Ken Hotte

[email protected]

 

[Colin]

Take a look - it really is pretty good. Can't wait for the projector setup chapter (July 1st) Does anyone else know about any good resources for people like me who are really trying to do this whole HT thing by themselves - i.e what is your favorite HT DIY or setup related site


Colin

 

[MrWigggles]

Colin,


This guide is pretty good especially if you want to do motorized screens.


A few suggestions after reading:


Don't go by there typical LCD/DLP/CRT output ratings. These are a bit old and aren't very acurate. Go by the ANSI ratings of the projector. For comparison purposes only double the CRT's Lumen value to get a better idea of what it actually will do for video material. I would also say that 1-chip DLP projectors are typically overated on lumens so I would say take a decent 30% off their listed value. The result is a 1000 lumen DLP is about as bright as a 9 inch CRT for video material.


I would also try to achieve higher foot Lamberts than they mentioned. I would aim for somewhere between 20 and 30 Ft-L using the lumen value generated in my previous paragraph.


Curved screens don't have to have such high gain as they describe. It is only when they have the vu-tec surface that they mention that they have such a narrow viewing angle. A curved screen should have some gain but I see no reason for 13. Keep it around 2 or less.


Most manufacturers exaggerate their gains. Most screen gains are about 20% higher than in actuallity.


Some high gain screens are retro-reflective. This means by a certain black magic they actually reflect light back to the source regardless of the angle of incident. These screens are well suited for table top projectors. Glass beaded screens and Da-Lite's high power are good examples with the high power screen being a very fine product if you need the gain.


That's about it. It is a nice read overall.


-Mr. Wigggles


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The Mothership is now boarding.


[This message has been edited by MrWigggles (edited 05-17-2001).]