Quote:
Originally Posted by
Darth Indy /forum/post/18195203
I'm guessing this would not work. Was contemplating AT screen but then remembered the freakin tv would be behind it and cause reflection.
I think Elite's AcousticPro1080 has a black backing, too, or at least it was optional. But make sure you get their 1080 rated material (read on).
I'm looking to do the exact same thing, as I want my L/C/R in-walls behind the screen. I want to put my Center just above the plasma (plasma is eye level when seated), but where the Center channel would be about the center of the drop down screen when extended. I also want a 2.35:1 CH mode since I have a 16' room width and will get a Panny4000. Will use manual AT masking on the sides when watching 16:9 content. For daytime/casual viewing, I have a 50" plasma and want to be able to drop down the 2.35 screen in front of it. I'm learning a few things that make this very expensive 1) AT screens require tensioning to work correctly, and there are no manual pull-down ATs that I can find 2) Some of the economical AT screens out there are designed only for 720 (Elite has some very inexpensive ones), and apparently aren't designed for 1080 due to the hole spacing 3) very few make 2.35 motorized AT screens and they are $$$. I thought maybe I'd just get the next bigger yet less costly 16:9 screen, then extend it not quite fully to effectively reveal 2.35:1 at my desired size, but Elite warned me that this could cause fabric waves because the tensioning won't be working correctly if the screen is not fully extended.
Achieving both (1) and (2) above seems to start at $2000 for a 130" 16:9 AT-1080 rated screen. And if you want 2.35:1 1080-AT motorized, I can't find any for less than Draper's $5k offerings! Although that appears to include some sweet secondary motorization built-in for the masking. But I simply don't want to spend $5k on my screen.
Therefore, I was thinking either...
a) Achieve AT and dropdown, but give up CH 2.35 (watch 2.35 letterboxed above and below). My 100" diagonal 16:9 at 11' viewing distance is already pretty close to the max pixel spacing. 2.35:1 Blu-Rays being morphed or zoomed to a CH screen may not look good if the 820 lines of actual BluRay content is feeding a height usually served by 1080 lines, so maybe I'm too close for CH anyway. 16:9 1080-AT motorized screen cost = approx $2000.
b) Achieve CH 2.35 and dropdown screen, but give up AT. widen my front speakers, put the center channel low under the plasma, and used a non-AT drop down screen for about $500. Better image quality too without the AT, although I have a pretty good ambient light control.
c) put the plasma in FRONT of a FIXED AT screen, which in turn is in front of my in-wall L/C/R. Then use a tv lift to LOWER the TV. A quality lift mechanism alone is about $1500 from
www.tvlift.com for 46"+ tv, plus you have to build a custom cabinet or enclosure around it. The nice thing about building it is that you can make it only about 8" shallow and not lose too much floor space. THat's about the right depth for low level built-in DVD shelves to flank the tv cabinet, too. Btw, the TVLift.com phone rep was very helpful and even pointed out some competing solutions.
So anyway, this has been my analysis project for the week, and I probably should have just gotten more work done (I do high rate hourly work) and bought the Draper! Let us know what you decide to do, as it's becoming a more and more common challenge now that people are combining panel TV and 1080 projection in the same rooms, and also more are going toward 2.35:1.