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Vutek Silverstar owners, your input is requested

1139 Views 14 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  hmcewin, 
K
I am very close to buying a screen. I'm very much leaning toward the Silverstar. I just don't want to be taken advantage of when it comes to price. I'm asking the following if you own a Silverstar screen:


1.) Are you super happy with your purchase? (no regrets)

2.) how long ago did you buy it?

3.) What size and aspect ratio is it?

4.) Is it fixed or electric?

5.) Did you order it with any kind of masking?

6.) How much did you pay for it and from where?


I don't know the dealers in my area from the local hair salons so I'm just trying to get some idea of what others paid.
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K
Thanks Darry,


I don't think anyone's likely to have exactly what I want so I'm hoping to just get a general idea of what they are going for aorund the country.


I'm looking for a 90" 2.35:1 AR wall mounted fixed screen with no masking.

I've been given a quote but it's about 2/3 the amount I paid for a 76" Stewart electric screen several years ago and more than double what a Carada screen would cost so I'm concerned that it seems a little high. I have no idea what the going price is for these screeens so I'm just trying to avoid having my lack of knowledge in this area become someone's financial gain.
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M
Quote:
Originally Posted by kheiden
I am very close to buying a screen. I'm very much leaning toward the Silverstar. I just don't want to be taken advantage of when it comes to price. I'm asking the following if you own a Silverstar screen:


1.) Are you super happy with your purchase? (no regrets)

2.) how long ago did you buy it?

3.) What size and aspect ratio is it?

4.) Is it fixed or electric?

5.) Did you order it with any kind of masking?

6.) How much did you pay for it and from where?


I don't know the dealers in my area from the local hair salons so I'm just trying to get some idea of what others paid.
1. SS is a great screen. There is only one disadvantage IMO. There is a screen sheen that bothers some viewers. It is similar to the sheen on a lot of the rear projection DLP, LCD and SXRD displays.

2. I've had the SS about 15 months.

3. 92" 1.78

4. I didn't know the SS could be electric. It is a hard backed material.

5. No masking....just the 1.5" border.

6. Call Jason. Bought it through AVS.


FWIW, I am now using an ugly white HP pulldown. ;) If the HP works for your application I strongly recommend you consider it.
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I have 5 screens. I still use the Silverstar exclusively! 2 or 3 years now? Haven't seen a surface that I like better. I would love it if they could be made bigger!
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I grew to despise the sheen on white material. The picture would look real except for the sheen area, where you could (a) see the screen and then (b) see the sparklies.


Others aren't bothered.
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smithfarmer
Quote:
Originally Posted by kheiden
1.) Are you super happy with your purchase? (no regrets)

2.) how long ago did you buy it?

3.) What size and aspect ratio is it?

4.) Is it fixed or electric?

5.) Did you order it with any kind of masking?

6.) How much did you pay for it and from where?
1) Yes and if I had to do it over again, I would still buy this screen.

2) Jan 2005

3) 120" diagonal 16:9

4) They only come in a fixed frame.

5) No, but I did get the 3.25" black velvet border and highly recommend it.

6) I'm ashamed to admit that I never gave AVS a call. Forum policy dictates that we aren't allowed to discuss prices. I bought mine from Polivision through Videogon/Audiogon who were AVS forum sponsors at the time and paid around $400 less than anyone else was selling it for online.


As far as sheen/sparklies are concerned, the only time I could really see it was with a brand new bulb while watching surfing shows and it was on the foamy portions of breaking waves/ocean surf which was a bit strange as I couldn't see it on snowy scenes or on icebergs/glaciers. I bought an ND2 filter for $35 and it solved the problem for me.
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Hmm. I didn't know people coldn't discuss prices here. Bummer. By squelching that bit of information the forum it's probably making it easier for dealers to get whatever price they want...and the dealers sponsor the forum. Interesting.


That sheen thing seems universally viewable. I should really go look at one of these up close before purchasing.


What's an ND2 filter? Sounds like the way to go if one wants the SS.
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smithfarmer
In light of all the allowed price talking going on about the Pearl in the >$3500 pj forum, I will tell you that excluding shipping (I picked mine up from their factory), my cost was under $2K. Prices may have went up since then. You really should call AVS for a price.


The main reason that I put an ND2 filter on my pj was to help eliminate the Screen Door Effect. The brighter the pj, the greater the chance of seeing SDE. This is especially true for older 480P pj's like mine. A neutral density filter reduces light output without affecting the color balance. You can read about them here:

http://www.camerafilters.com/pages/nd.aspx


Last night I read of Allen Gouger saying the SS did not produce the sparkly effect using a CRT and someone else who thought the sparklies were actually the SDE that was being highlighted by the SS.


Being curious, I took off my ND2 filter and played an episode of Bikini Destinations from my DVR. Sure enough, the sheen/sparklies was actually the mirror grid (SDE) caused by the DC2 DLP chip in my pj. I put the ND2 filter back on and everything was back to normal. I could still see the SDE very faintly from my first row of seats at 1.8 x screen widths away, but there are no sparklies/sheen.


Maybe the problem with people seeing sheen/sparklies might actually have something to do with the pixel fill factor(a higher fill factor means less SDE) of their chosen display combined with how bright their projectors are.
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Wow, that's fascinating information. Thanks for the details. I'm using an AE900U and I haven't seen a screen door effect in test runs with this at all.
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R
Quote:
Originally Posted by smithfarmer
I

Last night I read of Allen Gouger saying the SS did not produce the sparkly effect using a CRT and someone else who thought the sparklies were actually the SDE that was being highlighted by the SS.

.
I'm not going to argue with Alan since I have no idea what he said.


That aside, the sparklies have >>nothing
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smithfarmer
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogo
I'm not going to argue with Alan since I have no idea what he said.


That aside, the sparklies have >>nothing
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OK, I don't believe they've changed the Silverstar formulation, and no, I didn't mean glossy. Perhaps shiny wasn't the right word, no matter.


As for the greater distraction from screendoor, that's simply consistent with the fact that the brighter the whites get, the more that anything can interact with the sheen/sparklies.


Honestly, for me without any apparent SDE, the sheen was annoying. If you are seeing the SDE exacerbate the sheen or more accurately, the visibility of the screen as opposed to content that makes it worse.


It should come as not even slightly surprising that the ND2 filter helps and works for you. Anytime you cut the light output, you are going to minimize this effect. The less projector light, the less light to illuminate the screen surface. It should be noted that it seems to take something awfully close to bright white to make this negative effect occur. Anything that is a different color and it's either invisible or simply inapparent to me (and I believe most others).


My comments about non-productive are important because I don't want people to even think for a second that a high-fill-factor projector will make a screen issue go away. Maybe it's even worse with LCD than DLP or LCOS, but it's there with those. I've seen plenty of Silverstar demos to be certain of this. I've also talked to enough AVSers to know that some of them love the screen anyway, are not bothered by the effect, etc.


No one should buy a Silverstar without seeing one, however.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tryg
I have 5 screens. I still use the Silverstar exclusively! 2 or 3 years now? Haven't seen a surface that I like better. I would love it if they could be made bigger!
Hey Tryg,

I don't hang out here quite as much as I used to, but how long have you been officially on staff at AVS??

I have always held your reviews as some of, no, not some of, THE best reviews I have seen on screens. They are incredible. When surfing this forum, therefore, I have always read your posts with a little closer eye.

Now I see in your signature line that you have an official gig with AVS.

You certainly have the credibility. How long have you been "in the fold?"
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I've been doing it a couple weeks now.


It's pretty cool when you can get someone into a product that's the best available. Especially when it's their first front projection system. You know their jaw is gonna hit the floor.


I bought my first digital projector in 1992. Man were they bad. we've come a long way!
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H
Quote:
Originally Posted by kheiden
I am very close to buying a screen. I'm very much leaning toward the Silverstar. I just don't want to be taken advantage of when it comes to price. I'm asking the following if you own a Silverstar screen:


1.) Are you super happy with your purchase? (no regrets)

2.) how long ago did you buy it?

3.) What size and aspect ratio is it?

4.) Is it fixed or electric?

5.) Did you order it with any kind of masking?

6.) How much did you pay for it and from where?


I don't know the dealers in my area from the local hair salons so I'm just trying to get some idea of what others paid.
Yes. super happy.


Six months


110 inch 16 by 9


no masking
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