Which 1.3 Gain Projector Screen Material Should I Buy? (1 Viewer)

[NTLKnight]

I'm about to buy projector screen material for our new HT setup. I'm still deciding on the exact screen size, but it will likely be between 165" - 175" 2.40:1 aspect ratio...and I'll be building the screen frame myself. I'm looking for 1.3 gain material...and not acoustically transparent. I'm not sure where the best place to look or shop for such material is, I'd appreciate any insight!

Thank you,
Nathan

 

[Dave H]

The Stewart ST130 G4 is the gold standard if you're aiming for the 'best' 1.3 gain.

 

[NTLKnight]

Thank you for the answer. BTW, where would I find that Stewart screen material to buy?--I couldn't find an online retailer. Also, if this is the "best"...are there other options less expensive?

My wife asked me the other day, if instead of building a screen, could I just build a drywall "screen" to put over the wall we'll be using as our screen...and paint the drywall (or plywood) wall/screen with the proper paint. (She asked this, because for the last 2 days (since our Epson LS12000 arrived), we've been casting onto our drywall wall...which is painted with glossy light blue paint...and the image looks pretty good.) Is it a given that a proper (DIY) screen with 1.3 gain material will look better than a painted wall?

Might as well ask also...does glass make the best screen for projectors?

 

[NTLKnight]

Hello again! After using our new Epson LS12000 for the last 5 weeks and watching dozens of movies and shows, we've finally decided what size screen we want to build! Although we were somewhat set on the idea of going with a CIH scope screen, the hands-on experience we've had over the last month...watching content in several different ARs projected on to our wall has convinced us that we don't want to limit any of the ARs we watch to a certain constant height size. Since the real estate is right there (our wall), we feel like we're selling ourselves short when we don't use it...as long as the image is not too big to block the speakers, or a 2nd row of seats (or bean bags), our whole family agrees that bigger is better in our case! When we watch 16:9 content like the documentary A Perfect Planet...and we zoom the lens out to as big as it can go whilst leaving enough space from the bottom of the screen to the floor, it blows our socks off! When we watch scope movies and zoom out even further (all the way), where it fills up nearly the full wall from side to side (whilst leaving a little more space to the floor from the 16:9)...it still reserves that big wow moment for scope movies! With that said, we would like to build a screen that is 162" (13.5') long and 76" (6.33') high.

The following is a bad picture to show, but I may as well give a little context to help visualize our space and what we're trying to do. We have been leaving about 1" - 1.5" of free space between the top of the image and the ceiling regardless of the AR we watch. For the *tallest* content we watch (16:9), we try to leave about 20" of space between the bottom of the screen and the floor. This allows us to see over anything (or anyone) in front of the main viewing seats and the screen. As a result we've decided on a a 2.4 scope size of 162" long and 67.5" high (175.5" diagonally), then the other 4 or 5 ARs we've encountered are all a little narrower, but incrementally a tiny bit taller.

The conditions (of the screen) we've been watching our movies on this whole time has been less than ideal. We have a glossy-painted wall that is sky blue. There's a fireplace in the middle of the wall...which we've covered with a white sheet. But even with these terrible conditions, the image is so big that we get completely immersed in our movies and don't even realize the poor screen conditions. I've noticed that the glossy paint job on the wall has a sparkly-type of reflective effect on bright images the projector casts. It's too bright sometimes with the bright images as a result. And because of the sky blue paint, the color is probably a little more blue than it should be.

Yesterday I remembered I had a B&H green screen that has white on the other side. We brought it into the living room to do some A/B comparisons between the wall and the white material. I can't tell if this white spandex-type material is positive gain, or negative, but we noticed a big improvement to the image overall compared to the glossy-painted wall. The image is sharper, the colors are better. However, the black levels on the glossy-painted wall are actually better...they're black, while they're more of a washed-out gray on the white material. I took some pictures last night to show this.

First, here's what the wall looks like with the white material on a frame, leaning against the wall (with the lights on so you can see)...

And here's what it looks like with a white image being projected on to it. We've known all along that the glossy wall kind of sparkles when bright images are projected on to it...making bright scenes a bit too bright. The white material doesn't do that...

Here are 2 images to show how the glossy wall seems to handle black levels better than the white material (you may need to zoom in to see better)...

And here are a couple other pictures showing how the brights are shiny on the wall...and the pixel clarity is not as smooth as the white material...

Someone recently suggested I look into laminate material to build my screen, Wilsonart D354 to be specific. They don't sell that material in big enough pieces for the screen I need to build. What would you think about that as a screen alternative?

SilverTicket said they would send me samples of their DIY materials (though I think you need to buy the samples). They agreed that a 1.3 positive gain screen would be good for the size of screen we're going for. I think they only have 2 options for 1.3 DIY screen material, a white option (which may not even be big enough for us) and a gray option. What are the differences between using a white screen and a gray screen? The fact that the black levels look better on our glossy wall than the white material makes me wonder if the screen color has an effect on overall performance or black levels.

Thank you for your time!
Nathan

 

[DaveF]

Thank you for the answer. BTW, where would I find that Stewart screen material to buy?--I couldn't find an online retailer. Also, if this is the "best"...are there other options less expensive?

From an authorized reseller or maybe direct from Stewart.