CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[CRT_Ben]

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Hi all,

Helping my dad build a theater, and he's sticking with a pretty small screen for his Sony 1252. I figured I'd get him a 6' wide 16:9 screen, so 72"x40.5", and I figured I'd add 6 inches on all sides to be extra safe as I've never stretched a screen before, making final dimensions 84"x52.5". Hurley writes back and says that anything taller than 51" will have a seam? I know it doesn't matter in this case, but I was considering Superglo for my theater and this was to be a test drive of sorts...I know a few people out there have Superglo screens - do they have seams in them, and are they visible? This is what Hurley said:

" The material we have is 51" wide, so it will have one seam in it.
We use a patented seaming process that is virtually invisible when an image
is projected on it. "

Thanks,
Ben

[Nashou66]

WTS has a hurley screen, And in my correspondence with them they never told me about a seam?I wonder if its on all there screen materials? I need ot send them an e-mail now I want an 13 foot wide 2.35 screen.

Athanasios

[CRT_Ben]

[Nashou66]

here is there info on it:

http://www.hurleyscreen.com/process.html

I guess it sounds ok, as long as it is not visible

Athanasios

[CRT_Ben]

Part of my recent conversation with the Hurley rep (Ed, super guy):

Me: For this current order, assuming the 52.5" width is achieved by bonding 51" of seamless material with a 1.5" strip of material, then the seam will not be on the viewing area, but instead wrapped around the back of the frame for attachment. So assuming that at least 51" is seamless, it won't be a problem for this order, it just might affect my future order depending on what I think of the seam.

Ed:We don't seam it that way. The seam will be in the middle of the viewing area. We won't be able to ship this until next week, so I'm sending you a sample of the seam. I think you'll find you wont have a problem.

So, I'll let you guys know what I think of the seam. I'm wondering why they always put it in the middle, but oh well?

[Nashou66]

I was going to as Ed about sending me one too, But from what WTS has said he really likes the hurly he has(superglow) its a 1.5 gain, I am getting the MW-16 gain or 1 for my blend, i plan to make the frame with aluminum or steel tubes and mount them to the wall with pipe stanchions , then find a suitable spring and use that for each gromet hole to keep a tension on the screen so over time i wont have to tighten it up once the string stretches out.

Nashou

[CRT_Ben]

Bad news.
Ed sent me the sample seam last week - with the projector off, it's easily seen from my 9-10' seating distance, with the projector on and an all-white field it's a bit harder to see but still very visible. With normal video rolling it's harder to see, but it's still there and is most visible on light, solid color fields. I'll take some photographs tonight and put them up but to me, it's unacceptable to pay my hard-earned money for a screen that essentially has a manufactured defect.

For comparison, Dalite says this on their website: "Matte White, High Contrast Matte White and Video Spectra 1.5 fabrics will be seamless in all sizes. High Power fabric up to and including 6' high will be seamless." IMHO, unlimited (within reason) seamless height is great, and 6', or 72", is a much more reasonable number than 51" and would likely accommodate most smaller screens.

HOWEVER, there is a problem. Ed neglected to tell me this until after I signed the work order and after my credit card was charged. So when I asked him to reverse the charges, he replied:

"Unfortunately, your screen has already been manufactured and is scheduled to ship as per the signed work order and as all our products are customized, cannot be re-stocked. Therefore, we will not be able to reverse the charges on you credit card."

My take on this is that any screen limitations should have been disclosed in full prior to payment and manufacture (he knew full well the exact screen size I wanted from the beginning). Instead, he waited until I had no choice to tell me of this. So the question is, do I refuse the shipment and run a chargeback??

Ben

[garyfritz]

Tell him you will, because he misrepresented the product. I guarantee you your credit card will stand behind you for this, and he knows it. Let him decide if he wants the chargeback on his account or not.

You can also tell him several people you know had considered Hurley screens, and this behavior has guaranteed *I* won't be buying from them.

[Nashou66]

I for one think you could at least give it a try, the seam might not be as bad on a production sample. Tell him what gary said but also you will give the screen a try and if its not as the companies web site says "seamless" seam then ask your CC for a charge back.

Athanasios

[CRT_Ben]

[CRT_Ben]

[garyfritz]

If you don't want the seam, then don't take the screen. (Didn't OJ's lawyer say that?? )

Seriously, if you accept delivery on it, and especially if you open it up, your job gets a lot harder. Tell him he misrepresented the product and waited until too late to tell you, and that's HIS fault, not yours. Tell him if he tries to charge you for it, he'll have a chargeback on his account. If he tries to ship it to you, refuse shipment. It's up to him to decide if he wants to pay for two-way shipping and a chargeback in addition to the screen, or chalk it up to a screwup on his part and cut his losses.

[CRT_Ben]

[WTS]

HI,

I never any problems with Hurley when I ordered mine 3 years ago. My screen isn't big enough to require a seam as it's only about 84"x48". I think I would still give it a try and if its not acceptable then send it back. Tell your credit card company that you tried it and it's not acceptable if that's the case.
Yes Hurley apparently mainly sells to big venues which of course means most viewers wouldn't be seated 9 or 10' away from the screen so chances are they wouldn't notice a seam.
I find no problems with the performance of my screen, not to say I'm any kind of expert on screens that's for sure.

On second thought, why do they need to run a seam vertically, isn't the limitation in the height of the screen not the width?

[CRT_Ben]

[Nashou66]

Ed is sending me a sample too, I will compare the sample they sent me too, and see what i think or if mine was done better. I also ordered the MW-16 screen material sample(gain of 1) so it might not show up as the higher gain screens might.


Athanasios

[CRT_Ben]

Actually Athanasios, the seam sample they sent me was definitely not superglo fabric and it looked to be around 1.0 gain, so it might have been MW-16 that they sent. I forgot to take pictures last night of the seam but I'll try to snap a few tonight (Wife's birthday though so no guarantee).


In other news, Ed replies:

"Although this is highly unusual because the product is custom made and we have no further use for it, we are willing to credit your account minus a 20% stocking fee."

Well, this is a step in the right direction, but not enough...it's their mistake, and I'm not going to pay for it, even if it's only 20% ($34). I really kind of feel like the victim of a bait n' switch here.

[garyfritz]

If they have "no further use for it," then they're not going to restock it. Either they're going to resell it or they're going to pitch it.

I think they're just trying to cut their losses. I agree with you -- I wouldn't pay it.

[Nashou66]

Hey Guys, I got my sample and put it up on my Screen to see if I could see the seam, I really had to look hard to see it during actual video material, form all angles and mean Really hard. My current screen is 12 feet wide and i sit about 13 feet from it . Now when i put up a total white internal pattern i then can see it but have to look for it. But durring video its not noticable unless you look very very hard and I stress you really have to look. For now i will stick with my dalite but might try the Mw-16 unity gain at 13 feet wide once i set up the temporay blend on my 12 foot screen and watch some 16x9 on it since that will be smaller than what i watch now. If i think the 16x9 isnt too small i wont get the Hurley but if it is I will give it a shot, for only 424 bucks deliverd its the best deal out there , seam or no seam.

Athanasios

[CRT_Ben]

Hey Athanasios,

Sounds like you had a bit better luck than I did, or at least it's not as apparent because you sit a few feet farther away. I agree that it's hard to see on video material but on a white screen it's very apparent to me and since there are several movies with flashes/fade to whites it's an issue for me. You're also in a bit different boat on cost because in the screen size I'm looking at there are a lot more options. I took some pictures tonight trying to capture what I see on screen - it's more apparent to me in real life than the pictures capture, but here they are. You'll have to click on them to get full resolution.

Off screen:


On a white field:


Again it's much more apparent to me in real life, as I mentioned before the eye is fantastic at picking up subtle patterns (Wear patterns anyone? Why would I pay for this screen when I pay much more for minty tubes?). Some might think this is blown out of porportion (chargeback, etc.), but why should I get the wool pulled over my eyes and end up paying for a product with a manufactured defect, when I have so many options in this price range and screen size?

Thanks for all your advice, guys. Let me know if you have any questions, or if somebody else wants my samples (MW-16, Superglo, Superglo flex, Silverglo, and MW-16? with seam), let me know.

Ben