CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Mr. Green,

since that screen is glass-beaded (hence retroreflective) you need to mention where the PJ is mounted, WRT the viewers. That will have a big impact on the perceived brightness.

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

I'm not familiar with that screen. Is it retro or angular? If it's angular-reflective, and if it honestly has 2.4 gain, I would think you'd see significant hotspotting unless you curved it or made a torus. Sure is a reasonable price.

[EDIT] Ah -- didn't see VG's post. Glass beaded, eh? Most glass-bead screens are fairly "sparkly." Since it's retro, it probably wouldn't work well for ceiling mounted projectors. But since it's retro, that explains why there's no hotspotting.

Re: Ben's comments, I'm surprised you feel so negatively about the Hi Power. I have a friend with a table-mounted G70 (right in the front row) and his Hi Power looks *fabulous*. Yes there is color shifting, but only when you move from one side of the theater to the other. I.e. the screen gets a bit blue if you sit on the left side, a bit red if you sit on the right, but the entire screen is uniform. Unless you're extremely sensitive to perfect color balance, I don't think you'd notice the shift. I never have.

And the image is VERY bright and punchy. Beautiful image. I'd have one myself except it doesn't work with ceiling mounts.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:07 pm Post subject:

See I wanted a retro screen for my AmPro. It sits about a foot over my head when I'm seated. It would make gamming awsum. Thumbs Up

Ohh and on the Wilson art front, I had a sample here that was super shiny, as if someone had taken a rotary polisher to it and knocked the texture on the surface down to buff it up. I hesitated to order after that.

Maybe I should try again.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Gary commented:
> Re: Ben's comments, I'm surprised you feel so negatively about the Hi Power. <

Yes, that was the most negative evaluation I've ever read. The big problem with the HP is PJ mounting position, and narrow viewing cone. If you can work around those 2 issues, it's a pretty impressive screen. Not just in brightness, but in edge-to-edge uniformity (from any given seating position). It really minimizes edge-falloff.

The viewing cone problems are worsened the closer you sit, and alleviated somewhat if your seating is farther back. It's best suited to a 2-seater front row, and 3 in the back.

AR opined:
> I wanted a retro screen for my AmPro. It sits about a foot over my head when I'm seated. It would make gamming awsum. <

That's absolutely correct. That's an ideal situation for the HP screen: on-axis, and minimal angle between viewer and PJ. Gaming would be pretty awesome too. Wink

In that configuration, you'd get well over 2.0 gain (depending on your viewing distance). 2.3-2.5 wouldn't be unreasonable, and with no hotspotting and excellent uniformity side-to-side.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:13 am Post subject:

Yep. What material would give me a nice high gain?

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Jeremy,

Any of the glass-beaded screens would give you 2+. The DaLite High-Power uses micro beads. (_really_ micro beads) They're cheapest if you buy a manual pull-down, then remove the fabric from the roller and tension it, so you don't have waves. Though, of any pull-down with waves (all seem to have them), the DaLite HP exposes them the least.

Mr. Green will have to report on the Elunevision bead-size, but he's already indicated he's very happy with it. Either way, I think you're talking $300 ballpark, +/-, for reasonable screen sizes.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:05 am Post subject:

Now that I think about it. I probably could have used that stupid shiny Wilsonart if I had done a horizontal curve.

$300's not a bad price. Is there an easy way to tension the material ( grommet machine and shoe laces perhaps? Wink

)

I was asking about a really high gain sometime back. Does anyone still make a 8+ or more gain like the old Sony screens?

CRT_Ben · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 1684 Location: Northern Virginia

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Thanks for the followup, Ben.

Yes, it's got some serious constraints, and they simply rule it out for many. But if it's possible for you to work around them, it's really unique.

Mr. Green · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject:

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:19 pm Post subject:

You know when I first looked at that projector in the picture above I coulnd't see what had it suspended. It's a 'magic' NEC floating CRT. Very Happy

Interesting house, very open concept

Mr. Green · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:21 pm Post subject:

That's funny how the angle worked on that. That's my Chief mount. See my album for pictures of it. My wife wanted the garland around it. It works and the CRT is allowed in the living space so I don't care.

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Waves on the screen shouldn't be a big deal. One of the advantages of retro screens is that they're basically insensitive to waves. For the same reason you can't make a torus with a retro -- the angle of the screen doesn't affect the reflection back to the light source -- the little ripples on the screen will probably be unnoticeable from the viewing position.

Looks like your viewing spot is well below the projector -- assuming you sit on the couch, not on that little folding chair. That's similar to my setup. I tested a piece of Hi Power and found it had about 1.0 gain or less at my seated viewing position. If I stood up it was BRIGHT but I didn't plan to watch movies that way! How far are your eyes from the lenses, and what kind of gain are you getting? If you put a white piece of printer paper on the screen and sit in your viewing position, does the paper look white or dark? If you stand up I bet the paper looks dark (because the screen looks so bright).

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:32 am Post subject:

Mr. Green · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 1:58 am Post subject:

Mr. Green · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:21 am Post subject:

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Yeah, probably the only reason you can see the ripples so clearly in the picture is because you're sooo far off to the side. At that sharp angle, the ripples are very noticeable. Even though the retro screen isn't very sensitive to angle, it will show some difference between "angled toward the camera" and "angled almost away from the camera" ! The far side of each ripple is almost facing away from the camera, so the flash barely hits it & not much bounces back to the camera. From the viewing position that shouldn't be an issue.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 3:12 am Post subject:

Who makes a really high gain material these days? Something stupid like 13 or 14 gain?

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Ummm, Reynolds??

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:08 am Post subject: