CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

Got a deal on a Draper electric screen. Just got the specs from Draper, it's a 2.3 gain. IS this going to work at all, or is it too much gain?

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

It's probably not genuinely 2.3 gain -- probably closer to 2.0 -- but you're still going to see significant hot-spotting at that level. Gains of 2.0 or higher are better used in a torus, where you can tame the hotspot.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:13 pm Post subject:

You can always order matte white material from Draper (or through a dealer like me) which would be cheaper (hopefully) than buying a new screen. The Targas come apart pretty easily, you unroll the old screen, use duct tape to stick the one end of the new material onto the roller and put it all back together.

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I may take you up on that Curt. The screen is a Signature/V, model number SGV-15-152706 which is the 10' diagonal 4:3 NTSC. Would I be able to replace it with a 16:9 matte white screen?

Oh - and it's tab tensioned.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:31 pm Post subject:

Oh... I'd need to get a quote from Draper on the tab tensioned stuff. I'd THINK that disassembly would be different, but I've never tried that. Good score on the screen though if you got it cheap.. Smile

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

Curt - don't put any effort into it yet. It'll be awhile before I'm ready.

Thanks,
Joel

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:38 pm Post subject:

I wasn't planning on it.. Wink

I'd need the full screen size anyways, etc before being able to give you a quote.

Cheers!

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I asked Draper about CRT with this screen. Their response was that the screen is designed for less than 90 degree viewing angle and less than 1800 lumens. The Barco 1208 I am planning on using with this screen is 1250 lumens. I don't see an Emoticon for head scratching. I guess I'll go ahead and give it try to see what happens. I'll update after the "great experiment".

Peace out,
Joel

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

Okay, so I go the screen attached to the ceiling. Wired in the control. Pushed the down button and the screen wouldn't budge. I asked my seven year old son for some help. I had him push the down button while I pulled the screen down. It worked, the screen came down after a couple of stop-start-stop-starts. The screen was covered front and back with some type of sticky residue. I sent an email to Draper, they recommended cleaning the sticky stuff off with a 50/50 mixture of Simple Green and water. I did, it all came off and looks some what new. There a re a few small blemishes in the screen but nothing major. I got my 1208 set up the other night and the image is not all bad. Maybe I'm ignorant about hot spotting, I always thought it would happen on whites and bright colors. The image is bit weird though, and I'm not sure how to describe it. The image is much brighter (compared to a piece of white paper I taped to the screen), and it has a funny look to it. Maybe it is hot spotting and what I imagine as hot spotting is wrong. The image looks artificial. Image depth and colors are just a bit off.

There you have it. An amateur review of a 2.3 gain screen used with a CRT.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject:

Tape a white piece of paper or cloth to the screen. I'll bet it will look better than the actual screen.

**kal** · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject:

How big of a screen do you want? You can easily go up to 8' wide with something like a Barco 1208 on a close to unity (1.0-1.3) gain screen and it'll look a LOT better like Curt mentioned.

Unless you want to go bigger than 8' wide, I wouldn't go over 1.3 gain for a flat screen. IMHO there's no point and it's only going to look worse.

I'm getting over 12 ftL of light off of my ~1.1 gain 8 foot wide screen driven by a Barco Cine 8 Onyx clone which has a little bit less light output as yours.

Kal

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I have my painted black-out cloth screen handy. I'm going to set it next to the motorized to compare. I have no idea why I waste time on such things. The screen needs to go, so Curt will probably be getting an email from me in the distant future for a replacement material quote. The existing screen material is vinyl, I don't suppose there is a paint that will adhere to it and withstand constant rolling up?

Kal - the screen is 120". I haven't checked but I believe that is right at about 8' wide.

**kal** · Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:31 pm Post subject: