Help picking screen for Infocus 4805

[Medicine Man]

A friend of mine decided he didn't have time to set up his HT so he GAVE me his Infocus 4805. It had set in the box for a little over a year without more than 30 minutes of play time. I wanted to by something more up to date but then I thought I would wait a little while for the 1080P projectors to come down in price. Besides, the reviews for this projector are great and why spend money when you don't have to? Anyway, what screen (gain, size etc.) would you recommend for a 16x12' dedicated HT with this projector?

[MACCA350]

I have the Infocus X1(which is is the same as the 4800) I built a 100" screen using this Dazian material, seating is about 12 foot from the screen, works great.

cheers

[Medicine Man]

Thanks for the reply I noticed the gain on the material is 0.95. Does the image that you have seem bright enough? The lumen output on the 4805 is not that great but I know thats what you give up when you have higher contrast ratios. Think that would be ok or preferable? How did you put your screen together? Thanks again!

[MACCA350]

I tried numerous materials from fabrics to plastics some with higher gain, I found that those with higher gain had problems with uniform reflectivity. The way I tested this is using Avia's full color field test's, while looking at the screen with these single colors the higher gain screens would have brighter and duller parts on the screen, and as you walk around the room the color shifts and is not uniform across the screen. With the Dazien material you get a perfectly uniform reflection that does not change as you move around holding the integrity of the projected image. For me this outweighed the slightly lower brightness, but as our room is light controlled this was not a big issue for me. Also the Dazian material is a thin stretchy PVC(so it's easy to clean) with very fine ridges that run diagonally that can only be seen from a few inches away, I think this is what also gives it an excellent uniform reflectivity

I must say this thread is looking interesting and I may try that material and see how it stands up to my tests.

I built my first screen using a method similar to this with an extra frame in front(using angled edge board) covered in velvet for the picture frame, but it would be easier to use this material. You could also try this, but I think the strain of the material would pull the sides in and warp the frame.

What I now use is an aluminum frame covered with velvet with springs to keep constant tension on the screen(similar to a trampoline) This is more costly because I had to have the frame custom bent, but the springs were actually cheaper to have custom made than off the shelf. Here is a pic of the back

And here is the profile of the frame


cheers