Screen Fabric help for my new HT

[mdrake]

I am in the beginning stages of fulfilling my dream of my own HT and need some help. I am planning to purchase the new Panasonic AE3000 and a Da Lite screen but cannot decide which fabric. To make matters worse I talked to two different guys at Da Lite and they both recommended different fabric. The projector will be mounted 8ft high with a 15ft throw distance in a light controlled room. Which fabric would be best for this situation the Matte White or the High Contrast White?

Thanks,
Matt

[Harpmaker]

While I have never seen these screens "in the flesh", going by the descriptions from dalite's website I would go with the High Contrast White material. It sounds like it is primarily for home theater use while the Matte White is designed more for business presentations.

[mdrake]

Thanks for the reply!!! I really appreciate the help! I am not stuck on Da Lite but I do need an electric or manual pull down screen. So if there is a better option please let me know. I am all ears. Doing more research and it seems there might be a third option High Contrast Cinema Vision. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this fabric? Talked to the boys at Da Lite and they recommend not going pull down or motorized, they recommended fixed frame and the new soon to be in an HT near you JKP line or the Da-Mat fabric. Any thoughts?

Matt

[wbassett]

mdrake wrote:

I am in the beginning stages of fulfilling my dream of my own HT and need some help. I am planning to purchase the new Panasonic AE3000 and a Da Lite screen but cannot decide which fabric. To make matters worse I talked to two different guys at Da Lite and they both recommended different fabric. The projector will be mounted 8ft high with a 15ft throw distance in a light controlled room. Which fabric would be best for this situation the Matte White or the High Contrast White?

Thanks,
Matt

It is disconcerting that two people at Da-Lite gave you different screen recommendations. The only reason I can come up with is perhaps one of them didn't fully listen to your room layout, projector, and image size.

The AE3000 is a particularly bright 1080p projector, so unless you are going with a massive size screen, you don't have to worry about higher gain screens.

I also agree that the High Contrast would be a nice match even with your 60,000:1 full on/off CR. Actual ANSI contrast is around 446:1, which is still very respectable for an LCD projector and one of the best out there overall. Still blacks won't be black, not like what you see on a CRT TV, so with that said, you can handle a light gray screen and even with your specs it still will help with black levels and perceived contrast... just not as much with your projector as it will with others that really need the help.

For a totally dedicated theater where viewing is always done with the lights off, then a white screen is the recommendation. However most people that have home theaters rarely watch everything with the lights always off. If you're feeding TV to your projector, you may find that people prefer some low lighting on, and if it's a Superbowl party... the lights will most likely be up even higher.

One lit candle in a room will destroy CR, taking a 10,000:1 rated projector down to around 500:1. I don't mean to wiffle/waffle on you, but these may be the reasons why you got two different recommendations.

You have to determine if you really will always watch with the lights off and that your walls and ceiling are not going to be reflecting any of the light from the screen back onto the image causing it to wash out. If you have white walls and ceilings, even with lights out viewing I'd still recommend a light gray screen over a white one. If your walls and ceiling are dark and non-reflective and you will always have the lights out and there is total ambient light control, then I'd say go with the matte white screen (although it actually isn't white either! )

If you intend on having any lights on, no matter how dim, then I'd recommend High Contrast White screen.

Hopefully that helped both in making a decision as well as why you may have gotten two different screen recommendations.

[mdrake]

THANKS GUYS!!!!!!! I can really, really appreciate the help! I am an audio nut and video is all new to me. So, this information is invaluable! So, I guess the new JKP Affinity would fall under the white fabric and would loose CR with even a little light? The walls will be a darker beige fabric and the ceiling will be a very dark blue "night sky look". I will have complete control of the lighting but during sports parties will have at least the indirect lights on but these will not project onto the screen only the ceiling and will have a dimmer. Do you think I could get away with the JKP or white screen? I am looking for the best possible image quality.

Matt