Next Up Preview...

[mechman]

Normally I don't do previews but after taking some initial shots... I had to.

Next up will be the Da-Lite Screen samples. Da-Lite sent me 2'X2' samples of:

Da-Mat *
Cinema Vision *
High Contrast Cinema Vision *
Video Spectra 1.5
Silver Matte
Pearlescent
Audio Vision
High Contrast Audio Vision

and oh yeah, the

High Power *

* Denotes their most common home theater surfaces.

This time the test platform will consist of a 4'X8' sheet of pegboard. The samples will be tacked to the pegboard using two pronged brass tacks. Here's a couple initial shots:

These were not color balanced.


Can you pick out the High Power? Maybe this next one will help...



Sans the HP



Tacks



Pegboard



Setup



It'll be a fun couple days!

mech

[cynical2]

Holy schnikes! Very cool that they sent so many different samples. My bet is the one that looks like the back side of a piece of tin foil hot spots (yes, I'm going out on a limb).

EDIT: Feel free to delete this pointless post if you don't want it clogging up the review...in hindsight, it may have been a bad idea in a review thread.

[mechman]

Don't worry Jim! This isn't the review thread.

It'll be a couple days. 110 shots tonight. Probably more than that tomorrow. Maybe Friday or Saturday for the write-up.

No hot spots from the High Power yet. My opinion of it varies a lot, depending upon how I'm looking at it. Right now I'm a bit skeptical of it.... :raped:

mech

[cynical2]

mechman wrote:

Don't worry Jim! This isn't the review thread.

It'll be a couple days. 110 shots tonight. Probably more than that tomorrow. Maybe Friday or Saturday for the write-up.

No hot spots from the High Power yet. My opinion of it varies a lot, depending upon how I'm looking at it. Right now I'm a bit skeptical of it.... :raped:

mech

Really, no hot spotting on that? Amazing...

I knew I shoulda done the S-I-L-V...

NOT!!!

[wbassett]

Mech what size are they? Mine are 30"x30", are these 24x24? They look bigger.

[mechman]

cynical2 wrote:

Really, no hot spotting on that? Amazing...

I knew I shoulda done the S-I-L-V...

NOT!!!

Nope but it's got like a 10 degree viewing cone... ooops did I let that slip? And I'm starting to think it's retro-reflective cause sitting down is completely different than standing up. It's quite the shift and quite the lack of viewing cone... ****** there I go again.

I may have to call them about it...

mech

[wbassett]

mechman wrote:

No hot spots from the High Power yet. My opinion of it varies a lot, depending upon how I'm looking at it.

Try and see if there is any color shifting, especially off center. Higher gain screens, 2.0 and up tend to reflect the primary colors unequally and can cause some shifting. I'm curious to see if this does it or not.

[mechman]

wbassett wrote:

Mech what size are they? Mine are 30"x30", are these 24x24? They look bigger.

Just measured them. 24"X24"

mech

[mechman]

wbassett wrote:

Try and see if there is any color shifting, especially off center. Higher gain screens, 2.0 and up tend to reflect the primary colors unequally and can cause some shifting. I'm curious to see if this does it or not.

I took red, green, and blue shots both on and off axis. I'm gonna take some more though. You got a high power didn't you?

mech

[Tiddler]

The Da-Lite High Power is a retro-reflective material very similar to reflector tape. Very fine grain, not like any glass bead screen I've seen.

Da-Lite wrote:

High Power

A technological breakthrough combines the reflectivity of a glass beaded surface with the ability to clean the surface when required. Its smooth surface offers the highest gain of all types of screen surfaces with moderate viewing angle. Screen surface can be cleaned with mild soap and water. Flame retardant and mildew resistant.

Viewing Angle: 30°
Gain: 2.8

I do believe they mean that the total viewing cone is 30 degrees. Therefore about 15 degrees off axis is the half gain point That is my understanding and it may be wrong but it does agree with Mechman's observations.

This screen material is probably not suiteable for many of our newer projectors with higher out put but the DIY Projector crowd as well as those with lower lumen projectors could benefit from it. The room and projector geometry has to be right though. All angles should be as narrow as possible. You will notice those that have good results have the projector mounted well back and often way behind the sitting area. They also may have the projector lowered to be just above the viewer's head.

The High Power is a really interesting material and under the right circumstances it is really in a class of it's own.

[wbassett]

mechman wrote:

I took red, green, and blue shots both on and off axis. I'm gonna take some more though. You got a high power didn't you?

mech

They didn't label any of them, so they sent me a Presentation kit with 18 8"x8" samples of everything so I can match them up. I think they did send a 30x30 HP sample, but I haven't had a chance to look at them much since I got them. My daughter heads home Wednesday and then my work starts up!

[wbassett]

mechman wrote:

Nope but it's got like a 10 degree viewing cone... ooops did I let that slip? And I'm starting to think it's retro-reflective cause sitting down is completely different than standing up. It's quite the shift and quite the lack of viewing cone... ****** there I go again.

I may have to call them about it...

mech

It is retro. Here is the information in the Product Presentation they sent:

The moderate viewing angle and its ability to reflect light back along the reflected axis make this surface the best choice for situations where there is a moderate amount of ambient light and the projector is placed on a table-top or in the same horizontal viewing plane as the audience.

"reflect light back along the reflected axis" and "projector is placed on a table-top or in the same horizontal viewing plane as the audience" ... pretty much the definition of retro-reflection.

[mechman]

Well that explains it then. I've got my stack of small samples sitting right here and I've yet to look at them. It's nice to know that my eye's are in tune with reality!



mech