[mechman]

Elite Silver Frame Cinegrey. Well within your budget. Not quite 110" but it's close enough. There are others there that may be what you're looking for. :T

 

[mechman]

I was looking at that and thinking about it seriously. One thing though was that a review I read said that it isn't really an ambient light solution, just for if you have bad blacks. Do you have experience with it to the contrary? Is the fact that it is gray going to help? I am really not very knowledgeable about this. I read your review of the high gain version, would that be a better solution? How are elite screens in general? I read some horror stories about them with people getting sent the wrong screen and bad customer service and such? But I was looking very seriously at them because they seem to compete best at my price point. Either a 115" 2.35:1 or a 120" 16:9. I have seen near the top end of my scale. Which do you think is less of a compromise when viewing the other type of material with no anamorphic lens?

Edit: The window is a bear, the shades are pretty good but it is maybe 8 feet tall and 10 long or something. It barely leaks and does so in an ambient sort of way but it does, half the problem is that the walls are quite reflective.

General ambient light solutions for your dollar range are gray. You cannot afford a Supernova, a Black Diamond, or a Chromavue. So you're 'stuck' with gray. I'm not a fan of the Powergain version as I don't like the graininess it adds to the picture. Gray helps because the first thing to go in an ambient situation is your blacks. The gray helps the pj to keep the blacks and to make them deeper.

I like Elite screens. They are one of the few that offer their product at the right price. Carada is another that comes to mind. I've heard of folks getting bad material from Elite, but they've always come through in the end. :dunno: Plus they sponsor the forum. And If you get the CineGrey material you will have the same screen as myself soon. I'm getting a Silver Frame as well cause you really cannot beat that price!

The problem for you won't be the screen. The problem is your screen size related to your pj. Please correct me if I'm in error , but looking at PJCentral your pj only throws out 13fL at the average distance for a 110" screen. It looks like for you to be able to take advantage of a gray screen the pj will have to be as close as possible - ~10'8" for a 110" screen. Keep in mind that I'm not that familiar with that pj and I know that you can go to as little as 10fL easily with Black Widow so....:dontknow:

As for the aspect ratio, you're stuck with a 16:9 for that Elite product. There's a reason it's that cheap. :bigsmile:

Take a pic of the room with the shade closed and show us how much light your dealing with. :T Maybe one from the worst time of day and one from a better time of day. :scratch:

 

[mechman]

My projector is just table mounted so access is easy and the remote allows zoom so that isn't particularly an issue. I am leaning towards buying a screen partially because I am not all that confident that I can paint a screen to the quality I would like. I have very little experience with painting large areas and I am worried that I would mess up and create an uneven coat with hot-spots and such. Also it is somewhat time consuming and makes a mess. According to that calculator I have either 12 or 13 FL. Supposedly the cinegray from elite is a rather light gray. Would that mean I would need a higher FL number? If so Black Widow looks significantly more appealing if I can manage it. Any advice for painting? Am I overestimating how hard it is?

I am still not sure if I want a 2.35:1 or a 16:9 screen both have advantages but I feel like with the 2.35:1 option I may be happier since though my 16:9 is smaller my movies are what really demands size. Plus I watch movies at night more when it is more advantageous to have a bigger screen whereas during the day smaller is better due to having more FL. Are almost all movies 2.35:1 now? Thanks for the responses all.

Elite CineGrey is a tad bit lighter than BW. The whites are equal with both with BW having better blacks. If you do go diy, definitely go with BW. :yes: