LG CF181D - Projector Screens

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Art Feierman

LG CF181D Projector Screen Recommendations

Since the LG CF181D's black level performance is pretty good, but hardly exceptional, I tend to first think of pairing it with a High Contrast gray screen to lower black levels a bit.

Certainly there's no shortage of "best" mode lumens to go around, so most people will still have a plenty bright image.

That said, you should consider your room (wall/ceiling/floor color), ambient light issues (day and night), etc. to determine what screen surface will work best for the mix of content you tend to watch.

I'm most pleased with the LG filling all of my 128" Firehawk G3. I can say, that although I favor projectors with still better black levels, the pairing of the LG with my Firehawk works really well. On the other hand, when doing some of my photo shoot, filling about 100 inches of my 106" diagonal Carada Brilliant white in the testing room, the image was exceptionally bright - which some might find too bright. My own objection was not to the brightness, but how bright the blacks were on the smaller screen which happens to be a 1.4 gain screen. With all those lumens, on the smaller screen, the "blacks" were more of a medium dark gray. On my Firehawk, at the larger size, the blacks are a very dark gray, dark enough that I can live with them, and I'm pretty picky. (That doesn't mean I'd save the thousands of dollars by buying an LG instead of my JVC RS20, had the choice been there last year. I wouldn't.)

Bottom line - unless you are going with an exceptionally large screen (at least as large as my Firehawk, probably), you'll be best served with a high contrast gray, like the expensive Firehawk, or any number of less expensive HC gray screens including the Elite HC gray (light gray - a "compromise surface), or the Da-lite HC Da-Mat, to name two. Or even the Da-lite HC Cinemavision, which is a light gray HD screen like the Elite (the HC Da-mat is a darker gray with lower gain).