Best Home Projector Report 2013: Screen Recommendations

Projector Screen Tips

Here are twelve tips to consider

1. High Contrast Gray screens work well if you have ambient light (intentional or not) coming at the screens from the sides (such as interior lighting or sunlight through windows), or if the surfaces in your room (walls, ceiling, etc.) are light and reflect light. These screens "reject" that off angle (side) light, and are therefore good at preventing the image from washing out.

Right, a high contrast grey screen used to combat ambient light and light surfaces.  (Stewart Firehawk G3)

Click Image to Enlarge

4. High Contrast Gray screens will effectively lower your black levels, normally a desirable thing. The high contrast aspect serves to maintain a dynamic looking image. These screens can have gains anywhere from .5 to a relative 1.3 (we won't go into "relative" at this time).  The Firehawk G3 in the first two images has a "relative gain" of 1.3.

5. If you are going with a motorized screen, please get a tensioned one. While that adds to the price, the screen should stay very flat for years. Even slight waves or rolls on a screen is extremely noticeable when viewing. When it comes to controlling it, most screens have options to work with 12 volt triggers on projectors, infra-red, or RF remotes.

6. Fixed wall screens are the best at being perfectly flat. Pull-down screens are the least expensive, but, again, get a tensioned one. Special paint to paint a screen on your wall, is inexpensive, and works pretty well, but a good screen will serve you better. (Let's say, those screen paints are better than your standard wall paint, which even if white, will give you a real hot spot.)

8. Some folks want the best sound placement, and want their center, left and right channel speakers mounted in wall behind the screen so that the sound more precisely seems to come out of the mouths of the people speaking. No problem, there are plenty of acoustic screen surfaces out there. There are some trade-offs though. Overall, acoustic surfaces aren't quite as good as their non-acoustic counterparts, but the better ones really are extremely good.

9. Pricing for screens is all over the map. There's everything from lower cost Chinese or Taiwanese made screens (such as Elite Screens) to very high end ones made by companies like Stewart Filmscreen and Screen Innovations. Other more mid-priced brand names include Da-Lite, Draper, Vutec, Grandview... Overall Stewart is almost certainly the top mainstay brand, with Screen Innovations also a real player.  Stewart's Studiotek 130 G3 and Grayhawk G3 are pretty much considered reference standards. (I switched from the Firehawk G3 at my old house to their Studiotek 130 for my current home theater). The price is up there, however for Stewart's and Screen Innovations best known lines (both introduced lower cost lines in the last two years).  Typically the screens we're talking about, though, do cost 2 to 4 times as much as the more typically priced screens.

Low cost tensioned pull-down screens start around $200. A very good fixed wall screen of average size can be had for well under $600, while you can spend 3 or four times that for the very best. High priced masking motorized screens can set you back anywhere from probably $4000 to $20,000.

10. Masking systems - a great idea. Basically they change the shape of your screen to match the content you are viewing. You can have them with fixed wall screens, or and motorized screens can be ordered with them from some manufacturers. You can adjust them for the aspect ratio of the content you are viewing. (They are normally motorized and work remotely, by screen trigger, room control system, or normal remote control.) They will move black material in place to cover what isn't being used, for a nice tight framed image, and no visible letterboxing. Stewart sells many high end screens with masking systems, as well as those without. Some screens have masking systems that can be added later. One intriguing product is Carada's Masquerade, a relatively affordable masking system that can be added to almost any fixed wall screen. The Carada system sells starting around $2500 for smaller sizes, and a 110" will set you back about $2750.

11. In a contest with a small child, a low mounted screen loses everytime!

12. Some motorized screens are designed to be installed inside your ceiling to be more or less invisible when not in use. Fixed wall screens do not require rocket science to assemble. Anyone halfway competent with a screwdriver and pliers shouldn't have a problem. And most importantly, if you are mounting a screen yourself, make sure it's perfectly level.