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Home Projector UK |
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Selecting a screen
Selecting a suitable screen for your home cinema can be quite a daunting task. On this page I have put together some of the areas to look at when choosing the right screen for your home cinema experience. Why bother? Good question. If you have a nice white wall will this not suffice. The simple answer is yes it will – but - projector screens are made out of special optically reflective material that will enhance the image and make the best of your projectors capabilities where as the white wall won’t so not having a projector screen could mean that you have wasted a lot of money on projector capabilities you do not use. Custom or standard? Wherever possible it is advisable to select a projector screen that is standard as these will be more cost effective. If you decide that you want a custom screen then buy it after you have bought the projector as it is only when you have the projector installed will you know exactly what screen size you need. Most companies that develop custom projection screens will not take them abck and that could be a lot of money wasted. Type There are three main types of projector screen these are fixed, manual and motorized. A fixed screen is just that a screen that is permanently fixed to a wall. This type of screen is usually selected when the room is primarily used as a home cinema. Motorised and some manual spring loaded screens are typically mounted on a wall or ceiling and can be hidden away when not in use. The choice of motorized or manual comes down to how much you are willing to spend and how decadent you feel. Motorised screens can be operated either by a switch, remote control or if your projector is up to it a screen trigger on the projector. Material Once you have decided on screen type then you need to consider the screen material. Put simply projector screens come in both grey and white and different qualities of optical properties. Grey screens work better with low contrast, high brightness projectors. Most DLP projectors used for a home cinema work well with a white matte screen. The better the quality the better the image. Most good projection screens will also come with a black border as this has been shown to enhance the image further as the eye concentrates only on the central image not on periphery colours outside the viewing area. Aspect ratio
Get the aspect ratio that best suits your common needs. If you are mainly going to show films in Widescreen then select a 16:9 ratio screen if you are only going to project a standard TV picture with an aspect ratio of 4:3 then select a projector screen with the corresponding ratio. Size When determining the screen size, it is important to look at the minimum viewing distance, maximum viewing distance and the right viewing height. Furthermore, you always have to take the performance and features of your projector into account. No point getting a 25ft projector screen if you only have a projector capable of producing a an image of 10ft. The performance and features of your projector determine the maximum projected image size at a certain distance of the projector from the screen. It is important to determine the right distance and preferred image size in advance You need a minimum distance to see all the projected information. When you're too close, you easily miss out on information and you find yourself in an uncomfortable viewing position. Just think of the first few rows in a cinema. The recommended minimum distance equals the screen's diagonal. The maximum distance is the distance at which all the projected information can still be understood. In the case of home cinema this distance is normally up to 6 times the screen's height. The bottom of the projector screen would normally need to be about 36” or one meter from the floor. Click here to see available projector screens and pricing Click here to get my FREE Projector Selector.
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