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Product Review Home Theater Magazine, March 2008
The Bigger Picture (Adrienne Maxwell)
Evaluation of the HOME2 (Home75IWH2) Projection Screen
Home Theater Magazine, March 2008. The Bigger Picture (Adrienne Maxwell) Evaluation of the HOME2 (Home75IWH2)
projection screen
The Bigger Picture
By Adrienne Maxwell • April, 2008
Tips for selecting and installing a front-projection screen.
What’s keeping you from taking the front-projection plunge? Is it a belief that projection systems are still only for the rich
and famous, consisting of $15,000 projectors, movie-theater-sized screens, and elaborate masking systems, controlled
by advanced touchpanels? The entry-level projector roundup on page 38 of this issue is proof that there’s a 1080p
projector to suit almost any budget, and the same is true for theater screens.
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With so many options out there, you don’t even know how to begin to select
the right projection screen. That’s where we come in, to provide you with a
basic understanding of the screen types, materials, and control options you
might encounter in your quest to build the perfect big-screen theater for your
budget, room environment, and installation prowess.
Step One: Screen Type
The type of screen you select will play a major role in determining overall cost.
One of the least expensive options is also the easiest to set up: A portable
screen is a great choice for the person who lacks a dedicated theater space
but still wants to enjoy the occasional big-screen movie event. You can set up
and stow away Da-Lite’s Theater-Lite pull-up screen in minutes, and an 80-inch
16:9 model costs less than $400. For the adventurous do-it-yourselfer who wants
a more permanent budget solution, DIY Home Theatre and Goo Systems offer
the paints and borders you’ll need to transform an open wall into a theater screen.
If you’ve ever hung a large piece of artwork, you can handle installing a fixedframe
screen, such as Da-Lite’s Cinema Contour, Screen Research’s ClearPix2,
or Stewart’s Luxus Screenwall. The final choice is a retractable screen,
discreetly housed in a chassis that mounts on the wall or ceiling. A manual
pull-down model is a wonderfully economical choice; Draper’s 92-inchdiagonal
Luma2 pull-down screen costs less than $300. If you go with a motorized
model, it adds some cost to the bottom line. For instance, the 75-inchdiagonal
Elite Screens Home2 model begins at $789.
Most home theater projectors cast an
HDTV-friendly 1.78:1 (16:9) image, so
you’ll want a screen to match. If you
simply cannot abide the sight of black
bars with 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 film content,
you may want to invest more money in
an automatic masking system that uses
panels to perfectly frame the screen for
the exact aspect ratio you’re watching
with any given source. Of course, the black bars are still there; you just can’t see
them. To remove horizontal bars entirely and use the projector’s full vertical
resolution with every source, you’ll need a projector with an anamorphic lens
attachment and a wider 2.35:1-shaped screen like Stewart’s CineCurve or
dnp’s Supernova Epic. These models include side masking panels that reframe
the screen for 1.33:1, 1.78:1, and 1.85:1 content.
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