Elite Screens Inc | Elite Screens China Corp. | Elite Screens Europe ...
Elite Screens Inc | Elite Screens China Corp. | Elite Screens Europe ...
Elite Screens Inc | Elite Screens China Corp. | Elite Screens Europe ...
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Product Review<br />
ezFrame-This Screen looks & performs better than its price tag suggests<br />
Arlen Schweiger / ELECTRONIC HOUSE<br />
As much as you’d love a $20,000, four-way, motorized masking, curved CinemaScope screen for your theater, that’s a<br />
daydream for most. However, for less than a tenth of the cost you can still own a rock-solid projection screen.<br />
The EZ-Frame screen products from <strong>Elite</strong> <strong>Screens</strong> look like they cost a whole lot more than they do, and their performance<br />
is on par with that. If you’re debating flat-panel TV versus projection, consider that a 100-inch EZ-Frame and<br />
modest high-def projector combo costs about as much as a quality 50-inch HDTV—only the picture is quadruple the<br />
size.<br />
To test the installation rigors and performance, <strong>Elite</strong> sent me a 92-inch EZ-Frame regular white matte, 16:9 fixed screen.<br />
You may get away with doing the install yourself; I enlisted colleague Bob Archer to make it an easier two-man job.<br />
If you’re installing it in a basic theater room like mine, screen assembly and mounting will be no sweat. <strong>Elite</strong> marketing<br />
manager David Rodgers says most custom electronics pros can zip through it in 30 minutes to an hour. Bob and I<br />
weren’t that speedy, but even as novices it took us less than two hours.<br />
After unboxing and laying the contents on the floor—most theaters will have more breathing room than mine for thiswe<br />
started attaching the horizontal velour-surfaced aluminum frames, which come in two pieces, and then the vertical<br />
sides. The only knock was that in one corner not every screw hole aligned perfectly; but overall fastenings were plenty<br />
tight so leaving one screw out wouldn’t hinder the installation.<br />
It took about 35 minutes to assemble the frame, insert the tension rods and carefully unroll the screen (you want as little<br />
debris in contact as possible), and we were on to the tensioning. Attaching the fix plates into the frame slots for this task<br />
was much more difficult, but the process still only required about 40 minutes, despite our breaking a handful of the<br />
plastic pieces and feeling like our thumbs were about to fall off.<br />
Wall hanging proved simple with the 2-inch flat strap sliding brackets, and after measuring, leveling and mounting, the<br />
screen was ready for action. At the time of this review, I’d used it with a BenQ mini LED projector and an Anthem LTX<br />
300v D-ILA model, running the gamut at about $500 and $6,500, respectively (and I’ve since used another highperformance<br />
model, DreamVision’s StarLight). Having projected the BenQ onto my white wall, the addition of the<br />
screen made a noticeable improvement in picture clarity and brightness, plus framing the image in black provided<br />
boost in contrast.<br />
In handling the much higher-performance Anthem 1080p unit, this value screen has been nothing less than a champit<br />
looks like a really crisp, really large LCD. One of its merits as a bargain performer is that you can put that extra cash<br />
toward a better projector.<br />
Blu-ray, HD DVD, cable, and PC content of varying resolutions was rendered smoothly and brightly, with nice color<br />
uniformity and no hot spotting.<br />
If you’re worried about not having an always-dark dedicated theater, I found that even with a can ceiling light turned<br />
on inches in front of this screen, the image was highly viewable, so higher-gain options ought to work exceedingly well<br />
under ambient light conditions—another plus for the screen side of the debate.<br />
Arlen Schweiger - Managing editor of Electronic House Magazine<br />
Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip?<br />
Send it along!<br />
167<br />
Specifications, Pros, Cons<br />
Specs<br />
Available in white tension PVC, high 1.8 gain white, tension contrast gray<br />
Solid or acoustically perforated material options<br />
Black-backed screen material<br />
Black, lightweight velour-surface aluminum frame<br />
2-inch flat strap sliding mounting brackets<br />
4:3, 16:9, 2.35:1 aspect ratios<br />
Sizes from 84 to 200 diagonal inches<br />
MSRP starting at $649 (street pricing can be found for about half)<br />
Pros Cons<br />
• Priced at a bargain • Screw holes won’t always align<br />
• Easy to assemble and mount • Fix plates somewhat breakable<br />
• Quality image enhancement • No masking option<br />
• Looks nice even when there’s no picture onscreen<br />
www.elitescreens.com/reviews
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