I’ve read some of the new ones don’t need a total blackout, but have no idea to what extent that’s true…
The mind is incredible at adjusting image brightnesses to fit expectations. Consider that even in a well lit room, it is possible to “project” a fairly convincing “black” onto a white screen if the rest of the image is bright enough. Of course it’s not black at all. For it to be a real black, the room needs to be dark.
Most of the better screens are not white these days from what I read. They are grey to get blacker
blacks, and then the brightness of the laser in this case, makes up for the grey vs white. The Ultra Short Throw screens have a sawtooth cross section which shades the screen from ambient light—called ALR or ambient light rejection. I have not experienced any of this, just repeating what I read. I will shortly be able to give an opinion on this, as I have the UST screen coming shortly. Its shipped, but with the C19, its a couple of weeks away.
Interested to hear what you find.
I love projectors but have never got a high-end one.
I bought an InFocus X1 VGA projector in the warly 2000’s for half-price in PC World - gobsmacked by the performance of an SVGA £600 projector at a time non-HD plasmas would have been well over £3,000, and a decent CRT considerably more expensive.
Watching LOTR, Gladiator etc projected simply onto an off white papered wall via DVD back then was just one of the best value purchases I’d ever made.
Had a projector ‘stand’ behind the sofa and casting shadows when getting up was part of the charm I think.
I have to say that ‘big picture’ between the SBLs with a cheap KEF ‘front’ and old Epos ES 14s as rears was incredibly immersive.
Nearly got a beast of a Panasonic 6-7 years ago (wished I had), but the Panasonic dealer sold the one I asked them to keep for me, so I got an excellent full HD BenQ from Richer Sounds for a fraction of the price.
Really looking forward to getting the AV room sorted again in the future (currently full of stuff to sort out, I can barely get in!).
An Ultra Short Throw porjector sounds very tempting, and I susepct laser tech has come forward a lot.
Great bit of history, with the up and downsides of being a part of a startup. Thx.
My Vividscreen came a couple of weeks early. Took 2 weeks total. I am totally delighted with it. Its both ARL (ambient light rejection) and UST (Ultra Short Throw) and is made specifically to optomize
the UST projectors. The picture is very nice. Its my first projector, but I previously used a 3 year old Samsung 55 inch TV–HD I think. The projector is fantastic. Its a floor rising unit, so the screen rises from behind the 2CH music system. Mostly watch DVD’s of Concerts, and now with DISH TV streaming live concerts, its great. Watching the Grand Old Oprey as I write this. Very pleased. Pic attached.
2 Likes
Great result! Does the screen disappear when not in use?
Yup! Pics below half way down and fully down–when fully down most of one’s diffusers, curtains, wall hangings, etc is now in play. Normally can go on the floor. My wife wanted the picture up a bit, so mine is mounted on a 12 inch high platform–at the moment made of cardboard boxes–but I am working on a couple of cherry wood uprights to make that a little more in keeping with the rest of the furniture (read Fraim.
1 Like
Well I have made another finiding with my new screen. The SQ of the system actually sounds preferable with the screen up. The imaging is more defined and the sound stange better defined. With the VividStorm screen down, I have a Hunter Douglas light block blind as you can see in the picture. The light block blind is a pleated one–also as you can see. Since I had no reason to expect better sound, there was no expectation bias. In fact, I was hoping that the VividStorm screen did not mess with the sound as I was happy with it. I guess that could be negative expectation bias? Definitely sounds better. Perhaps the pleats between/behind the speakers were doing something to the imaging. The pleats had a characteristic dimension of 1 cm approximately, so that is about 30 KHz–so it should not come into play. Perhaps is just the VividStorm screen has a much lower or higher absorption? Very Pleased.
2 Likes
Sounds great. I also really like the fact that it’s a floor standing screen that pulls up to open. It took me a re-read to understand that!
Hi Michaelb–I guess that could be confusing, since this is apparently a new type of screen, that deploys from the floor, rather than from above. So just to clearify, my system sounds better when the screen is in play, so to speak.
1 Like
I bought a projector of a reasonable standard 13 years ago. It stayed in the box until 18 months ago when we got a dedicated AV room. I was very pleased with the large size of image on the wall and the quality was very decent (just projected onto the wall - was waiting to get a screen knowing that at some point the projector might need replacing given its age - didn’t want to get a screen and then get different projector that would need a different size or shape etc. ThoUgh they might not be a problem in reality). It died recently and to replace it my wife wanted me to get a large tv instead of another projector - half an hour wandering around the TV section at curry’s made me think I still want a projector - there’s something about the image on a large tv that I don’t like as much as a projector image. Rather undecided how much to spend on a projector though. The budget keeps going up and down
1 Like
Hello Tim–This was my first projector and I am very happy with it. One suggestion I would make, is buy the projector and the proper screen, and consider it a system–half the performance comes from the projector and half from the screen, but screens don’t get the love they should. It really matters particularly for Ultra Short Throw–do the research. I got the CineBeam LG HF85LA and the VividStorm floor rising, 92 inch ALR screen. The down side is that no one has these on display that I was able to find, so I bought on Amazon/Prime/Free Shipping–and returns are possible. Would have preferred to see it and buy at a B&M store, but not an option.
Thanks. Am going to get a regular projector as the hdmi cables (two of them to allow a spare!) are already in the ceiling and so it seems a bit daft not to utilise that. Yes I am planning on getting a screen at the same time - have been held up by lack of funds for a little while (the old projector stopped working in December but we had large tax bills to pay and then poor cash flow and now the lockdown). I am going to get a fixed screen and have it installed for me so will be speaking to richer sounds I think when lockdown Is over, if we have the cash spare but am not in desperate rush to spend - and my elder daughter is using that room for study (which is actually v good of her as it frees up the proper hifi room for me to use. Though daughter 2 complains I play awful music). Am undecided whether to get a 4k projector or a more regular one. Not sure if I will get chance to do a proper audition of any of them - never considered it for many years
Thanks for the names. May well discuss with my lockdown community 
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.