Home Theater BIG Screen, 2000 watts
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Read this article for some Sound Advice
Build your own set of biline speakers
Spherex 5.1 (Home Theater in a box) Speaker Review
Proview RX-326 32" LCD HDTV Review
A Computer for the Living Room, a look at HTPC's
The photo above is of the 100'' image from the Infocus X1 DLP projector, the photo shows the great image quality and contrast we managed to coax from the X1 on a regular painted wall.
Why didn't we use a Stewart Grayhawk screen?
If you know us by now you'd know we'd never spend this kind of money without some proof it was worth it. The salesman tried hard to convince us, he even explained how much better the picture would be and he used terminology such as negative and positive gain etc..
But funny enough when we balked at the price he was willing to offer us a cheaper version that this particular store had perfected, it wasn't as good as the Grayhawk but it was very close. He had a bundle for the screen and the projector (the screen was approx $500.00). We started to wonder if the 'need' for a screen was just a way to keep margins higher since they weren't making much on the actual projector.
Lady luck was with us, a friend happened to have a Stewart Grayhawk screen and was using it with his LCD projector we grabbed the Infocus X1 and headed over. After playing around with the screen and comparing the image to a regular wall we came away wondering if the difference we saw could be reduced by using a higher gloss paint, we searched the forums at projectorcentral and found many individuals who refused to purchase the expensive screens and had experimented with various paints and alternative surfaces with good results.
We headed out to our local Home depot and stocked up with white paint in different sheens from matte to gloss. we conducted the tests by painting the 100" viewing area with the different paints and compared the sections after the paint had cured for 24hrs. well after the many coats of paint (I think we actually added a 1/4 inch to the thickness of the wall) we felt that the Behr ultra pure white semi-gloss was the best choice because the higher gloss showed signs of streaking in the image. This is a problem from using a regular paint roller which can't get the paint laid perfectly across the surface, If we had invested in a good paint gun or purchased the paint in regular spray cans we probably could have minimized the effect to the point of being barely noticeable (that's for a later project).
So we don't have a Stewart Grayhawk screen just a painted white wall. but unless you compare the images of the two side by side you'll be very hard pressed to note any difference plus we saved $500.00 to $3000.00 by not falling for the 'you need a screen' trap. Note we're not saying that a screen will not make a difference just not one visible enough to be worth anywhere near the asking price of most screens.
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