BravesMG

I just purchased a Mitsubishi HC4900 from Circuit City today for $1550, after sales and rebates and such. I've been wanting a projector forever, and I'm (hopefully) moving into my new house in May. I've done my homework enough to know that I got a pretty good deal on a projector that suits what I think I'm going to need.

But... holy crap did I underestimate the difficulty in finding the screen I need. Apparently there's fixed, electric, tensioned, manual and the gain values of the screen are incredibly important to the picture.

The projector is going into a living room with I would guess moderate ambient light during the day. My wife also doesn't mind having a fixed screen on the wall, which is apparently the preferred method to electric or manual. So since I'm going to have some ambient light, I've read that a higher gain (gray) screen will help with contrast levels, but it can't be too high, or else the screen will be dark as hell at night.

So for those folks that were new to projectors when they set up their room, how did you go about finding the screen that worked for you? And for those that know a hell of a lot more than I do about this stuff, am I thinking about this properly?

Brian Shannon

You might want to start here. I had the good fortune to see both the projector and the screen I purchased at local stores. If you can't see anything local to you then it will likely be a matter of research.

http://www.projectorscreenstore.com/

Good review of your projector here with a screen recommendations section

http://www.projectorreviews.com/mits...nce.php#screen

Sdallnct

If you are ok with a fixed screen, I would build your own. I built my own and am very happy. You can create the exact size you want (and for your sources) and trim it out exactly as you want (most people use black fabric as a frame, but you could use brown or other dark color - tho black is often used as it really makes the image pop out since it would absorb any stray light).

You can build one on your own for under a $100 in less then 3 hours. I think mine cost about $125-$150 to build and took me less then 3 hours.

And even tho this is your living room, you can build one that physically looks as good as store bought. Projected image wise, most are very, very happy with their DIY screen.

This will give you an idea of a simple DIY screen,

http://www.projectorcentral.com/diy_screen.htm

And I have found the king of DIY screen building is over at AVS. Be careful tho. Lots and lots of information. Almost overwhelming. Do NOT go over there and immediately ask questions. Read, search, read before posting. I would bet any question you had would have been ask many a time before. But even their FAQ's sections are an excellent source of valuable information.

RockyMtnBri

I live right outside of Austin Texas, and Screen Innovations is based here. I went to Best Buy and bought the screen through them. I needed a "standard" 92 inch diagonal fixed mount screen, which will be delivered this Wednesday. It is the Reference screen with 1.3 gain - my room is completely light controlled with blackouts for the windows and a dimmer for the lights. The room itself virtually disappears when the lights go down.

I'll let you know how it all works out - the projector (Sony VPL-VW60) and the screen will be installed Saturday.

Numanoid

My screen came with my house, I call it "the wall". All I did was put a couple of coats of Killz2 primer on it, and it looks great. I've held various swatches of screen materials up to it, and frankly cannot see a difference between them and the bare wall. So I saved myself a load of money and just project onto a white wall. Well, actually just the image area is white, the rest of the wall is almost black. Of course, YMMV. If your wall is uneven or textured, it might not work so well. Then again, I don't suffer with the ripples that I've seen on a lot of fabric screens.