Projector Screen Buyers Guide
Choosing a Projection Screen
Introduction
Choosing the right projection screen for your personal or professional needs may seem like a daunting task, but with this easy to follow guide compiled by the screen experts at Projector Screen Store.com, you'll find the perfect product to meet your requirements.
There are a few criteria which you should be familiar with when choosing a new projection screen. These are listed below, and they correspond to simple drop-down menus on Projector Screen Store.com, making the selection process easy and thorough.
Brand
There are many different brands of projector screens available on the market today. Projector Screen Store.com offers a wide selection, including industry leaders like Da-Lite, Draper, Buhl, and Sima. You can find over 10,000 screens through the site.
Da-Lite is an Indiana based manufacturer of projection screens and related products. They have the widest selection of screens of any manufacturer.
Draper is a family-run business with over 100 years of industry experience. They offer a wide variety of high-quality screens for any application.
Buhl offers a good variety of highly-affordable wall/ceiling and portable screens.
Sima offers an innovative line of inflatable screens, ideal for outdoor use.
Price
Whether you are buying a screen for home use, or procuring one for your office, school, or organization, price is a key factor is choosing a projector screen. Generally, screens start in the few hundreds of dollars, and go up to thousands, depending on size, materials and other criteria. At Projector Screen Store.com, you are able to search based on your price range - a valuable tool when working within a budget. If you're on a tight budget, be sure to check out the selection of Projector Screens for under $100.
Style: Electric, Manual or Fixed
Electric screens descend and ascend back in to the casing electronically. They are often operated by remote control. Electric cases may be externally mounted to the ceiling or recessed into the ceiling (additional construction may be required). They may also be mounted to the wall, or ascend up from the floor. Many electric screens are tensioned, which means that the screen is pulled taut from the sides to create the smoothest possible image surface. Projector Screen Store.com allows you to narrow your search among electric screens to those which feature the tensioned option.
Manual screens tend to be less expensive than their electric counterparts. Just like electric screens, they are available in ceiling, wall, or floor-mounted models. They are operated by hand, and therefore are subject to more wear and tear. To avoid some of the problems that come about handling manual screens, certain mechanisms are put in place to make the screens tougher. For example, Controlled Screen Return (CSR) helps regulate the speed at which the screen rolls back into the casing. If you choose to browse through manual screens on Projector Screen Store.com, you may also want to narrow your search to just screens with the CSR feature.
Fixed Screens are permanently set up, with no raising or lowering required. If you are planning on using your screen regularly, and have a space set aside for it, this may be the best option. Fixed screens are permanently tensioned, much like a canvas stretched over a frame.
Front vs. Rear Projection
Front projection screens are placed facing the projector. Rear projector screens are specially designed to allow the image to be projected from behind the screen. Therefore, for front projection you must have a way to affix the projector so that it is facing the screen, and for rear projection you must have adequate room behind the screen for the projector. Rear projection may require mirrors or other lenses to transmit the image and reduce depth. Front projection is more commonly used, but allows for obstacles between the projector and the screen to block or obscure the image. Front projection is also more disturbed by ambient light than rear projection. If it's difficult to control levels of ambient light in your room, rear projection may be a more appropriate option. Generally speaking, front projection allows for a wider viewing angle, but rear projection may be better for long, narrow rooms. Rear projector screens come in many different varieties and fabric types, each for different applications, yet they tend to be more expensive than their front-projection counterparts.
Mounting: Wall, Ceiling, Both, or Floor
Wall Mounted screens may be placed flush against the wall or extended out a bit using a bracket system. Brackets allow for some room behind the screen for cables or other objects. Wall mounted screens may be manual, electric, or fixed.
Ceiling Mounted screens affix easily to your ceiling using a bracket system. They are available in models which hang from the ceiling or are recessed. Recessed screens are available in manual or electric, but there are many fixed ceiling screens as well. Recessed screens are space efficient, professional, and elegant yet tend to be more expensive.
Many screens may be affixed to either the ceiling or the wall, depending on your needs. They may be manual or electric. These models are highly versatile and allow for a wider range of presentation possibilities.
Portable, or floor screens, are the best option for maximum mobility. Projector Screen Store.com offers many options for screens to take with you on the go. Below are descriptions of the broad categories of floor or portable screens available on the market today.
-Floor mounted electric screens are stored in the base, and extend upwards using a spring system.
-Floor mounted manual screens are stored in the base, and extend upwards using a number of different possible manual mechanisms.
-Folding or Frame screens are supported on both sides by vertical legs. They are often light-weight and very easy to set up.
-Inflatable Screens are an innovative new design perfect for outdoor use. Easy to assemble, store, and transport, they are placed in convenient, lightweight carrying cases.
-Tripod screens are supported by a tripod base, and are easy to move and store.
-Ultra Portable screens are smaller formats, and ideal for table-top presentations.
Screen Format
Screen format refers to the aspect ratio, or the proportion of width to height of a particular screen. There are several types of standard formats. The best format depends on how you use the screen. Other formats are available on Projector Screen Store.com, but these are the most common.
HDTV: These screens have a width to height ratio of 16:9. This format is good for home theater set-ups with HDTV capabilities.
Multi-Format: The aspect ratio of these screens can be adjusted using masking devices. These are multi-purpose, easily adaptable for presentations or video viewing.
Slide: These screens have a width to height ratio of 1.25:1. They are ideal for slide presentations.
Square: These screens have a width to height ratio of 1:1. These screens are ideal for presentations and use with overhead projectors. Square screens may be partially descended, thereby changing the aspect ratio. For example, if you pull a ceiling mounted square screen only half-way down, the width dimension remains the same, but the height is half. This could be useful for more widescreen applications.
Video: These screens have a width to height ratio of 4:3. This format is the standard format for television screens and computer monitors. This format is good for home theater set-ups when you are watching programs in either widescreen or regular formats. Video format is also known as NTSC.
Widescreen: These screens have a width to height ratio of 1.85:1. This is the format used for most movie theater screens and is suitable for letterboxed video images.
Cinemascope: These screens have a width to height ratio of 2.35:1.
Width and Height
If you know exactly how much space you have to place a screen in, then searching by width or height are very useful parameters. If you are using the projector screen for presentations, a good rule of thumb is to find a screen whose height is 1/6 the distance from the screen to the last row of seats. Ideally, the first row of seats should be two screen heights away. Futhermore, the bottom of the screen should be a minimum of 4 feet above the floor.
Fabric Type
Choosing the right screen fabric type is very important in maximizing the quality of the image you are projecting. The two most important qualities of a specific fabric are its gain and viewing angle. Gain is a measurement of how reflective a screen is. The higher the gain, the brighter the image. However, as gain goes up, viewing angle goes down. Viewing angle refers to the maximum angle from center up to which the image appears clearly. There are many different fabric types, each of which have unique qualities.
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