So... while still upbeat from saving $500 by not having to a brush-cutter, in a moment of weakness I ordered a Sanyo Z4 projector. So much for saving money. "What the heck", I thought, "I can project on the wall for now".
Next morning I went upstairs and observed that the wall was dark green. Not so good for the fleshtones.
I always imagined my HT would have rows of custom bookcases with an electric screen that lowered in front of them when I wanted to play movies. No problem, there are lots of electric, tensioned, high gain, high quality screens on the market, many with automatic masking systems. They cost about 50x what I was hoping to spend
Seems like I need to make some choices. What is the current thinking about screen "colour" (white / grey) vs. ambient light level. This is rarely going to be a really dark room, since the HT system is set up in a loft with big windows where the sunset shines in, and opens to the living room. On the other hand there isn't room for a huge picture, so something like 92" would be the largest and I may end up going a bit smaller.
Does that mean I should have a white screen or a grey screen ? What kind of gain should I be thinking about ?
Most importantly, since I don't actually HAVE those bookcases yet and I'm really looking for quick, cheap and easy, what about thoughts on (for example) a cheap Da-Lite pulldown (Model B) vs. a *simple* DIY screen. I was thinking about either painting some tileboard or seeing if the local Home Depot up here has those plastic panels which seem to work pretty well.
If I go with the Da-Lite I can save a few bucks by ordering it before the projector ships. Main concern with that route is that if I go with a high gain screen then the waves are more likely to show, but if I go with a low gain screen I'm probably not getting much advantage over a DIY approach.
Thanks !
