Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Screen suggestion

I have narrowed my FP choices to the H31 and the H57. It is going to depend on which one will work in my room the best.
My throw distance is going to be approx. 14 feet.
I will be sitting approx. 13 feet from the screen.
The wall is 11 feet long and I need to allow room for my front speakers.



I want to go with a 16:9 screen and I am open to either motorized or manual. I will not be able to have a fixed screen due to the layout of the room.

Any help would be great!

If you have not already, I would recommend checking out http://www.projectorcentral.com they have some good articles on screens and the H31 and H57. Better yet, check out http://www.avsforum.com as they have special forums on projectors and screens and DIY screens.

Personally I'm a DIY man myself, my first venture into screens was about a year ago. My first screen was a DIY paint formula called Silver Metallic/MississippiMud, information on this can be found at AVSforum. For my new theater in the basement I purchased some PVC Matte White non-perf material from Dazian fabrics, one of the oldest names in the screen business. I am building a frame out of Aluminum square tubing to keep it light, and will be attaching using industrial stength velcro. Matte White will give you a gain of around 1.0, it is probably the most popular used gain. You can go with a high contrast gray to enhance blacks, but color saturation can suffer. HC screens usually have a gain less than 1.0. You could get a high power gain screen (higher gain values) which will give you lots of pop in color, but contrast and hot spotting can be the negative.

There are so many companies out there: Carada, DaLite, Draper, etc.... It depends on what you want to spend. Also, if your projector has good contrast and lumen ratings, you could probably go with a matte white material. Also, try to reduce ambient light in your room. Also, have a black border of velvet, or paint your back wall flat black....

having just gone through this myself, and having seen almost every screen sample created by man, let me tell you this

your in for a ride.

The one thing I wish i did before I started reading any forums was do to get the samples and use my own eyes to judge for myself. it would have saved me so much confusion.

So, guess what ? Get samples

www.dalite.com, click on Live chat. Talk to a tech, get some free 12" samples sent to you. Right off the bat, I'll tell you to try High cntrast cinema vision, Cinema Vision, Pearlescent, and Video Spectra, and the most popular one, High power. High power has mixed results with ceiling mounts, and is better for table mounts.

www.draperinc.com, try the m1300, and the one I bought, the m2500 materials. Be aware, some claim to have troubles with vertical streaks on the m2500, but mine is flawless so that is all I can say there.


If you got lots of money, the mutha of all screens is the vutec silverstar. I think it's www.vutec.com.

Stewart makes a screen called Firehawk, also $$$, similar to the Dalite HCCV but the dalite is like 5$ per square foot, and the stewards is a LOT more.

http://www.carada.com/, the "Axiom" of screen companies. Nice, smaller company. Very friendly, and high quality bargain screens. Frames are really nice, but screen materials are subtle meaning they don'y have any high gain materials. Get samples.


How much light is in this room? Ambient light? Do you want a lamp on while you watch? The brighter the room, the larger your screen you want, the more gain you might want if you like Bright plasma like images. Seating distance is great for determining what pj you want, but for a screen, you need to take into viewing angles and viewing cones. Some screens like the high power have an great picture when looking straight on to it, but stray away from it's sweet spot and it't no better then a plain white wall. Some setups will never even notice this, some do. every room is different. Do you have chairs to the side of the screen? See where I am going?


Anyways, this can get kind of long without knowing what direction your going in. Ask any questions....

btw, I did a DIY screen as well. Got the material sent to me, made a frame, and it worked out great. Spent 400.00 on a fixed 110" screen vs about 1200+s/h and taxes.

hey man, i have a dalite, screen in 1.5 grain, i have a benq 6200 projector, so its a bright projector, and the 1.5 grain works great, my room was very dark when viewing though.. had no problems with funny stuff in the picture.. i will tell you this, if i had it to do over again, i would get one of the cinema screen's, like Saturn has. the one i got was a pull down, don’t get me wrong i like the screen and i got a 135inch screen so the picture is HUGE.. but the cinema screens are so much easier to handle i think, don’t know I’m sure Saturn will chime in here pretty soon.. i went with the 1.5 because it will work with any projector and will offer a high contrast though the screen, not though the bulb, so i can have my projector on economy and the picture is still wonderful, rather than having to run it at cinema/video setting...


hope this helps man.

I have heard that the screens with "tension" are one of the best ways to go. My room will be completely dark, even during the day, when I am watching movies. I never have any lights on when I am watching movies. I would like to get a screen that will be give me some good deep blacks.r

Thanks for the leads, and I will take a look at some of those websites you recommended.

Tensioned screens should be the best possible screen for those that need retractible screens as they are supposed to used larger rollers (to prevent wrinkles), and the tension helps to prevent waves. Of course, nothing is as good as a perminately attached screen for eliminating waves (as there are none) and stopping wrinkles (should never happen), but there is something "cool" and practical about a retractible screen.

I went with a wall mounted Carada. I love the perfectly flat surface, but I was also limited by a couple of factors, one being mouting location (a pull down/motorized screen would not mount easily where I needed it) and the other was cost. I don't think (didn't say I didn't know) that there are any tensioned screens that aren't motorized too, so you will pay a small fortune for one.

Good luck! I am sure that you will enjoy whatever you get.

" (didn't say I didn't know)"

Now Now Now, I know where this is coming from, settle down big guy, the dark side I sense in you ha ha

I just bought a screen from Severtson. They made almost all of the IMAX screens in the country. Severtson just started making home theater screens. Love mine.

Where do you buy a Severtson screen? Do you they sell direct?

I am just being careful since some people around here read things differently, so I wanted to make sure that I was clear.

In response to:

Poster: sirquack
Subject: Re: Screen suggestion

" (didn't say I didn't know)"

Now Now Now, I know where this is coming from, settle down big guy, the dark side I sense in you ha ha