http://news.progressivehome.com/archives/tag/screen-innovations

Lighten Up

Many of us will tolerate a projection system that requires a totally darkened room for movie watching. But when other family matters make this impossible, or when your buddies come over on a Sunday afternoon for the big game, how many of us are willing to totally blacken the room and leave everyone to stumble around in the dark?

Our article “How To Choose: Video Projection Screens” mainly addresses conventional front-projection screens—screens that require a light-controlled environment. But there are other options. Rear projection is better at rejecting room lighting. Those big, factory-made rear-projection televisions have become an endangered species, but specialized screens are available that literally let you set up your own jumbo rear-projection system. There are also front-projection screens with a specialized gray finish, such as Stewart Filmscreen’s FireHawk, which are designed to improve contrast. The latter is less critical now than it was in the early days of contrast-challenged projectors, but the FireHawk still has its advocates. It rejects some of the light that hits it from oblique angles, such as a lamp at the side of the room. It also minimizes the risk of light from the projected image reflecting back onto the screen and subtly bleaching out the picture.

Other players in this game (some of which have come and gone) are DNP, which still manufactures a range of such screens, and Sony, whose black screen is no longer in production.

One of the newest comers to this party, and now the most vocal promoter of such screens, is Screen Innovations. Its latest, the Black Diamond II HD, is available in two versions: the original with a specified gain of 0.8, and a newer design with a gain of 1.4. While the 1.4 gain tested here may be a little less effective at rejecting ambient light (we haven’t tested the 0.8 design), it can produce a significantly brighter image. That’s a major advantage with most of today’s affordable home theater projectors. And 3D projection’s inherently dimmer image makes choosing the 1.4 version a no-brainer.

The Black Diamond II HD screen comes in a variety of sizes and aspect ratios, including 16:9, 2.35:1, 2.4:1, and 4:3. It’s only available with a fixed frame; the screen material is relatively stiff and cannot, at present, be made retractable. We received the smallest 16:9 model for review—80 inches diagonal (69.8 inches wide by 39.3 inches high). At the top of the price heap sits a 131-inch-wide, 54.6-inch-high 2.4 model, at $3,899.

Read More on HomeTheater.com

As most enthusiasts are aware, Front Projection technology is capable of throwing great images onto very large screens, but with one Achilles Heel – Ambient Light. This light can be due to poor light control from windows and light sources around a room. Or it can be due to light scatter off of the screen itself, light that is reflected around the room and then back to the screen. Ambient light is a larger problem for front projection technologies compared to other display technologies such as flat panels, and this stems from the fact that the screen itself is highly reflective and usually white. In order to combat this problem, home theaters with front projectors tend to be dark, uninviting bat caves. These bat caves may be ideal for Videophiles looking for the ultimate image fidelity when watching a movie, but they fall short in social settings such as watching a football game with friends, where some ambient light may be desired. To this end, Screen Innovations has created a novel screen technology that relies on a light absorbent, dark, base screen material, that is covered with angular reflective material giving the screen a 0.8 gain. This novel combination of light absorption + light reflection holds promise for enthusiasts who do not want to go the bat cave route, and would like to enjoy the benefits of a large front projection screen in rooms with some ambient light. Does this promise pan out and if so, how much image quality is sacrificed in the process?  Steven Zuckermann an enthusiast who is well known at AVS Forum has put the SI Black Diamond to the test, and in so doing has captured the strengths and weaknesses of this screen. He has graciously chosen to share these results on VideoVantage and he is the first person other than myself to write articles for this website. Many thanks for Steve for taking the time to research this interesting area and for providing the article below – Mark Petersen

Read More

Well, maybe I shouldn’t have said, “no problem”.

Some consumers have dedicated home theaters that control all ambient light such that when all the room lights are off and the projector is off too, you can’t see your hand in front of your face because there is zero ambient light.

For the majority of us however, we use a family room or den for watching movies using a projector that we place on a coffee table, or perhaps mounted on the ceiling, with the screen mounted on the opposite wall, or pull-down from the ceiling. And, that room has doors and windows. The result? Ambient light that peeks its way around the edges of the blackout curtains… read more

This is especially true if you’re using a fairly cheap and cheerful screen or even – shudder – a matt white wall to play your projected images on. For such surfaces just don’t have the reflective properties to compete with even small amounts of ambient light, leaving the images that appear on their surfaces looking dull and lifeless… read more

If you’re considering a front projection system for your home theater but don’t have a dedicated light-controlled environment to put it in, you may want to check out one of the new high-contrast screens like Screen Innovations Black Diamond II.

Using a special screen design, these screens minimize ambiant light while still giving you a bright and punchy projected image.

With older generation high gain screens, light was reflected from the projector back into the room with a very narrow viewing angle. Think of the lenses in a light house, focusing the light into a narrow beam. This means that viewers sitting off to the side saw a washed-out picture with very poor contrast. Viewers in the narrow window area also saw significant hot-spotting – the center of the screen was noticeably brighter than the edges.

Screen Innovations™ Black Diamond high contrast screens aim to solve these problems, with a multi-layer optical system that provides a high contrast screen with a wider viewing angle than high gain screens have typically been known for.

The latest Black Diamond II material builds on the performance of its predecessor, with improvements in contrast and uniformity as well as being offered in two gain choices: 0.8 and the 1.4-gain screen tested here. The half-gain viewing angle (the point at which light output from the screen drops to 50 percent of on-center) is a fairly wide 88 degrees.

I previously tested the first Black Diamond screen, and I was very impressed at its ability to deliver a colorful and punchy picture even in high ambient lighting. This latest Black Diamond II high-gain material provides even more contrast in high-light situations, and it has less scatter than traditional screen types (around 75 percent or so, according to Screen Innovations). That characteristic helps keep contrast high, even in low ambient light situations (like evening viewing), by reducing the amount of light bouncing around the room and back onto the screen.

I opened all the blinds and shades in my theater room on a very sunny Palm Springs day (There are days that aren’t sunny in Palm Springs? G.M.), and propped the Black Diamond II screen next to my Stewart Firehawk G3 screen, which allowed me to do a side-by-side comparison.

Compared to the conventional Stewart screen material, which was predictably more washed out with all the ambient light in the room, the Black Diamond II offered much more visible contrast and a punchy, colorful picture that looked just great. Screen Innovations notes that compared to the first-generation material, the Black Diamond II is also more color neutral, with less “push” in the blue range, and a gray ramp test pattern confirmed the screen’s overall color neutrality.

Fixed frame versions are offered now, either flat or curved. A motorized roll-down version in the works.

Traditional home theaters can be a lot of fun. Turn on the system, turn off the lights and start the movie.

Being in a dark room, in my opinion, is part of the movie experience. But I don’t like watching sports and other programming in a bat cave.

Now you don’t have to. SI recently launched their Black Diamond screens. With these screens you can use a front projector and still have some lights on. With a normal screen, if you turn up the lights, the picture is washed out and unwatchable.

SI’s Black Diamond screens, combined with projectors that are both rapidly improving and decreasing in price, is a game changer. You can have a huge, high quality picture in a cave… or in a room with lights, as shown below.

This was, in my opinion, the most impressive product at the CEDIA Expo last week. I’m planning to get my hands on an SI Black Diamond screen and give it a test drive. After I do, I’ll report back with more details.

Read More at http://blogs.hgtvpro.com/hgtvpro/bob_gatton/archive/2009/09/this_is_a_game.html?nl=HGPro_v235p_Top5-diamond