The Right Projector Screen Can Save You Money

Buying your LCD projector in separation from the screen without considering how they work together is likely to price you more and give you less than perfect results. How can picking the right projector screen save you money?

One of the major challenges when selecting an LCD projector is getting the right brightness for the room you are going to be using it in. For home use you can regularly darken the room. This means you can buy a economical LCD projector, often saving many hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

But often darkening the room much is neither possible nor desirable. Purchasing a higher specification projector will give you a brighter image, but it is perhaps cheaper to buy a high gain projector screen. The quality LCD projector may cost you a thousand dollars more than a dimmer model, whilst quality projector screens that enhance the image brightness and clarity are only a few hundred dollars more.

Projector Brightness and Screen Gain

The brightness of an LCD projector is given in ansi lumen. Usual values for home theater and business presentation use are 500 to 3000. The higher the number, the brighter the picture will be. At the low end a darkened room is necessary, as at the very top end satisfactory results are possible with higher light levels. The current generation of home use projectors is typically in the 1000-1500 range.

The gain of a projector screen is the addition in brightness of the image produced likened to a flat matt white screen. This is given as a simple number, for example 1, 1.5, 2 etc. A gain of 1 means the image is the same brightness as on a flat matt white surface, whereas 2 means the image is twice as bright.

As an example, if you determine you need about 1500 lumen to obtain an acceptable quality picture, you could purchase a projector with that rating and concern about the screen later. Or you could buy a cheaper 1000 lumen model and match it to a projector screen with a gain of 1.5. This would give you an efficient image brightness of 1500 lumen at a reduced cost.
Very High Gain Projector Screens

Typical low-priced projector screens have gains of between 1 and 1.2. Gains of 1.5 to 1.8 are attained with high quality perlescent finishes at about double the cost. If money is no object and you need the most gain possible then you need a chromatically matched projector screen.

Gains of up to 4 can now be achieved with matched projectors and screens. An LCD projector only carries 3 narrow wavelengths of light in Red, Green and Blue. A Be compatible projector screen is covered with material that reflects only these wavelengths. Nearly all of the ambient light is absorbed or scattered, so the projected image appears much brighter.

The Downside of High Projector Screen Gain

Even as projector screen gain might help you use a low-priced lcd projector in brighter rooms than it could manage with on its own, there are 3 trade-offs. These are the viewing angle, color shifting and uneven brightness.

High gain projector screens bound the viewing angle. For a screen with a gain of 1 the picture appears high quality out to about 50 degrees from the projector. But at a increase of 1.5 that viewing angle is reduced to about 35 degrees. Over 2 and the viewing angle is down to around 25 degrees, making it more difficult to layout your room.

Color shifting happens because of the surface properties of the higher gain screens. A true white screen will deliver colors accurately. By trying to manipulate the way light reflects, a high gain screen can source a shift in some of the colors. This is rarely a reason not to buy, except you actually do need the colors to be spot on.

The major impact a high gain projector screen has on image quality is the change is brightness from the center of the screen to the edge. There can be up to 30 percent difference at gains over 2. This is typically not too much of a problem, but it does become far more noticeable the higher the viewing angle.

Conclusion

A little research and a bit of support work could help you make great savings. Treat the projector screen as an essential part of your system and buy it together with your projector. Visit stores and take a firm stand on demonstrations with a variety of lcd projector and screen combinations.

Selecting a good quality, moderate gain (1.4-1.6) projector screen can reduce the cost and increase the performance of your system. A low-priced lcd projector can produce a bright, clear image at higher than expected light levels. So even as your projector screen may cost more, overall you save.