Is a more expensive projector screen really better or worth it?

Depends on your room. Do you have a dedicated theater?
 
Not right now but I can control the light. Why?

If you don't an ambient light screen is great. If you do, you can get a high gain. Personally i didn't want to waste the money and painted my own, after i blacked out i used a white with some of the silvermetallic mixed in, i think i got recipe off AVS. Looked great, so much brighter than my cheapo one i bought.
 
what price are you talking about for expensive? I have a $50 pulldown I got from fleabay and it was decent, but upgraded to Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 from amazon for $200 and it was night and day better, it's also a fixed frame which is so nice if you have the space. I love it.
 
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Better to ask at AVS Forum. Most here, including myself don’t have direct experience with that screen you are asking about.

My thoughts on projector screens in general (after almost 20 years using projectors in my home theater and seeing probably 100 screens at g2gs and home theater crawls) is brand or quality doesn't matter that much so long as it's not reflective composition, and the screen is stretched and unwrinkled. (rolldown screens stink for critical viewing because they are rarely taut.) Even a painted drywall properly done looks great - there are some paint recommendations to be found on AVSforum and I've seen several and they work fine. IMO, Stay Away from anything high gain, (>about 1.1 gain) because they start giving off a “sparkly” effect which annoys me. Typically they have some sort of reflective material ground up and mixed into the material/paint. It makes hotspotting that looks like sparklies on the screen. Terrible, IMO. High Gain screens also have narrower viewing angles.

I personally think if you are dealing with uncontrollable ambient light, simply don’t buy a projector in the first place. Projectors aren't optimal in anything but a blacked out room.

For example:
I think this looks incredibly crappy, but obviously from the comments some people like it.



As does this - why would you want this when a wall mounted TV could still have great blacks in the daylight? The screen isn't any bigger than an 85" TV, and it looks WAY worse, and the screen probably costs almost as much as a 85" TV.




Just buy a 85” TV if you have uncontrollable ambient light. It won’t look washed out and sparkly.
 
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Just buy a 85” TV if you have uncontrollable ambient light. It won’t look washed out and sparkly.

And it's cheaper than some of the screens, and it's probably real 4k, and you don't have to wait on bulbs to warm up. I've never recommended FP to anyone that doesn't have light controlled room/theater. But some people put up with it.
 
The true benefit of an expensive screen is not the picture quality, in my opinion, it's the acoustic transparency.

The ideal theater experience has the sound coming from behind the screen. I have my center channel slightly below the recommended height and I've toed it out slightly from the wall to try and compensate (angled the bottom up slightly) . I also had to toe-in my left & right speakers. Using painted sheetrock is also terrible for sound reflections. There is no way to absorb nor diffuse reflected sound waves that bounce back to the wall. Using an acoustically transparent screen allows you to flank your speakers with sound dampening material.

I decided to go with the painted sheetrock route because I have young kids and I knew that if one of them used a crayon, colored pencil or anything with ink on a $2000 screen, I'd go ballistic. Sure there's a few oily fingerprints, but now our kids know better than to touch my speakers or the screen.

Plus, I can't build any more speakers. Even the subwoofers I've built were slightly more than originally planned, therefore my screen is no longer centered. I need to do some modifications on the left side before I make the black velvet screen border. I'm not sure if I will actually cut and remove some of the sheetrock screen so the left speaker doesn't overlap. Therefore, fixing it gets postponed... BTW, it looks MUCH better with the lights off. I painted the ceiling dark and all the walls. This picture is to display my self-built speakers & subs. :)

I kinda wish that i had splurged and bought an acoustically transparent screen. Someday I probably will.

IMG_20200602_181343.jpg

Speakers:
Pair of Mini Marty Cubes with Ultimax 18 subs
Pair of self-designed 15" Eminence subs (similar model to the Lab 15 model)
LR: DIYsoundgroup Vortex Tempest 12's with Eminence 12" midwoofers and 96 db sensitivity.
Center: Cinema 88 Special by DIYsoundgroup.
 
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i tried a 1000$ compared to my $200. I didn’t see much difference. Probably better using that money to buy a better projector
 
I use really expensive headphones so acoustic transparency I don't think matters to me or am I wrong ?
 
Projectors simply cannot match HDR on a decent TV, they are poor at HDR.
And gaming on 4K PJs has terrible lag.
Thats why I stopped using my PJ 2 years ago rather than upgrading it, nothing ticked all the boxes, not for any price. And price does matter!
I actually gave my PJ away last week.

ps you can get away without a centre speaker if you use ribbon tweeters on your fronts.
I've tried it on 4 different ribbon setups now and and it works supremely well, even with poor amp and crap source.
The only downside, you have to be in the middle or close to it.
 
Projectors simply cannot match HDR on a decent TV, they are poor at HDR.
And gaming on 4K PJs has terrible lag.
Thats why I stopped using my PJ 2 years ago rather than upgrading it, nothing ticked all the boxes, not for any price. And price does matter!
I actually gave my PJ away last week.

This is true but idc I prefer a theater experience sorry
 
Thanks I got mine with free shipping. I wanted to get a semi portable screen but thinking about getting one that rolls up and down. Unless this is a bad idea or risky. I know they can break .
 
This is true but idc I prefer a theater experience sorry
No need to be sorry, I had a great time with projectors for a decade+, I have no doubt you will too.
I was answering your first post with my context for general understanding.
 
I use really expensive headphones so acoustic transparency I don't think matters to me or am I wrong ?
Transparency only matters if a speaker is behind the screen so sound has to pass through the screen.
Headphones have no bearing on this.
 
So ultimately is a $500 to $1000+ screen worth it compared to my $200 screen ?
 
So ultimately is a $500 to $1000+ screen worth it compared to my $200 screen ?

It depends on your needs and whether a cheaper screen can satisfy them.
If you mostly sit near the centre you may be able to get away with a relatively cheap glass bead screen (to get great image pop/brightness) but when I last researched them, they didnt expose all the detail in 4K images very well, they are great for 1080p which is how I used mine. (Because normal beads are too large for UHD)
There may have been advances in glass bead screens since then but I have no doubt that wont be for the same low price.
This was another reason I gave large TVs a try, it wasnt easy to find decent UHD capable pj screens while keeping the gain high (similar to glass bead) without spending a fortune.
And even then I wasnt sure I would be satisfied.
But a lot can change in 2 years, things may be a bit better now.
 
Another issue is how you need to mount the screen.
Some sellers can have their screen materials contained in whatever mount style you like but a lot of companies you only get the standard options.
Mine must hang from wooden beams so standard ceiling or wall mounts were a no go, it needed hooks at the ends to attach chain to.

Another issue was many shops became difficult or stopped responding when they realised this was going to require more effort than most sales they make.
That really pissed me off, I had a really tough time finding people I could deal with in the UK and even approached companies in the US.

ps
its sometimes worth reading my previous posts about 10 mins after I post, I add extra bits of info to help make it a little easier to understand.
 
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