What level of 'gain' am I likely to need from my screen?

[steve 111]

I am about to make my first plunge into projectors and am thinking of either the Optoma HD70 or the Sanyo Z3000, the problem I now have is which screen to get.

My room is 5mx4m and only has 2 small Velux skylights that are fitted with blackout blinds so the room can be made pretty dark during the day.

Based upon this am I better off going for a 1:1 standard gain or something like the Graywolf screens that have a gain of 1.8

[sweevo]

I had a HD70 demo today which was in a darkened room with a 1.1 gain screen. Personally I thought the picture was spot on. Amongst the films I watched were Finding Nemo, Revenge Of The Sith & Fellowship Of The ring.

If you can darken your room like it sounds like you can then I would "imagine" that a similar screen or maybe one with just a wee bit more gain (if you want to hedge your bets) would be ideal.

The room where i'll be housing my screen has yet to be built so I need to see how much I can darken before I pick out a screen. HTH

[Fred Flintstone4]

Hi Steve, I think sweevo is spot on with a gain of 1.1 which you can get from a Matte White screen at a reasonable price. You'll get excellent color rendition and minimum hot spotting and a nice wide viewing angle. Put the pj on eco mode and get 3,000 hours out of it then upgrade in a couple of years time!

Seriously, if you're working in a dark and non reflective environment the size you mention then the image is not going to be more than 2.4 metres (8 feet) wide and you'll get an excellent picture. Decades ago (or so it seems) I used to use a pj called a Talaria which claimed to have 1,000 lumens and it was good enough for 3 metre (10 feet) wide pictures in conference lighting. In a darkened theatre on front projection it would produce much larger pictures.

PM me if you want any more information.