Projection Screen Reviews

Both the Elite Lunette and the Screen Innovations Black Diamond G2 4K screens were measured against our Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130 reference for both color consistency and brightness loss from the center to the sides. These measurements include the effect of both the screen and the projector. We have no way to reliably isolate the two, so these measurements should be used for comparison only.

All measurements here were made with our meter located at a centered position, just behind the projector. A center reading was taken first, then readings at 75 percent left and right. The measurements on all three screens were somewhat worse at the right side of the screen than the left, suggesting that the differences were related to the projector (though they were not visible to the eye). Below, we show only the worst-case, center-to-right-side results.

Different screens will require different calibration settings, so the Sony projector was recalibrated for each screen prior to taking any readings. The gray-scale results are shown in the accompanying table as the average Delta E. Delta E is simply a figure of merit that shows how closely the gray scale adheres to the HD color standard. The lower the number, the better, and most experts agree that readings under 3 to 4 will appear visibly uncompromised to the eye. While the Screen Innovations has the most deviation, it’s likely that the screen itself had less to do with that than the projector. None of the color deviations from the center to the side shown here were obvious on normal program material.

What is clearly shown is the measurable loss of brightness from screen center to 75 percent right on the SI screen. An important part of the SI’s design is its ability to reject light coming at it from an angle. Unfortunately, such a screen can’t differentiate between a table lamp located at an angle to the screen and the light coming from the projected image and hitting the screen at the same angle. But under most conditions on typical program material, this effect was not obvious. We would expect to see it even less so on the 0.8 gain option for this screen, though we have not tested that version.—TJN

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