How to Choose the Best Home Theater Screen

Motorised Home theater screens, one of the costliest in the lineup, can be wall-mounted or ceiling recessed. These projection screens will have one or two motors depending on the screen size.

The Motorised screen needs a power connection and can be operated using a remote. Home theater installation Personnel installing the screen will need to have an excellent understating of Motorised Home cinema screen installations. In all its probability, it will also need an electrician’s additional help.

Screen Material:

The home theater screen should be tightly stretched to get the best picture quality. Wrinkles and creases are a great distraction to viewers when watching a movie or anything else.

You might think that all the projection screens under the sun are made of the same material. But not really; Vinyl is generally the preferred material of choice for economic screens. As you go up the ladder, you will find flexible PVC and other more costly materials.

When you have a QSC SC 1150 type of Home cinema speaker package that goes and sits behind the screen, you would need to have a Harkness, Elite Screens or Lumina make micro-perforated/Woven screen that would let the sound pass through. In the process, you will lose some light with these type of home cinema screens.

Screen Aspect Ratio:

When we talk about screen ratio, there are majorly three kinds, namely,

• Yesteryear 4:3 ratio.
• The most widely used Widescreen 16:9 Ratio.
• Cinemascope 21:9 ratio.

The 4:3 Screen ratios are almost obsolete for home cinema viewing, and the 16:9 ratios are most likely to be the preferred choice if you watch a lot of HDTV content.

But the 21:9 screen ratio beats them all. It is the best choice for intense Hollywood movie nights as the black bars that are generally visible with the 16:9 screen remains invisible in 21:9, and every inch of your screen gets filled with natural quality images full of rich colours.

To get the best out of 21:9 cinemascope screens, you need to have an anamorphic lens attached to the projector in use.

Screen Gain:

The reflective quality of the home theater projection screen is termed as the gain of the screen. High Gain screens reflect light more and produce better brightness compared to low gain screens.

Home Cinema Screens with very high gain value produce hotspots – a phenomenon of an image appearing brighter at the center than the edges. For a Home theater with dark interiors and dark furniture, a Screen between 1-1.4 should work just fine.

Screen Colour:

Dark coloured projection screen must be avoided as they distort the colour of the picture. While Grey or silver colour screens provide the best viewing experience in partially dark rooms, White screens suit a darker room.

The Grey screen absorbs more ambient light, but the white screen will provide high-quality images in a dedicated home theater room where light is controlled. With a gain value between 0.7 and 1.1, Grey projector screens maintain a better colour contrast than the white ones.

Screen Coating:

Home cinema projector screens with Matte white coating and Pearlescent coating are two types of most used coatings. While Matte white-coated projector screens are best placed in low-light rooms, pearlescent screens are ideal for home theatres with higher ambient light levels.

Matte white coating has low reflection, and when the room gets brighter, the colours get dimmer – giving an awful viewing experience.

But in an ambient light-controlled environment, a White screen with a High Contrast home theater projector works incredibly well.

Along with ratio, material, gain, colour, and coating of the screen, you have to consider other factors that impact the viewing experience. The area of the room, the quality of the home theater projector, the spot you want to place the screen at, the home theater screen size, and much more.

Picking the best home theater screen in India may seem like a tough job. Symphony 440 Design Group consultants evaluate your home theater needs and help you choose the best home theater equipment. If you have any question regarding building a home theater, feel free to drop a comment or reach out to us directly.

Image References: Elite Screens