Home Theater Screen Material

Home theater owners tend to put a lot of thought into choosing projectors, but they seldom spend more than five minutes thinking about projection screens. But home theater projection screens are just as important as home theater projectors. It’s particularly important to choose the right home theater screen material for optimal image quality.

There are two types of projection screens used in Canadian home theater systems. These are rigid wall-mounted screens and pull-down screens. Rigid projector screens are made of coated glass and/or acrylic, and their obvious advantage is a perfectly flat surface that accurately reproduces image geometry.

The pull-down or manual wall screen is made of a thick fabric such as vinyl, painted white or gray and attached to a screen case where it rolls up when not in use. They are usually designed to be supported on screen stands, but in most Canadian home theater rooms, they are pinned against the wall to prevent folds and creases that can distort the image.

Canadian home theater dealers may talk to you about screen gain, which is the amount of reflectivity on the screen material. Higher screen gain images appear crisper and brighter. While this is generally desirable, screens with higher gain have a narrower viewing angle, which may make it difficult to position your seats later on. A screen gain of 2.0 to 2.5 is considered ideal for most viewing conditions.