Gotta decide, PLEASE HELP!

[deewheezy]

Originally Posted by Brain Sturgeon

If you use a 16:9 screen, then yes, you will always have black bars above/below the image for scope material. However, is you use a scope screen then you will always have white bars (unused screen real estate) to the side of the screen for 16:9 or 4:3 material. Whether one or the other bothers you (if at all) is an individual thing. This can be addressed with a masking system for the screen for the variable aspect ratios. For a 16:9 screen, you could use a Carada Masquerade to mask off the black bars. For a scope screen, there are variable side masking schemes that can be used to mask off the white bars (Stewart Filmscreen, SMX, etc). These all add to the expense-- particularly side masking systems. Or you can rig up a DIY masking system with curtains or somesuch.

As Deci mentioned, the two ways of doing scope are the zooming method and an anamorphic lens (horizontal expansion or vertical compression) with either v-stretch and/or horizontal compression modes. The zooming method is the cheapest method, but requires zooming/refocusing your projector every time you change aspect ratios. The lens method is more eloquent and convenient, and does increase the light output of your image (without the "black bars") by about 10%, but does have the trade offs of introducing another lens element into the light path, reducing the MTF and ANSI contrast. However, this is not a big issue with the better lenses out there, with the ISCO III being top of the heap (~$8k), and what you get in the end is a unique, more "theater-like" experience at home. I would highly recommend that anyone thinking of setting up a serious FP system see a scope setup in action.



www.carada.com
www.dalite.com/dalitehometheater/index.php
www.smxscreen.com
www.stewartfilmscreen.com

Carada makes excellent, affordable screens. DaLite's High Power is a very popular, high gain, retroreflective screen (glass beaded). [biased]SMX CineWeave HD is one of the best acoustically transparent screens out there, as well as a great all around screen-- I have one myself [/biased]. Stewart's StudioTek 130 is an industry standard and their FireHawk G3 is one of the best screens out there for ambient light situations, but Stewart is known to be the most expensive screen out there.

wow thanx brain, that all makes much more sense now and ive made a few decisions.

a) i'd rather have one screen that can do it all (i.e. scope screen) and have white bars then waste image hieght on a 16:9 with black bars.

b) definitely cant afford an anamorph lens and i can definitely live with for this, my first home theatre.

c) with my plan of using a curtain heavy curtains to frame the screen i can easily adjust them to cover the unused parts of the screen when not displaying a scoped image.

d) lastly, im really beginning to consider a DIY screen. never thought i would but it seems pretty feesable. that way i can have a cine-scoped, framed. "100+ screen without taking away from the budget of other slightly more crucial aspects. like DOPE def tech speakers!

can anyone help in the DIY screen department? links, success stories or even colossial failures? depending on the difficulty and price difference its either this or a Carada i think= http://www.carada.com/ProductInfo.as...N-SCREEN-C104P

what do you guys think?

and btw, +2 for brain getting a mod spot