The Best Movie Screen

In general, and specifically in this article, when I say ‘the best’ I am referring to how closely the production studio is being recreated. When the goal is to experience what the artist intended, the home theater must imitate the qualities of the production studio. In the case of a movie screen, you want to see what the director saw.

 Most movies produced today use a Cinemascope aspect ratio, 2.35:1. Meaning the width of the image is 2.35 times as wide as it is tall. This is advantageous because the extra width involves you more fully in the movie…more of the movie is in your peripheral vision.

 Contrast Cinemascope with your HDTV, which has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Viewing a Cinemascope movie on a 1.78:1 screen results in black bars at the top and bottom of the screen (this is called letterboxing). One of the problems with those black bars is they represent about 33% of the total projected image coming from your expensive high-resolution projector. That’s like buying a bottle of Maker’s Mark and finding Yukon Jack inside. (If you like Yukon Jack…I am sorry).

 The solution is simple, have the projector stretch the image vertically (making everything tall and skinny) and add an anamorphic lens to the front of the projector to stretch everything horizontally, back to its proper shape. Now you are using 100% of the projected image. (The value proposition of that expensive projector just gets better and better.)

 There is some distortion introduced by the anamorphic lens called “pincushion distortion” (See image below). This distortion results from the extra

distance the light hitting the sides of the screen has to travel compared to the distance light travels to the center of the screen. Fortunately, this distortion is easily corrected with a curved screen. Voila! A beautiful Cinemascope picture in your very own home!

 There are other benefits to using a curved Cinemascope screen as well. Instead of light bouncing off the screen to the wall, the curvature of the screen directs more of the light back to the viewers, thus improving the brightness of the image.

 Going one step further, if an acoustically transparent screen material is used the Left, Center and Right channel speakers can be located behind the screen itself. Right where the action is!! Any guesses where the production studio speakers are located? Yup, right behind the screen.

 So. The best movie screen is an acoustically transparent, curved 2.35:1 screen, allowing you to see, and hear, what the director intended.