Choosing a Movie Screen

I received a phone call recently from someone interested in purchasing a movie screen for a new home theater. During the course of our conversation I was asked why it wasn’t possible to see three or four different models in order to choose the ‘best’ one.

That’s a great question.

There are several factors to be considered when choosing the ‘best’ movie screen: size of the room (and screen), the amount of ambient light, the model of projector, what content is going to be primarily viewed, etc. The amount of light in the room is a prime consideration, particularly if the projector itself doesn’t have the ability to project a LOT of light.

In our example above there is some ambient light in the room so there are two light measurements that need to be taken: at the wall where the screen is going to hang and at the primary seating position. The first measurement is perhaps more obvious than the second, but the amount of ambient light hitting the viewers’ eyes will dictate how much detail on the screen can be seen. (For an extreme example recall how well you can see in the dark right after bright light hits your eyes)

Those light measurements along with the size of the screen is a great help in choosing the proper screen/projector combination to stay within the proposed budget.

If you are considering purchasing a movie screen from a dealer they should be able to work with you to do the analysis outlined above.