Which Screen Should I buy?

Screen Size

Work out the size of your screen by projecting what you are going to watch onto a wall at the distance your projector is going to be. Measure the width of your image and the height this is the size of the projection screen you need. Do not forget that the screen case is always bigger than the image size. Check out our screen specifications to find out by how much and if it will fit in that little niche that you have.

Black Borders!

These frame the image giving a better contrast and if your image slightly overlaps the black border masks this. Do check when you are ordering a black bordered screen as some of the cheaper ones do not have a large top black drop. The black drop makes sure the image is at the correct height for viewing, otherwise you are going to have to mount the screen half way down the wall. Screen fabric is either a woven material with fibreglass or thick vinyl on the cheaper screens, all come with a black backing. Black backing is not light impervious and any direct sunlight from the back will affect the projected image.

Manual vs. Electric!

Manual Screens are pull down screens that can be wall or ceiling mounted they work on a spring system and can be stopped on every rotation, so you can adjust the format. It is a knack to get these screens back up by gently pulling down and then releasing slowly back into the tube. Therefore do not buy a manual screen if it is going to be mounted higher than you can reach. Electric screens are now very affordable and our Standard Electric comes with a mains lead and plug, it also has a rocker switch to make the screen go up and down. Dropping the screen takes around 30 seconds. You can add either and Infra Red or Radio Remote very cheaply. All our screens are manufactured in Sweden by Bjurab a Draper Inc. owned company.

Paint! The Cheapest Option?

Well you can paint the wall with a matt vinyl emulsion (preferably acrylic) either in white or light grey, it really does work. Don't do this if you have just spent £30 a roll on wallpaper, your partner will kill you. It also does not go down well with people you are visiting when you paint their wall before giving a presentation, buy a portable screen instead.

Grey! The New Black?

Grey screens have come into popularity over the last year due to the increase in brightness of projectors. Grey increase contrast ratios and believe me a lot of nonsense is talked about different projector contrast ratios, you are far better turning the lights out. You get better colour rendition with grey, as always you never get anything for nothing the gain is 0.8 therefore you see a 20% reduction in brightness. We can get Grey screens to special order.

Matt White! The Safe Bet?

This surface gives a gain of 1:1 this means whatever you project onto it the image returns back through 180 degrees. So that anybody sat anywhere in the room sees the same image brightness.

High Gain! What Do You Gain?

Well you gain brightness! High gain surfaces can increase the perceived brightness of a projector by anything up to 3 times, look for something like 1.8:1 ratio, this is a gain of 1.8 x brightness of projector. The problem you get with high gain is a loss of dispersion, brightness tails off at the edge as you walk around the screen. The other problem is it can cause the image colours to be less life like. In addition if it is amplifying the projector light it is also doing the same to the room light. It is also expensive.

Draw the Curtains!

The biggest impact you can make on your image is to remove all light shining on the screen, apart from the projector. All ambient light effects the contrast ratio and colour balance of the image you see. If you do nothing else remove all light, it is the cheapest thing to do. Have a look at this and this. It totally destroys the concept of projector contrast ratio.

Secure Server?

The secure server is running with state of the art 128 bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. Customer information is protected at all times - from buy page to checkout. All personal information you provide when purchasing online is encrypted. As soon as you press Buy Goods a new window opens on the secure part of our website where you enter your address. Once you click submit order you are taken to "Secure Trading" their website then takes you card details. At no time do we see any of these details.

How to tell?

You can distinguish a secure page from a non-secure one by looking at the golden lock in the lower right hand corner of your browser if you are using Internet Explorer or in the address bar on IE7 also in the upper right hand part of the toolbar in Netscape. Both of these icons denote that you are on a secure server. Additionally, URLs on secure servers begin with "https://" instead of the non-secure "http://".

FAX ORDERS
To place an order by fax, fax us at 0844 357 6870