Stewart Filmscreen GrayHawk Projection Screen
 When we think
about home-theater projection systems, we tend to concentrate on the projectors
themselves. This is understandable -- they're different from conventional TVs, and whether
they're CRTs, LCDs, or DLPs, they have a really high level of pure gizmo-appeal.
What we tend to forget is that a projector isn't worth
diddlysquat without something to project upon. That's right -- you've got to have a
screen. In fact, the screen you choose is an important home-theater component, one that
can either optimize and enhance the performance of your projector or subtly sabotage it.
'Fess up. You've never given screens much thought. After
all, how complicated can they be?
As it turns out, they're remarkably complex, given how
simple they initially appear. Just like life itself.
Arise, shine, for thy light has come
Obviously, you want a screen to be smooth -- you don't want
seams or differences in surface texture. That's a big reason why you can't just shine your
projector on a blank wall. But a good screen has other things going for it.
In the early days of projectors, lamp life could be
significantly prolonged if you could run the red, green and blue tubes at lower outputs --
and those jobbies were (and still are) expensive to replace. In addition, the tubes tended
to "bloom" or deviate from strict alignment when run hot. So screens added
"gain" -- in other words, they used reflective coatings that actually reflected
back somewhat more light than was shone on them. (A screen that reflects more light back
than is projected on it is said to have a gain of greater than 1.0 -- one that projects
back less light has a gain below 1.0, say .95. Screens have been manufactured with gains
of 1.3, 1.5, 1.8 and 2.0.)
But high-gain screens were not without drawbacks. Since
they reflected more light than was projected upon them, they also reflected (and amplified)
any ambient light that was in the room. That meant home theaters had to be perfectly dark
or the picture would be pale and insubstantial. In addition, high-gain screens optimized
the light amplification in the center of the screen, which meant that viewers needed to
sit directly in front of them (and what's the point of having a big screen if only one or
two people can sit in front of it?) and that the outer edges of the image weren't
as bright and sharp as the center.
Then Digital Light Processors (DLPs) came along and
suddenly projecting a lot of light at the screen was no longer a problem. This doesn't
mean DLPs are perfect, of course, simply that their set of tradeoffs is quite different
from those of a CRT or LCD projector. On a high-gain screen, a DLP image can look washed
out. The problem is one of contrast between black and the rest of the color spectrum --
the brightness of the DLP image comes at the expense of the contrast ratio: a DLP image on
a high-gain screen tends to portray black as dark gray.
So, reasoned the screen-gurus at Stewart Filmscreen, the
trick to optimizing DLP performance is to spend a little of that excess light to buy
deeper blacks. Their solution was the GrayHawk screen -- a low-gain (.95) screen that
literally uses a light-gray surface under its optical coating. It is the first screen
designed specifically for DLPs. The result is deeper blacks, greater shadow-detail, richer
colors, and less susceptibility to ambient light within the viewing area.
Few are qualified to shine in company
I should probably devote a few paragraphs to issues common
to all screen types before proceeding with my experiences with the GrayHawk. If you're
building a home-theater system around a projection system, you'll need to think long and
hard about setting up a screen. You have options -- boy, do you have options! -- but
you'll end up having to decide between devoting space to a dedicated screen within the
room or making it disappear by throwing money at the problem.
The screen itself is just a thin piece of fabric covered
with whichever optical coating you've purchased. It snaps into a rigid frame, which keeps
it taut and wrinkle free -- and which is itself coated with a black-velvet-like material
designed to absorb light (at least the sample I received from Stewart is). You have
several options for mounting this. You can simply attach it to the wall and leave it, or
the supporting frame can also be hung from the ceiling, or the company can supply you with
a floor-standing support frame, which is how my review sample was delivered.
But all of these options require using valuable floor or
wall space for a very large flat object in your living room or home theater. If you can't
live with that, you still have options. You can have the screen built into a cabinet, or
you can buy a slick motorized housing that will roll and unroll the screen on demand. If
you live in a loft with 30' ceilings, you can even buy a rolled screen that will lower
itself to viewing height and then unfurl for use.
Let your light so shine before men that they shall see
your good works
In all the years I've been reviewing A/V products, I must
have unpacked literally thousands of components, but only a handful have been packed as
well as the Stewart GrayHawk. Not only were the individual pieces logically arranged, but
the easy-to-follow instructions were the first thing out of the box and the parts were
even color-coded for foolproof assembly. The screen arrived intact, and I was able to
assemble it and have it ready for use within minutes.
This might seem like a minor point, but it convinced me
that these people were serious about screens. I felt that if they spent that much
attention on packing the darn thing, imagine what they put into building it.
While waiting for the delivery of the GrayHawk, I had been
using a roll-down screen, just like the ones used for slide shows in every high school
classroom in the country. It was ugly, and even when unrolled and stretched, it simply
wasn't that taut. Black contrast and color saturation was adequate, but certainly far from
cinematic. Even worse, it limited the size of my image -- especially in widescreen format
-- and it amplified ambient light to the degree that I could never get my living room dark
enough for critical viewing during daylight hours. True, it didn't cost much, but it
compromised the video quality and its shortcomings caused me endless frustration.
Having assembled the GrayHawk, I couldn't wait to try it
out, so despite my previous bad experiences trying to watch the PLUS Piano during daylight
hours, I immediately turned it on. I wasn't about to wait until dark.
Wow! The GrayHawk made the image look great, even with
small amounts of light leaking in from each blinded window. And the image wasn't merely
more visible, it was good. Blacks were better and the colors were without question
deeper and richer. Even better, I was able to produce a much larger picture since the
GrayHawk was designed to true widescreen proportions.
Of course, once the sun set, everything was even better. I
was able to fill the screen with rich, deeply saturated colors, while still being able to
peer deep within the shadows of such murky films as Batman and Dark City.
But I was unprepared for how much difference the screen made with films such as Lawrence
of Arabia and Spartacus. Both films, of course, were made for huge screens and
even with the razor-sharp transfers they have received on DVD, they simply don't cut it on
a direct-view monitor. You want them as big as possible -- and the GrayHawk allowed me to
squeeze even more image size out of the PLUS than I had managed previously. An extra
12" width might not seem like all that much on paper, but up on the screen, it's
huge.
But it wasn't just the size that impressed me; it was the
quality of the image. Lawrence was (literally) dazzling -- all those miles and
miles of relentlessly bright sand seemed real, down to the last grain. And Spartacus
was so filled with true color and crisp detail that I lost myself in southern Italy. Both
pictures are bigger than life, but what the Stewart GrayHawk demonstrated so admirably was
that it is not the bold strike that makes the biggest impact, but the telling detail. And
thrown onto a large screen, the telling detail is no small matter.
Love's glory doth in darkness shine
It used to be that projection systems were only available
to the richest home-theater buffs, but affordable DLPs are changing that fast. But no
matter how affordable projectors get, they can't do their job properly without a
high-quality screen to project upon. Stewart's GrayHawk, with its .95 gain and gray
basecoat can make a huge difference in the clarity, depth of color and contrast of the
video image your DLP projector can achieve. In fact, I'd go so far as to say you would
compromise your projector's performance if you attempt to watch your movies on anything
else.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
Stewart Filmscreen GrayHawk Projection Screen
Price: $1302 USD (for a 82" diagonal frame, prices will vary based on stand option
and screen size)
Warranty: Ten year parts and labor
Stewart Filmscreen
Corporation
1161 West Sepulveda Blvd.
Torrance, California 90502 USA
Phone: (310) 784-5300
Website: www.stewartfilm.com
|
