Carada screens?

[J.H.]

I just found this company Carada screens. what is thier reputation? Does anyone around here have one of these screens? Anybody know anything about them at all? Thanks J.H.

[cinema bob]

they are very well reguarded for the price. and they are a sponser of the fourm, look at the top right corner of this page.

[Azeke]

JH,

They are rated very well actually, good bang for the buck. There are few owners here who have also given them good ratings, Nicholas immediately comes to mind, perhaps he'll chime in.

I was also going to purchase a screen from Carada the criterion series, but my job (for the second time) had extra screens around (manufacturer error, sent the wrong screens).

If I had money to burn I would probably go for the SilverStar by Vutec, but alas.

Hope this helps,

Azeke

[Nick M]

I have an 84" 16:9 Criterion w/High Contrast Gray material (I sit 8' from the screen with a 720p LCD PJ).

Killer construction/materials, and excellent bang for the buck. You can pop them an eMail and they will send you free screen samples. I compared them to Da-Lite's line up of samples and preferred the Carada materials. Originally I planned for the Brilliant White, but after actually testing them all with my PJ, I had to go with the fantastic "Artificial Contrast" created by using a gray material.

Good Luck!

P.S. The only knock I have against the design is the black fabric material the frame is covered in. You have to be very careful not to scuff it off. I dinged a little spot about the size of a pea that I later had to color in with a permanent marker. Just don't hit it with a screwdriver or hammer by mistake when you're installing the wall bracket...

[J.H.]

Boy am I glad you replied. You sit 8 feet from a 84 inch screen. I guess that means you don't go by normal sitting distances with projection screens. I would be about 10 to 12 feel from a hopefully 92 or 100 inch screen. Do you think that would be ok? Also how hard are they to install? One last question now that i have you here. How do I know where to mount the projector to have the image fit the screen? Sorry these are faily preschool questions but I have never set up a projection systen I have always dealt with LCd and Plasma. I may be building a freinds HT in his basement so he will be my guiny pig when it come to projection screens untill I am ready for one here at my house. Thanks for the help guys I appreciate it very much. J.H.

[Nick M]

Everyone has their own tolerances for distortions as the material is blown up bigger and bigger. With the smoothing ability 720p had on DVD content and slightly defocusing (very slightly) the lens to blend adjacent pixels, 84" is perfectly acceptable to my eyes. Your mileage may vary. Get your projector first and try out various viewing distances. When you find one you like, choose the nearest screen size.

There are many factors to take under consideration. Depending on how far the PJ is from the screen, you only have a certain window of screen sizes. The further back the pj is mounted, the larger your minimum screen size becomes. Every pj is different depending on the lens/zoom.

If you purchase a pj with horizontal and vertical lens shift you will have an easier time getting a perfect fit on the screen. Otherwise you will be moving the pj all over the place trying to get the image centered. You also need a level so that the lens is perpendicular to the screen. If you don't do this, the image will be distorted - either being pinched at the top or bottom depending on the direction it's off axis.

Try using the search function here to get some more info. I've found that the two biggest necessities for creating that cinema quality experience at home are a huge screen (none of this 50" small-time stuff), and deep authoritative bass (try these guys http://www.svsubwoofers.com ).

Good luck. :T

[J.H.]

Thank you for the help I am impressed with this company. I have read nothing but good things about them. I am on AVS forum all the time and they get great reviews there. So thanks again J.H.

[Lex]

Carada = Great product, great company, excellent customer service. You can't go wrong, IMO. David Giles is a class act.

As said already, just click the banner at top or bottom of page for Carada, a sponsor of HTGuide.com.

Lex

[J.H.]

I received several emails from David Giles today alone. He was very nice and helpful. Does he come by this board at all? I think I'm pretty much decided on Carada screens now i have to find a good projector to go with it. I also have to get moving and turn our useless garage into a dedicated Home theater which is my goal. How hard can that be right? Thanks J.H.

[George Bellefontaine]

Hey, J.H., we'll be looking forward to more about your home theater. :T

[J.H.]

Thank you it will be a litttle while before I get a projector and screen. The room needs to be fixed. I'm going to turn our garage which is useless no one uses it and turn it into a dedicated HT. Its going to be cool though I can see it in my mind already. J.H.

[J.H.]

What do you guys know about the 205.1 ratio screens Carada puts out? Good idea because i think i like it? tHanks J.H.

[Nick M]

I prefer the 16 x 9 screens because they have the same aspect ratio as most of the projectors on the market. With most budget PJs (Sub $3k) you will have to fuddle with special lenses or light overspill onto the screen borders if you go other than the aspect ratio of the pj.

It's also the format size for HDTV, and a large percentage of widescreen films on DVD.

[George Bellefontaine]

The 205:1 screen would give smaller black bars on 2:35 movies, but to show a 1:85 dvd, and there are plenty of them, you would have to change the zoom, and possibly the position of the PJ, or as Nick pointed out, use a special anamorphic lens, which are expensive. I would stick with the 16:9 and if you go the fixed wall screen route, you can make masking to cover the black bars on 2:35 material and attache the masking to the frame when needed. Click on my homepage and look at my screen. It is a 16:9 screen, but the pic was taken when I had the 2:35 masking in place.

[Azeke]

My vote would be for the 16:9 screen as well.

Best regards,

Azeke

[J.H.]

Yeah I thought about it and it just doesn't make sense now. I don't want to keep playing with the projector settings. Also i don't mind black bars on top when watching 2.35:1 movies. It really doesn't bother me at all. J.H.