Woven AT screen with a 7 ft viewing distance?

[Kain]

 

Can a woven AT screen work with a viewing distance of roughly 7 ft? Or will visual artifacts be too visible from this viewing distance? I've heard good things about the DreamScreen V6 UltraWeave AT Screen which is known to have a very tight weave. I assume micro-perforated screens are out of the question as you need to be at least 11-12 ft from the screen in order to not see the micro-perfs.

https://dreamscreen.no/collections/projection-screens/products/dreamscreen-acoustic-ultrahd-v6-screen-fabric-2x4-5m-79-x-177-fit-all-system

[garyrc]

Google Seymour AT screens, and ask them for a sample of their fabric, then you can hang a piece up and test it for your self.  Their weave doesn't show when we walk up to it to focus, but 7 feet is unusually close.

[Youthman]

I'm at 9' with a 150" Seymour Center Stage XD AT screen and cannot see the weave.

[Paducah Home Theater]

At that distance I would not do anything except Seymour UF or simple spandex.  If your eyes are good don't get the XD, I can see the texture during bright scenes even if I back up 14' away, and that's after sending another XD screen back because several big fat lines were visible.  Of course I also have 20/18 vision after lasik but still, get the UF, it's 7 feet, that's insanely close for an AT screen.  I don't know if they changed the material or what but nowadays ideally you need to be 17' away or more with XD.  Chris Seymour will even tell you that.  Some guys that have screens from a few years ago or so claim to have much better luck for whatever reason.  

[garyrc]

7 hours ago, MetropolisLakeOutfitters said:

 I don't know if they changed the material or what but nowadays ideally you need to be 17' away or more with XD.  Chris Seymour will even tell you that.  Some guys that have screens from a few years ago or so claim to have much better luck for whatever reason.  

Our 130" Seymour AT screen is from a few years ago (c.2011), and the fabric doesn't show at 12 feet .... we don't notice it when we are closer, to focus critically.  Our vision, with corrective lenses, is 20/20.  I can't imagine why they would change such a good fabric, but maybe they did.

 

Kain, if I were you, I'd get a fabric sample of any screen I was considering, and project an image on it to test it.  Any AT screen company worth its salt will send you one.

 

[derrickdj1]

I have the speakers just outside the screne.  Is this a possibility?  Imaging and sound stage is not compromised.  It is just another style for the HT design and things are not completely hidden.  It does not take away from the viewing experience IMHO.  I have friend where the speaker are behind the screen as a reference.  Just putting it out there for some flexibility in setup.

 

For that size room and viewing distance, shoot for around a 100 in screen on the diagonal or slightly smaller.

[Kain]

On 4/21/2017 at 1:38 AM, derrickdj1 said:

I have the speakers just outside the screne.  Is this a possibility?  Imaging and sound stage is not compromised.  It is just another style for the HT design and things are not completely hidden.  It does not take away from the viewing experience IMHO.  I have friend where the speaker are behind the screen as a reference.  Just putting it out there for some flexibility in setup.

 

For that size room and viewing distance, shoot for around a 100 in screen on the diagonal or slightly smaller.

 

My plan was to use a solid 100" diagonal 16:9 screen and have the speakers to the sides of the screen (and the center speaker above or below the screen). However, if I end up with the JBL M2 for LCR (one of my possible candidates), I will need an AT screen (around 100" diagonal 16:9) as it is a floorstanding speaker.

 

On another note, I probably could stretch the viewing distance to 7.5-8 ft. Only issue with this will be the side surround speakers being slightly in front of the main listening position. I've done some research on this and it seems if you have back surrounds, you can have the side surround speakers slightly in front of the MLP. Any comments/opinions from you guys on this?

[derrickdj1]

That is the same size screen that I use.  The center is below the screen.  I had to locate the side surrounds in front of the MLP with the rear surrounds behind the seating.  This configuration is excellent for a surround setup. A lot of us have to just work with the room the best we can.

[Paducah Home Theater]

This is what I ran into with XD.  I got a sample probably four years ago and it seemed nice and uniform.  So I ordered a screen and some of the spacing between the lines in the material were bigger than others, and sometimes those bigger spaces combined together where there would be three in a row.  It's very noticeable.  I had to get a replacement screen which I can still make out a texture and uneven spacing to some extent, but it's nothing like the one pictured here.  The old sample is on the left, new screen on the right.  Hopefully it was just a glitch in the manufacturing process.  Chris was very nice about the situation and I got a replacement.  Not sure he agreed but Jeff Mier from AccuCal saw it in person and agreed.  


 

[Kain]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Any comments/opinions on the DT Screens AT Ref? Their website states "Surface structure indistinguishable from approximately 0.5m." Only disadvantage of the DT Screens AT Ref is the maximum height of the screen can only be up to 1.9 meters (which is fine by me as I only need a screen that is around 100" diagonal 16:9).

I'll try to get samples of the V6 UltraWeave AT Screen and the AT Ref. How large should the samples be in order to accurately sample the image of the screen?

[garyrc]

1 hour ago, Kain said:

Thanks for the replies.

 

Any comments/opinions on the DT Screens AT Ref? Their website states "Surface structure indistinguishable from approximately 0.5m." Only disadvantage of the DT Screens AT Ref is the maximum height of the screen can only be up to 1.9 meters (which is fine by me as I only need a screen that is around 100" diagonal 16:9).

I'll try to get samples of the V6 UltraWeave AT Screen and the AT Ref. How large should the samples be in order to accurately sample the image of the screen?

It doesn't take a very big piece.  I think the one I got from Seymour was about 10" x 10."  Project an image on it and go to the rear of the room, then slowly walk toward the screen.  At the distance at which you can first discern the fabric pattern step back a bit.  That would be your minimum viewing distance.  The test -- and your movie viewing -- should be in total darkness except for the light coming off or the screen.  Ambient light may make the fabric pattern show up.