Da-Lite Screen Company has been providing high quality projector screens for consumers and businesses for as long as I can remember. More recently, the need for high-end home theater screens has prompted the company to introduce a variety of new products. One of their latest introductions is the High Contrast Cinema Vision screen, designed to enhance the performance of today's digital projectors. We had an opportunity to use this screen with a couple of new digital projectors including both LCD and DLP technologies. The Cinema Contour frame came boxed with the screen and offers a sleek looking design that features a 45 degree angle cut on a 3-inch black-powder coated border. Many other screen options are available for this frame including Da-Lite's Da-Mat, High Contrast Da-Mat, Pearlescent, Cinema Vision, High Contrast Cinema Perf, Audio Vision, High Contrast Audio Vision, Da-Tex, Dual Vision and High Power viewing surfaces. The High Contrast Cinema Vision screen is a gray-colored material that works well with moderately powered DLP projectors by lowering the perceived black level. The flame retardant and mildew resistant material is easy to maintain and can be easily cleaned with mild soap and water. The screen has a gain of 1.1 with a viewing angle of 45 degrees. Various screen sizes are available from 60" to 240" diagonal in video (4:3) format and 92" to 220" diagonal in HDTV (16:9) format. We requested the moderately sized 92" High Contrast Cinema Vision screen in the 16:9 format for our evaluation.

Frame
The Cinema Contour frame requires some assembly as each of the four segments that make up the fixture are separately packed in the shipping container. Each segment slide easily together and require some additional screws and snaps to be installed. A total of 46 snaps are required to attached the 92" diagonal 16:9 screen to the perimeter of the frame. This ensures the screen is pulled tight enough to prevent any wrinkles. The screen has a black vinyl backing that helps prevent light from passing through. Sporting a 45-degree cut on the frame for a sleek, modern appearance, the Cinema Contour is an ideal choice for any fixed wall screen application. The frame is available with Da-Lite's Pro-Trim finish, a fabric frame covering that aesthetically enhances the appearance of the installation and absorbs projected light just outside of the screen area. The screen material has pre-installed snaps that mate directly to the back of the frame for a perfectly flat viewing surface. The plastic frame construction is lightweight making it easy to lift, yet provides a rigid framework that doesn't flex. The fully assembled screen looks attractive and professional and should fit nicely into today's modern decor.

Performance
We used two projectors with this screen to get a feel for the overall performance. Each projector was properly calibrated using a Sencore VP403 signal generator over the DVI interface. Our first projector was a high definition Panasonic PT-AE500U LCD model. The projector was ceiling mounted about 13 feet from the screen. This projector is an exceptional value and produces a good high resolution image for the money. Black looked pretty good even though this projector technology does not inherently produce deep blacks. The gray screen material helped improve image contrast especially near black. Moving to the higher performance Optoma H77 HD2+ DLP projector, the image had even more contrast with deeper black levels. We watched several high definition movies using this screen and the picture was excellent. Colors looked realistic with good saturation and natural looking skin tones. We found the Da-Lite High Contrast Cinema Vision screen to be an excellent and cost-effective alternative to the more expensive Stewart FireHawk.

Conclusion
The Da-Lite High Contrast Cinema Vision filmscreen mounted on the Cinema Contour Fixed Frame worked very well in our viewing room and produced an excellent picture. The image quality we saw from both our LCD and DLP projectors was certainly worth the cost ($850 street price) of this package. Using our reference Optoma H77 DLP projector, the filmscreen produced a high contrast image with excellent color saturation while keeping the blacks in check. We found this screen to be a great value for those cost conscience home theater buffs that really want to go with a large front projection system. Moderately powered DLP projectors appear to really benefit from this screen.

- Kevin Nakano