Hey guys...I posted this as a follow up on another website, but wanted to also share it here.
I have been avoiding making an investment in a nicer screen since my living situation is a bit nomadic right now. In December I decided to move into my lady friend's apartment to share expenses for a while, with the understanding that one of the extra rooms would be converted to a small HT room. I knew this would probably only be about a 6 month - 1 year situation, so I just wanted something to hold me over temporarily. As much as I still just wanted to get a Reference model, I decided that I'd go with a cheapo option for now until I had a bit more stability. So since I had had a few positive interactions with Dave and Milosh via email previously when I was researching their reference screen, I went ahead and just placed an order for an EluneVision 92" Pro Cinema Gray pull-down model from Eastporters.
My projector is an Epson 3010 that I had previously been using on a 120" Elite screen in a larger room. This new room had about the same amount of ambient light, so it was only completely dark during the night time hours. Anyway, the screen arrived well-packed and in a timely manner (about 3 business days after placing the order) and I had the wall measured out and the screen up in no time. Here is a pic of the room to give you a better idea....it's still a work in progress, but so far things are moving along nicely for a small HT:
Now here is where we get to the motivation for wanting to post my impressions: I work from home twice per week, so I often enjoy having the tv on during the day as a distraction. In this case I decided to set up shop in my HT room, so instead of a little tv, I fired up the projector. The first time I fired up my Epson during the day, I have to say that I was shocked that a cheapo screen that cost me under two bills could produce anywhere near this kind of image. I was expecting a slight improvement over the Elite screen simply because the throw distance was about 5' shorter, but this improvement went well beyond a slight improvement. The biggest thing I noticed was that, if you look at the pic, you'll see that this room dictates that I have the screen on the left side of the room as opposed to centered on a wall. My seating position when I work is outside the right edge of the screen, but somehow the image maintained uniformity even sitting that far outside of it. The image seemed to be devoid of any hot spots and the colors were popping quite a bit more than what the Elite screen produced.
Like many of you, my goals are to have a higher end projection rig, but for those of you who might be in a situation that dictates more of a budget system for the time being, I can't recommend this product more highly. Quick funny story here...in January we switched from Dish Network to Charter Cable (somewhat regrettably!), and it was pretty clear from the first few minutes in talking with him that the rep was very much into HT and audio. I didn't have plans to put cable in the HT room, but since that's where the modem was going I just decided to add a box in there, as well. To make a long story short, he said that he needed a display in order to set up the box, and asked if I could turn on the projector. I fired it up for him and then got a phone call that I took in the other room. About ten mins later I realized he was still in the room, so I went to check and see how things were coming. He looked at me and said, "if you don't mind me asking, how much was this screen?" I told him that I paid around $180 shipped and the projector was about $1300 when I bought it last year. He looked at me and said, "I knew I should have done this...I paid over $2000 for my 60" 3D plasma at Christmas, but if I knew that a projector image looked this good I would have done this instead." That pretty much said it all right there
