apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have one and it is nice, but too washed out in the day.

We have a projector but no screen -- we just project it on our standard rental off-white wall. It works pretty well day or night.

It's great for movies, but when we want to flip channels or catch a few minutes of news, we just turn on the regular old TV set.

Ours works really well at night with HDTV or HG DVDs. Otherwise, watching regular digital channels makes me "seasick". We are currently hanging comforters over the windows until I can find suitable light blocking window coverings. Which by the way aren't cheap!

Think about going to a movie theater. You know, the ones where they have actual movie screens, kind of like the one shown in the picture above.

Now, think about looking around you when you're at a movie theater. Notice how dark things are? Can you actually see much of anything around you?

If you want to make your TV/Living Room area that dark, then a front-projector screen like that may work well for you, depending on the projector, the material, etc.... But decent front projectors are not cheap, because the most important thing is the amount of light they can produce. The cheap ones are so dim that you might as well not bother. Plan on spending upwards of $1000.00 or more to get a decent one.

And no, those el-cheapo "power point projectors" aren't going to cut the mustard. There's a reason why they're so cheap.

Light control is key, but there are many advantages. One of the best is not having to arrange a room around a TV. Even if your furniture points to the projector screen, it is invisible when not in use. Bulbs are expensive though, so it is worth having a small simple TV for quick/daily viewing. Most projector screens are designed to block all light from behind, so consider using your screen itself to cover your windows. Also allows you to hide the screen casing behind window treatments. The light leakage around the screen can actually be good for your eyes and the image...