A former colleague of mine used to delight in showing movies to the neighbor kids using a DLP projector and a bed sheet in the backyard. In my own dark history I once used a painted wall for a screen, and yes, I bragged about how much money I saved.

Like someone sheepishly admitting to owning plaid golf slacks (which I have never owned, preferring kilts for golf myself), I admit these sins as part of the process of recovery. While no sane videophile would think it a good idea to shine an old-fashioned tube-type video projector picture on a wall, the giddy portability of digital projectors has led to no end of, shall we say, youthful indiscretions. Digital Light Processing (DLP), based on Texas Instruments’ digital mirror chip, is so bright and so easy to set up, some of us got a little carried away. Eventually, we saw the error of our ways.

Certainly, the pictures we achieved from these new projectors were extremely bright. Unfortunately, so were the black areas of the picture, which took on a none-too-delightful shade of middle gray. Even a switch to the relative sanity of a standard video projection screen did little to improve matters.

Sensing a need for a new direction for this new generation of digital displays, Stewart Filmscreen reached back into the distant past for a way to improve black levels and overall picture quality: the silver screen. The company revived the idea of coloring the screen silver or gray instead of white, a technique that worked well during the heyday of black-and-white film in the early part of the 20th century. A gray screen causes dark portions of a picture to appear darker, so blacks look blacker. Unfortunately, a gray screen generally makes light parts of a picture darker, too, but today’s DLP projectors are so bright they can sacrifice a little light in pursuit of deeper blacks.

Stewart’s first gray screen, the GrayHawk, was a smashing success among DLP aficionados, even though its gain of .95 meant the picture was less bright than a white screen would produce. (A matte white surface has a gain of 1.0.) With the new FireHawk, though, you can have your blacks and your whites, too, because this “platinum” gray screen has a gain of 1.35, so your video images suffer no reduction in brightness.

I install a custom-made 96-inch wide 16:9 widescreen FireHawk in my theater, and find the difference remarkable with all of the many DLP projectors I have recently used. The difference is easy to see not only with test patterns, but even with ordinary movies. DVDs immediately take on a much more filmlike look with vastly deeper blacks, although colors and brightness seem a bit muted compared to the screen I had used before.

A quick look at a PLUGE pattern (a test pattern used to judge black level) shows an immediate improvement. I can now clearly see the difference between 0 IRE (absolute black in video terms) and 10 IRE (one-tenth of the way between pure black and pure white). What does that mean in terms of picture quality? Better detail, better definition of shadowed items and in general, a clearer, sharper picture. (Note that this screen is best used in a darkened room. It also will not work well with CRT projectors because the picture will be too dark.)

Anyone considering the purchase of a DLP or LCD projector—which, these days, means almost everyone considering a video projector—should consult their custom installer about using a FireHawk. It is the current state of the art for digital video projection.

DESCRIPTION
Screen for DLP and LCD video projectors. Available in floor-standing, wall-mount and motorized roll-up versions. Fabric may be perforated for placement of speakers behind screen.

DIMENSIONS
Made to order. Seamless screen available in sizes up to 15 x 8.5 feet.

GAIN
1.35

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: Varies with application; 100-inch diagonal 16:9 electric roll-up version: $3,031; wall-mount version: $1,751.
CONTACT: (800) 762-4999
www.stewartfilm.com