Hello. I'm looking at 120 inch screens from SI. The Slate is about $1000 less than the Black Diamond. Both are 4k ready and have some gain, etc. I'll be projecting an Epson 5030ub or 6030ub from 17 feet and sitting 13-15 feet away. There will be some ambient light at times- watching football, etc. For nighttime movies, I'll black the room out.

Can anyone clarify the justification for getting the Black Diamond?

Thank you!

I would choose the Slate since most of your viewing is in a contolled light situation.

Thank you. When you say controlled, you mean because of the option to use black out curtains. What about in the afternoon or during a party when light will be on for a game, etc.? Would the slate still show well?

Thanks.

That is correct you have enough lumens to power thru a great picture for sports. If you do 1.3 black diamond you will see lots of artifacts. .08 BD looks the best for ambient light. slate for the win unless your dead set
Ambient viewing first. We sell both and most of our customers prefer the slate. Good luck amazing screens

You might consider getting screen samples of each and taping them up on your wall and doing a test with your projector, prior to committing to a material or a size. Give us a call at AV Science if we can help.

Ah there you are Craig. Thanks for the help with getting the SI 100' BD ZE. I finally got the projector working again and i could not be more satisfied with my purchase. Excellent screen with lights on, but love it best with the lights off. I had a small question... why does the screen look grainy? It does not bother me but i didnt see any grain when the screen is off so not sure why that is.

What you see as grainy is called sparkle and is one of the negatives with a BD screen and many others...

Ah thanks. I was not aware of that. What other comparable screens out there avoid the sparkle effect?

Do you have the 1.4 gain?

Yes

I think you only option is to choose a screen with lower gain if you need a "daylight" screen, as the lower gain screens usually have less sparkles. The dnp 08-85 is a much better screen, but it is also a lot dimmer.

The 08-85 throws a really nice image, but as you say, it takes a lot more lumens to get the same FL off the screen. I have seen the 08-85 used in well lit areas, but it was being hit with 3,000 or more lumens in those situations.

I am in the exact same position as you and was literally in my local Sound and Vision store last night demoing both the Black Diamond and Slate. It took all of 30 minutes to make up my mind: I purchased a 110" electric Slate to be used in my family room (it will be lowered in front of my 65" Sony XBR 850 when it's time to bring out the big guns).

Without a doubt you should go with the Slate. The Black Diamond is meant for living rooms with no control over ambient light (open windows, overhead lights, lights from adjacent rooms, lamps, etc). The Black Diamond is amazing, and does an excellent job performing well in rooms with a great amount of light, but it would be overkill to purchase the Black Diamond if you can exercise some control over light sources.

Just an FYI, I am replacing a Firehawk G3 which has performed exceptionally well, but I grew tired of the sparkles and the screen was starting to become wavy over years of use. The Black Diamond blows the Firehawk out of the water, and I would say the Slate is slightly better.

The price was also right with the Slate. For an electric Black Diamond Zero Edge the price was $7800. The Slate was $3600 (after a little bit of negotiating). For about half the price the Slate is the best value.

Do any slate owners know if the Slate has the same uniformity issues as the Black Diamond? Does it suffer from dark edges as well like the Black Diamond?

Hi,

Does anyone know if the Slate 1.2 also suffer from the "sparkle" effect like the BlackDiamond 1.4?

I went and checked one 1.2 Slate out on Friday night and was really impressed with it. It's not high gain but I also have an Epson 5030 so lumens aren't the issue so much as some ambient light in what I would describe more as a media room. I was really impressed with how rich the colors were in the picture and when I held up samples of a Da-Lite HD 1.3 and a Screen Innovations Pure White I thought in a room with any lighting at all the Slate was a far superior screen with much better color. You could start to see the "wash out" of the white samples when the lights were turned up and the Slate helped the picture maintain it's black levels. I also felt like the off angle viewing was just fine for my setup and I didn't see any sparkles at all. That screen is a serious consideration for me.

I have both. I don't see any sparkle with the Slate.

There's very little sparkle with the Slate, but there is some, but that is far outweighed by what the image looks like in a room with ambient light. I don't think I have had a single customer complain that the slight sparkle outweighed the ambient light performance of this screen.

Thanks Mike,

Can you recommend a screen for me with the following situation?

I am building a new house with a "mancave + GameRoom". If you would look at the attached floor plan that would be great! The green is where I planned on using a 120" screen. There will be plenty of light in the afternoon from the setting sun through the french door and the tall windows on the west wall (labelled W). I do plan on putting roller shades over the widows and french door.

My viewing will be primarily from the sectional sofa (drawn in blue) which is about 13 feet away from the screen. However, during sports events there will be people hanging out in the game room watching the screen as well. (game room 21x21 feet)

I initially wanted a blackdiamond screen due to the amount of light that can be present in the mancave. However, after reading more about the Slate screen, I am having second thoughts.

Which do you recommend?

Blackdiamond 1.4 gain
Slate 1.2 gain
Slate 0.8 gain

I am going to use Epson 6030 unless you have another suggestion.

Thanks for any input from anyone!

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Shoot me a PM with your email address.

Wow this is the thread I been looking for too.
I have the Epson 6020 and I'm stuck on which screen to get
how do I go about getting samples of the 2 so I can put them
on my wall and compare the differences and see which one
I like better.


Epson 6020
13 foot throw
not a light controlled room
ambient light as well.

Also looking for help choosing screen...


Setup is:
Sony VPL-VW350ES (4k projector) (1,500 lumens)
No windows, light controlled dedicated room (dark surfaces etc).
Throw (TBD, whatever I choose I suppose, building the room now)
Viewing habits: I am hoping for the best mix for three uses, (I) watching movies in the dark, (II) watching sports with friends (some lights on), (III) wife and kids watching tv (some lights on).
Fixed Screen. Size- say 110"-120" (TBD).


Thinking about from what I have read on this site- about Slate (or BlackDiamond?) or Polarstar (or Darkstar?) or maybe Microlite F2. Sadly, I probably wont have a great way to see these before buying so thank you internet strangers!


While I certainly don't want to waste money, I would happily buy whichever of these will produce the best result.


Thanks in advance!

"Thinking about from what I have read on this site- about Slate (or BlackDiamond?) or Polarstar (or Darkstar?) or maybe Microlite F2. Sadly, I probably wont have a great way to see these before buying so thank you internet strangers!"

So I guess back to the original question I asked.. How do we go about getting samples. I know there have been people that get like small fragments for comparing and figuring out which screen they want. Do they make it simple like carpet.. a 1 foot by 2 foot material? http://screeninnovations.com/mat...black-diamond/ a sample like - how to sell a black diamond in 2 seconds video...

Well I clicked the contact us link on their website and we will see if they get back to me about getting samples. I also gave them this post as a reference.

I had the bd .8, slate 1.2, jkp .9, 1.1 & 1.3 in a light controlled living room (not quite a bat cave due to closeness of the walls to the screen and resulting reflections). I was looking for a bit of gain w no screen texture & especially minimal sparkles.


Bd .8 sparkled the most and had color shift. slate was better but sparkles were still very visible @ 13 ft seating distance. jkp 1.3 was super smooth with minimal sparkles and a nice bit of gain (jvc x500 projector in low lamp mode by the way). jkp1.1 had even less sparkles that became invisible at around 7 ft or so. jkp .9 essentially no sparkles but dimmest at around 1.0 gain.


imo for a light controlled room like Tooschaye has, the slate and the bd should not be considered...


ended up w a 133" jkp 1.1, but if I had a brighter projector I would probably have gone w the jkp .9

Hi all

I have a similar question. I'm looking at a 120" slate or pure white and what gain used in a light controlled media room. My projector is a JVC 4910.

Suggestions?

Thank you

strongly suggest you stay away from any alr screen in a light controlled room. a white screen is the way to go there.

Thought so. Thank you

I'm looking to do the exact same setup as you and have a few questions. Is your 65 wall mounted ? did you mount the screen to the ceiling or wall ? how tall is your ceiling and can you post a few pics of your setup with the screen retracted and in the down position.
Thanks

I preferred the Slate over any white screen I've seen in a dark room. It's a very mild ALR screen but it emphasizes just the right amount of contrast in my opinion without artifacts which makes it great for dark viewing in my opinion.

Colors and contrast have extra pop without the usual tradoffs associated with more aggressive alr screens.

Hi dr_bling,

My television is mounted to the wall and protrudes 3.5 inches outwards. To have the screen clear the television the canister was mounted to the ceiling using the three mounting brackets supplied with the screen. Due to the joist locations the screen is slightly off-center by a few inches, but I am probably the only one who would notice this. The ceiling height is 9ft and the lowest limit of the screen is easily adjustable with the supplied remote.

I have attached a few pictures of my current setup.

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