Fixed Frame Projection Screen Testimonials

“Great Screen, Straight Forward Installation and Performed to Expectations“

ezFrame CineGrey 5D® Series
Model Number: R100DHD5

After many reviews and hours of research I finally pulled the trigger on the Cinegrey 5D screen. I watched clips of other screens and am lucky enough to be close enough to Elite and the more expensive competitor, SI, to view this screen and the Black Diamond in person. There is clearly not $1700 dollars difference to justify the more expensive SI BD screen (IMO).

Installation: I was prepared for an exercise in futility after reading some of the other reviews here with regards to putting this together. I cleared an open space, laid down two bed sheets over the hardwood and followed the instructions to put it together. Bolting the frame together was a snap. The instructions were clear and being able to lay it all out made is a snap. The felt overlay has a few little shoddy spots (Black Sharpie fixed that) and doesn’t perfectly align in one joint, but it’s nothing anyone but me will notice. A cordless power drill had this thing together in about 10 minutes.

The screen, once laid out on the frame was fairly self explanatory. The nice little red arrows on the frame showing where the snaps lock in was a nice addition. The plastic tubes go in like a tent (Make sure to have the shorter ones on the horizontal and the two long ones on the vertical) and then I placed them in the grooved frame and went around the frame pulling it tight and pushing the screen into place and locking it in place with the snaps. I took my time here and stopped a for a beer, but in all it took no more than 15 minutes to get the screen in place. I was a little worried, because once I completed it there were some waves in the bottom of the screen. Not to fear, once the brace was locked into place it pulled everything very tight. I now had a perfectly smooth ready to hang screen. Piece of cake.

Viewing Experience: This section will have an update once my Benq W1070 arrives this week. I used my conference projector as an initial test case. It’s an Epson. EX5220, super simple conference room projector and not intended for home theater. I fired it up with the HDMI output from my cable box with no lights and my initial impression was wow. I couldn’t believe the picture from this no frills business projector. This thing usually looks washed out with no color pop at all. Then I turned all the lights on in the living room. There are no less than 6 LED lights on and the picture was unfazed. Once again, I was shocked at the picture. Little to no washout at all. Then came the next day. At 2 in the afternoon it’s the brightest my living room gets. While there is no direct light, it’s still full on daytime. The picture was once again fully watchable with very little washout at all. My wife couldn’t tell the difference between the night with all the lights on and the day with the blinds open. I’ll give a full review with video once the Benq is installed.

I would recommend this screen for anyone with ambient light issues. You’re never going to get the same picture as a fully blacked out room, but IMO this is about as close as you are going to get with the lights on. Also, don’t expect miracles if you have sunlight shining directly on your screen. Heck, even LCD and Plasmas have issues displaying properly with that problem. Get it, you won’t be disappointed.

Ron Ferguson – Amazon.com Customer Review