Screen Innovations Black Diamond Screens

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

When I was down at CEDIA I saw a great demo of Screen Innovations’ new Black Diamond screens. The blacks were incredible even in a very bright showroom floor. I am curious if anyone has done a calibration using the Black Diamond screens and their impressions in a home theater environment.

I am doing a bid for a boardroom where the lighting conditions are always difficult and thinking it would be a great idea to include the screen in the bid. Just wanted to get some thoughts.

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[Anonymous]

The screen is an effective fix for compromised viewing environment conditions, but not suitable for reference viewing (contrary to misleading claims by the manufacturer’s marketing department). I witnessed a recent demo at my local AVAD Distributors. The gain is so high, to compensate for all the filtering, that I could readily detect the screen surface while viewing programs. Brighter highlights in an image consistently included distracting sparklies. The horizontal viewing cone is also diminished due to the high gain incorporated in the design. As with most similar solutions, fixes for unfriendly viewing environment conditions usually incorporate their own peculiar compromises to image fidelity and viewing quality.

Best regards and beautiful pictures,
Alan Brown, President
CinemaQuest, Inc.
A Lion AV Consultants Affiliate

“Advancing the art and science of electronic imaging”

[Anonymous]

Thanks Alan, really appreciate your feedback!

[Anonymous]

I have installed one but not calibrated yet (with a JVC-RS50). Beyond the information in the previous post also note that the surface of the screen is extremely glossy and per the manufacturer instructions is NOT to be touched or fingerprints will be visible and show up while viewing. They go so far as to include latex gloves in the box to use while installing. If your boardroom install will be at a height and location where people can reach out and touch the screen (ohhh wow its so SHINEY…) I would look elsewhere.
The mounting of the screen to the frame is by method of rubber O rings stretched as bungees through punch outs in the materials. It works but even though I followed instructions to the T I still had a hard time getting the screen square on the frame as the increasing tension of the bungees as you go along tends to skew the screen. I also managed to rip the screen materials in two locations, an easy fix using an ordinary office paper punch (per manufacturers recommendation)

All that said, the picture looks great!

[Anonymous]

Well… I don’t get the glossy part at all. I have two Black Diamond 1.4 screens here (1.78 and 2.40) hoping to use them for 3D to make the image brigher than the Studiotek 100 I will use most of the time. Neither of the Black Diamond screens is anywhere NEAR “glossy”. They were “glossy” before I removed the clear plastic protective layer that has to be peeled-off carefully after the screen is mounted. That glossy layer protects the non-glossy screen surface from fingerprints while you are installing the screen in the frame. You install the “corner” bungees last and peel back the glossy coating before you attach the corner bungees so you have something to pull on from the other side of the screen. With the screen mounted or on stands, you then push back on the screen near one of the corners to get a little space between the screen and the frame so you can pull the protective layer off without tearing it which makes the removal process much more difficult. You press on the glossy protective layer to create the space you need to pull off the protective layer – no chance of fingerprints that way unless you forget where your hands are. I notice in the Black Diamon assembly video on the Screen Innovations web site that the employee installing the screen doesn’t use the latex gloves… whatcha call your basic “setting a bad example” scenario.

There is also a Black Diamond 0.8 gain screen that is much darker than the 1.4 gain screen (the 1.4 Black Diamonds are gray, not too dark). I also find the prismatic sparklies from this screen to be annoying. It reminds me of the silk-screen effect you get from rear projection screens. You can train yourself to ignore the sparkly prismatic effects by focusing on the image rather than the screen, but it’s hard to do that if you’ve been spoiled by an Affinity or Studiotek 100 screen. I don’t find the 1.4 Black Diamond screens to be particularly good when there’s some light on in the room. They don’t wash out QUITE as much as the Studiotek 100, but it’s not a huge/revolutionary difference as indicated above. Perhaps the 0.8 and 1.4 screens have very different properties (likely given the big difference in gain and color of the screen, the 0.8 gain Black Diamond screen is MUCH darker than the 1.4 gain from what I see on Screen Innovations’ web site. Perhaps the 0.8 gain screen is glossy even after the clear protective layer is removed? It would be pretty difficult to ignore the clear plastic layer needing to be removed on the 1.4 screens, there’s a label on it telling you it needs to be removed before using the screen.

Aside from the gain, I do see a difference between the Studiotek 100 and the 1.4 Black Diamond… both screens are PERFECT on Blu-ray 3D from a JVC RS-60. No ghosting at all. Best 3D I’ve ever seen… even better than in ANY movie theater I’ve seen 3D in. But when I view side-by-side 3D from DirecTV, the Studiotek 100 has SLIGHT ghosting at times while the 1.4 Black Diamond remains completely ghost-free on the same (recorded) 3D programs. I’m not sure exactly why that would be, but it’s repeatable.

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