Projector's Friend

Projection screens are often overlooked, despite being looked at. Whether you're looking for a motorized screen or fixed screen, gray or white, matching your projector with the right screen can improve its performance, and perhaps the performance of your entire theater.

Real Wide Screen and No More Black Bars

One of the most common questions I get is about the black bars that appear above and below the image with many movies.

After all, a spiffy new HDTV and Blu-ray player will banish the black bars we had with DVDs and old TVs, right? Nope.

But with the right projector, screen, and lens, you can have CinemaScope in your home.

And no more black bars.

Our 10 Best Gear Awards

The best gear of the year.

The best gear of the year, as picked by the editors of Home Entertainment.

The JVC DLA-HD750 takes the DNA from its excellent predecessors and somehow improves on them.

Lets get this out of the way. There were only two things wrong with the predecessors of this projector: color and noise.

That was pretty much it, and to be honest, they didn’t get in the way. The image that the DLA-HD1, HD100 and various other siblings created was simply stunning, thanks to the highest native contrast ratio I’ve measured this side of a CRT.

And amazingly, the DLA-HD750 is even better.

The Sony VPL-VW70 does black, it does bright, it does color and above all, it does it quietly.

I’m not sure how Sony does it, but it seems like with each new generation of projector, they somehow make them quieter.

This is kind of like saying, walking barefoot on moss was quiet, but not walking barefoot on moss is even quieter.

Standard Bearer

Best known for his Digital Video Essentials series of test discs, video guru Joe Kane is often called upon to consult with display manufacturers looking to improve the overall video performance of their products. He also works with the Hollywood film and television industry, and is a singular driving force for better-looking HDTV pictures.

His latest collaboration with Samsung is their new SP-A800B 1080p DLP front projector (he had previously contributed to their earlier 720p DLP model a few years ago).

Bringing a Splash of Art Home

ArtScreen, from Vutec are more than just pieces of artwork.

In fact, each one serves a dual purpose. ArtScreen products transform and cover everything, including LCDs, video projection screens, plasma TVs and speakers with beautiful art. They add a splash of color and flair of to any home’s décor palette.

But which one to choose?