Preferred silver screen

[Jason Sharp]

We need to purchase a new silver screen for Avatar this year. Do any of you have a preferred screen for 3D? Do you think it would be possible to install the silver in front of the existing white screen? We plan to re-install the white screen when Avatar finishes its run.

[Sam Chavez]

This question about stacking one screen on top of another comes up fairly often. My smart ass answer is its only permissible if you line up the perforations on both screens perfectly. Otherwise, you attenuate or muffle the high frequencies.

I'll leave the debate about brands to others but Harkness quality control is second to none.

[Marcel Birgelen]

You don't have enough light to go for a 3D system with active shutterglasses? Because then you can keep your white screen...

Like Sam indicated, stacking two stacked screens will severely impact the clarity of the high-end of your sound system...

I remember a venue where they deployed a second screen in front of the existing screen, because the existing screen was rather small. They ended up moving all the sound equipment behind the second screen and lost the baffle wall in the process, but even then, the end result was better...

[Carsten Kurz]

How is your existing screen mounted and how large is it? For a standard surface screen, it shouldn't be too complicated to roll it up and store it as long as the silver screen is up. Stacking two screens with a standard behind-the-screen speaker setup is bad, especially for a high-profile movie as AVATAR. You can not make up for this high amount of attenuation. We use individual rubber fasteners on our screen. Would be no big deal to take it down safely with 2-3 people.

- Carsten

[Jim Cassedy]

A long time ago, I worked at a venue that had installed a regular screen IN FRONT
of an old sliver screen. There was an inch or less between the two screen surfaces.
I'm not sure why they didn't take down the silver screen, as they had no intention of
ever doing 3D again, since it was a big money-loser for them.
(The silver screen was put in for 3D film. They never installed digital 3D)

One of the odd things that happened is that in certain scenes, and viewed
from certain parts of the auditorium, & from the booth, there was sometimes
a weird moirè pattern effect. It had me befuddled for a while, but I eventually
figured out that the perfs in the front (matte) screen were slightly larger than
the ones in the silver screen. Light passed through the matte screen, and
was then reflected off the silver screen & onto the back of the matte screen.

Because the perfs were not lined up, it would create a moiré-like effect. It was
invisible in most parts of the auditorium But from a few parts of the room it was
pretty obvious, especially on brighter scenes, or highlights in dark scenes.

I'd occasionally have a friend or customer ask me about "some weirdness" in
part of the image, and the first question I'd ask is "where were you sitting" lol

[Dave Macaulay]

Unless you have something like the old AMC design with a non-perforated screen, don't hang two together.
Sound going through two perforated screens (Sam's comment about matching the perfs was another way of saying "DON'T DO IT!!!", he's a bit of a joker ) will really suck, with the HF so attenuated that EQ to compensate is likely not possible.
Strong/MDI makes a good 3D screen. There are costly "low hotspotting" screens around but if you're going to take it down after Avatar...
You are not likely to be able to hang, remove, and then re-use any 3D silver screen I've seen. The surface is quite fragile.
They come rolled up on a core so there's no folding, with soft foam sheeting between layers to protect the reflective paint coating. That's not easy at the factory with a table big enough for the screen while it's being handled by experienced staff - and is effectively impossible in a cinema.
For silver screens too large to be rolled and then shipped (IMAX screens can be well over 60ft on the shortest dimension) they ship a plain screen folded, hang it in the cinema, and paint it silver in place.

[Jason Sharp]

Thanks! I've abandoned the thoughts of hanging both screens.

As no silver screens are great, I supposed I should be asking for your recommendation for the least-worst silver screen. Or I remember a few years back reald came out with a "white" polarized screen. Does anyone know what became of that? Or have any feedback/experience?

[Marcel Birgelen]

Thanks! I've abandoned the thoughts of hanging both screens.

As no silver screens are great, I supposed I should be asking for your recommendation for the least-worst silver screen. Or I remember a few years back reald came out with a "white" polarized screen. Does anyone know what became of that? Or have any feedback/experience?

The white polarized screens are not much better than the silver screens.

I can't imagine installing a new screen and switching it back after the run, would cost more than to switch this screen over to shutter glasses. Also, if you have the light, shutter glasses offer by far the best 3D there is, no other system can provide better separation between left and right.

[Gordon McLeod]

The problem with shutter glasses are the cleaning just like the Dolby Glasses. Post Covid the sanitization requirements are probably very egregious

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The problem with shutter glasses are the cleaning just like the Dolby Glasses. Post Covid the sanitization requirements are probably very egregious

Not only do they have to be cleaned, but you have batteries to either replace or recharge. They would need to be shutter glasses that can go through a standard Dolby type washer so they come out sterilized. The French glasses offered some years back had to be cleaned by hand.

[Mike Blakesley]

Do you already have your 3-D system? If not, you could use one that doesn't require a silver screen. You could probably get a good deal on a Dolby setup. Of course there is the pesky glasses-cleaning process.

I wish Dolby would either come out with disposable glasses OR make them cheap enough that we could just sell them for about 5 bucks and do away with the surcharge. They could do away with the anti-theft chip to make them cheaper, for one thing.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Keep in mind that the Dolby system for Xenon is no longer supported by Dolby. The projector needs to be adapted, in order to install the color wheel into the light path. So, you need to find a Dolby 3D system compatible with your projector and someone willing to install an unsupported piece of hardware into a projector, which may or may not be in support.

It's not the anti-theft tag that makes Dolby glasses expensive, it's the lenses. You may remember those horrible plastic glasses? That was Dolby's attempt at creating a more disposable version of their glasses. In the end, the system only works to user satisfaction with real glass lenses. As such, those glasses will never become "disposable".

But to be honest, I think that anno 2022, the idea of "disposable glasses" should be a thing of the past. People should either keep their glasses or properly recycle them, instead of throwing them in the trash, especially when combined with a movie like Avatar, which will carry a rather in-your-face environmental protection message. :P

Not only do they have to be cleaned, but you have batteries to either replace or recharge. They would need to be shutter glasses that can go through a standard Dolby type washer so they come out sterilized. The French glasses offered some years back had to be cleaned by hand.

Both the XPand X101 and X106 glasses can go through a dishwasher. Battery life is about 400 to 500 hours of active use and in storage those batteries are good for about a year and a half.

XPand also offers their own cleaning system including racks and a cart to load those racks in, to minimize handling time of 3D glasses.

Other glasses are "user cleanable", they're usually handed out with a wipe. I'm not really a friend of such practices, as you're handing over unwashed glasses to the user. The idea that those glasses get collected and stored without being washed, while allowing bacteria to grow is kind of gross and may actually be illegal in many jurisdictions.

[Pete Naples]

My preffered silver screen is none!

But I've had hte best results with Harkness and Severtson.

Don't put one screen in front of another. It's like putting socks in your ears! I have actually seen it done, the site called me in complaining about HF. Then I discovered that the CP750 had it's output mixed down to mono with a bunch of resistors and was feeding the non-sync input of a Westrex 5009 amplifier.

[Gordon McLeod]

I have had good luck with MDI and Severtson

[Marcel Birgelen]

My preffered silver screen is none!

But I've had hte best results with Harkness and Severtson.

Don't put one screen in front of another. It's like putting socks in your ears! I have actually seen it done, the site called me in complaining about HF. Then I discovered that the CP750 had it's output mixed down to mono with a bunch of resistors and was feeding the non-sync input of a Westrex 5009 amplifier.

That probably sounds more like putting socks in your ears AND putting the speaker in a bathtub with a lid on it...