This article is part of Audio Advice's Home Theater Design Series that covers virtually everything about designing a home theater.
Congratulations, you’ve decided to go big with a huge projection screen! You’re taking a big step towards a true movie theater experience. There are still a few more choices you’ll need to make. Hopefully our guide will enable you to find the best type of screen for your home theater.
We do have a word of advice we have gained from our decades of home theater experience. While technology moves very quickly in some areas of home theater, it moves much slower in others. Speakers and projection screens are two that tend to stay constant. Projection technology will progress, but most people (unless they just go bigger) tend to keep their screens for decades.
In addition to our world-class home theater design tool, we've given you everything you need to begin your home theater journey in Home Theater Central.
Pick Your Aspect Ratio
The first step in picking a projector screen is deciding if you want an HDTV 16:9 (1.78 aspect ratio), or the full widescreen experience with a 2.40 aspect ratio screen. If you like movies and can afford a projector that can display full widescreen, we highly recommend you go this way. You will experience the movie the way the director intended with no black bars at the top and bottom.
If you mostly watch sports and network TV, you are probably better off with a 16:9 screen but, there is one exception. If you have limited width for your screen, you might be happier with a 16:9 screen. For instance, if you use our tips for screen size/viewing angle and determine from your seating distance the width of your space only allows for a 38-degree field of vision viewing area, go with a 16:9 screen. For more information on the pros and cons of widescreen see our article on widescreen explained.