V6 info

[ghall]

I received my dreemscreen order and installed it in my frame.  After a few cal adjustments I can say that I am very happy with this screen using a JVC RS520

Thanks for helping me with this purchase, Mike.

[AVSCraig]

I received my dreemscreen order and installed it in my frame.  After a few cal adjustments I can say that I am very happy with this screen using a JVC RS520

Thanks for helping me with this purchase, Mike.

We need a picture of your screen ! 

[ghall]

Here is a really bad mobile phone pic.  The screen frame is 120" D.  Hiding behind the screen and GOM are Seaton Cats

V6 info

[AVSCraig]

Nice looking theater !  Great looking screen !

[AVSMike]

I received my dreemscreen order and installed it in my frame.  After a few cal adjustments I can say that I am very happy with this screen using a JVC RS520

Thanks for helping me with this purchase, Mike.

Throws a really nice image. I need to find time to install V6 in my theater.

[ghall]

Nice looking theater !  Great looking screen !

Thanks, Craig.  Now I just need to get two or three more screens in my room to catch up to you!   

[ghall]

Throws a really nice image. I need to find time to install V6 in my theater.

Thanks again for the help on the new screen.  Upgrading from the SMX to this was a huge leap in picture quality.  Hopefully you will see an upgrade when you try it.

[AVSMike]

Thanks again for the help on the new screen.  Upgrading from the SMX to this was a huge leap in picture quality.  Hopefully you will see an upgrade when you try it.

I will definitely see an improvement. I have already compared a large sample of V5 and a sample of V6 to my EN4K. The V5 and V6 are brighter and have less shimmer.

[SparHeel]

Mike,

Here's a way, way belated thanks to you and Chris Seymour for samples of the V6, 4k, and EN-B.  I clipped them side by side onto a piece of foamcore board with a piece of black construction paper immediately beneath.  This I hung over my W/B spandex screen. 

I snapped phone photos of a grid, football, TV, and movies, but decided not to post anything because I'm not sure what the pix show except differences in brightness.  I always wonder what is being demonstrated with all posted screen pix...the screen, the PJ, the room, the camera, the angle, the photographer, etc...

I could not discern a significant sharpness difference between the spandex and any of the samples when projecting the grid.  But this could be the result of many factors other than the screen material (brightness diff, focus, small sample size, operator error, etc.). I expected to see this difference, too, due to (1) Mike's statement, among others, that spandex's chief failing is the lighting up of adjacent fibers resulting in a loss of sharpness, and (2) my personal experience of viewing another AVSers RS400 lighting up a solid (SI) screen..which was noticeably sharper than my spandex screen. 

I have never been completely happy with my mixed use room...too much light reflection from ceiling and walls, and understand that may be the chief limitation of my screen.  To that end, I am finally considering converting a room to dedicated HT use (YEA!), but have been hesitant to create this bat cave because it is on the small side.  If/when that happens I'll reevaluate the spandex and generally revisit the screen question.

[lygren]

Sharpness is really quite a bit hard to both depict and also to explain, but certainly a component we have placed a lot of emphasis optimising on the V6. We used a single layered custom knitted, but still basically a "spandex" on our 3. generation fabric too, but the main issue was / is the softness applied to the image and what we sought out to improve on our forthcoming generations. In order to address the sharpness, the V4 used a very high density, high gain, but also far less acoustically transparent weaved surface, but for our fifth gen. fabric we combined the weaved and knitted fabrics and as such utilised the advantages of both production methods in one single (patented) layout - resulting in both (relatively) high gain and last but not least a very good acoustical transparency. The V6 further improved on the layout of the V5, increasing overall sharpness without taking a toll on AT.

I´d say the sharpness component within our V6 design construction consists of two major elements; the front ultrafine, randomly woven (which also means totally moiré resistant even at very high resolutions) layer that makes out a "simulated coating", and the integrated black backing that makes certain no distance between the backing and reflective layers introduce blooming and thus reduced sharpness performance in darker / contrasted parts of the image reflection. Since we are indeed using a multiple reflective layered surface, the sharpness is actually not very easy to review from a small sample, normally you´d need at least 1x1m sample to properly review. Also, one should be seated at least 1m away from the sample so that the entire matrix of reflected light is properly absorbed. If you are seated too close, you will see through the primary layer and thus sharpness will be perceived as lower.

We´ll try to take some pics of the sharpness reflection of the V6, but meanwhile please review these pics that compares the V6 to a (custom) spandex fabric. Might be a bit hard to tell the difference, but it´s there, and when blown up full size in 4K++ it is certainly also - in my opinion at least - an important feature.

V6 top, spandex bottom.

[lygren]

V6 vs. spandex 2

[lygren]

V6 vs. spandex 3

[SparHeel]

Mr. Lygren,

Thank you for the detailed reply!  It's refreshing and encouraging to be afforded insights into the construction details of a screen fabric by its designer/mfr. 

Several components of the V6 design seem ingenious: the combination of woven and knitted fabrics, for instance.  Are these two distinct layers?  Or, have you managed to combine these two processes?  Whatever the technique, the V6's surface seems ultra smooth.  And integrating the black backing seems intuitively better than two completely separate, even if adjacent, layers - as in spandex white over black.

Since you agree that "sharpness is actually not very easy to review from a small sample," I'm sure you know that I wasn't saying that the V6 isn't sharper than my spandex.  In fact, my speculation is that if I saw a full size W/B milliskin spandex screen side by side with a V6 screen, the difference would likely be immediately clear.  V6 is certainly high on my list of possible upgrades.

[lygren]

Mr. Lygren,

Thank you for the detailed reply!  It's refreshing and encouraging to be afforded insights into the construction details of a screen fabric by its designer/mfr. 

Several components of the V6 design seem ingenious: the combination of woven and knitted fabrics, for instance.  Are these two distinct layers?  Or, have you managed to combine these two processes?  Whatever the technique, the V6's surface seems ultra smooth.  And integrating the black backing seems intuitively better than two completely separate, even if adjacent, layers - as in spandex white over black.

Since you agree that "sharpness is actually not very easy to review from a small sample," I'm sure you know that I wasn't saying that the V6 isn't sharper than my spandex.  In fact, my speculation is that if I saw a full size W/B milliskin spandex screen side by side with a V6 screen, the difference would likely be immediately clear.  V6 is certainly high on my list of possible upgrades.

Hi SparHeel!

Thanks, it´s a pleasure to be able to share these details, I´m a true enthusiast myself and certainly always been a fan of DIY! Spandex is really an affordable solution with several very nice technical qualities, no doubt about that, that´s also why we used "spandex" (though custom designed in terms of color and structural apperance) for our third gen fabrics. We still use spandex / knit, we have just found an even better (in our opinion at least... ) way of exploiting its qualities (gain + AT). There has been some discussions on AVS too in regards to the sharpness of V6 vs. various knitted / spandex fabrics and therefore it made sense to try to kill two birds with one stone replying right here, and I totally understand that it´s hard for you to evaluate sharpness based on a small sample! I´ll try to get some more detailed pics taken too.
 
The fabric is made out of three separately, custom designed layers. Front layer is woven in a randomly laid out pattern to replicate a regular (PVC) coating and as such avoid any possibility of moiré / pixel interference, while the mid layer, also white, reflects in combination with the weave, but has the advantage of better acoustical transparency while still providing substantial added gain being a knitted (spandex) type of fabric. Finally the black backing is also knitted to allow more air (i.e. sound waves) to pass unobstructed. I should also add that the layout of both knitted layers is custom designed too, one end being more open (facing audio, increasing AT) and the other end more closed (facing video, increasing gain). Each layer is custom produced to exact spec and since bonded. Bonding is required to maintain sharpness as the front weave and the second knit needs to be basically totally integrated as such, but bonding the black backing certainly also has its clear advantages in comparison to simply tensioning two separate layers (front + backing) as even the slightest distance between the reflecting and backing layer will result in blooming, especially visible on contrasted objects, as well as overall reduced sharpness.

This process has certainly not been without its challenges, I can admit as much, but our second V6 production run is ready within some weeks now and among other things we have improved packaging quite significantly this time to better accommodate worldwide handling and transporting and also increased size from a current maximum height of 79" to 118" to fit larger installations such as commercial screening applications.

Please let me know if you or others have other questions, I´ll be more than happy to oblige!!

[AVSMike]

I believe we now have access to the frames that Dreamscreen uses for the V6 fabric.