SI Black Diamond 1.4 Fixed Screen: Image Properties 2

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Art Feierman

Movies on the Black Diamond II 1.4 Screen

If you have a dedicated theater room, with no real issues (dark everything, full lighting control), it's unlikely you would need a BD II 1.4 screen.

Come nighttime, when I do have the ability to fully darken my main theater, the Black Diamond looks great. Mind you, I didn't recalibrate my JVC RS20 for the rust color that ambient light was causing the screen to pick up. At night, only when really looking for it, did I detect that rust tint. When it is most noticeable is when the center of the content is really bright, and the sides are dark (think the sillouette image that I use from The Dark Knight - looking into a bright interrogation room). In that situation, enough light from the screen is hitting side walls and or back wall, and reflecting back enough rust, to discolor the darker edges a bit.

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That said, I watch many hours (at least 15) in the usual dark setup, and did not think I had a real problem that couldn't be solved with just a minor adjust. A bigger calibration adjust would be needed for my daytime viewing though, and there's the rub.

Unfortunately, just general observation shows that in my room the amount of rust (side windows open slightly) coming off the screen reflection, varies greatly with where on the screen surface you are looking. For that reason, I don't see how to calibrate it away, when there's lots of side ambient light. If you brought down the red/rust color, the sides might look better, but the center would be shifting blue green.

Simply stated, in situations with side ambient and significantly non-neutral walls, being hit by that ambient light, is not the right environment for the Black Diamond II 1.4! (That would be a good situation for the Firehawk.)

But, back to viewing in a fully darkened room. Remember, this is all subjective. Unfortunately, for most of my viewing, the BD 1.4 was about 24 inches closer to the projector. This meant when viewing both (half the image on each), the BD 1.4 was visibly brighter. I did do a fair amount of back and forth viewing later though, with the screen only inches in front of the Firehawk (someone holding it up!)

Overall, my take is that in a dark room environment, the Black Diamond II 1.4 is both a slight bit brighter than the Firehawk on bright areas, and it has a touch more contrast. Overall, I felt this Screen Innovations screen provided a tad more pop and wow than my Firehawk.

Overhead lights off (darkened room). Vivitek projector (over 600 lumens hitting a 92" 16:9 Black Diamond II 1.4 screen. Excellent blacks, lots of pop to the image!

Sports and HDTV on the Black Diamond II 1.4 Screen

Outstanding - as long as you are in the right room. With my window shades shut - leaking just a little light, the BD 1.4 did just dandy, but if I opened one or more shades partially, the rust shift was too much. With shades fully down, and moderate overhead lighting, the Black Diamond looked pretty good! On the other hand, when I put on some sports in the testing room, with both pairs of recessed lights at half power, the picture was stunning. It was drastically better than the Elite screen, and the Carada, though bright, was nicely washed out, as it would expected.