Elite Screens ELIM92UWH Pull Down Projector Screen Review

Posted on March 15th, 2011 in Electronics, House, TV

I just received the Elite Screens ELIM92UWH pull down projector screen today and installed it and I really like it!

The screen came in a couple of days after my Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350 1080p LCD projector arrived. I originally had used an Epson Duet screen for the projector until this new screen arrived.

The Elite Screens ELIM92UHW / M92UHW is a 92 inch 16:9 ratio pull down projector screen. It’s not an ultra-high-end model, in fact it’s a really cheap screen that can be had for around $90 but it’s quite suitable for someone building a budget home theater setup or someone who just wants to have a big screen in their living room. The screen certainly lives up to the big part. The viewing area is 45 inches tall and 80 inches wide and in reality it’s 91.79 inches diagonally, I won’t ding them for the .21 inch difference though.

The screen was fairly light in the box and was not a problem to mount. I wanted to mount the screen so that it would pull down just in front of my 47″ wall mounted LCD screen so I did the proper measurements and unfortunately there was no joist available within a few inches to hang the display from so I used some Hillman hollow wall anchors rated at 80 pounds a piece as well as a double hook setup to hang the screen from it’s D rings.

The Hillman fastener looks like a cylindrical slug but once you place it in the hole and tighten the bolt it mushrooms out in five directions to brace against the ceiling. I gave a reasonable tug on each fastener and everything held in fine. If you’re doing your own installation you’ll have to decide what the most appropriate way to hang the screen is for the environment that it is in.

The Hillman fastener came with a normal screw in it. I found some closed loop studs that had the same thread as the bolt on the Hillman fastener. I used the original bolt to clamp down the Hillman fastener and then install the bolt with the closed ring on the end into the fastener and all was good. I used two closed S loop link pieces per side and spread the tops and bottoms open. I tightened the S back down around the O shaped part attached to the Hillman fastener and left the bottom ends open enough to slip around the D ring on the projector screen housing. The S loops oppose each other so there’s no way that the screen is going to come loose from them. Click on the pictures below for a large version.

The screen looks wider than I expected it to look at first. The viewing area is 80″ across but the actual screen housing length is closer to 86″ over-all. I’d certainly recommend measuring everything and not just assume that the length or height printed on the actual box is the right measurment to make holes for, etc. With the screen all up and mounted it’s not really that obtrusive and the black housing fits in with the rest of the decor in the house, it’s my favorite non-color.

You can see a few ripples in the screen in the picture above. This screen being a lower end unit does not have tension springs or anything of that sort on the sides to pull the screen out, so I suppose some ripples will always be present. Honestly when the lights are out and I’m watching TV I can’t even see the ripples. They’re just slightly visible when the lights are on in the room.

Below are some of the photos I took of the screen with some 1080i TV stuff and below that are the pictures I took of a Blu-Ray 1080p source.

The following pictures were taken of a Blu-Ray movie in 1080p. The difference in quality over the TV HD at 1080i is incredible. Please keep in mind that my cable TV provider heavily compresses their HD feeds so while they are in 1080i format the quality is seriously lacking on many channels.

Overall I’d say the ELIM92UWH is a great budget screen. The model I have is the Matte White, which refers to the display surface, not the color of the case. If you’re ordering one of these and want a white case or a black one, make sure to contact the seller and tell them that so you’re not dissapointed. The screen also comes in the gray color surface which is supposed to provide deeper blacks. I’ve like to see the details in the shadow so I went with the white matte. You might want to go see the difference in person at a store that sells projectors to help you decide which style you want.