Upgrade the projector or projector screen?


Hello Everyone!
 My Current setup: 
Epson 5030ub + Screen Innovations series 3 - solar white (1.3 gain) 100 inch diagonal.

I sit about 8 feet away from the screen and my HT setup is totally dark with grey walls. 

My goal is to upgrade the picture quality and I want to stay under or around $5k. 

My QUESTION: Should I upgrade to a Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek130 screen OR upgrade my Projector to a JVC DLA x790r or similar? 

What will make the biggest positive impact? 
danimaz

Upgrade the projector for sure!  The two screens you mentioned are pretty much almost the exact same thing.  Both white with 1.3 gain.  Both are very nice screens.  You are not going to get any difference with a new screen unless you drastically change the material (i.e. grey/black toned or super high gain).  Since you have a completely dark room, you're best result will actually be with the standard 1.3 gain screen.  Put your money into a much better projector.

You can also look at Sony projectors.  The JVC DLA projectors are noted to have very excellent black level and a film-like quality.  The Sony projectors are excellent as they make the image "pop" a lot more.  The Sony is a little bit more exciting but does not do as good in the lower blacks (shadow detail).

You can also look into a Lumagen Radiance video processor and then do a calibration.

I just went from Epson 5030ub to the Epson 6040ub. In my humble opinion the 6040ub has a better picture and I'm happy I changed. That being said, I'm a novice when it comes to projectors.
No doubt about it, upgrade the projector. For $5k you will be able to buy a used Sony 4k projector. I recently went from HD (Sony VPL-HW65ES ) to UHD/4k (Sony VPL-VW665ES). The difference in resolution and general image quality is staggering.
@auxinput: thanks for the advice. SI and Stewart are both 1.3 gain however I've seen Stewart studiotek screen and it is way smoother than my SI. That's why I wanted to know if swapping screens would make a big difference. Ive also heard from 2 different resellers that upgrading screen is more important. Have you ever A B'd screens with same projector? 

@ricred1 What screen do you have ?

So screen quality does not matter as much as claimed by a couple of resellers of screens I spoke with !?

I actually have the Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130. It has a very very slight texture to the surface of the material. If your Screen Innovations surface is perfectly smooth, I can sort of see how you would think the Stewart "looks" smoother on video. I think the texture on the surface acts to break-up the separation between pixels - as the LCD pixels do not have a great fill factor. If you look closer, you might get a "screen door" affect where you can see the pixel grid. If you wanted to smooth out the effect of your current Epson LCD, the Stewart -MIGHT- help fix some of that pixelization roughness. I don’t know for sure. You can also solve for this by very slightly de-focusing the image so that the pixels sort of flow into each other.

The JVC DLA and Sony LCOS panels have a much better fill factor - you will get less of the screen door effect. I have an older Sony VW95ES 1080p that I just love. To this day, I have not had any urge to replace that projector. Though, it does have a color calibration using Lumagen Radiance processor. If you’re not worried about 4K output, Curt Palme website is selling the Radiance 2020 for $1399.

My 13 year old son said he could see the pixels when we had the Epson 5030, but the picture is noticeably sharper with the 6040.
@ricred1 thanks for your feedback! To my eyes 6040 is slightly better but not by a huge margin. 

I'll be switching to a JVC x790r. Let me know if anyone is interested in an Epson 5030ub. It has about 188 hours comes with extra bulb (new) box manual remote and 3d glasses 
Last question:
Going to a JVC x790r from Epson 5030ub. Is that a significant of an upgrade? 


I think your screen is very good and your projector is too.  If you really want to upgrade now, then the projector will make the biggest impact.  if you had room lighting or a very crappy screen now, i can see how a better screen would make sense.  personally Id wait a year to make a bigger jump but either the sony or the jvc 4k projectors will be a decent upgrade if your sources are hdr.

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Why would you buy a white screen for a dark room? Your blacks are only as black as the screen, I would have gone with a 0.7gain or similar if my projector could handle that. It’d be like going from LED to OLED.

That said, not sure you should upgrade that over the projector, though the Epson is good.
Maybe he wants white screen vs gray..  That way the  whites are white and the colors are vivid.  Grey is gonna dull it down a bit on colors. Grey is good if room has ambient light, but you get duller colors and off whites.
 
my jvc dla 4k upshift projector doesnt have any problems doing black onea 1.1 gain white screen by draper in a dark room. 
In today reality, when the techs are getting old too quickly, I would suggest you sell the current one and buy something newer, for example, BenQ MW535A, it's well represented in this overview, but other options are also viable, at your preferences!
The screen is more of a factor if you don’t have light control. Since you do, focus on the projector 📽 and getting one with the right throw distance for your room. 
I got to agree with just getting a whole new one.

I got the BenQ MH535FHD 1080P Home Theater Projector

I believe when I got it, it was like $650, now it's down to $550. I believe this is the site I found it on: https://www.officialtop5review.com/tv-theater-projectors/

For some reason their top recommendation came back not found so I just went with the second one.

Anyways, you can also just look on Amazon and find ones with good reviews that are at a lower price If that's too expensive. Good luck!
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I had great results with this glare TV setup. This is the best option I could have for a bright color room, Check this - 
https://projectorslab.com/best-tv-for-bright-room-best-anti-glare-tv/
After looking around the internet like 
https://money.cnn.com/gallery/technology/innovation/2013/01/07/ces-wish-list/13.html I made a call to buy an Anti-Glare TV which was worth it