High quality projection screens usually aren’t anything too special to report on, with subtle changes in screen gain being the only difference between them or maybe a screen is made from a high contrast grey vinyl material instead of white vinyl, nothing special, right? Except that there is a problem with vinyl in that it is toxic. Vinyl screens aren’t toxic in themselves, but the manufacturing process releases dioxins as does incinerating a vinyl projection screen. Knowing this, the Kikuchi Corporation of Japan decided to go “green” with two of their new projection screens. Instead of vinyl, Kikuchi is using a polyester fiber material referred to as “Ecological Matte Advance” for the screen. Polyester is much safer to manufacture and releases no dioxins when burned. Even the rolling mechanism at the top of the screen is ECO-friendly - made partly from a corn starch that will disassemble and break down when buried. The screens will be available in 100 inch and 80 inch diagonals and will have a fairly small screen gain of 0.8. They will provide a viewing angle of 85°, and are only available in a 16:9 aspect ratio, so they’re geared more towards home cinemas. Lastly, they’ll only be available in Japan this February and for an unknown price. One important question left unanswered, though, is that while they may not release dioxins during incineration, are these new ECO-Screens flame-retardant like a large majority of vinyl screens on the market, and would you be willing to risk having a flammable screen in your home cinema?

[via Kikuchi]

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