# Front Projecting onto Rear Projection Screen



## IamDeeBee (Aug 10, 2015)

I took a look around and couldn't find anything clear enough to give me the answer i'm looking for.

I have a Mitsubishi EW-331U-ST projector, 3.000 lumens, with a Aglo rear projection screen.

The way our current setup works is that we have a large back wall that has an opening in the center where the screen is tied. Example image here. 

We're looking at some venues where, even with our short throw, rear projection is looking to be unrealistic. If we bring our projector to the front and project onto the same Aglo RP material, am I going to dramatically change the way the image looks on the screen? My understanding is that it should be fine and i'm just going to lose brightness that I could get with a front projection screen. However, since we've already been doing RP I feel like just switching to the front projection is going to give us a similar result to what we currently have.

Thanks for the help!


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## seanandkate (Aug 10, 2015)

Couldn't get your image link to work, but, on to your question...
Now I've never tried what you propose, but the virtue of an RP screen is that it allows light to transfer well from one side (the projection side) to the other (the audience side). In the application you propose, this would imagine that you would lose a ton of brightness that wouldn't be reflected back to the audience like a front projection screen would. But the Aglo link you provide states that it CAN be used for front projection as well as RP, so they would probably know. I would just be prepared for your images to be a bit less punchy.


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## IamDeeBee (Aug 10, 2015)

seanandkate said:


> But the Aglo link you provide states that it CAN be used for front projection as well as RP, so they would probably know.


Apparently reading is hard for me to do. Thank you for catching that super obvious oversight on my part. I'll give it a go sometime soon and report back!


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## ruinexplorer (Aug 10, 2015)

I enjoy using fabric like this for projection, but it does make it hard to calculate what the image will look like. With a traditional screen, you will have variables such as screen gain and contrast calculated for you so that under optimum conditions, you can have a good estimate for how the image will look before you set it up. I haven't used this particular material, but have used ones similar from another manufacturer and can say that your image will likely be very close to what you see when you rear project. I think the biggest difference will be that you have a lower contrast ratio. This may or may not affect your image quality depending on your content.


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