The Silver Ticket STR-169100 is a fixed frame projector screen that’s built around an extruded aluminum frame. Silver Ticket is known for products that exude a premium look and feel without the premium price tag, and the STR-169100 projector screen lives up to that standard. We assembled an STR-169100 and installed it in a home theater environment to get some hands-on experience. Read on to see how easy this screen is to assemble and install, how well it performs in terms of picture quality, and whether it really stands up to more expensive screens.
Design: Premium look and feel without the premium price
This is a fixed frame projector screen, so it’s designed to be assembled, hung on a wall, and left there. It uses a six-piece extruded aluminum frame, which feels surprisingly sturdy. The frame is wrapped in a black felt-like material, and the screen is installed via a tensioning bar system that utilizes plastic tensioning bars and pins. Once the STR-169100 is assembled and hung on a wall, the overall effect is remarkable. This looks like a premium screen despite the affordable price tag.
Setup Process: A headache and a half, but it’s a one-time thing
Assembly isn’t overly difficult, but it is complicated by unclear instructions and the sheer amount of floor space that you need to clear. Since you have to place the frame black-velvet-down, we suggest throwing a drop cloth, tarp, or even a clean sheet on the floor first due to the tendency of the velvet material to act as a magnet for any dust, lint, or pet hair that it comes into contact with. The frame itself is built out of six sections of extruded aluminum that are screwed together, but you have to count out the tensioning pins and slide them into place in the appropriate sections before screwing the frame pieces together. After the frame is assembled, you begin the tedious process of threading six tensioning rods through pockets around the perimeter of the screen. The tensioning rods can then be snapped into the tensioning pins, which effectively stretches the screen to fill the frame. The final step is installing a support beam, which is a bit of a pain. Undoing four tensioning pins on top, and three on the bottom, allowed us to flex the frame enough to slip the support beam into place. With just one person, setup took about an hour from start to finish. With an extra set of hands, you could probably get through it in significantly less time than that.
Construction: Built on a solid extruded aluminum frame
The body of this screen is built out of extruded aluminum, which feels very solid. Each aluminum section has a channel that you slide either a block or angle component into, allowing the sections to be secured together. The overall effect is that the assembled frame is quite sturdy. To provide a higher-end look, and to make it easier to set up your projector without requiring overly precise positioning, the aluminum frame is wrapped in a black velvet-like material. It looks and feels like flocking, but it’s actually a fabric that’s wrapped around each component of the frame. The overall effect is that the frame looks great while also being structurally sound.
Screen Material: Matte white vinyl screen is great, but there are other options
The screen we tested came with a matte white vinyl screen with a uniform 1.1 gain. We found the matte white screen to have excellent color reproduction and contrast, with no visible hot spots. The viewing angles are also great, with the picture looking sharp and colorful from every seat in the house. Silver Ticket also offers this same screen with a variety of different materials, including high contrast gray with a 0.95 gain, silver ALR with a 1.5 gain, and woven acoustic that allows you to install speakers behind the screen. The matte white screen worked just fine in our setup, but the other options are there if your home theater setup might benefit from them.
Mounting Style: Fixed permanent installation
This is a fixed frame screen, so it’s designed to be hung on a wall and left there. It features four mounting brackets that slide into the aluminum frame, and includes a set of screws and drywall anchors if you don’t have conveniently-placed studs in the wall you’re using for your home theater setup. The mounting brackets can be slid from side to side to match the positioning of studs, but the inclusion of the extra hardware is a nice touch anyway. This screen is light enough that you could move it around if you had to, but it’s also bulky enough to make that difficult. The time-consuming assembly process also means that you probably won’t want to break it all the way down for use as a portable screen either.
Key Features: Contoured and wrapped frame prevents light spillover
The best feature of the Silver Ticket STR-169100 is its contoured and wrapped frame. The light-absorbing black material that’s wrapped around the frame helps soak up over-projected light, so you don’t have to be overly precise when aiming and adjusting your projector. Then the slightly contoured frame takes it to the next level, allowing you to avoid telltale shadows on the image area caused by over-projection. None of this is absolutely necessary if you’re a pro, but it’s a very nice combination of features if you’re brand new to the world of projectors and projector screens.
Price: Great deal for the quality you get
The Silver Ticket STR-169100 has an MSRP of $200, and it’s usually available for a bit less than that. Considering the fact that it’s meant to compete with screens that cost thousands of dollars, that represents a fantastic deal. You can find budget screens for less, but this really is one of the best screens you’ll find in this price range.
Silver Ticket STR-169100 vs. Elite Screens ezFrame R100WH1
Elite Screens is one of Silver Ticket’s main competitors, and the R100WH1 is a projector screen that matches the STR-169100 feature for feature. They’re both 100-inch screens, both use cinema white vinyl screens, and both have contoured aluminum frames with a black velvet-like wrapping. The main difference is that the R100WH1 has a black anodized aluminum frame under the wrapping, so it’s less likely to be obvious if the wrapping gets scratched. In terms of performance, both screens feature a 1.1 gain, 160-degree viewing angles, and great color and contrast. The Silver Ticket screen, however, is significantly less expensive. The R100WH1 typically sells for between $400 and $450. That makes the Silver Ticket screen a much better value. Interested in checking out more options? Take a peek at our roundup of the best projector screens. The Silver Ticket STR-169100 Projector Screen is an excellent entry-level projection screen that provides some nice premium touches for a very affordable price. Putting it together is a bit of a headache, but it won’t fail to impress once you have it up on the wall in your home theater. The matte white screen worked well in our setup, but there is a variety of other screen types to suit a variety of home theater situations.
