[Elite Screens] Sable Frame 2 Series

Screen looks good when completed, but the instructions are terrible.

got the sable frame 2 180" screen and it is AMAZING! the picture is so clear and my wife and I set it up in less than an hour! Highly recommend these screens!

I had my screen shipped internationally, i was afraid it would come damaged or torn. but, it was in perfect condition even though the box was banged up. I put it together in 30 min or so, very easily i might add. the screen made a huge difference from the sheet i was using temporarily, i have a 4k projector and i can't stop smiling each time i see the quality when i turn it on. thank you so much for all the great work you do. u are my go to screen manufacturer no one else exists.

it is a great looking screen an easy to put together

I have the 103" diagonal, 2.35:1 version. This is my 2nd Elite Screen projector screen which I bought because I feel that ES has been the best company making screens that are both high/decent quality and affordable. Overall, I like this projector screen a lot but a few issues bring it down to 4-stars instead of 5. What I like is that the frame is relatively simple/easy to build. The frame comes in 6 segments of the aluminum frame that is wrapped in a nice black velvety material. The segments connect using plastic connector pieces that screw into each frame segment. In my last ES screen (and Aeon model), the connector was aluminum whereas this one is hard plastic with metal threads, so obviously a bit of cost cutting involved. One problem I encountered though, was that the M5 (5 mm diameter) screws did not fit into all the threads in the connectors. In one of them, the thread was too bid so that the screw could not thread in at all. I found any easy solution by using an M5 screw I bought from Lowes that was a little wider and fit the hole fine. So, the connector pieces definitely could be improved. The velvet wrapped frame segments were pretty good, and fit together pretty well without any obvious gaps, etc. For some reason, I ended up with 3-4 extra, unused screws which is fine but you have to wonder why. The screen material was pretty easy to attach to the frame and tension, using a clever mechanism with thin rods inserted into the edges of the material that then secure to the frame with little plastic retaining pieces. I wonder how long the screen material will stand up to time given the high tension from the rods being pulled in the non-stitched (seems like a heat pressing type seal/seam) but only time will tell. The cross bar (to give keep the middle of the frame stable from the tension of the screen material) was a bit problematic as the plastic end caps that fit into the open ends of the aluminum support bar were slightly too large to be inserted until I heated the metal ends with a blowdryer and then was finally able to squeeze the end caps in. So, a bit of quality control concerns there too with the parts. The mounting was another challenge. Like many of ES' fixed frame screens, this mounts on the wall by fitting on top of brackets that you drill into the wall. I mounted into wood studs to be safe. Unlike my ES Aeon (edge-free) screen, this part was really hard. Our wall is not perfectly flat (i.e. not "plumb") and the brackets are about twice as long as the brackets for the Aeon, and the lip that sticks out a bit to "catch" the frame sticks out a much smaller amount than the Aeon's wall brackets, making it VERY HARD to mount the finished screen (which itself is not completely flat by virtue of it's design as a backless frame with a highly tensioned screen material in the middle). In the end, I had to put a spacer between the bracket and the wall to make the lip stick out enough that the frame could be placed over the bracket. I believe these brackets are a poor/flawed design. I would also mention that the manual shows that you use an upside down bracket on the bottom of the frame too but the install videos by ES do not show that at all, and frankly, it would be pretty much impossible to use it based on my experience. Oh, one last criticism. There is a rather mind boggling metal 'Elite Screens' logo stuck to the bottom right of the felt covered screen, that was difficult to remove and which removed a bit of the felt and left adhesive no matter how careful I tried to be. I assumed the logo would be easily removed because what movie aficionado would want a logo on their screen, but sadly that's not the case. Please, ES, stop doing this to your otherwise excellent screens! Overall though, I am very happy with this screen (especially since it cost half the price of my Aeon screen) as the black velvet is quite light absorbing which makes it much easier to mask imperfectly aligned projector images on the screen (e.g. overshoot). The image looks great and having a cinemascope screen makes the movie watching experience at home just fantastic. I should also mention that no other company that I could find makes a cinemascope screen less than 120" diagonal so ES gets kudos for that too, although I believe this model, the Sable (1), is the only ES cinemascope screen smaller than 120".