Whether you need a projector screen for presentations at the office or for watching movies at home, if a permanently installed screen isn't an option, the Optoma DP-MW9080A is a great alternative. It's big enough, at 80 inches diagonally, for an impressively big picture, but small enough when closed to sit unobtrusively against the base of a wall. It's also surprisingly light, with a handle that makes it easy to pick up and carry, and it's designed to let you set it up or break it down in seconds. In fact, it's hard to imagine how any non-permanent screen could be easier to use.

Despite its 13.4-pound weight, the Optoma screen isn't really portable in the sense of being able to take with you from one place to another. For true portability, you need a smaller screen, like the 6.5 pound Epson ES1000 ($129.99 direct, 4 stars), which can fit in an airplane's overhead compartment.

For an 80-inch diagonal screen like the DP-MW9080A, there's also an issue of ruggedness. A similar-size screen that could be trusted to survive the trip, like the Epson ES3000 ($249.99 direct, 4 stars), would tend to be heavier. In addition, it would be safest to move in a hard-shell case like the one that comes with the ES3000 and adds even more weight. The Optoma screen is best limited to carrying from room to room.

Setup

It literally takes longer to describe the process of setting up the DP-MW9080A than it takes to set the screen up. The screen material is rolled up in the case. To unroll it, you release the catch on the same handle that you use to carry the case, and use the handle to pull up the screen.

The full list of steps starts with pivoting each of two feet—one near each end—so they're perpendicular to the case and can give the screen better stability. You then pivot the one arm that holds the screen up in the back, so it's perpendicular to the floor; lift the screen far enough to hook it on top of the arm; and adjust the height of the arm to change the height of the screen relative to the floor.

The first time I set the screen up took me perhaps 40 seconds. The second time was a lot faster. The third time I had someone time me. Not including pivoting the two feet, it took 8.7 seconds to set it up and 5.2 seconds to go from all set up to ready to put away, at a compact 3.3 by 76 by 2.4 inches (HWD).

The ability to adjust the height relative to the floor is one of the screen's nicer touches, with eight increments that vary from just under 5 inches to just under 8 inches each. One obvious benefit is that you can adjust the screen to a comfortable viewing height, with the bottom of the viewable portion of the screen a maximum of 44 inches from the floor.

The height adjustment also gives you the option of adjusting the screen height rather than the image height, to avoid keystone distortion (with the sides of the image not being parallel). This is a highly welcome alternative to the digital keystone correction that most projectors offer, since the digital correction can introduce artifacts in the image.

Aspect Ratio, Size, and Other Issues

Unlike the Epson ES3000, which opens out to both sides so you can open it to different aspect ratios, the Optoma screen offers a single aspect ratio, at 16:9. Of course, there's no reason you can't use the full height of the screen to project a 16:10 or 4:3 image, but the big white block of unused screen on one or both sides of the image can both hurt image quality and be distracting. There's a reason, after all, why movie theaters use movable black panels to adjust the size of the screen to match the aspect ratio of the movie they're showing.

By my measurements, the DP-MW9080A is touch larger than the ES3000, at 70 inches wide by 39 inches high. That works out to an 80-inch diagonal at 16:9, 75 inches at 16:10, and 49 inches at 4:3.

There's nothing particularly notable about the screen material. It's a basic white screen, with a claimed 160 degree viewing angle. That suggests a slightly higher than 1.0 gain (with most of the light reflected within the 160 degree angle, rather than being reflected equally in all directions). However, Optoma rates the gain at 1.0.

The one issue I have with the screen is the pungent smell when new. The chemical odor is strong enough to be unpleasant when you're close to the screen, setting it up. The odor diminishes fairly quickly, however, so that by the third or fourth time I set the screen up it was nowhere near as bad. Still, I doubt it's a good thing to breathe in, and I'd suggest letting the screen air out in a room with the windows open until the smell is gone.

Aside from the smell, which should go away reasonably quickly, even a nitpicker would have a problem finding anything negative to say about the Optoma DP-MW9080A. If you need an 80-inch diagonal 16:9 screen to show images at large size, and can't install a permanent screen, the Optoma DP-MW9080A may be exactly the screen you need. You can set it up and break it down in literally seconds, it's small enough to sit against the base of a wall without sticking out visually or getting in the way physically, and the odor is the only thing that keeps it from being an Editors' Choice.

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