Sure, both gain and viewing angle depend on the material. But those are not my main issues. My issues are these pvc rear screens diffusing/blurring the projection pixels too much and both rear and front screens having a noticeably textured surface.
I rented one for a day to test it out and show the issue:
https://i.imgur.com/Gim3VHY.jpg
This is not a big deal for large 80 inch or more projection screens as from those viewing distances the blurred pixels bleeding into each other from rear projection or the rough textured surface for both types of screens is not noticeable. But for smaller projections and closer viewing distances it becomes too apparent for me.
Maybe I am looking in the wrong places and the proper projection screens are not aimed for these use cases. But then, what can I use?
TI made 4K home projectors possible about a year ago and recently announced 4K pico chips.
Those pico chips are not bright enough for the projection sizes and viewing distances I mentioned so I want to know what I'll be able to use as a screen when products using them come out later this year/earlier next year. It's frustrating how I can't get any of the projection screen manufacturers to suggest a proper screen to me for such use cases.
This is important to me because I got an email recently from Texas Instruments that they finally are about to release a 4K portable DLP chip than can also run at 240! fps in 1080p mode. This quickly gave me two ideas for how these chips could be implemented: gaming projectors running games at 240Hz/fps. And it could be made cheaper than current 240Hz monitors.
But 4K rear projection will be pointless with such PVC screens viewed from such distance.
Second idea is a 4K version of a personal theater:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UslTgWF7fpY This one worked by not using a projection screen and having the user look through the lens at the illuminated DLP chip directly. This is one of the reasons the field of view was so low. I had one myself but sold it because of that. I was thinking of building something similar but with a projection screen instead. I'm sure there will be other companies attempting something similar soon. Here the standard textured diffusing PVC projection screens become even more noticeable as the projection screen will be viewed through basically a magnifying lens and be magnified about 4x. So, any ideas what can be used for a projection screen for these?