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A movie screen isn't always the first item on a home-theater shopping list. How many of us have been tempted to feature the grand premiere of our first front projector on the largest wall in the house? Somehow, that initial impromptu screening leads to a second, and so on. In the videophile world, this is the equivalent of buying a new Ferrari and taking the inaugural run with the cheapest set of tractor tires you can find. If the next time you watch a movie, you see that the star's face has a bit of a drywall texture to it, you might want to consider retrofitting your theater with a projection screen.

One of my favorite retrofit jobs as a custom installer involved a location that already had a 40-seat theater and a 24 x 30-foot projection room — with about 30 large sheets of vellum drafting paper (pieced together with Scotch tape) covering the 16 x 9-foot hole between the two rooms. For 2 years, a small $1,000 business projector had been sitting on a chair in the projection room, beaming images onto the back of the paper. After my initial meeting with the client — when he asked if we could help the image look a little better (I still can't believe I was able to keep a straight face) — I suggested a "minor" projector upgrade to an InFocus SP777 (about $30,000 at the time; currently, it retails for $9,999), and I also recommended using a Draper 16 x 9-foot rear-projection screen to service his 40-seat palace. Since his experience with projectors was limited to the local big-box office-supply store, he thought we were miracle workers when he saw the resulting image.

With that cautionary tale in mind, let's take a look at all the things you need to consider before buying your first screen or upgrading your current one.