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Wupro Cinema Peacock Evo ALR/CRL Fresnel screen : test / review

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Published on: 03-01-2025 / Modified: 03-01-2025
I've been testing projectors for a few years now, but before 2024 I hadn't paid much attention to projection screens, even though they play a decisive role in image quality. So, to fill this gap, I started testing screens based on all the questions I'd been asked on the subject. I wasn't sure what I'd end up with, but my first tests quickly attracted the attention of manufacturers, enabling me to build up a comparison of over 30 screens in less than a year.

I was contacted by Wupro at the end of 2024 to test one of their screens. I'd never heard of this brand before, but that in itself isn't a problem. I've tested many products from unknown brands in recent years, and some of them have become benchmarks. I wasn't going to test any more screens at the end of the year, as I was running out of time and space. As this screen looked really interesting, I decided to push the Christmas tree aside so I could mount the screen and test it

This test is very technical in nature, so I'm going to share a lot of figures to give you as much information as possible. If you're not interested in the details, you can go straight to the conclusion without reading the rest

Where to buy?

The Wupro Cinema Peacock Evo screen is available on their Wuprobuy website:

Wupro Cinema / Wuprobuy.com

This screen is available in 2 versions: 100 and 120 inches. At the time of writing, the 100-inch version cost just over €1,000 and the 120-inch version just over €1,600.

Mounting the screen

I was very surprised by the volume and weight of the Wupro Cinema box when I received it, but you'll soon understand why



The box contains a large cardboard cylinder around which the screen fabric is wrapped. The frame and accessories are stored inside the cardboard cylinder. The whole thing is very well protected by a thick layer of foam. The box contains: screen, frame, screws, gloves, manual and wall-mounting kit



This screen has a very different frame to anything I've tested so far. You'll see that the choices made by Wupro have some undeniable advantages over screens with simple canvas to be fixed with springs.



The frame consists of two pieces instead of four. The long side is already attached to the short side via a mechanism that allows the screen to be unfolded without assembly. This has the effect of reducing dependencies where the screen could come loose, assembly is also quicker

Assembly steps

Assembling a screen can often feel complex, but by taking a step back and with a few photos like the ones I'm about to share, you should be able to assemble the screen quite easily. I put the screen together without help and it took me just over two hours to complete the assembly. I could have gone faster, but as I have to take photos and notes for my article, I'm not active all the time

If you have the possibility of being helped by a second person, the assembly will be easier and quicker

1. Make room

A 100-inch screen will take up a lot of floor space, and you'll need to leave plenty of room to move around. So you need to free up at least 3 meters in length and 2 meters in width. Don't neglect this point, because if you run out of space, you risk damaging the screen when mounting it

2. Place the blanket on the ground

The screen is supplied with a protective blanket, which should be placed on the ground before you start, and unrolled completely. As this cover has no adhesive power, you can slide it in and out as required

3. Unfold the frame



The frame is made up of two identical parts. The frame must be positioned so that the fasteners are visible above. Placement on the floor is of little importance at this stage, as there is only one way to mount the frame.

4. Assembling the frame



To assemble the frame, simply connect the corners. The frame is equipped with a gutter mechanism for tool-free assembly.

5. Secure the frame



Locate the slot on each side of the frame as indicated by my finger in the photo. There's one on each side of the frame. Loosen the screw (don't loosen it!) close to my finger and remove the screw in its path to the right. By loosening the first screw, you'll be able to slide a locking mechanism under the folding part of the frame. If you can't slide the lock right away, try aligning the two parts of the frame so that they are at the same height. You'll need to do this on both sides of the frame.

Once the lock is in place, you'll need to tighten the lock screw and replace the screw you removed.

6. Secure the corners



Secure each corner with the 2 missing screws as shown in the photo. Your frame is now secure all round.

7. Add vertical brackets



Insert the two aluminum bars through the center of the frame and slide them out to match the first holes in the frame. These bars do not attach to the center of the frame; they need to slide left and right about twenty centimeters to match the holes to attach them



You need to use the plastic rivets to attach them to the frame. These rivets are made up of two elements: first, insert the support that will allow the rivet to be driven in. This can be done by hand

8. Add frame center bracket



Add the black bracket to the center of the frame as shown in the photo. The bracket is L-shaped, and should be positioned so that the frame gutter is completely closed by the bracket. Then fasten with screws

9. Add corner bracket

As in step 8, you'll need to use a corner bracket. Again, this is a wedge-shaped black metal bracket. You can attach it at this stage or a little later, but you must do so before attaching the frame's contour covers

10. Placing the canvas

When you unroll the canvas, it will be upside down in relation to the mounting. The gray projection screen will be in front of you, and the black part underneath. First, remove the aluminum frame from the work area; you can place it vertically to take up less space. Then turn the canvas over, carefully joining the corners without bending it. When the opposite corners of the length are on top of each other, slide the canvas from underneath to face the black part of the canvas. You can now replace the aluminum frame on the canvas

11. Add the rods



You have 6 fiberglass rods to slide into the canvas sleeve. The longest fibers are to be slid into the shorter side, long enough to cover the entire distance. For the others, you'll need two rods to cover the distance. You need to insert one on each side. Insertion isn't easy, as the fabric seems to have been flattened during transport. To make it easier, try to open the rod's passage by compressing the fabric with your finger along its entire length. This will open the passage for the rod

12. Attachment mechanism



To accompany the rods and the attachment system, you now need to slide an aluminum support where you have passed each rod. This support has a gutter through which you need to pass the fabric that surrounds the fiberglass rod. It's a bit tricky, I find, because you have to be able to slide the aluminum support without the fabric moving. The easiest way to do this is to place the support vertically, as shown in the photo, and hold the beginning of the fabric with your fingers, so that it doesn't get swept away in your movement

13. Attaching the canvas



The mechanism for attaching this screen is rather unique. Rather than using lots of springs, you simply match the bracket from step 12 with a flap on the frame. It's very easy to do, but if you mount the screen on your own, you may at some point find yourself with a flap you can't fold down. If this is the case, you need to detach the other flaps and try to put it back in a different order

14. Attaching the cover

To hide the edges of the screen, you now need to attach the edge protection which also acts as a finish for the front panel.

I've mounted a lot of screens over the last few months, and while assembly is always a form of complexity, the mounting system on this Wupro Cinema is very well thought out. Screens mounted with springs can always generate wrinkles depending on the tension on the springs. With this system, the risk is almost non-existent. The fabric is thick, and the tensioning system quickly balances the fabric so that it's perfectly smooth without being distorted

Screen test: white

To analyze white rendition, I measure the white at the projector outlet to obtain the delta E, the proportion of red/blue/green and the white temperature. I then take a measurement on a neutral surface to finally measure the impact of this screen on white fidelity.

Screens of this type tend to accentuate the coldness of the image, with a drop in red and an increase in blue in the RGB proportions of the white. The following graph shows that this is also the case for this screen, but the variations are very slight. The proportion of blue rises from 101.9% to 104.5%, red from 88.4% to 85.9%, green is almost unaffected



This translates into a slight cooling of the white from 7015K to 7241K, one of the best results I've ever obtained

Screen test: colors

I use the same protocol to measure color fidelity, and with the result obtained for white, we can expect to find degradation on all the colors derived from red and blue.

If I compare the delta E of the colors with the reference, I obtain the following:



All positive values indicate improvement, negative values indicate degradation. The overall result is positive, because even if some colors are degraded, others are improved. In the end, I get a positive delta E average. This may seem counter-intuitive, but the reason is quite simple. This projector had been calibrated for a screen of this type, so it's normal for the delta E to be better on the screen.

I get a delta E of 2.71 for the screen and 3.41 for the reference measurement, so it's a very good result.

Screen test: gray

Grey measurement is directly linked to white measurement. White deviation automatically results in gray deviation. Since I've measured a white deviation, there will also be a gray deviation.



On the 10 gray measurements, I get a deviation on all gradations. It's not surprising, as it's linked to the white deviation and, in principle, can be corrected by calibrating the projector. As with white, this screen limits the damage to gray and ranks among the best in this category.

To solve this problem, simply increase the red a little and decrease the blue a little more in the white balance. In this way, I obtained a delta E of less than 1.

Screen test: contrast

Contrast is a key element in the choice of a projector, but also in the choice of a screen. To measure contrast, I take a measurement at the projector outlet, a measurement with a neutral surface and a measurement on the screen to be tested. The neutral surface serves as a yardstick for evaluating the screen's performance.

Comparing this screen with the others I've tested, I obtain the following:



This graph is dynamic and will evolve automatically with new tests, but at the time of writing, the Wupro Cinema Peacock Evo takes first place in terms of contrast gain.

Brightness Gain/Loss

This type of screen is designed to absorb light and reflect it back to the viewer. In theory, this makes it possible to use a projector in a brightly lit room. I've made several measurements to illustrate this screen's ability to absorb light, and I've also made a video showing the difference between a dark and a bright room.

Let's start with the video, it's easier:



Using a projector in a bright room will always have a negative effect on image contrast. Black will tend towards gray and the image will be too bright overall. You'll never get an image equivalent to a television, but the aim is to get as close as possible. As you can see from this video, the image is perfectly viewable with the light on, but there's a significant loss of contrast between the two situations. Fortunately, I can measure this difference.

Contrast with light off: 1687:1

Contrast with light on: 141:1

So I have a loss of contrast by a factor of 10 with intense led lighting. White isn't too badly affected because I measured a similar brightness. Black, on the other hand, goes from 0.141 cd/m² to 1.679 cd/m². The increase in brightness on black is significant in percentage terms, but on the other hand, black at 1.679 cd/m² isn't bad at all. Some screens don't do any better with the light off

The other interesting point is the gain in light compared with a neutral, non-reflective surface. If I compare the light reflected by the screen with that of a neutral surface, I get a significant gain in brightness where I go from 143 cd/m² with the neutral surface to 239 cd/m² with the screen. This is the only ALR screen among those I've tested that achieves such a significant gain on white

This can be seen on the following graph:



Black is also brighter, but as the gain on white is greater, the final contrast is greater

This screen therefore does a very good job of reflecting light back to the viewer, and it limits the damage to contrast loss quite well when the light is on. In fact, it's one of the best among the screens I've tested at the time of writing

Uniformity

When I first used this screen, I immediately noticed 2 things. A difference in brightness between left and right, followed by a noticeable halo of light at the base of the projector. To get past this first impression, I measured the screen on 15 zones and these measurements confirmed what I had noticed.

I have a slight difference between left and right, where the left is brighter than the right. However, I positioned my projector correctly in relation to the screen. This difference is not very important and an untrained eye will probably not notice it.

The halo of light at the bottom, on the other hand, is clearly more visible. So there's a sunset/level area at the base of the screen where the image is brighter, gradually fading with distance.

I hadn't encountered this kind of problem on other screens of this type. I can't say it's really annoying, but it's noticeable, so I'd rather mention it transparently

Viewing angle

What I explained in the previous paragraph about the concentration of brightness has a negative impact on the viewing angle. This type of screen offers a gain in brightness if you stand in front of it, but if you move towards the periphery you'll get the opposite effect. Wupro indicates a 160° viewing angle. I don't know how to measure it, but the impact is real, as you can see from this image. If there are two adults (and possibly a child) in front of the screen, you won't notice any drop in brightness. If there are 4 adults sitting next to each other, the adults at the far ends will notice a drop in light. It's the same problem with all screens of this type, so you need to be aware of it

Screen material

The Wupro Cinema Peacock Evo uses a fabric combining 8 layers for optimum rendering:

- black layer on the rear

- reflective layer

- Fresnel layer

- speckle suppression layer (noise caused by laser light)

- diffusion layer

- columnar lens layer

- couoleur layer

- anti-reflective layer

There are several interesting elements in this combination. These include the reflective layer to reflect as much light as possible back to the front, the speckle suppression layer which will come in handy for laser projectors, and the anti-reflective layer if you're using the projector in a brightly lit room

I tested a triple laser projector on this screen, but unfortunately I didn't see any improvement in speckle.

The Fresnel layer is undoubtedly the one that causes the halo effect, because rather than having horizontal slats like many screens, the Fresnel layer will diffuse the light in a circular fashion.

Methodology

To test the screens, I use the same methodology and put the screens in the same conditions to be able to compare them. For each test, I redo reference measurements to avoid making measurements on the wrong base. I'm sure I'll fine-tune my methodology over time, which is why I invite you to have a look at my screen comparator, as the test for this screen will no longer evolve after publication of the test. The comparator, on the other hand, will continue to evolve.

Comparison

I've tested a number of screens using the same test protocol to create an objective comparison to guide you towards the type of screen best suited to your situation.

More info?
Projection screen comparison

Conclusion / My opinion?

I hadn't planned to test any screens at the end of 2024, but I think I was right to change my priorities and devote some time to it. With all the screen tests I've already carried out, I can quickly determine whether a screen is good or not. With the Wupro Cinema Peacock Evo, I had a good first impression before doing my measurements. I used an XGIMI Aura 2 for this test, I had calibrated this projector for another screen but it doesn't really matter as I'm mainly measuring the differences between the source and the screen. When I test a screen, I spend a lot of time collecting measurements, putting them into tables and double-checking what I'm doing 40 times to rule out any copy-and-paste errors. At this stage, I don't even realize what the final result is, because I'm so drowning in numbers. It was only when I ran the calculation for the final score that the figures confirmed my first impression: this screen came out on top in most of the rankings in my comparison.

The Wupro Cinema Peacock Evo renders slightly too cool, but less cool than the other screens. Color rendition is excellent, and contrast gain is also very good, to the point of rivaling Vividstorm and NothingProjector. Its ability to concentrate light will enable you to use it in a brightly lit room, but I have to qualify that statement, because that's not what a projector is designed for. It does better than most other screens, but you'll inevitably lose contrast. A screen, as good as it is, still can't replace a television when ambient light is important

The fabric of this screen is quite thick and this is a good thing to limit the risk of creases appearing when mounting. The mounting system is also well designed to tension the fabric evenly without over-tensioning it, and the tension between the different sides is not excessive. Ideally, however, two people are needed to do the mounting, because at the final stage you need to be able to adjust the tension between the sides, and doing this on your own can be a bit tricky.

If I had to find one fault with this screen, it's its luminous uniformity. First, there's a slight left/right shift that will only be perceptible to the very attentive eye, but there's a much more noticeable halo effect at the bottom of the image. This halo looks a bit like a sunset/sunrise, with a zone of more intense light

From a technical point of view, this screen comes in at the top of my ranking, and will enable you to get the most out of your ultra-short-throw projector

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