Despite costing around just 1,000 GBP, the Spalluto WS-OD Rollo 16:9 manages to achieve a pretty high score — but is it a real alternative to a more expensive model?

Reviewed by Florian Friedrich on February 5, 2010

Extremely cheap.
Screen can roll up when not in use.

Average build quality.
Not suitable for bright rooms.

Amazing value for money! At this price, however, you know you’re going to have to compromise — the contrast ratio suffers in bright rooms, for example, making the picture look awful. The Spalluto is only really suitable for the dark home cinema.

Features

Technical Details

Handy: The supplied pole makes it easier to reach the handle on the screen.

The Spalluto ships with a practical roll-up casing, but which unfortunately reflects some of the screen’s light — this will irritate in the dark home cinema. Unrolling the screen is relatively easy, thanks to the supplied pole, but getting the screen to stop at the required length proves tricky.

As a golden rule, the Spalluto should be placed far away from any draughts. If, for example, you hang it beside a door or even near a subwoofer, the screen will sway and cause the picture to look unstable. Black regions around the screen mask the picture well, but lack the elegance of the deep-black, velvet masking on Stewart screens, for example.

If you mount the screen correctly on the ceiling, the surface lies flat — and to keep it this way, avoid placing it near a radiator or window, for example, since sources of heat could lead to warping.

The Spalluto needs a very dark room in order to display a sensible picture — ideally one with black walls. In bright rooms, sadly, the contrast and colours wash out. The picture quality is perfectly acceptable in the dark home cinema — and even more so given the price.

A huge blackdrop: The black area around the screen measures 40 centimetres wide along the top edge, making positioning more versatile and improving the subjective contrast.

While 1080p pictures don’t look as sublime here as on significantly pricier models, there are no irritating artefacts like those seen in older Stewart screens or, indeed, Stewart’s current FireHawk. The Spalluto also scores highly for its wide viewing angles: Even when you view the picture from far to one side, the colours remain neutral and the picture remains bright, without forming a hotspot.