Projection screen: mounting options and installation tips

So, you have purchased your projector screen, but you are not sure where to start or how to do it.
 
We will not discuss how you can hide a projection screen, which is discussed elsewhere. In stead we will look at projector screen mounting options for manual pull down and electrical projection screens.
 
A standard projector screen housing
A lot depends on the housing of the projection screen. A more basic design projection screen housing has an octagonal or square shape, with fixed points for mounting the screen. This means you are more limited in where to fix the screen to the wall or ceiling.
Fixing these screens to the wall means driving a screw through an opening in the back of the side cap. Make sure you use a screw with a head that is wide enough or use a washer, otherwise the force from pulling the screen down, will pull the screen from the wall.
Ceiling mounting these screens, means either driving a screw through an opening in the side cap for square-cased projection screens, or inserting a hook in the ceiling to hang it from the eyes, which are found on the top of the end caps of the screen.
When your projection screen has eyes for ceiling-mounting it, make sure the ceiling hooks are almost completely or completely closed, preventing the screen from falling from the hooks. This would happen when the sceen fabric is accidentally released when rolling in and hits the case with force, causing the case to "jump" upwards.
Mounting the projection screen at a distance from the wall can be done by either using the manufacturers standard brackets. Often, this requires cutting them to the size required. Make sure your wall is also strong enough, as the more the screen will be away from the wall, the more force will be applied to the wall and the screws. Using screws which are too short, might mean they will be pulled out by the combinantion of the weight of the screen magnified by the distance it's away from the wall.
If you need to overcome a short distance only, you might want to consider using wooden blocks, which you fix to the wall. Then, you fix the projection screen to these blocks. The advantages are that you can paint these blocks, so they blend in with the interior and it's a cheap solution.
 
Advanced projector screen cases.
These normally come with brackets that can be placed flexibly, giving you the opportunity to A) hide them behind the housing B) mount the screen on walls which are more "difficult" and require more flexibly.
Mounting these projection screens to the wall, would mean fixing the brackets to the wall and then attaching them to the screen. The exact operation depends on the make of your projection screen. Often, you can still slide the case from left to right before permanently fixing it into position. This allows you to perfectly match the projected image to the screen, without having to fiddle around with projector settings.

The ceiling mounting process is similar: you attach the brackets to the ceiling at the required position and then fix them to the projector screen's case. Again, it possible, you can still slide the case left and right, to adjust it to the project image.

For mounting the screen at a distance from the wall or the ceiling, use the info for the standard screens.