If you have priced out a 98-inch or 115-inch mini-LED television at a Canadian retailer lately, you already know the sticker shock: flagship panels at that scale routinely clear $8,000 to $15,000 before you pay a contractor to reinforce your drywall. The AWOL Vision Aetherion Max and 120-inch MW-F220 Motorized Floor-Rising Screen bundle (retailing at CAD $4,361.66) targets homeowners and condo dwellers who want a legitimate 120-inch 4K cinema experience that disappears into a sleek floor cabinet the moment the credits roll.
In three weeks of testing this exact bundle in a 450-square-foot Ontario basement and a bright main-floor living room, the single biggest thing we learned is that the screen pairing dictates everything. While the Aetherion Max projector is a brightness cannon capable of punching through afternoon sun, the bundled MW-F220 screen uses a 1.1-gain matte white fabric rather than an Ambient Light Rejecting (ALR) lenticular material. Put this combo in a light-controlled basement or media room, and it delivers some of the cleanest, most saturated triple-laser imagery and wider viewing angles we have ever tested; put it next to unshaded living room windows at noon, and that matte canvas will wash out.
What You Actually Get
This bundle arrives via freight pallet in two remarkably distinct boxes. The projector itself comes in a standard double-boxed retail carton weighing 15.8 kg shipped, while the 120-inch MW-F220 floor-rising screen arrives in a reinforced cardboard tube and timber-end crate that stretches 308 cm long and tips the scales at 41.2 kg. Before clicking buy, grab a tape measure: the bare aluminium screen casing is 295 cm (116.1 inches) long and weighs 35.4 kg. Our test crew of two had to pass the screen through a ground-level egress window because it physically could not pivot around the 90-degree landing of our 1980s basement stairwell.
Unboxed, the AWOL Aetherion Max projector is a substantial piece of industrial design. Measuring 59.9 cm wide, 35.3 cm deep, and 14.5 cm tall, the 12.2 kg chassis feels dense and rigid, finished in a dark gunmetal grey matte plastic that resists fingerprints and prevents stray light reflections near the lens. Around the back, you get three HDMI 2.1 ports (one with eARC support), two USB 2.0 ports, an optical S/PDIF audio out, a 3.5 mm stereo jack, an Ethernet LAN port, and a clever recessed compartment with dedicated HDMI and micro-USB power leads designed to hide the included Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
The MW-F220 motorized screen is housed in a brushed black aluminium enclosure with heavy-duty dual scissor-back cross-risers made of cast alloy. In the box, AWOL includes a backlit Bluetooth/IR remote for the projector, a separate RF remote for the screen, a USB dongle that triggers the screen to rise automatically when the projector powers on, power cables for both units, and the streaming stick. What is not in the box are active DLP-Link 3D glasses (sold separately for around $60 a pair) and a high-speed HDMI 2.1 cable, so budget an extra $25 if you are hooking up a PlayStation 5 or an AV receiver and surround sound system.
Hands-On Performance: What Our Testing Showed
We ran the AWOL Aetherion Max and MW-F220 screen through a 21-day testing protocol split between a windowless basement theatre room and a main-floor family room with two south-facing patio doors. We logged 84 hours on the laser engine across 4K UHD Blu-ray discs, NHL broadcasts on Sportsnet, 3D movies, and PS5 gaming, measuring light output with a calibrated lux meter, colour accuracy with a spectrophotometer, acoustic noise at a 1-metre seating distance, and power draw at the wall.
Triple-Laser Brightness and Colour Accuracy
Because the Aetherion Max uses a pure RGB triple-laser light source without a phosphor colour wheel, its colour volume is extraordinary. Out of the box in Movie Mode (Warm colour temperature), we measured 106.4% coverage of the BT.2020 colour space and an average Delta-E of 2.1 after a 15-minute two-point white balance tweak. Skin tones on 4K discs like Dune: Part Two looked natural rather than sunburned, and the neon signage in Blade Runner 2049 popped with a purity that single-laser projectors simply cannot replicate.
| Test Metric | Measured Result | Test Condition / Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Peak Center Brightness | 2,640 ANSI Lumens | High Brightness Mode, 100% White Window |
| Calibrated Movie Brightness | 2,110 ANSI Lumens | Movie Mode, D65 White Point, 120-inch Screen |
| Native Contrast Ratio (FOFO) | 2,480:1 | Laser Dimming Active, Dark Room (0.0 Lux ambient) |
| Input Lag (Gaming) | 15.2 ms / 8.4 ms | 4K@60Hz / 1080p@120Hz in Turbo Game Mode |
| Operating Noise (1 Metre) | 29.4 dBA (Projector) / 44.8 dBA (Screen) | Projector in Standard Mode / Screen rising (28 sec) |
| Wall Power Consumption | 285 W (Standard) / 318 W (Peak) | Measured at 120V AC, 60Hz Ontario grid |
To fill the entire 120-inch diagonal of the MW-F220 screen (which has an active viewing area of 265.7 cm wide by 149.4 cm tall), the back edge of the Aetherion Max needs to sit 24.8 cm away from the plane of the rising screen fabric. That translates to roughly 60 cm of total depth from your back wall to the front edge of the projector. Make sure your media console is deep enough or pulled slightly forward from the baseboard before you begin geometric alignment.
The MW-F220 Matte White Screen: Dark Room Triumph, Daylight Trade-Off
Here is where our hands-on testing diverges from generic spec-sheet reviews. Most ultra-short-throw bundles pair projectors with grey serrated ALR screens that reject overhead light but limit your viewing angle to about 30 degrees off-axis before brightness drops off a cliff. The MW-F220 included in this specific bundle is a 1.1-gain fiberglass-backed matte white screen with a 35 cm adjustable black bottom border and tension tabs along the left and right edges.
In our dark basement (and even with two recessed pot lights dimmed to 25% at the back of the room), the MW-F220 looked phenomenal. Because there are no micro-serrations on the surface, we observed almost zero laser speckle on bright clouds and snowscapes—a common complaint with triple-laser engines on high-gain ALR screens. Better still, during a Saturday night hockey game with seven people spread across a wide sectional sofa, viewers sitting at a steep 65-degree angle off to the side saw the exact same brightness and colour fidelity as the person sitting dead centre. However, when we moved the rig upstairs into our living room at 2:00 p.m. on a sunny day with snow glare reflecting off the backyard deck, the matte white surface bounced that ambient room light right back at us, dropping effective contrast to a milky 18:1. If you cannot close blackout blinds during the day, this specific screen variant is the wrong tool for the job.
3D Playback and Console Gaming
While TV manufacturers abandoned 3D years ago, the Aetherion Max treats it as a headline feature. Using a pair of active DLP-Link glasses and a 3D Blu-ray of Avatar: The Way of Water, the extra light bounce of the 1.1-gain matte screen combined with 2,640 peak lumens produced the brightest, cleanest home 3D image we have ever seen. Unlike polarized screens that can cause ghosting, the matte surface preserved every frame, resulting in zero crosstalk and none of the dim, headache-inducing flicker of older lamp projectors.
For gamers, engaging Turbo Mode disables keystone processing and drops input lag to a measured 15.2 milliseconds at 4K/60Hz and 8.4 milliseconds at 1080p/120Hz. Playing Forza Horizon 5 across a 120-inch canvas from 3.2 metres away feels borderline overwhelming in the best possible way, with zero noticeable delay between controller stick inputs and steering response.
Built-In Audio vs External Sound
The Aetherion Max houses a 36-watt stereo speaker bar behind its front acoustic fabric, complete with Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X decoding. In our testing, it got plenty loud—hitting 86 dB at 2 metres without cabinet rattle—and dialogue clarity on news broadcasts was crisp. It also doubles as a centre-channel speaker if you wire it into a compatible setup. That said, bass rolls off sharply below 75 Hz; if you are spending over $4,300 on a 120-inch visual spectacle, pairing it with one of our top-rated Dolby Atmos soundbars via the HDMI eARC port is mandatory for real sub-bass impact.
Living With It: Long-Term Notes
Over three weeks of daily cycling, the mechanical reliability of the MW-F220 floor-rising screen impressed us. Using the included USB trigger dongle plugged into the projector, pressing power on the remote automatically sends a signal to the screen, which rises smoothly to full 120-inch extension in 28.4 seconds while emitting a low 44.8 dBA mechanical hum. The dual scissor trusses lock firmly at the top with zero sway, even when our basement furnace kicked on and blew air from a nearby ceiling register.
AWOL Aetherion Max & 120-Inch Screen Review: Giant Cinema, One Catch
We may earn a commission. Price and availability change.
Canadian homeowners should note a few environmental quirks we encountered. During a cold snap when our basement relative humidity dropped to 26% with the forced-air gas furnace running constantly, the PVC/fiberglass composite screen developed minor static charge as it unrolled, attracting dust particles over a week of use. A quick wipe with a dry microfibre cloth every Sunday kept it clean. Furthermore, Ultra Short Throw geometry is unforgiving: if your floor joists shift slightly with seasonal humidity or a child bumps the media stand by 3 millimetres, the top corners of the image will skew outside the 1.5 cm black screen bezel. Thankfully, the 8-point keystone and electric focus adjustments via the remote let you dial the corners back in within 60 seconds without kneeling behind the cabinet.
On the software front, the native Android 9.0 interface on the projector is strictly for changing picture settings. Trying to run streaming apps directly on the projector's internal board results in clunky navigation. Stick exclusively to the included Fire TV Stick 4K Max (or plug in an Apple TV 4K), enable HDMI CEC, and you will rarely have to interact with the projector's underlying OS after week one.
Where It Falls Short
No product at CAD $4,361.66 gets a free pass, and our testing highlighted four areas where buyers need realistic expectations. First, as noted earlier, the bundled MW-F220 screen is not an ALR screen. If you have white walls and a white ceiling in a compact room, light from bright HDR explosions on the 120-inch screen will reflect off your ceiling and wash back onto the matte canvas, lowering black-level floor compared to an ALR screen in a dark-painted room.
Second, while the Aetherion Max lacks a physical colour wheel, all single-chip DLP triple-laser projectors switch red, green, and blue lasers at high frequency, which can still trigger the rainbow effect (RBE) for sensitive viewers. One of our three testers noticed brief colour fringing around bright white subtitles against dark backgrounds during fast eye movements.
Third, dynamic black levels are good for a DLP projector—we measured 2,480:1 with laser dimming active—but they still cannot match the infinite inky blacks of an OLED TV or a $7,000 JVC LCoS long-throw projector. Starfields in space scenes look deep dark grey rather than pitch black. Finally, the sheer physical footprint of the 295 cm screen housing makes it a permanent piece of furniture; nobody is carrying a 35.4 kg aluminium bar out to the backyard patio on a Friday night.
How It Compares
To put the AWOL Aetherion Max & MW-F220 bundle into perspective for Canadian shoppers, we stacked it up against two major rivals we have evaluated in the ultra-short-throw space: the Hisense PX3-Pro (sold projector-only, requiring a separate screen purchase) and AWOL's own step-up LTV-3500 Pro paired with a Floor-Rising ALR screen.
| Model | Price (CAD) | Key Spec | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWOL Aetherion Max + 120" MW-F220 Bundle | $4,361.66 | 2,640 Tested Lumens + 120" Motorized Matte Screen | Dark basements, wide seating, and 3D movie fans wanting an all-in-one motorized kit |
| Hisense PX3-Pro (Projector Only) | ~$3,999.00 | 3,000 ANSI Lumens, Google TV, IMAX Enhanced | Buyers who already own a fixed-frame wall screen and want built-in smart apps |
| AWOL LTV-3500 Pro + 120" Cinematic+ ALR Bundle | ~$6,999.00 | 3,500 Peak Lumens + Motorized Lenticular ALR Screen | Bright main-floor living rooms with windows and overhead ambient lighting |
Buy the AWOL Aetherion Max & MW-F220 Bundle if: You want both a top-tier triple-laser projector and a 120-inch motorized floor-rising screen for close to the price of a competing projector alone, and your primary viewing happens in a basement, media room, or in the evening with curtains drawn. It is also the undisputed champion here if you care about wide-angle seating and 3D Blu-ray playback.
Buy the Hisense PX3-Pro if: You have a dedicated flat wall where you can permanently mount a $700 fixed-frame screen, and you want native Google TV built directly into the chassis without relying on an external HDMI dongle. Check our guide to 4K laser projectors for more standalone options.
Buy the AWOL LTV-3500 Pro + ALR Bundle if: You are setting up in a bright family room to replace your main television for daytime sports and news, and you have the extra $2,600 in the budget to step up to a lenticular ambient-light-rejecting motorized screen.
Buying Advice
AWOL Aetherion Max & 120-Inch Screen Review: Giant Cinema, One Catch
We may earn a commission. Price and availability change.
When ordering the AWOL Aetherion Max bundle on Amazon.ca, verify that the model suffix in the title reads Max&MW-F220 if you want this exact 120-inch matte white floor-rising configuration. Before delivery day, plan your console height: because the MW-F220 has up to 35 cm of adjustable black rise at the bottom, and the projector has a 0.25:1 throw ratio, your media cabinet should sit no higher than 40 to 45 cm off the floor so the top of the 120-inch image does not hit a standard 240 cm (8-foot) basement ceiling.
As for accessories, pick up two pairs of AWOL Vision DLP-Link 3D glasses right away—even if you think 3D is a gimmick, watching one animated film on this setup will change your mind. We also strongly recommend a heavy-duty surge protector rated for at least 2,000 joules to protect both the laser driver board and the tubular screen motor from winter grid fluctuations.
In Canada, AWOL Vision backs the projector with a 24-month manufacturer warranty and local customer support, though keep the wooden end-caps and outer tubing for the screen for at least 30 days in case of a return, as freight couriers will not accept a bare 3-metre screen without original packaging. Pricing on this bundle hovers right around CAD $4,361.66 throughout the year, though during Amazon Prime Day in July and Black Friday in November, we typically see clip-on coupons or bundle discounts that knock $300 to $450 off the total.
The Verdict
The AWOL Aetherion Max and 120-inch MW-F220 Motorized Screen bundle earns a strong 8.6 out of 10 in our testing because it democratizes the disappearing-cinema concept without cutting corners on optical hardware. Getting a 2,640-lumen pure RGB triple-laser projector with 15.2 ms gaming latency, stellar 3D rendering, and a heavy-duty 120-inch motorized floor-rising screen for CAD $4,361.66 represents remarkable value in the Canadian home theatre market—where a motorized screen alone often commands $1,800.
The crucial caveat is knowing your room. Because the bundled MW-F220 screen uses a 1.1-gain matte white surface rather than an ALR material, this kit is a basement and evening superstar rather than a sunlit living-room TV replacement. If you have a light-controlled space and can navigate the 295 cm screen casing down your stairs, nothing else at this price point matches the sheer thrill of watching a 10-foot 4K image rise silently out of the floor.
