With high gasoline prices, more expensive air-fares, and high theme park ticket prices, getting away for the summer is certainly more difficult these days, especially if you have a family. If you are facing discontent on the home front because of your inability to take your clan on summer vacation, why not add a little adventure and excitement at home on those warm Summer nights with an outdoor home theater?
With a little resourcefulness, free set-up and take down labor, and probably less cash than you would have spent taking your family for a week's stay at DisneyWorld, you can combine your home-bound Summer activities of backyard BBQs and Pool Parties with your own outdoor home theater.
Although there are very extravagant ways to set up an outdoor home theater (you can even have one custom installed), you can actually put together a makeshift outdoor home theater that will make you the hero of the Summer!
What You Need
The following is an outline of the components you need to put together a basic outdoor home theater system.
1. A Screen
You can use one or two thick White King Size ironed bed sheets. If you are using two sheets, sew them together (long sides joined) with white thread. The White Sheet can be used as your movie screen.
DIY Screen Alternatives: In addition to using a bedsheet-type screen, there are also other homemade alternatives. Check out other types do-it-yourself screen projects from: Projector Central, Engadget, and Backyard Theater.com.
Purchase a Ready-made Screen: If making and hanging your own screen is too difficult, you can opt to purchase a large free-standing portable screen; some of these screens are as large as 100 inches.
A pre-made screen will provide a better projected image, due to its more reflective surface, will also add additional cost to your setup, if you are on a budget. However, if you do plan to go with a pre-made screen, my advice would be to get one slightly larger than you think you need as this will give you more flexibility in setting up both projector distance and desirable size of the projected image. Check out some examples of portable screens and inflatable screens
2. A Place For Your Screen
If using a bedsheet-type screen, you can hang your screen on a wall, or hang it from a rain gutter, awning, or clothesline. You can also opt to use or make your own frame (similar to a square trampoline frame, only to be mounted vertically). You must also have a way to anchor or fasten the top, sides, and bottom of the sheet so that it remains taut and does not flap in the breeze. You may also need duct tape, clothes pins, rope, or other fastening material to assist in fastening the sheets.
If using a wall-mounted screen, make sure you have enough wall surface to insert needed hooks or other types of fasteners.
If using a tripod, stand, or an inflatable screen, make sure you have a level ground surface, or platform, to place your screen.
3. A Video Projector
In order to watch a movie on your screen you need to obtain a video projector. Video projectors can be expensive, but there are many "budget" projectors available that can do a serviceable job for about $1,500 or less (there are some good buys for less than $1,000). However, before you select a video projector, check out the following resources that explain the factors you need to consider when picking one out, as well as pricing information:
Before You Buy A Video Projector
Video Projectors - What You Need To Know.
Compare Prices On Video Projectors
In terms of adjusting the projector distance to the screen, I would just experiment to see what looks best to you under the environmental circumstances. Most video projectors, in the class you would use, can produce a decent image on a 6 to 10 foot diagonal screen. A lot depends on how large a distance you have to work between the screen and projector within your backyard as well. If you have about twenty feet to work with between the screen and back of your yard, this should be enough find a good projector distance.
4. A Blu-ray or Upscaling DVD Player
To watch a movie with your projector and your screen, you need a source; this should be provided by a Blu-ray Disc or DVD player. However, if you use a DVD player, an Upscaling DVD player would be better for very large screens. You have the option of buying one specifically for this purpose, with most upscaling DVD players are for less than $99. This way, you don't have to unplug your main Blu-ray Disc or DVD player from your current home theater system. Another option you have is to use a portable DVD player or laptop computer with a DVD drive that also has a video monitor output for a video projector. Also, inexpensive Blu-ray Disc players start at about $149.
Check out some of my suggestions for DVD Players.
If you prefer, check out some portable DVD player suggestions from About Portable Entertainment as well as a more complete listing of Portable DVD Players.
If you have a little additional cash, check out some Blu-ray Disc Player suggestions.
5. Two Additional Source Possibilities:
DTV Converter Box
Video projectors do not have built-in TV tuners. If you want to include TV programs on your outdoor home theater, one possible option is to use a DTV Converter Box (the ones that normally allow analog TVs to receive digital TV channels) and an antenna.
You connect the Audio out of the DTV converter box to the audio system and connect the composite video output of the DTV converter box the composite video input of the projector. However, this would not be high definition. Although the DTV converter box receives high-definition TV signals, they output those signals in standard definition. As a result, the projected image would not be as good as a DVD, and definitely not as good as a Blu-ray Disc. Compare Prices for DTV Converter Boxes.
Network Media Player
If you have a network media player (or network media player functions included in a Blu-ray Disc Player), you can connect the network media player to the video projector using one composite, component or HDMI connections. The tricky part is getting the network connection to work with the rest of your home network. One way is to string a long Ethernet Cable - However, if you have a wireless network and your player has built-in or add-on wireless network connection capability, this would be more convenient, provided your wireless network has enough range to go outside a short distance.
With the video portion of a backyard home theater outlined, now it is time to consider the audio portion of the system. Proceed to Page 2: The Audio Setup For Your Outdoor Home Theater
