5. A Stereo Amplifier or Two-Channel Stereo Receiver
Next, you need something to provide the sound. You don't have to dismantle the home theater receiver in your main system, just to take it outside for this activity. Ordinarily, in a home theater, 5.1 channel surround sound is the desired goal, however, for the purposes of keeping this project easy, a simple two-channel stereo setup will work. I would go to one your favorite electronics dealers (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc..) and purchase an inexpensive two-channel stereo receiver. Also, if you have upgraded your main home theater recently with a new receiver, you may still be in possession of an older receiver, which you can recycle for this project. As far as power ratings go, 75-100 Watts-Per-Channel should work fine. Here are some possible choices that may work for you:
6. Two speakers
Here is where you have several options. You might just want to start off with some basic floor standing speakers. In fact, you may have some decent old speakers in your garage or home that you "retired" when you installed your current home theater system. In either case, this is a good starting point. You can also opt to purchase wall-mounted, in-wall, or outdoor speakers that blend in better with your backyard environment and are optimized for better sound outdoors.
Check out prices and features of In-wall loudspeakers
Check out prices and features of Outdoor Speakers
The speakers should placed either at the top corners of the screen or mid-way between the top and bottom of either side of the screen (if wall mounted or in-wall) or below the left and right corners of the screen, if the speakers are the floor standing type. In addition, if the speakers are floor standing or wall-mounted they should be angled in slightly towards the center to better direct the sound towards the listening/viewing area. I would experiment and see what speaker positioning works best.
For other ways of installing speakers outdoors, check out the great resource articles from Gary Altunian, About.com Guide For Stereos: Installing Speakers in Your Garden and Installing Speakers Under Eaves.
7. A TV Stand or Mobile Rack
To make it easy to move and place the heart of your backyard home theater system you need a TV stand or mobile rack of some type that has shelves or space to house your components (amplifier and DVD player placed on the lower shelves, and the video projector on top). You can either build your own or buy one at your local electronics dealer or home improvement center.
8. Power Cord and Surge Suppressor
In order for everything to work, you will need a very long heavy-duty extension cord and a three or four outlet surge suppressor. I would recommend getting a twenty-five to thirty foot heavy-duty type power cord, like the thick orange ones you can get at Home Depot. However, if you have outside power outlets along the house exterior or at key points in your backyard, you may be able to get away with a shorter one, depending on the distance between your components and the main power outlet used. Then, all you have to do is plug in your surge suppressor into the other end of the cord and then plug in your video projector, DVD player, and amplifier into the surge protector. NOTE: Do not turn the surge suppressor on until everything else is plugged in, including speakers.
Check out features and prices of Surge Suppressors
9. Cables and Speaker Wire
Next, you have to connect all your components together. Basically, you need S-Video or component video cables going from the DVD player to video projector and two analog RCA L/R cables going from the DVD player to your amplifier or receiver. Since all your components will be on the rack or stand, three or six foot cable lengths between the components will work just fine; the shorter the better. Lastly, you still need two speaker wires going from the amplifier/receiver to the speakers. My recommendation on the speaker wire is to get a 100-foot roll of raw 16-gauge speaker wire at a local dealer (Radio Shack or Best Buy), and cut to the desired length needed for the distance from each speaker to your amplifier/receiver. If your speakers are In-wall mounted, make you make provisions to have speaker terminals on the wall's exterior that are easily accessible for temporary hookups.
10. Movies
Gather up a selection of your favorite DVD movies. Raiders Of The Lost Ark, ET, Finding Nemo, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Happy Feet, Star Wars, etc... would be good choices. In fact, if you have a swimming pool, you could get everyone in the pool and have them watch JAWS on your big outdoor screen as they float around. Also, there is nothing like fun giant monster movie, such as Godzilla (the original Japanese one, of course), or any of the Ray Harryhausen Classics such as: The 7th voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans. Lastly, don't forget the cartoons. There are some great collections available on DVD of Warner Bros cartoons, for instance.
11. Food
There is nothing better to accompany your backyard home theater than some great food, especially BBQ. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.
For some additional tips to that are important to take into consideration, proceed to Page 3
