Outdoor Home Cinema. Where to start?

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NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#31874 2-Apr-2009 14:24

My garden slopes downwards quite steeply with a couple of different levels, and I am thinking it would be pretty cool to set up a projector underneath my upper deck, and have a screen at the bottom of the garden hanging from the fence there (which is very high) Could then have a whole bunch of friends round for sports events (cricket one dayers, 7s and so on).

My garden isn't massive, distance from projector to screen would be around 12m.

Are there any companies in auckland who specialise in this sort of thing that anyone here can reccomend? With a baby on the way my budget isn't unlimited :P

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eXDee

4025 posts

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#204914 2-Apr-2009 15:24

First two thoughts you'll need to completely weatherproof the projector, and then get one which is powerful enough to overcome daylight/glare etc if you're watching a cricket match for example, rather than rugby that tends to be in the evening.

rossmnz

507 posts

Ultimate Geek

#204923 2-Apr-2009 15:50

that was my thought.

Waterproofing is going to be an issue, as is outside power supply possibly. I know when we put in the spa/pool the power supplies had to be some special outdoor type ones.

The force is strong with this one!

wellygary

6648 posts

Uber Geek

#204934 2-Apr-2009 16:56

As mentioned above weatherproofing your projector is your No1 concern, the second one is to ensure that any weatherproofing you do does not impact on the cooling of the Lamp,

There seems to be a fairly active site on this topic http://backyardtheater.com/, but most appear to be est up on a non-permanent basis, and only run in the evening/night.

Running it to watch cricket in the daytime is going require a really grunty bulb, and even professionals dont really use projectors in daylight.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#205047 3-Apr-2009 00:37

I'm not too bothered about weather proofing the projector, as I would just build a platform under the deck for it to sit on (the underside of the deck is 6 feet of the ground), and take it inside when I wans't using it. (might get stolen otherwise).

For brightness, I understand the key spec to look for is 'lumens' right? something like 3000+ should be plenty sufficient for daylight according to this

http://www.projectorpeople.com/resources/lumen-guide.asp

Jaxson

7471 posts

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Trusted

#205133 3-Apr-2009 13:48

Basics still apply sorry.
Brightness deminishes the further distance you create between projector and screen.

Daytime viewing will be out 9/10 times.
You've mentioned you're on a budget, so just rule out the daytime viewing.

Night time is fine, but still 12m is a long way, so you'd go for the brightest projector you could buy. This will be a data projector, so the image quality won't be great, but for some mates and some beers, it will be fine.

You might need to mount it closer than under the deck. Many projectors that are bright are designed for a board room situation, so their lenses are set up so you can get a big picture, but close to the screen. you want the opposite.

that's all good though, you can work with that. Next you'll need a picture signal from somewhere and it will have to get to the projector, so you'll need some cabling. And then you'll need sound, so once again, you'll need a picture/sound source and then an amplifier and some cabling out to some speakers. On a budget they wont be weather proof speakers, so you might need to take them down/inside each time too.

You can do what ever you want, you just need to pay accordingly unfortunately. Sounds like a cool use for a sloped section, so good luck.

RickD

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#205224 3-Apr-2009 21:04

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=159

djaggar

76 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#205274 4-Apr-2009 11:02

I made an outdoor screen which works suprisingly well given what it is - it is made up of 50 mm PVC pipe - a square the same size as a king sized fitted bed sheet. Near the bottom of the square there are two pipe junction peices, the ones where the junction shoots off from the main straight tube at 45 degrees. Into that I put a U shaped peice of 50mm to make a leg that the whiole thing rests back on to make it stand up almost straight. So when it's up it looks a bit like a trampoline tipped on it's side. Over the square frame I put a black fitted bed sheet, then a white fitted bed sheet - the fit pretty tight so there are no wrinkles. I don't glue the joints so the whole thing folds down a bunch of pipes.

I drive that with a wee Plus XGA projector, the picture is just fine at night and invisible in the day. A set of Logitech 5.1 speakers completes the kit, they are fine for sports but need more punch for films. A shuttle pc drives it all. I did it this way because the whole kit fits in a medium sized suitcase so you can lug it anywhere you want watch something.

I've used it a couple of times to make a huge J2 screen at parties, or for a couple of rugby games, and for an outdoor movies for kids parties, but if we really want to see someting, rather than just watch it, we'd all move into the dedicated cinema room.

If you really want to watch all day cricket all day in the sun, the projector will need to be a lot of projector ...