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I want to do movie nights in the neighborhood. Recommend projector setups? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have never owned a projector and I'm not an audio- or cinephile. I often have neighbors over at the fire pit, and showing a movie would be fun sometimes.

Recommend a luggable projector setup? I don't mind it being cabled to power or input - I'm not going far from the house. I was thinking I might build a little cart to store and deploy it easily. I see battery powered and lightweight units which are great I'm sure, but I don't need to pay extra for those features.

I'm also looking for info on projector screens. Sadly, there's no suitable place to mount one so it'll need to be on a stand or something too.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

I recommend a laser projector since they tend to be brighter and you don't have to worry about the light source burning out. Outdoor movie nights have to compete with ambient light no matter how dark it is outside. You'll also probably be projecting into a suboptimal surface, so the extra brightness helps. Here's what I have, it's small and works great for our outdoor showings:

https://epson.com/For-Home/Projectors/Home-Cinema/Epson-EpiqVision-Mini-EF21-Portable-Smart-Laser-Projector-%E2%80%93-Opal-Green/p/V11HB35320

Hook that up to WiFi and a Bluetooth speaker and you're money.

For a screen I use possibly the cheapest projection screen I could find, then I hang it using two movable tripods which I think are normally used for backgrounds like at school picture day. Something like this:

https://www.adorama.com/fpbs10.html

Everything packs up into a medium sized bag, and can run on one of those big cooler sized battery banks when we're car camping.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Huh, I didn't realize decent laser projectors would be a reasonable price.

Thank you very much for the tip. It looks like this (and many other projectors) are basically smart TVs, with Hulu and Netflix and stuff. I assume they're controlled by a phone app instead of a remote?

I'll get an actual projector screen, but not an expensive one. Your stand idea looks great for the purpose. Trying to think how I could make it more wind-resistant.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I pack a couple of extra reusable grocery bags and put heavy stuff in them, then hang them from the stands as close to the ground as I can get without them touching the ground. Also, try to set up your screen where it's protected from the wind, any amount of breeze is going to be distracting.

The projector I have came with a remote and a full Google TV that plugs into one of the HDMI ports. Sometimes I plug in my game console, or cast to it from my phone, it's really flexible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago

That sounds great; I really appreciate it.