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

submitted 3 days 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] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Get a projector with at least 1080p actual output resolution.

Most entry level ones have terrible lenses which means you'll need to experiment a bit with how high you'll mount them cause they need to be dead on to display properly, otherwise half the screen will be blurry. I highly recommend a cheap aluminum camera tripod with a center collumn for height adjustment.

For screen I bought a white roller blind for like 8 bucks from a home supplies store and mounted it by passing a string through the tube and tying the ends to whatever worked best. In terms of picture quality it's exactly the same, but if you can afford an actual projection screen and haul it around then do that.

For sound I would recommend a battery powered Bluetooth speaker because they're cheap and easy to carry, but you may experience a slight sound delay which can be solved with a 3.5mm aux cable in the aux port.

My final suggestion is to get a used Nintendo Wii with sports and a couple of controllers, endless fun for the right crowd.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I appreciate the tips!

You're talking about how a projector throws out a trapezoid instead of a rectangle if it's above or below the screen, right? I didn't know that would impact the picture quality - I understood that you could adjust the shape of the image.

My reading suggests that a DLP projector is probably brighter than an LCD, so I'm thinking I should go with DLP. LASER sounds good but too expensive.

I have a WII, and you're on a good track, that would be fun as heck.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Normally the trapezoid shape can be corrected, but on the really cheap models I wouldn't count on it working that well.

You could also look at your local second hand markets for a better quality one at a reasonable price, but make sure to check if replacement lamps are available and if they're easy to replace on the particular model.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

That's a great idea, thank you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 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 3 days ago (1 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 3 days 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 3 days ago

That sounds great; I really appreciate it.