Now that the winter is here, and for those of us above, say, the 35th degreed lattitude will not be doing much outdoor viewing until May or so, what are you planning on doing to improve your visitor's experience and/or your setup for next season?

Based on some of the posts I've read, and some of my thoughts, here's my plans:

* Run permanent coax to outside PJ area so that I can receive the off-air HD signals and show baseball, etc. using my DishNetwork Receiver. (If the weather is not below 45 degs, I will seriously weigh showing the Superbowl outside in Feb w/ an open fire pit)

* Run underground flex conduit w/ speaker wires from PJ area to screen area and add a weather proof junction box so that I can just plug the front speaks (L/R/Center) to that box instead of running long wires up front each time

* Since my deck is over the PJ area, and the long end of the deck faces the screen, I will add 2 flood lights and 1 spot light to the deck with a dimmer switch near the PJ area so I can have the flood lights shining down on the sitting area for visitors to see while they set up their blankets, chairs, etc. And the spot light will hit the screen for an accent until show time. The floodlights will also be helpful at the end of the show for cleanup for both visitors and crew.

I can't think of anything else, but I'm curious to see what others are thinking of so that I may steal your ideas (if they aren't copyrighted in this lawsuit happy world we live in!!) :)

Oh, and those of you who do live below the 35th parallel, you can chime in as well. Thanks.

I'm going to bury my speaker wires, and run an electrical circuit out to where I need it. This will cut down the setup time and make it safer for everyone, not having to worry about tripping over wires.

The "other" project for next year is to get one of those nice outdor buried subwoofers! :)

I'm going to install weatherproof enclosures for the electronics so that I can leave everything set up outside 24x7x365.

I do have wireless speakers to cut down on the wire hazards, but I also invested in a fm transmitter to send sound over the airwaves, just like the drive-in! Now people could bring their headphones or boomboxes to hear the sound in stereo. I also bought a gizmo that does laser light shows. I figure I could use that before the movies begin, or doing intermission. My wife bought me a hot dog roller/oven (10 hot dogs at a time), and Im still looking into getting a popcorn machine. I'm trying to become more professional in the entertainment side of my outdoor theater. I love it!

KMAC- do link us to your laser show machine, please.

I use the screen saver effects on my XBOX w/ XBMC while music is playing - but it's only good when it's pretty much dark - and at the height of summer - that's 9p - about the latest time you want a movie to start - so if I could get some sort of laser jobbie going for 20 mins prior or so - that would be great.

1111111111111

My outdoor theater is closed until late spring...

* Run underground flex conduit w/ speaker wires from PJ area to screen area and add a weather proof junction box so that I can just plug the front speaks (L/R/Center) to that box instead of running long wires up front each time

My wife and I did this along with an s-video cable and a coax which I will probably use to hook a subwoofer up. For our front speakers we simply buried the speaker wire. So far, so good. I just have to drag out the projector and speakers (and hopefully not even speakers if I find some good outdoor ones). This setup makes it SO much easier to watch a movie outdoors. The setup takes literally minutes now, where before it took about half an hour by the time I ran speaker wire and hooked up the receiver and dragged a DVD player outside along with a long extension cord. All my components are now indoors. Now we have 2 outlets and S-video hookup ready to go at a moment's notice.

You won't regret going to the trouble if you plan on using your outdoor setup a lot.