Outdoor Movie Screen - Page 8

Did King Kong this past Saturday and it WAS hot in NOVA! Doing one more in August (Music Man) and one in Sept (don't know yet) and BIG HALLOWEEN TRIPLE FEATURE.

Tom

As far as outdoor screenings go...

We had about ten people over two Fridays ago, to watch the first Pirates of the Caribbean... everyone followed up the next night @ the local drive-in for the sequel.

Also screened "Idle Hands", "SLC Punk" and "Permanant Midnight"...

I don't have any kids, so most of the movies I show, will be alittle off the beaten path.

Just got my Comcast HD service installed... Gonna run a cable out to my deck, so that I can bring my HD receiver out for some Pittsburgh Steelers Football later in the season.

So far I have not printed up tickets, (most of my friends are on Myspace) so I just send a bulletin around with the movie cover art and IMDB info... a little easier than printing everything out... Also my screenings so far have only been on a couple of days notice...

Matt

The 1080i image from Comcast HD is quite superb of this Viewsonic DLP Projector.
Can't wait for a Steeler game!

I'm also gonna plan a Halloween weekend, with Rocky Horror Picture Show, among others.

Hey guys I am getting my projector probably this week or next and was wondering do you use you PJ that you have in you theater or do you have a seperate one for just outdoor? Also I see on ebay they have 150 inch gemmy outdoor screens that self inflate for like 200 shipped which seems like a great deal. ANyone use these?

I use my NEC for outdoors and my Sharp stays in the ht

Victor

http://backyardtheater.com/forums/in...pic,306.0.html

Thanks for the review. that thing is sweet I am probably gonna get one

I've got an outdoor show setup for early September. I'll be posting a thread here with screen build and so on when we get closer. I've been into HT for a long long time, but this will be the first venture outside.

I'm looking forward to it, so thanks to everyone here for ideas, suggestions, photos, etc... I'll try to post a buch of stuff in that thread.

BTW - I'm also in the Chicago suburbs, seems to be quite a few around here!

We've been showing once a month to our neighbors all summer, with additional films for the family on our patio, just for the joy of watching outside.



Our screen is 6x8' painter's gessoed canvas stretched on a frame of 3/4" aluminum angle (which is not really stiff enough in the 8-foot dimension). I'm thinking of going to Dazian Trapeze, though, because I have to carefully roll up the canvas to prevent it from wrinkling or bulging. The gesso is very reflective, but it also retains bumps and folds, which have to be ironed out. The Trapeze can reportedly just be thrown in the equipment box when you're done and the wrinkles just stretch out and disappear when you mount it on the frame.

Someone mentioned using a Da-Lite Fast-Fold screen earlier. I've been told that these don't do well in the wind. I don't know details, but suspect that the aluminum latches are too soft to withstand the leverage put on them when a wind comes up. Maybe the truss frames handle this better? Maybe it's possible to strengthen the hinged joints? Dunno, but I really like the system and would like to hear from anyone successfully using one outdoors.

I think having a separate one for outdoors makes sense, if you can afford it. The business projectors are made with high lumen output (though many suffer from low contrast) and are built very ruggedly, since they're made to be dragged around to meetings and presentations in bright rooms. You can get 1500 or 2000 lumens for $600-750. While the picture quality might not be as good as your PLV-Z4, it's perfectly fine outdoors, where the audience will be unfairly influenced by the cool breeze, the sound of crickets in the grass, etc.

The license for your service is for home use. You do not have a commercial account from your cable/sat provider. Sports bars have higher fees they have to pay, for example.

The same limitations that apply to DVD will apply to the movie channels. I think the only thing you would be safe showing would be broadcast TV if somebody tried to take you to court. I seriously doubt any shows with commercial advertisements would be an issue where they would try to enforce something by claiming loss of revenue. Show the Sopranos and HBO could claim people won't sub since they can see it for free at an outdoor event and therefore they have loss of revenue, aka damages.

You can show anything you want without any license limitations in your own home or yard to your family and immediate circle of friends.

You will start getting into trouble if you show any licensed material for the public without paying for it.

Glad someone in my area was able to pull off a Saturday show. I had a mixture of no shows and its too wet outside guests. Carted out the screen, edited a showing of National Lampoon's Vacation and set-up the popcorn popper for nothing. We wound up with War of the Worlds inside. Not what I had prepared for, nor wanted. I know not to count in the weather, but I rushed home from a family vacation in Myrtle Beach for this and hoped for the best.

We are looking to get BO cloth this weekend and the one who knows how to sew in this household will take care of the screen making. I did a dry run inside on a cheapie portable elite screen and it blew me away for a dvd quality projector- Mitsubishi HC100, by the way. (And in full day light with no way to get rid of all the light.)

Question; how the heck do you guys level the projector? I plan to have the dvd player, receiver and projector on an A/V business cart, but, even inside, the projector was uneven. I expect it to be much worse outside.

Also, this thing gets HOT in an air conditioned room. Do I need to make sure to only have a movie night planned when it is going to be much cooler in the evening?

I don't worry about the temp of the PJ outside - I guess I should - but what am I going to do about it anyway?

As for leveling - sounds cheesy, but I use those door jamb sticks from home depot. The ones that you use during the construction phase of putting a pre-hung door in the opening. They are usually next to the doors or in the wood sections - just ask - they know. They are referred to as "shimmies". Works great for me.

Thanks for your input. I wondered if something simple would do the trick. I'll try it!

I use some books and folded magazines to level

If the pj gets hot, is it normal or have you cleaned out all of the filters. If its going to be hot in a regular room, its going to be hot outside as well, regardless of outside temp.

Victor

I use a 6' step ladder and the shims and anything else I can find. Mine has leveling feet, too. I use those first, then the shims, then anything else I can find laying around (dirt, twigs, old mushed up paper cups, etc).


OK, I'm kidding about that last part.

Tom

PJ sits on the hottub cover with paint stirrers for leveling. Not the best for looks, but it sure gets the job done. I just hope no one expected movie night from in the tub, or I guess my setup will need to be reevaluated.

Victor, Yor right, todays projectors do run hot under normal conditions. However, the keywords here are "Under Normal Conditions". I personally wouldn't recommend running a projector in a hot room or outdoors on a hot night. I have central air conditoning in my house and it's very cool inside the house yet my projector still runs hot. I can't imagine how hot it would get if I ran it in a hot room or even worse outdoors on a hot and humid night. I personally think if you do that your definitely playing Russian Roulette and eventually your going to drastically decrease the life of the bulb if not burn it out completely one day.

How level are your screens?

Hey folks, I've got an outdoor showing planned for Sept 8th, the whole family is looking forward to it. Our backyard has a pretty nice location where the hill slopes down to a flat area. This will allow people to sit on the hillside, and there is plenty of room for lots of people.

My question is about how level to make the screen. I'm going with the free-standing PVC frame plan, and the place where the screen is going is mostly level, but not perfectly flat. So, how do you fine folks deal with the levelling of the screen? To level the projector is pretty easy with shims and other items as discussed, but I'm curious your thoughts and experience with the screen.

Thanks! -Warren

ps - I've read alot of what you all showed as your opening night, and would love some current suggestions or movies that recently went over really well. There isn't anything new that is a family film coming out between now and then. (It is a family showing, so G or PG is required) I'd rather not do Finding Nemo for the billionth time!

My yard slopes a bit to the point where a 2x4 layed flat does the trick for a near perfect vertically level screen. Ideally, you want the screen to be perfectly level and about a perpendicular as you can get it to the PJ. If not - you'll have keystoning - or worse yet - try to do keystone compensation or side shotting (in Sony terms) with near success but not without wasting some valuable movie watching time and a bit of frustration.

I assume you are sticking the PVC in some sort of base. All you need to worry about is getting the base straight up and down, and assuming you built the PVC frame for the screen in somewhat of a flat surface, it should be vertical. a 2x4 or 2 on the backend of the base depending on your slope should do just fine as it does for me.

If you think you're gonna stick w/ these events - do as I am and dig a small hole about 24 inches deep and fill it 1/2 with cement and 1/2 dirt while centering and levelling a tube that is 1/4" bigger then your PVC that you are building the screen with. Ensuring that it is level will get you a super fast setup time and level all the time.

I just completed construction of my screen using 3/4" EMT pipe, so eyebolts, and S hooks as suggested by some members on this thread, and I'm going to dig into the ground and shove a 1" EMT pipe in it with cement around it. I'm envisioning the hole will be about 4" in diameter and must be 24" deep to get below the frost line here in Northern Virginia. I'm hoping to decrease my screen construction/setup time from 30 mins to 5 mins. A huge plus!

For outdoor movies with a crowd we try to stay away from movies that are too deep or require too much attention. We prefer lighter movies that if you miss a line or two it will have no impact on your total enjoyment of the film.

If it is a much smaller crowd (2-6 people) we just ask everyone what they'd like to watch.

Our favorite for first-time viewers is "A Knight's Tale". Light and funny. You can talk over it, get up to get another drink, etc. and you can still enjoy it.

Now I'm going to go against convention here and make a suggestion that some here would consider heresy, and it depends on the shape of your screen. One night my wife picked up a rental and it was a fullscreen version. I wasn't pleased, but once the movie started I realized that the image was MUCH bigger. This ended up being a real crowd pleaser. Again, it depends on the shape of your screen, but if yours can take it I suggest you give a fullscreen version a try to see how it looks.

Steve,

I agree with you, and widescreen is my preference. But if your screen is of a size/shape that will allow it you might be pleasantly surprised. It also depends a lot on the film itself. In the end, it is merely a suggestion.