Hello! I finally got around to taking pics of my new Blimpscreen from China. It is a 240" (diagonal) widescreen. I do apologize for this super long delay but my Wife had surgery (nothing serious) about a month ago so we just got around to doing our official first movie night outdoors! That and the weather did not help either. We caused quite a stir in the neighborhood! I started out with Bruce Almighty HD DVD using a XA2 and my Sanyo Z5 pj. That was a good comedy to start with. Then we went on with The Scorpion King HD DVD (because a few asked me if I had that)... As you can see our first night was really not a kid's night. We are plnning a few of these soon. I do apologize for the pics not being perfect. The screen is plenty bright and the picture looks great in HD! Everyone kept saying how much better than the movies or drive-in this is. I was equally excited about how well the Sanyo Z5 handled images that large! I was very happy tonite. Even my Wife said a few times how amazing the picture looked... And that does not happen very often!

Got the pics to upload! Anyway, I know they are not the greatest pics but we are doing another movie night soon and I will take pics of the screen blowing up plus from behind and side views. I am very happy with it and the cost of the screen was unbelievable. Over here we would easily pay 1500-3000 for a screen of this size and quality... My pj was 24 feet away and it easily filled the entire screen!

Sorry, just realized I posted the same pic twice! Next movie I plan to do will have a lot of outdoor scenes in the day time. Also we are planning a good kids night with a bright cartoon in HD. Maybe Blu ray's Chicken Little!

Looks great. How many people showed up?

This was just a dry run but we still ended up with 9 guests from the neighborhood. Soon I will invite some people over and do a real movie party... I can also set up the pj behind the screen (which is what I plan to do in the future)...

Joerod that looks pretty good.

I finally used my inflatable screen last night (Not blimpscreen yet). It was the gemmy from HSC, but the price was right at about 150 with discounts etc and it has a 149 on the diagonal screen so it was actually quite large.

I do have a question about the screen. In the daylight pics it looks like the middle on the top is sagging a bit, was there a problem with the blower or is there a problem with the top crossbar not getting enough air to keep it rigid?

And that was a nice intro screen, how did you make that, was it just on a dvd and you take it out and put the movie dvd in?

Lastly this one is for anyone, what the heck do you all use for speakers, player etc for doing these things outdoors? Do you use a dvd player or a computer? I need to pick up something for all this before my next movie night.

The screen was sagging just a little in the middle because we just started blowing it up. I wanted to get a picture before I forgot to so I just took one quickly. It goes to full capacity. My intro screen says (with a voice) Welcome To JoeRods OUTDOOR theater. I had it done at Custom HT.com. Don is a really good guy there. I also made my own pre-movieslides (thanks to AVS members) that also shows the movie policy Frog trailor! speakers I am using 2 JBL Arena speakers on stands. They have plenty of power. And using 2 channel sound from the HD DVD or Blu ray plyaers still sounds pretty darn good!

Could you give me more info on what the "2 JBL Arena speakers on stands" are? what size best place to get from etc? I would appreciate it. I am assuming they are unamplified and require a stereo or portable HT system of some sort?

That is good to know on the screen sag just being early in the inflation. After the good time my neighbors had last night I want to get the speakers and stands and other equipment I need.



And thanks for answering so many of my questions on here and in PM's..

Hey no problem. We are all in this together! I use an Onkyo 575 for my outdoor theater. It only needs to do 2 channel so it does the job nicely. I could even get away with a cheaper model if I wanted. The JBL Arena speakers are their bookshelve type. These are a little bigger so don't let the word bookshelve fool you. They weigh 15 pounds each. I then use Sanus speaker stands with spikes (for the grass) which seem to have worked out well.

where did you get the stand from? I looked around today and nobody locally had anything I liked or that would be practical outside. having one with spikes would be ideal for the yard I would say. Also how do the speakers mount on them? Screw in from the bottom? or do they just sit on them?

I just sit the speakers on them. They are heavy enough so I know they won't go anywhere. BB or CC has decent stands from Omni and Sanus. I think mine are just 24 inch.

How would Apocalypto on Blu ray be for an outdoor movie night with adults? I really would like to Twister HD DVD soon... Hope it comes out before the end of summer!

Joe:

I bough the same screen from CHINA..but the sag never went away..did yoiurs? he finally sen me a larger blower.

It now looks great and is firmer, too

Lets talk!

Al

To tell you the truth I never really noticed how much of the sag was left. It was pretty minimal. And once it gets dark out the screen is all you see so you do not see the top slightly sagging at all... I guess I could contact him about getting a larger blower. Is it a lot louder though?

Joe:

It wasn't easy to get him to send the replacement, but now..it looks great. Yo are losing part of your image if you don't get it fixed...

Can't beat the price of the screen...either

Al

Good point. I can always pick up a blower over here. They are not that expensive... Thanks for the tip.

And you know the image was not distorted at all. The very top crossbar may have not been completely filled up but the white screen went perfectly across. Of course my luck it may not happen next time so I better look into a bigger blower...

Just found a couple places online that sell blowers for cheap. I may jump and get one now...

I just need to figure out what movies are good for outside now...

Sometimes it depends on the size of the crowd. Light movie fare seems to go over better for larger crowds, especially with children running around.

A gathering of just a few friends allows for more focused, intense movie that may require paying attention.

Good point... Thanks....

Light movie fare for sure.
Or sports.

I've already got invites out for the superbowl. One of the benefits of living in a warmer climate.

Space Jam is light movie/sports...

Napolean Dynamite! Now that would be a good neutral title... Or Nacho Libre...

where did you find a cheap blower at?

I will let you know soon if they give me a good deal...

I should know sometime today...

I looked up Blimpscreen on Google and noticed two design variations. One has a flat upper beam to hold the screen, and the other has an upward arch beam on top. Just curious what you've got, and if the arched holds the screen more taught?

I will take better pics of the screen from different angles when I set it up this weekend. We are planning another outdoor movie night!

joerod,

what is the acutal dimension of the screen itself and not the inflatable? I want to get an idea on how this one compares screen size wize to the Gemmy screen I already have and used several times and am impressed with it.