Outdoor setup for young kids

Zeromus-X said:

I'm looking for the opposite of an enthusiast setup with this one.

A family member wants to bring a projector and screen outside on Friday nights to display movies and cartoons for their and their neighbor's kids. We're talking a group of 1-4 year olds. They'd like a portable/inflatable screen, a projector, and probably a single powered speaker. It will be dusk or dark outside and they'd like about a 120-150" screen. Distance doesn't matter as they'll be running it off an extension cord and probably a stack of crates.

They already have a "real" projector setup in their home theater, so this doesn't need to be something that can grow with them. The cheapest solution that doesn't literally burst into flames is the goal. Refurbished is fine, but also open to no-names. Since it'll only be a few days a year, bulb longevity also isn't critical.

Any thoughts? Can they get away with this for under $600?

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Ok, I'll bite...

"We're talking a group of 1-4 year olds." ...

Well, assuming you're located in North America, it doesn't really get dark enough to use a projector until around 9:30-10:00PM. I don't think you're going to have much of an audience that's still awake at that time if it's a group of 1-4 year old children.

With a group of 1-4 year children and a $600 budget, your best bet is to go over to Costco and pick up a 65" $600 LCD TV or the biggest LCD TV you can find for $600.

You'll be able to watch it outdoors with some sunlight or start at dusk with picture quality that will attract 1-4 year old kids. The kids won't know that it's not a 150" screen and nor will they care. You won't have the disappointment and problems that a cheap inflatable screen brings to the party. The TV will work very well with an extension cord. There's little to no chance that the TV would burst into flames, and you probably won't need a stack of crates or a powered speaker.

b curry said:

Well, assuming you're located in North America, it doesn't really get dark enough to use a projector until around 9:30-10:00PM. I don't think you're going to have much of an audience that's still awake at that time if it's a group of 1-4 year old children.

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That's definitely not the case in all of North America. She's on the east coast US in a rural area, and if weather is still permitting use in late summer/early fall, sunset can be as early as 5:00 PM. Right now it's getting dark around 8:00p so something that works at dusk would be great. Their backyard is full of trees so it's pretty dark come evening naturally.

b curry said:

FWIW, I live in a forest in South East Michigan. Here's what it looks like at 9:45PM in July. Note the sunshine still present in the sky and how bright the surroundings are.

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I've always lived on the eastern edge of my time zones except when I lived in California. It was crazy to me that you could be outside in San Francisco at 9 PM and it was still light out!

Thanks for the recommendations, $600 wasn't a set-in-stone number but a goal post. Some goal posts need to be moved. $900 isn't out of line and I've forwarded those over to her. I did let her know that cheap powered speakers are all over Craigslist all the time, so maybe she can save a little there too. I can steer her the right direction on those, but I'm mostly projector-dumb.

I also recommended that she might be better off going with something like a 10' $150 DJ lighting truss on tripods, and a $20 projector screen that can clip on to it, as opposed to the inflatable version. A little more work to put up, but if tensioned properly should be a decent screen with no sagging.