SMC Discussion Areas

Pondering what needs to be done to show movies on the side of the shop. It is 25' wide and 20' tall. Concrete block construction.

Should I do something to smooth the block face? What kind of a projector and what distance does it need to be?

Thanks!!
Creighton

I saw a cool outdoor movie projection system at Sam's club a few weeks ago. I don't recall the price but it seemed reasonable. They were showing it on an inflatable screen.

Cheighton Here is a few links maybe this will help

http://backyardtheater.com/
and

http://www.driveinmemories.com/

If you are going to project onto the concrete block, paint the block flat white.

Are you projecting film? Or are you using video projection?

If film, visit the forums here:

http://16mmfilmtalk.com

This is another one of my hobbies... I do atleast 6-7 a summer outdoors.. Its awesome.

I've never projected onto a block wall, but I really don't think you will see the lines in the block. I've put my screen up with wrinkles all through it and once the movie starts, its not noticed. I've had people comment afterwards when its time to take down and they couldn't believe the wrinkles in the screen. If its not white already, I'd try to paint it, but its not even that critical. You could even get a bed sheet or painters canvas and project onto that as well.

You will need a projector with good light output if you want to hit a screen size that big. Many business class projectors have a high lumen rating since they are meant to project with some backlight in the room. If you have a projector, check out this website to see the specs and also calculate the throw distance/max screen size. http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator-pro.cfm

My normal screen is 8'x10' inflatable. I do have a cloth screen that is ~10'x20' which is the max my projector is supposed to do. I haven't used it yet because I don't have any place to mount it yet.

Sound system.. I started out with a stereo and a set of good bookshelf speakers. It worked great. Since then, I've upgraded to a pair of 12" powered DJ speakers run through a preamp.

DVD player-- I use my Xbox most of the time.. We usually end up playing games after...


Backyardtheater.com is a good resource and a great forum.. Its probably close to as friendly as this site. If you look at the gallery on that site, you will see a picture of my original setup - under Bubba. 

Thanks All!!
Will be showing DVD's and starting from scratch. Lot's of reading to do.
Creighton

What equipment do you have to start with?

Keep in mind that your sound doesn't have to be that big.. I can't turn up my sound very loud as I have neighbors that aren't invited in my yard...

         So invite 'em all over and then crank up the volume  :biggrin: LOL

I've used my Bell & Howell model 567 arc lamp projectors (16mm film) at drive-in theaters. I get a 40' high by 60' wide picture!

Not these neighbors... these are the neighbors from hell... what, that may be me  8) ... either way, we don't get along.

Ken... Thats cool.. I'd love to have an old system like that.. Isn't that a big unit? I guess you don't move it around much... How does it handle the sound on the film reels? I don't know much about them..

My Bell & Howell model 567's are portable machines. I don't have any pictures of the model 567, but I do have some of the model 566 (it's baby brother with a smaller projection lamp).

These projectors sit on top of a special power supply box that operates the arc lamp. The power supply is about 4" high and matches the outer dimensions of the projector. The projector has a special power cord that plugs into the power supply. Then the power supply plugs into an ordinary 120 volt wall outlet. I can patch the projector speaker output into external sound systems if needed.

Here's the power supply for my model 567 projectors. This puts out a 9,000 volt spark to ignite the lamp.

Here are a few pics of my setup from the 4th of July.. Its a bit dark, but you can see it doesn't take much to have an outdoor movie..