Question Help!! Outdoor Projector Screen Material

MickeyB81

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Hi all, new to all this but in some urgent need of help.

My daughter's 5th birthday is coming up in a few weeks and due to the current pandemic all she wants is a small camping night with movie night in the garden.
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I've bought a projector with the following details:
  • Brightness: 6500 lumens
  • Contrast Ratio: 7000: 1
  • Lamp Life: 70000 hours
  • Aspect Ratio: 4: 3/16: 9
  • Native resolution: 1920*1080P Pixel
(Amazon product ASIN B07ZF2PL67)

I'm in a bit of a pickle now about a screen.

We have 2 trees out our back with enough room for a screen 5m X 3m.

I'm looking into making a decent screen, but it can't be a permanent screen so I was thinking on making the frame from PVC piping as it can easily be dismantled and put away. So the screen needs to be something that can either be folded away (I've read Spandex is good for this) or rolled away and stored in a tube for the next night.

I was considering somewhere between 120"-160" screen size.

The questions I have are:

- black, grey or white colouring?
- best material?
- where can I get it?
* Please nothing too expensive as this is going to be seldom used and needs to be easily stored.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
 
Just be aware that projector is nothing like 6500 ANSI lumens and is more like 300 - 400 ANSI. That means you need to limit the image size until it gets quite dark outdoors to really see anything much. The LCD panel is taken from a smart phone so they look a bit washed out compared to a true 3 LCD panel projector, but for the money and for an outdoor sleep out, I'm sure it will be fine.

Screen wise, something with a little reflectivity will help with the brightness. A Spandex sheet will probably work very well and will stay nice and flat. Just remember you are creating a big sail, so fix it down well and ensure it won't blow down.

I would go with white, as although grey might improve contrast I think you will lose too much brightness unless it's pitch dark outside.
 
Thank you so much for your enlightening reply.

I'm completely new to this and figured this would be a good started projector project as I eventually want to work up to my own home cinema room (I've decided that is going to be a mix of mid life crisis and retirement projects)

I've only received this about a week ago so I'm definitely within my returns period.

Do you reckon I'd be better off with a different projector as I don't want to be massively limited in having to wait until it's very dark before the kids can see it outside.

If so could you recommend a fairly decent projector (at the minute I can't go for the fully expensive one yet)
 
You might do better with a second hand projector which will be brighter and have better contrast, but the thing to do is try the current one you have first.

For a decent home cinema projector you need to be spending significantly more - probably closer to £800, but for casual viewing what you have bought is probably ok for the time being.

They can suffer with scorching of the panel, as they were never designed to be projected, so keep the invoice handy in case you need to return it and limit use to an hour or so before giving it time to cool off.
 
Again, thank you very much.

I intend to spend the next few years doing major research into projectors and sound for home cinema and whilst doing that to save up so I can buy a "Really Good" projector then, but as you say in the meantime it's only for casual viewing mainly for the kids.

So keep the one I have and go Spandex... (Keeping the receipt within reach)

Any suggestions where to start researching for beginners?
 

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