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Watching a film with your family in your home movie theater is a fantastic experience, but we have to say that doing the same thing in the comfort of your backyard is even better.
Although building your outdoor movie theater can seem a bit complicated in reality it isn’t. You can easily build it and don’t break the budget and still get everything you need for a great movie watching experience.
Let’s see what equipment you need for your outdoor home theater. At the same time, we will try to provide some valuable tips to make it easier for you to make the process much easier.
Get a Projector for Larger and Better Picture Quality
If you want to hear a wow from your family and friends when they come by to watch a movie with you in your backyard home theater you will have to get a projector.
Today, you can easily get a projector for your backyard home theater without the need to spend a small fortune on it. As a result, you will get a first-grade picture quality.
When selecting the right projector, you can either use a standard one or one of those specially designed for outdoor use. You don’t want to leave a standard projector outdoors since the weather conditions might easily damage it.
Some of our favorite projectors for your backyard home theater are the BenQ HT2050A and the Anker Nebula Mars II Pro.
The market today is flooded with projectors of various prices but you need to be aware that a cheaper projector will have lower resolution and less brightness so pay attention to this. After all, you need to get a decent image quality and stay within your budget.
Do You Need a Projector Screen?
If possible, the easiest thing for you will be to project video to the wall of your house. However, we don’t recommend doing this because the wall isn’t as smooth as a movie screen.
The next affordable option is a large white sheet which will give you a much better image than a house wall. If you make sure that there are no wrinkles on the sheet this solution is quite acceptable.
However, you have to be aware that even the slightest breeze will make the screen move so when you install the bedsheet on the wall or a frame you need to make sure it’s very tight.
For the best quality, you need to get an actual projector screen. They come in different sizes, come with a sturdy stand and a storage bag, and will easily handle the wind without ruining your movie-watching experience.
A Laptop or a Streaming Stick
When it comes to media players for your backyard home theater you have plenty of options. Today you can easily get Amazon Fire or Roku, connect them to the HDMI port on your projector, power it from the SUB port on the projector, and connect it to the home wireless network.
Once you do that you can stream movies or series of your choice. The only thing you need to keep in mind here is to make sure there is a powered USB port on your projector. In case your projector doesn’t have one, you will need to provide some external power.
Another option besides the mentioned streaming sticks is a laptop with an HDMI output port or an HDMI adapter. Connect the laptop to the projector with an HDMI cable or use a wireless HDMI transmitter in case you don’t want to use a cable.
Get an External Speaker for Better Sound Quality
The projector has integrated speakers but for a much better audio experience, you will need to get some good speakers. These built-in speakers are usually not strong enough to provide clear and loud sound when used outdoors.
Especially if you have many people in your backyard it will be a real problem to listen to the audio coming from these speakers.
The easiest way to add external speakers to the backyard home theater is via the projector’s analog output. You can easily connect a portable Bluetooth speaker, a soundbar, or a surround sound system to it.
If you are more interested in wireless connections you can connect them via Bluetooth but you need to be prepared to experience some lip-sync issues. This is something normal for Bluetooth connections and it’s better to be aware of it.
If you are using a streaming stick you can connect a portable Bluetooth speaker to the stick instead of the projector. You can do this either using a dedicated app or directly to the stick.
Another wireless option is to use a Bluetooth transmitter. You need to connect the Bluetooth transmitter to the projector’s audio output and you will be able to send the audio using a Bluetooth enabled device like a laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.
Additional Equipment
All the items we have mentioned above are essential for a good backyard home theater. However, you may need some cool things to make everything working.
One of these things is an extension power cord. They have several outlets at their end, and they make it easy to power up several different devices at the same time.
In case your wireless signal is weak in your backyard you will need to get a Wi-Fi extender or a new wireless router to boost your wireless signal in the backyard. This will save you some time and nerves since you definitely don’t want your film to stop because of a lost connection or poor signal.
And finally, watching a movie while being attacked by mosquitoes and other bugs can be a real nightmare. Therefore, it is highly recommended to invest in some bug repellants and mosquito-control equipment.
We hope we have made it a bit easier for you to start building your backyard theater system. You now know what are the essentials you need to buy plus the additional equipment needed to make everything function perfectly.