Drive-Up Theater

[gene]

<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><A href="http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/DriveUpTheater.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 125px; HEIGHT: 94px" alt=[PIC21] hspace=5 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/PIC21_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>I have always wanted to combine my love of movies with a neighborhood “get together”, so when I first heard about the idea for a home-made outdoor movie theater (using the space within your garage), the proverbial light bulb went off in my head. All you really need is a portable projector, DVD player (HTPC or otherwise), some combination of an audio amplifier and speaker(s), and something to project onto (or in this case through!). Having staged my first successful “Drive-Up Movie Theater”, I thought I would share my experience.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>[Read the Editorial]</FONT></P>

 

[BMXTRIX]

Gene - That's some good stuff. I am planning on showing some Halloween movies on the 31st to the kiddies as they come by doing something similar. I will try to take some pictures and will let you know how it goes. I will be using a fitted bedsheet instead of the plastic and I already have speakers on my front porch to handle audio.

I imagine it will take less than an hour to set up. I just need to run 30 foot component video extensions from my projector's current location to the garage and hang the sheet. I don't think the sheet will reach the ground so I will likely staple a 2x4 (or 2) to the bottom of the sheet to weigh it down. That may end up being a bit more work if I get to involved with it.

Fun stuff!

 

[Bryce_H]

Great idea - something to plan for next summer (since we just got 18 inches of snow)

 

[Audioholics]

Annual event, Stanton? Man, this should be a monthly or weekly event!

Great job!

 

[Sheep]

Haha cool! Leave that up for halloween. Better yet, get some SVS subs out there and really scare people.

Do you do this for other events? You should see our Superbowl party

SheepStar

 

[Jack Hammer]

Great Article!

I think it is awesome that you did that and even better that you opened it up to the neighbors. I found it interesting that the creases and other flaws in the plastic sheet seemed to disappear, or at least become relatively unoticeable. Did you use one layer of plastic sheeting, or were there multiple layers used.

Personally, I remember going to drive-ins as a child and have many fond memories of them- to bad they went the way of the dinosaur. I think for kids, they really offer a great way to see a movie with the family and friends in a semi-private, yet somewhat controlled, environment.

Did you run cable for surround speakers or just go with stereo? If so (surround) how did it sound? If not, how did it sound?

Jack

 

[Stanton]

Answers...

I only used (1) layer of sheeting (although I bought the thickest available) for a couple of reasons:
1) You'd be surprised how hard it is to support even a small amount of weight from the (thin) wooden strip along the top of your garage
2) Multiple layers of anything would create focusing problems, especially if you have any wind (like I did)

I didn't do surround sound for a couple of reasons:
1) I like the idea that there we NO cables running out onto the driveway; I would have had to have (very long) cables running around the seating area if I did surround sound
2) I would have had to use something other than my PC to process the surround sound, and again I wanted to keep things simple

My boom-box actually created a great stereo image, plus it was plenty loud. Of course YMMV.

 

[westcott]

I do this every Halloween for the kids in the neighborhood.
I am in real estate so it is good PR.

Now your giving my secrets away.

 

[Takeereasy]

That really is a great idea. I'm going to have to do that one night for the neighbours. Might not be till next year, it's cooling off pretty good here right now. The only thing I'm worried about is attracting the annoying neighbour showing up. Everyone has one, and ours would be into this event like a dirty shirt.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I built my setup this weekend (Saturday) and put it up for a dry run in the middle of the day. It was INCREDIBLY windy (30+ MPH winds constant) all day with 40+MPH gusts. I wanted to make sure I wouldn't have issues at all with the setup, and it was great.

I used two 2x4x10 foot studs and trimmed them down to 8' 6" and put one on one side of a queen sized flat bedsheeet (Wal-Mart!) and put the other one one the other side. I put two screws into my garage door and went to hang the 2x4 onto the screws... Turned out I only have 8'3" of space between the garage door hardware...

Pulled down the 2x4s and cut 3.5" off of each one and then hung it back up on the screws. The weight of the lower 2x4 was not really keeping the sheet tight so I pulled down hard on the lower 2x4 and then drove a screw though it into the lower base of my garage door frame (inside - unfinished wood).

Left it up for 5 hours, then put the projector in the garage after dark and started a film up. I first used the DVD player inside the projector (Cinego) put it was lousy for audio to the distributed system. So, I switched to a composite video feed (meh) and ran it off my 400 disc DVD player that's already tied into the audio system. MUCH improved audio and only a slight drop in video quality.

I will take pics tomorrow evening of the setup process and the final results!

Oh yeah... In the process of getting things to work I managed to break BOTH feeds to my garage door sensors! I freaked out when the garage door wouldn't work at all, then it took about 20 minutes to strip some wires and patch in some wires to fix the connection - a new one that would be out of the way of the garage theater setup. My wife only yelled at me once or twice for wasting the day.

At least trick-or-treaters will know that we are open for business.

Forcast for Halloween: About 65 degrees, partly cloudy, 5mph winds.

Thumbs up!