Help me build a Drive In Theater

[Iguana Man]

That's right. Welcome to Ig Mans walk in theater which will be outdoors, plenty of room for cars, but probably just neighborhood kids sitting on the grass.

I am going to do it. Come Hell or High Water.

Forget the Charger, look at the background and how that wall can be easily converted into a screen. I get a cheap PJ, some cheap speakers and I have a neighborhood of folks watching movies on a cool Saturday night in an open field.

Ha! I am gonna do it. And I am gonna ask for suggestions. Cheap, but BIG throw lens, and at least component input. Help me make a Drive In for my neighbors....suggest equipment...please.

Seriously...

[SilentBob]

Well i was goingt o suggest the Digital Projectors that my theater uses for our preshow program. In our biggest theater we have one that covers the entire screen (which is huge) So until i actually decided to look up the projector to suggest for you i didn't know that they were $10,000 each

Christie LW40 LCD Digital Projector



Other then that have you thought about checking Ebay and looking for a cheap used CRT Projector? or do you want something lite to easily bring in and out of the house for the movie events?

[chlngr1970]

10K for that PJ isn't that bad. I know of a certain person that paid 13G for his Transvision TV3 DLP PJ a couple of years ago. It came with a damn fine scaler to boot. For your app iggy, I would agree with silent bob here and say go with a higher end DLP or LCD. The image quality is still going to be the important thing with that. If you can get PA style speakers and a couple HUGE PA style subs, your sound would be easy. It's not that hard to convert PA amps and such to work with HT gear.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

j

[Iguana Man]

Guys, come on man....I said cheap! No WAY I'm spending anywhere CLOSE to 10K. Something light/portable and cheap is the goal for the PJ.

PQ is not going to be a high priority since most of the kids just want to see something big. Sound also will be on the cheap since I can't go pissing off some of the neighbors who live about 75 yards from the soon to be screen.

I also realized that the wall has a divider down the middle which protrudes outward (It was an old handball court I assume). So I gotta come up with a way to fill in the middle and make it flat (aka one BIG screen) or just use one side which obviously will be much smaller. I'm going to take some measurements sometime this weekend of it.

I also gotta come up with a cheap player and amps....that PA stuff is intriguing.

[Iguana Man]

Well we even have a Consession stand !! Believe it or not, it actually was a Consession type stand back in the day. It's the red building to the left. The doors drop down to allow for two large openings! Ha! This is getting me stoked! (I tried to blur out the Charger, please ignore my poor photoshop skills)

I measured the wall (they're both the same width). I got 19' to work with, or really go for it and fill in the center allowing for a humongous screen. However, if I use the left wall I could shoot a 16'x9' image and use the protruding screened sides to hang the front speakers. Gotta think on this more but welcome any ideas/thoughts from you folks.

[Ruined]

nice photoshop skillz!

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by Ruined

nice photoshop skillz!

Well guess who ISN'T invited to Ig Man's Drive In which by the way will have 8 PSB Platinum T8 towers?

[Iguana Man]

I'm wondering...since the speakers I either buy or build will be outside, will the sound travel better and thus smaller speakers be ok? Granted, I'm still looking at fronts with 12" to 15" woofs, but I'm curious nonetheless.

[Sycho]

I would recommend for a speaker set up using LCR configuration, don't bother with surrounds, maybe one (or two) DIY dual 15" prowoofer placed closer to where the people will be(www.partsexpress.com has a big selection of pro drivers, quite a few inexpensive ones too ). An inexpensive DVD player with 6CH outputs and ebay for some used pro amps...

[Sycho]

here's an outdoor subwoofer from PE...

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=302-129

[SilentBob]

Now i don't know if they will do this or not, but ask your local theater if they have a warehouse that you can shop around in. The guy who trained me on projection told me that they have a huge warehouse full of old amps, speakers, projectors and many other projection parts and supplies. You can make off at some pretty good price si would think too. The union projectionist guy i work with got to take home a movie theater sub home for free during renovations of an older theater he worked at. I helped him setup a HTiB system and gave me a tour of his house and showed me the sub. The thing is like 4-5 feet tall and is being used by his son to play Bass Guitar on. So i guess it never hurts to ask about these things

[Iguana Man]

Sycho and SilentBob.....thanks. Both are great ideas.

i've got an email out to these guys enquiring on screen material. I'm curious to what they suggest and how much a 16' by 9' 'screen' will cost.

I also got a suggestion and a link from AVS on what some dude did back in 2002. Check it out:

[Iguana Man]

And now some audio questions. I'm looking into some PA speakers and have an embarrising question. When it says: "Binding post (banana jack) and two 1/4" jack inputs", what does this mean? Will regular speaker wire work? Do I just terminate the ends with banana jacks, or is this a singular banana jack as the wording above seems to indicate?

I ask, because if I get ahold of an old or cheap receiver, I need to hook up the 3 fronts like normal in house speakers.


Edited: What about 3 of these Jensen speakers?

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

And now some audio questions. I'm looking into some PA speakers and have an embarrising question. When it says: "Binding post (banana jack) and two 1/4" jack inputs", what does this mean? Will regular speaker wire work? Do I just terminate the ends with banana jacks, or is this a singular banana jack as the wording above seems to indicate?

I'm not totally sure, but I think that means it has the normal Bindingpost speaker connection, plus 2 1/4" inputs, which are wired in parrallel for connection more PA speakers.

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

I ask, because if I get ahold of an old or cheap receiver, I need to hook up the 3 fronts like normal in house speakers.

The hooking up of the speakers is something you don't need to be worry about, cause you could always figure it out later, but with the speakers below, you'd have no problem running them off of a old house amp, the 94dB sensativatly for christs sake!!!

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Edited: What about 3 of these Jensen speakers?

those speakers look mighty fine for the price...

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by Sycho

those speakers look mighty fine for the price...

That's what I'm thinking. $150 for 3 of them, plus another $75 for shipping.

$225 total seems like a no brainer at this point. I was thinking about that sub you linked, but with these 3 speakers, I doubt I'll need one.

PJ update, I was looking into a Optoma Movietime DV-10 because of the built in DVD player, however it's only got 1000 lumens. Hmmmm. An Optoma TX700 has no dvd player but it's got 2200 lumens, yet it's native 4x3.....arghhh.

The PJ decision is gonna be tough to make, but eventually worth it.

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

$225 total seems like a no brainer at this point. I was thinking about that sub you linked, but with these 3 speakers, I doubt I'll need one.

I would recommend on using a DVD-Player with a 6CH output since it would be alot easier in the end, since with that, you can just use some amplifiers, no need for built in Dolby Digital decoders. I could even make you a simple device for taking the 6CH output from the DVD-Player and downmixing it to a 3 CH layout with a volume control, LFE could even be downmixed for that extra "punch" that would be lost without a sub...

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by Sycho

I would recommend on using a DVD-Player with a 6CH output since it would be alot easier in the end, since with that, you can just use some amplifiers, no need for built in Dolby Digital decoders. I could even make you a simple device for taking the 6CH output from the DVD-Player and downmixing it to a 3 CH layout with a volume control, LFE could even be downmixed for that extra "punch" that would be lost without a sub...

I appreciate that, however, I'd much rather use speaker wire for the 35' x 3 runs. If I go the 6chl out, that means I need the player up front to minimize the analog cable length but then get stuck running a 35' component cable to the PJ which isn't cost effective.

[Iguana Man]

Ok, get this! I can get a 16'x10' tarp for $24 bucks! Then just attach it to the wall and mask off 6" on the top and bottom for a 16'x9' screen!

Check it out!

I wonder what kind of gain this white tarp will provide...hmmm...thoughts?

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

I appreciate that, however, I'd much rather use speaker wire for the 35' x 3 runs. If I go the 6chl out, that means I need the player up front to minimize the analog cable length but then get stuck running a 35' component cable to the PJ which isn't cost effective.

yah, having the player by the PJ would be best, use atleast 12ga speaker wire for that run, maybe 2 runs for each speakers, effectivly making 11ga.

hell, I could even make you some nice cables using RG6 for component video and RG59 for audio

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by Iguana Man

Ok, get this! I can get a 16'x10' tarp for $24 bucks! Then just attach it to the wall and mask off 6" on the top and bottom for a 16'x9' screen!

Check it out!

SCORE!!!!!!!!

[Iguana Man]

Well it looks like I may not go the tarp route. Someone got me thinking about how many animated movies are still 4:3 and if I sanded and painted the wall I wouldn't have to deal with the tarp (putting it up and taking it down) as well as showing a huge 4:3 image would probably be more of a wow factor.

Problem is, that wall is in rough shape, and I'm worried about the indents between all those 4" boards showing up in the displayed image.

Argghhhh, and here I thought the toughest part was deciding which PJ to get.

[Sycho]

bah, go with the 16:9 ratio, alot of disney movies are 1.66:1, many of them are windowboxed in a anamorphoc frame. But, I think that maybe you should try with you Z2 and see if it has enough throw for that image size, and if the image is exceptable, get a Z1 off of ebay for cheap and you'll be laughing...
<------------ Yah, just like that...

[Wirehed]

I think I love you Iggy.


I'm moving in across the street, hope that's cool.

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by Seamonkey

I think I love you Iggy.


I'm moving in across the street, hope that's cool.

Aww...shucks man. I'm blushing.

[Sycho]

Iggy, can you say drive in multiplex? I hadn't realised that each wall was so huge.

[plissken99]

One thing you may want to consider for the projector, buy another Z2, and stack them. Basically, you run the same video them, stack them on each other, and converge the images, doubling the brightness. People do that with CRT projectors all the time, it would be alot easier with digitals. Also, I don't know how it would do outside, but hi power screen material would up the brightness considerably, however at that size, there would be at least one seam in it. Just some ideas.