The joy of outdoor projector season
Big screens and fresh air go well together
Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere and many people are looking for ways to spend more time outside as the weather improves.
Sure, all of the standard nice weather outdoor activities are great. You can get out on your bike, take a lovely stroll around the neighborhood, or maybe just sit around and watch TV?
Yes, it may sound counterintuitive, but today I want to give a strong endorsement for watching TV and movies outdoors. There is just something magical about a good outdoor projector!
Background
My outdoor projector setup is probably my favorite COVID lockdown era purchase. I recall the mad scramble of customers to Best Buy to stock up on electronics when we all realized we'd be stuck at home for a while. With no one allowed in the store, there was a long line of cars around the parking lot waiting to pick up their orders.
In our case, it was a two pronged approach. We bought ourselves a high quality Epson Home Cinema 2100 projector and a 75" tripod projector screen to project the image upon. Sure, we could have just used a cheap white sheet or the side of our garage, but we wanted the proper projection experience!
Now we're more than four years later and we've had so many amazing memories of outdoor viewing experiences. I've watched tons of important sporting events. There have been themed movie nights with coordinated drinks and snacks. We've even streamed some other live events including New Year's countdowns and holiday movies.
The point I'm making here is that it was a fantastic investment. And while we do live in California and try to use the projector outdoors as much as possible throughout the year, spring and summer are where it can truly shine.
Our Setup
So how do we have things set up? After a decent amount of trial and error, I've found it most convenient to just leave my old school Chromecast Ultra plugged into the projector at all times. The USB-A outlet on the rear of the projector actually does give enough power to fire up the Chromecast. So there are no power cords needed beyond the one power plug for the projector itself.
I've connected laptops and tablets to the machine as well, but they aren't worth the hassle. The Chromecast may not be the latest and greatest version from Google, but it actually seems to be more stable for this purpose than more recent releases. I can just find whatever content I need on my phone and cast it directly to the projector-connected Chromecast. It's super simple.
And what about audio? A summer blockbuster watched in the backyard wouldn't be complete without some booming sound right? I have connected external speakers but found them to be overkill. The speaker on the Epson projector is actually really solid. As long as you setup in close proximity to it, you don't need anything more powerful. On some occasions, I've even plugged in some standard headphones when I don't want to disturb the neighbors and that works great too.
We've had friends and family over plenty of times over the years to watch content on the projector screen. It really does feel like a special event even if we're just watching a Seinfeld rerun or something. There is a sense of magic seeing the screen come to life in the outdoors. This Epson model is even pretty good during the day when there isn't total darkness. I've set up umbrellas to block the sun too when it's needed. There are very few conditions where I've found the viewing to be subpar. Apparently you can even connect bluetooth enabled 3D glasses to this projector but I can't say that I've given that a try.
Conclusion
What's the point of all this? It's just a ringing endorsement for that sweet projector life! No need to spend a fortune either, if you stumble upon a used one on eBay or at a garage sale in the coming weeks, I encourage you to jump on it. Whether you have kids or not, the projector can really liven up summer get togethers and make an ordinary night on the couch feel like something truly special. Getting exercise while being outdoors is obviously amazing, but sometimes it's ok to be a couch potato as long as you're also getting some fresh air.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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