DIY Outdoor Movie Theater

- My name's Aaron Massey from MrFixitDIY.com

and today I'm gonna show you

how I built this DIY backyard movie theater.

Nothing says summer like outdoor movie nights

so I've been wanting to figure out a way

to make that possible for a while now.

The problem is that putting together

any kind of outdoor theater system

can get really expensive really quickly.

So keeping that in mind I tried my best

to keep my spending within reason for this project.

I decided to create an all-in-one theater unit

that can be put up easily when I want to use it

and taken down when it's not being used

to avoid getting damage from any rain or weather.

So here's what I came up with.

The briefcase as I call it has a DVD/Blu-ray player,

a Roku player that has Netflix, YouTube TV, Hulu,

Amazon Prime Video, and HBO NOW,

and a built-in speaker that can be set up

in under 2 minutes.

So here's how I put it together.

To get started, I did have to spend some money

to buy a projector and a screen,

and I picked out both on Amazon.

I went a little over budget

from what I was hoping for a projector,

but I wanted to get something that was HD

and well-reviewed,

so I ended up buying this BenQ projector.

I'll link all the stuff I bought

in the description down below,

in case you guys want to purchase any of the same stuff.

So once those came in I installed the pull-down screen

onto my backyard pergola first.

This is a 100-inch screen, and it was super easy to install

with just a few screws.

Next, I started laying out the briefcase.

I measured the projector and cut a piece of scrap plywood

slightly larger than the projector.

I measured and marked where the mounting holes were

on the bottom of the projector

and drilled out the corresponding holes

to attach it with some machine screws.

I decided to add a handle onto the plywood

because I wanted to be able to lug this thing around

and be able to take it down easily.

So I laid out a basic shape and cut it out with the jigsaw.

Then I used some forstner bits to drill a couple holes

and connected those with the jigsaw as well.

And then I used a router bit

to round over the edges so it was smooth on my hand.

From there I cut down a couple small strips of plywood

to act as the sides for the box and attached them.

Then I cut a larger piece of plywood for the other side.

So that's the basic form for the box.

Next I installed the cheapest Blu-ray/DVD player

that I could find from Best Buy

to the bottom of the box

with some heavy-duty double-sided tape

and I mounted the Roku to that.

Next I mounted a power strip to plug everything in

and ran all the wiring.

And then from there it was time to figure out

how to actually mount the box.

So I thought about building some kind of basic shelf

off the pergola,

but I didn't like the idea of it sitting empty

and being this big eyesore when I'm not using it,

so I decided to use some stuff I had

from my camera and lighting gear that I use for my videos.

I mounted what's called a baby plate

to the top of the box with some screws.

I had these installed in the ceiling of my shop

to hold my production lights as well

and I happened to have an extra one lying around

so it ended up working out.

From there I used what's called a gobo head,

which is this adjustable cam clamping bracket.

It makes it really easy to adjust the angle of the box

up and down to line up with the picture

and can be easily hand-tightened.

So I figured it'd work great for this.

Then I had to figure out how to mount it to the pergola.

To keep it easy, I decided to drill a hole in the pergola

and add a small piece of threaded rod

and a few nuts and washers to hold it in place.

It's pretty minimal and you don't really notice it too much

when the box isn't on there,

so I liked that you don't have an eyesore.

For now I just ran an extension cord

over the top of the pergola to power everything.

Everything plugs in via a single cord from the power strip

which makes it really easy.

And then finally I had to figure out the audio situation.

The speaker that's built into the projector sucks.

So, I went and looked at as many options as I could

and I found that most of them required a receiver

and wiring up additional speakers,

and when you added up all that extra cost

it got pretty expensive.

So rather than go that route,

I decided to use a portable Bose speaker

which I already owned,

and built it right into the unit itself.

To mount it to the box, I just made a simple holder

out of some small pieces of plywood,

drilled some holes for the wiring,

and hooked everything back up.

In hindsight, I would have done all this on the front end

if knew I was gonna go that route with the speaker,

but I didn't know.

The speaker isn't crazy loud compared to

exterior sound systems you can buy, I'm sure,

but it's plenty loud for anything I'll be using it for.

And since I already owned it, the price was right.

So that's it for this project.

I'm actually really excited about how it came out

and how easy it is to set up and take down.

I've sat out there a bunch of nights

and watched a bunch of shows and sports already,

and it's awesome.

And it's gonna be really nice to have

when some people come over this summer.

All in, I spent about $700 on this project,

which is a lot,

but the majority of that was actually the projector itself.

So you definitely could do it for cheaper

if you bought a less expensive projector.

There's a bunch out there,

but I don't really have enough experience with them

to know what's worthwhile,

so just make sure you do your research

and pick something that's gonna work for you.

Thank you guys for watching

and I hope you enjoyed this video.

As I mentioned, I'll have links down below

for everything I used in this project.

So check those out if you're interested.

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that I put out.

Thank you guys so much for watching,

and I'll see you next time.

(guitar music)