Summer's coming, so it's a great time to grab some friends and enjoy your favorite film under the stars. Take a look at our favorite low-cost projectors, screens, speakers, and accessories for a budget-friendly movie night in your own backyard.

As the weather turns from winter chill to spring and summer warmth, the thought of watching a movie in your backyard gets more and more appealing. For some that means setting up something akin to an outdoor movie theater complete with an 80-inch (or larger) screen, a scenario we covered in our roundup of the best outdoor projectors. But the cost and effort of that approach isn't for everyone. You might prefer a faster, easier, more spontaneous setup, preferably with a lighter-weight, less-expensive projector.

The good news is that you can still have a perfect backyard movie night while minimizing cost and hassle. Here's how. 

If you've heard the hype over new 4K projectors and TVs, you may be hesitant to buy an inexpensive projector that offers a native resolution of 720p or even lower. Don't be! Your visual acuity has limits. Use a small enough screen, or step back far enough from a big screen, and you literally won't see any difference between 480p and 4K.

Once you've acclimated to a 4K TV, you might be a little bothered by the soft-focus look of lower resolutions, but you don't need to worry much about that for these projectors. Most aren't bright enough to throw a large enough image to see much difference, if any, from where you'll likely be sitting. 

Our most budget-friendly pick for a sub-1080p projector is the RFV Milano, which lists for $119.99 and has recurring deals that often drop the price to under $70. It comes with a one-year warranty if you don't bother to activate it and two additional years if you do. Connection options are minimal but include an HDMI port, which is all you really need. The image is highly watchable and appropriately crisp for the native 720p resolution, and the onboard mono 4W chamber speaker delivers quite usable volume and sound quality.

If you plan to sit close enough to the image for 1080p to make a difference, and you find a soft-focus look bothersome, look for a projector with native 1080p resolution. Don't be fooled by ads that shout 1080p support; in many cases, that means the projector will accept 1080p input and downconvert to a lower native resolution. 

Among 1080p options, the Vankyo 1080p Mini Wireless Leisure 530W Projector stands out for how much it offers for the price. Officially $229.99, its Amazon page includes a $30 coupon, which Vankyo says will remain for the foreseeable future. So for $199.99, you get the native 1080p projector and remote, an HDMI cable, and a 100-inch diagonal screen. There's no frame or stand, so you have to hang the screen much the same way you would a bedsheet; metal grommets along the reinforced edges make this easier. (Make sure to take it indoors when the movie's done.)

Another key feature is Wi-Fi with support for screen mirroring from your phone or tablet—see below for more on using your phone as a video source. And an onboard 3W speaker delivers impressively high volume and sound quality for the price, so you may not need to shell out for a separate speaker. 

For any projector setup, image size depends on the brightness of the projector and the ambient light level. A backyard will have a fair amount of ambient light, and inexpensive projectors aren't very bright. But that's fine; a 40- or 50-inch image will still feel cinematic.

If you don't already know how bright your backyard can be at night, check it out with a full moon overhead and your backyard lights on. At its brightest, a suburban backyard is likely equivalent to a family room with dim to moderately bright ambient light. An urban setting may be even brighter; a rural backyard far from other houses or streetlights will be darker.

Once you know the light level you need to plan for, finding a projector with the right brightness can be as simple as reading some reviews. PCMag's projector reviews discuss the usable image sizes we found during testing in different lighting conditions. If a projector is bright enough for the image size you want in a family room with a given level of ambient light, it will be bright enough for the same image size in a backyard with the same light level.

If you can't find reviews for the projector you're considering, one simple spec can help predict whether it will be bright enough: a brightness rating in ANSI lumens. (The ISO/IEC 21118 rating is equivalent, but rarely used for this class of projectors.) Broadly speaking, the projector brightness you need for movies in dim to moderate ambient light is 300 ANSI lumens for a 50-inch diagonal image, 200 ANSI lumens for a 40-inch image, and 110 ANSI lumens for a 30-inch image. To be safe, the rating should be about twice as high as the level you need; individual units often don't measure up to their ratings, and the brightest picture mode rarely has the best picture quality.

A good choice for a backyard with a fair amount of ambient light is the Miroir Synq M189. Rated at 200 LED lumens, or 150 ANSI lumens, in its brightest mode, it's easily bright enough for a 40-inch diagonal picture in dim to moderate ambient light, and it delivers accurate, nicely saturated color. The M189 has a single HDMI port that's particularly well suited for adding a streaming stick. All ports are hidden in a compartment that's big enough to hold your choice of stick, and there's also a USB-A port for power. The only other port is a 3.5mm audio out—and you may not need it, thanks to the onboard 5W mono speaker's robust audio.

A projector without a published ANSI lumen rating may still be worth considering. Try asking the manufacturer for the rating, or purchase the projector from an outlet that allows no-cost returns and test it for yourself.

Ignore any claim stating how large an image a projector can give you. These are almost always based on how large an image the lens can throw without distortion. They tell you nothing about how washed out or watchable the image will be at the maximum size. Also ignore brightness claims in lux, LED lumens, or just lumens by itself. A lux reading doesn't tell you anything about the projector brightness, LED lumens are subjective, and "lumens" by itself is often used for LED lumens or a measurement based only on the brightest spot of the image. 

Almost any white or near-white flat surface can serve as a screen, and plenty of garage doors, walls, and bedsheets have served that purpose. But to get the best-looking, brightest image, you need either a screen designed for that purpose or something truly smooth, flat, and white. 

Unfortunately, screens would make good sails. Most portable screens aren't designed for outside use and can topple over with even mild breezes. Screen frames designed for the outdoors have large feet or bases, wires, and stakes to keep them upright, but they take more work to set up than you'll want to invest in an impromptu movie night. Almost all are larger than you need, and many cost hundreds of dollars. But there are creative, inexpensive alternatives that will work almost as well as a traditional screen.

Photographer's seamless paper is one of the simplest options. It's best purchased at a local photo supply store. Paper is heavy, and having a roll shipped to your house can cost more than the roll itself. You'll want something similar to Adorama's Seamless Background paper, BD Super White. 

Look for a smooth surface, any variation of white for color, heavy enough paper weight so it won't tear or winkle easily, and an appropriate width for the largest image you want to project. For the projectors we're discussing here, that would be a 53-inch wide by 12-yard roll, which is $21.95 for the Adorama paper. One advantage of a roll is that you'll have plenty of extra paper; whenever the screen gets rained on or otherwise damaged, just make a new one.

To set the screen up for a movie, use double-sided, trace-free removable tape to mount it temporarily on a wall or garage door. You can also staple the top and bottom of the paper to a couple of two-by-fours, add screw-in eyelets to the top, and run a wire between the eyelets to hang from a hook. If needed, add some fishing weights to the bottom strip to keep the paper from curling up.

Another good, inexpensive alternative to an actual screen is white foam board laminated with smooth white paper. It's easy to find in various sizes. A 40-by-60-inch piece of Office Depot's store-brand board is just $12.99.

Avoid buying foam board online. Corners are often mashed in shipping. If you can't find the size you need locally, specify that you'll pick it up at a local store so you can check its condition before taking it home.

Like seamless paper, foam board is light enough to mount with double-sided, trace-free removable tape. Don't bother cutting it to size; once the movie gets good, you won't notice the white space around your projected image.

For inexpensive, low-brightness projectors, the appropriate screen size in most cases will be between 30 and 60 inches. The aspect ratio (width to height) should ideally be 16:9 for watching movies, but more square options (4:3 and 16:10 being the most common) will work too. Just set the projector so the image fills the width of the screen (assuming it delivers a bright enough image at that size), and ignore the unused area above and below the picture. 

Some outdoor screens are designed to let you set them up once and leave them outside for weeks at a time; others are not. If you decide to get one, make sure the material is designed to survive the weather and UV light, and is safe to clean with soap and water. 

The 16:9 Elite Screens Pop-Up Cinema Screen POP84H is larger than you're likely to need for the projectors we're covering here, but at 84 inches diagonally, it's smaller than most outdoor screens and therefore less expensive. It's also much lighter than many, at 6.9 pounds complete with its carrying case. Setup takes only a few minutes, thanks to a spring-loaded wire frame that unfolds the screen and holds it taut. Packing it up is also quick and easy. 

With its 1.1 gain, the POP84H boosts projector brightness by 10 percent over its 160-degree viewing angle. And if you upgrade to a brighter projector later, you'll be able take advantage of its full size, getting a bigger image without needing to buy another screen.

Any projector you get will have an HDMI port, which will let you connect a streaming HDMI stick, a wireless HDMI transmitter/receiver for connecting to your phone or laptop, or any cable box or media player. Many projectors, even inexpensive ones, offer additional options, such as built-in Wi-Fi or support for memory cards and USB drives. All of these possibilities are covered in more detail in our list of the best outdoor projectors.

There is one video source you can easily connect to without buying anything or lugging anything extra outside with the projector: your smartphone or tablet. If you choose a projector with Wi-Fi, and the Wi-Fi support includes screen mirroring that works with your mobile device (a detail you'll need to check), you can stream a movie on your phone while mirroring the display to the projector. 

For projectors that don't support Wi-Fi or wireless screen mirroring, most phones will still let you set up screen mirroring with a wired connection. The details vary depending on the phone, and setup tends to be easier with more recent models. If you have a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, for example, all you need to do is buy a USB-C–to-HDMI cable and connect it.

You probably want to stream that movie over Wi-Fi rather than max out your data plan. A Wi-Fi range extender can help the signal from your house reach your backyard. You can also get an HDMI transmitter and receiver set specifically designed for wirelessly linking the Blu-ray player or cable box in your living room with the projector outside.

For connecting a projector in your backyard to an HDMI video source in your family room, take a look at the Orei WHD-PRO330-K. It's one of the few HDMI 1080p transmitter and receiver combinations that has a range of up to 300 feet and also sends a signal through walls over shorter distances. 

You can connect the WHD-PRO330-K to a source in your family room by HDMI cable and leave it set up, using it for backyard movies as needed without having to plug and unplug cables. It also supports full-band IR transmission, which lets the remote for your video source control the source from the backyard.

Almost any projector you pick will have an onboard speaker, but few deliver sufficient volume or sound quality to be useful, even for a small group. Make sure that the projector has a 3.5mm audio out port, which is likely but not guaranteed, and invest in a waterproof speaker for greatly improved audio. Kindly keep your neighbors' comfort in mind when you set the sound level.

You can also use a Bluetooth speaker, but the nature of video and audio processing often leads to a loss of sync between the image and the sound, and audio-delay adjustments to compensate for a lag are rare for this class of projectors. If you go with a Bluetooth speaker, get one with an audio jack, just in case you need it.

Whether your projector supports Bluetooth audio or just has an audio out port, the Anker Soundcore Rave Neo is a great companion speaker. What makes it particularly attractive for outside use, in addition to its suitably high volume and sound quality, is IPX7 water resistance. It can weather a sudden cloudburst or handle being dropped into the shallow end of a pool (up to one meter or three feet deep) without damage. The fancy lights on the front can be disabled so they won't distract from your movie.

The easiest way to ruin an otherwise perfect movie night is to have your projector, speaker, or video source run out of power mid-movie. Even if each device has enough battery life for most movies, you don't want one to die toward the end of a double feature–or in the final dramatic scene of the four-hour Snyder cut of Justice League. 

Image brightness is often lower with battery power, particularly in Eco power modes that offer the longest battery life. And there's also the hassle of making sure every piece of equipment has fresh batteries or is fully charged before you set them up. For all these reasons, AC power is the best choice for all or most of your equipment. The one exception is if you're streaming from your phone or tablet; plugging it into a power bank will work just as well as plugging it into the wall.

For safety's sake, any outlet you plug into should include ground fault protection to guard against electrical hazards. If you don't already have a grounded outdoor outlet near the setup location, have one professionally installed. (No DIY electrical work, please.)

If you really don't have anywhere to plug things in, you'll need a portable projector like the Anker Nebula Mars II Pro. Its name mixes two distinctly different types of astronomical objects, but that may be because it's a fusion of two types of products. In addition to being a 500-lumen, 720p projector with preloaded streaming apps, including Netflix, and a link to download more, it's also a Bluetooth speaker. The dual-purpose design gives it an unusually robust sound system for a 3.9-pound projector. Part of that weight is for the onboard, rechargeable battery, rated at 3 hours for video or 30 hours in Bluetooth speaker mode.

For just a few dollars, supply your movie night with popcorn and candy. You could even make paper tickets. A little atmosphere goes a long way.

You probably won't buy a microwave oven just for movie popcorn, but the next time you're in the market for one, consider the Sharp Smart Countertop Microwave Oven (SMC1449FS). Not only does it have a Popcorn button optimized for popping Orville Redenbacher’s Classic (3.3-ounce) and Mini (1.2-ounce) bags of popcorn to perfection, it includes Wi-Fi and Alexa support. Tell Alexa to pop some popcorn, wait for the microwave to do its thing, and then go get it with minimum time missed from the movie. It's far more convenient than running out to a theater's concession stand.

Or go the extra mile and get an actual popcorn machine for movie nights, like the Great Northern Little Bambino Table Top Retro Machine Popcorn Popper. Available in black or red, it makes up to a gallon of popcorn per batch, has a built-in stirring system, and includes a warming light to keep the popped kernels warm until you get to them—just like the popcorn makers in movie theaters. Great Northern also sells popcorn scoops to go with the machine and even bags to put the popcorn in. There's no better way to get in the mood.

Now you're prepared with some of the best and most budget-friendly outdoor projectors on the market, a screen, a video source, and all the accessories you could want. The last thing you need is a favorite movie and some fine folks to share it with. Kick back and enjoy your outdoor movie night all the more because you know it didn't break the bank.

For more projector reviews, check out our picks for the best outdoor projectors and the best projectors we've tested. Not sure what to watch? Here's what's hot on streaming services right now.

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M. David Stone is a freelance writer and computer industry consultant. He's a confirmed generalist, with writing credits on subjects as varied as ape language experiments, politics, quantum physics, and an overview of a top company in the gaming industry. David has significant expertise in imaging technologies (including printers, monitors, large-screen displays, projectors, scanners, and digital cameras), storage (both magnetic and optical), and word processing.

David's 40-plus years of writing about science and technology include a longtime concentration on PC hardware and software. Writing credits include nine computer-related books, major contributions to four others, and more than 4,000 articles in national and worldwide computer and general interest publications. His books include The Underground Guide to Color Printers (Addison-Wesley) Troubleshooting Your PC, (Microsoft Press), and Faster, Smarter Digital Photography (Microsoft Press). His work has appeared in a number of print and online magazines and newspapers, including Wired, Computer Shopper, ProjectorCentral, and Science Digest, where he was Computers Editor. He also wrote a column for the Newark Star Ledger. His non-computer-related work includes the Project Data Book for NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (written for GE's Astro-Space Division) and occasional science fiction short stories (including publications in Analog).

Much of David's writing through 2016 was for PC Magazine and PCMag.com as a Contributing Editor and Lead Analyst for Printers, Scanners, and Projectors. He returned in 2019 as a Contributing Editor.

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