Anyone can drag a big 4K TV outside and call it good. But that’s not the drive-in experience we’re looking for. Like movie theaters, your backyard movie night is going to begin with two crucial components: a backyard projector and a screen to project upon.
For the best outdoor viewing experience there are two must-haves in a projector. Lumens and resolution are your make-or-break ingredients. Lumens refers to the level of brightness the projector can produce. Every backyard is different, but you still have to pierce the darkness to showcase your movies. Outdoors projectors with 500 lumens work fantastically well, and can show movies on pretty much any surface with no problems at night. You can use a large full 1080p HD projector or a cinematic 4K projector, but those may be too bulky for outdoors use, and do require complex setup. Portable projectors work much better in a backayrd.
Certainly, a masterpiece 4K HDR projector has amazing technology, but to be frank it'll be wasted in the great outdoors. Those projectors are designed for a proper home cinema experience. With a portable you can still enjoy views of 100" or bigger, and with support for 1080p native resolution, at outdoor/backyard distances the image quality will be more than fine.
Your backyard movie party should be just that. A party. Watching a movie should not be as complicated as launching a new mission to Mars. The quicker you can set up the quicker you can tend to those burgers and bratwurst. Light and portable projectors make setup a snap, with simple hinge adjustment so you don't need to place them on a stack of magazines to get the right angle.