Introduction

Home theater has finally made that great leap from a hobby for a handful of single-minded enthusiasts to something that the average person understands and enjoys. Of course as we all get used to our home theaters, with large screens and multi-channel sound, we've become spoiled. We go to friend's houses or on vacation and suffer through watching movies on ordinary TVs! Wouldn't it be great if there were an easy way to bring a home theater system along? As it turns out, there is.

The PLUS Piano HE-3100's small size and light weight make it the ideal display device around which to create a portable home theater system. Not portable in the sense of an audio boom box - an all-in-one battery-powered unit with handle so it can be toted to the beach. Instead, we're talking about a system that can easily be packed up and quickly reassembled. Maybe "transportable" is a better term.

In addition to the Piano, developments in other areas make the concept of a portable or transportable home theater possible. High quality pop-up screens that roll up into their own carrying case solve the screen issue. Today's DVD players are light and relatively compact and so easily taken along. Even better would be a portable DVD player. They're barely larger than a portable CD player and virtually all of them offer outputs for sending the video and audio signals to external components. For sound, an all-important ingredient for a theater-like experience, any of the many good quality powered PC speakers work very nicely. With built-in amplification, they eliminate the need for an external receiver or amp, and there are many configurations to choose from, ranging from a basic two-channel setup (the easiest to pack) to 5.1-channel systems.

So here's a list of what I recently used to create a complete portable home theater system:

With the exception of the screen and optional projector stand, it's possible to pack these items into two bags - one for the Piano (it comes with its own carrying bag) and another large duffle bag (or similar) to carry the DVD player, speakers and cables.

I packed up a system like what's outlined here, took it to a friend's house, and set it up for a night of movie watching. Let's go through what was involved in the set up and you'll see just how easy it is.

The Room

You will definitely need a room with a reasonable amount of space. Just how much is determined by the size of the screen. Working with my 73-inch screen, my first step was to see if the projector could be placed far enough from the screen so that the image fills the screen. In the Piano manual and on the PLUS home theater website is a screen distance chart. I took the dimensions and aspect of our screen and using the chart determined that the projector had to be about nine feet from the screen to fill it with an image.

Equipment Setup

Screen
I set up the screen first because in most rooms there are typically fewer options for screen placement. Also, the position of the other components is best determined once the screen is in place.

Speakers
Since I was using a two-speaker set-up, there's really no question about placement. They belong in the front of the room on either side of the screen. It would be disconcerting to say the least if the sound came from any other direction, especially the dialogue. In a temporary setup like this there's no need to fret about whether both speakers are at ear height or even whether each is at the same height. However, I definitely suggest getting them up off the floor.

DVD Player
In this setup I located my DVD player on an end table near where I placed the screen. This minimizes the distance from the DVD player to the PC speakers, so the connecting cables don't have to be unusually long.

Projector
By using the screen distance chart mentioned earlier, I know that the projector needs to be about nine feet from the screen. In this case my friend's glass coffee table made the perfect stand, sitting at just about 18 inches high. I placed the projector on top, centered with the screen and left it there, turned off, while I prepared the wiring.

Wiring
I positioned the power strip at the front of the room, out of view. I then plugged the 12' extension cord and the power cords for the DVD player and the PC speakers into the strip. Next, I plugged the S-video cable into the DVD player and then ran the extension cord and S-video cable as neatly as possible under the couch at the side of the room and to the Piano and connected them to the projector. Finally, I plugged the PC speakers into the DVD player. The speakers I was using came with RCA plugs, so the connection to the DVD player was a snap. However, the wiring for many PC speakers terminates in a mini-plug. That's no problem - you just need a mini jack to RCA Y-adapter (mini jack on one end; two male RCA plugs on the other).

This completed the initial stage of setup.

Equipment Adjustments

With the equipment set up and connected, the next step is to make some final adjustments.

Test Material
I first placed my "Austin Power's: Spy Who Shagged Me" DVD into the DVD player, and hit "play". If you've got an audience while making adjustments, a movie like this is a good choice - nobody is eager to see the movie yet again in its entirety, but it's always fun to see a few of the funnier scenes one more time.

The first thing I checked was the sound, making sure that I had a signal from both speakers. If you don't, check the connections.

Alignment - Projector vs Screen
This is always the fun part. Aligning the projector with the screen requires some patience. Depending on whether there is carpeting (and if so, how plush), the stand you are using, and general traffic in and out of the room, alignment can be easy or tricky. I powered on the projector and let it warm up. Then I selected my video-input source, S-Video. After I had an image projecting onto the screen, I selected the 16:9 aspect ratio on the Piano's remote control. This gave me the image I needed, in its proper aspect ratio, to complete the screen alignment.

My next step was to adjust the distance between screen and projector. The image didn't fill the screen all the way across, which meant that the projector was a little too close to the screen. To correct this, I brought the Piano back a few inches until I had what seemed to be the perfect screen fill. I then adjusted the height of the screen by pulling it down a bit until I had the perfect top-to-bottom fit. Finally, I noticed that the image was slightly crooked (likely due to the thick carpet, so the table wasn't perfectly level). A few turns of the Piano's adjustment feet and the image was perfect. The entire alignment process took about five minutes, but of course I've done this a few times. But even 10 minutes would be no big deal.

The Outcome

After adjusting the image we were able to take a step back and enjoy what we'd accomplished after just 30 minutes of work. I demonstrated to the guys the menu system and the "tweakable" features while the ladies had to concede that the wiring wasn't quite the mess they'd anticipated and the theatre-like image was well worth it. We grabbed our party snacks, dimmed the lights, sat down and enjoyed five hours of movies, games and fun. All told, it was a great night. Pack-up took only 15 minutes and one trip to the car.

Notes and Options

I used a very small sound setup. As mentioned earlier, you could invest a little more money into a more expensive PC speaker system that would include four or five speakers and a sub-woofer. Even these more sophisticated PC speaker setups are a far cry from a genuine home 5.1- or 6.1-channel surround sound setup, but for a portable home theater they can deliver remarkably good performance, far and away better than what a television set can provide. Naturally, as you add more speakers there's more to carry and set-up.

If this is something you might do regularly, a second DVD player might make sense, either another home player or a portable, doing away with the hassle of disconnecting and reconnecting the player from your home theater system. Home player prices are way down, and a second player can always be used with a bedroom TV or elsewhere. A portable might make sense if you travel often. It can provide personal on-the-go entertainment, yet also do double duty as a second home player. Portable players are, of course, much more costly than home models.

Finally, setup time can vary. I'm experienced, so it didn't take long at all. But I can't see the setup outlined here taking longer then 60 minutes the first time even for the most technically inept. And of course, each subsequent set-up should be easier than the last.

So next time you plan a weekend at a friend's place or book a vacation rental, why not bring along a home theater system. You might find that you become a much sought after guest.

The End

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