the Samsung 945 Max home theater system
(DVD player/CD/stereo system, etc..)
Husband wants this and I need some opinions!
and does anyone know a price range for this item?
Thanks!
ok, here is the system...any thoughts??http://www.samsungelectronics.com/products/audio/max945d.html


[This message has been edited by Loribean (edited September 13, 2000).]

Not familiar with this system. Is your husband looking for a starter home theater setup (DVD, receiver, 5 speakers, sub)? Not sure what your pricerange is, but for around $400-$500 you can get the Kenwood HTB-503... by nearly all acounts this is the best Theater in a Box you can get for anywhere around it's pricerange, then you just need a DVD player for another $200-$300.

The only drawback is this system is really only meant for small to medium size rooms. It probably wouldnt sound too good in a large living or family room.

Brian

Also not familiar with the Samsung system. Sony does have a HTIB system that includes a reciever/DVD combo and speakers for around $600. Again it is designed for small to medium sized rooms. I am not sure if it has an AM/FM tuner. Pioneer has a similar system but I believe it costs around $700-800. If you are willing to spend extra money and do some research you might be better off buying the speakers, DVD player, receiver etc seperately. Again it depends on exactly what you are looking for, what you are primarily going to use the setup for and how often you are going to use it. http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/smile.gif http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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MY SHORT BUT SLOWLY EXPANDING DVD LIST

"The earth does not belong to people; people belong to the earth. Everything that happens to the earth happens also to the sons and daughters of the earth." -Chief Seattle.

Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...........
Anybody?
Help!
THANKS!

What are you using this for? For DVD's mostly? Living room? Bed room? Den? I wouldn't buy this for your main movie system... Here's why... See that second line down?



Dolby Pro-Logic

I'm assuming your going with Samsung for the value price but if you look around you will find better all-in-one boxes for around the same price from more reliable companies.

Samsung scares me!

http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/eek.gif

So what is wrong with Samsung?
you're scaring me...lol!
I am totally new to this so I have no ideas on what to look for!
What is Dolby pro logic? and why is it bad?
oh, and this is just for a living room area ( small)

[This message has been edited by Loribean (edited September 16, 2000).]

Any thoughts?

Samsung is a "relative newbie" in home electronics and haven't established themselves as much as other companies such as Sony, Toshiba or Panasonic have. They seem to have innovative products and offer them at great prices but they have reliability problems with some of their products.
Samsung has had problems with thier DVD players. DVD's that utilize newer technologies such as seamless branching have not played well in past players...whether they've fixed them I don't know. Some Samsung DVD owners haven't had any problem but the majority of the DVD player problems you will hear about seem to come from Samsung DVD players.

As for Dolby Pro Logic:
Movie sound comes in many flavours. You have:
1. Mono: which is 1 channel
2. Stereo: 2 channels (a left and a right)
3. Dolby Surround: 4 channels (front left, front right, front center, and mono surround)
4. Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1: 5 channels (front left, front right, front center, right surround and left surround, and subwoofer channel)

Dolby Surround has been around for a while. Dolby Digital 5.1 has "replaced" Dolby Surround as the "premier" sound format. Dolby Digital 5.1 is superior to Dolby Surround in many way...that is why people have been saying Pro Logic is "bad". Its not necessarily bad. Its actually quite good but it is the older format and because everything practically comes out now with a Dolby Digital soundtrack you don't want to limit yourself to a piece of equipment that can only decode Dolby Surround but not Dolby Digital.

A Dolby Surround decoder is called Dolby Pro Logic.

To listen to DVD's in Dolby Digital, you need a Dolby Digital decoder.
To listen to DVD's in DTS (a rival sound format to Dolby Digital), you need a DTS decoder. DTS uses less compression so some say that it sounds better than Dolby Digital but its a preference thing. Dolby Digital is mandatory on all DVD's whereas DTS is optional so sometimes you won't find a DTS soundtrack on DVD's.

Another thing: Dolby Digital does not necessarily mean 5.1 or 6.1. It refers to how the sound is encoding. That is why you will see numbers after "Dolby Digital" that indicates how many channels there are.

If you're tight on budget and must go with a Home theater in a box package then that's what you have to do I guess. I'd suggest another company though.
Ideally though you would want to go the separate route (separate DVD player, receiver, speakers) because it offers more flexibility.
Hope that helps.
Andy

Whew, Thanks!
we finally ended up with just a basic DVD player and will look for a new sound system later!
Thanks all!

[This message has been edited by Loribean (edited October 14, 2000).]