Samsung HTDM150 at £199

[bonzobanana]

Seems like skybuy have some stock remaining of these excellent and highly reviewed all in one systems;

http://skybuy.sky.com/addToBasket2.a...660,,,,,&qty=1

Reviews;

http://www.whathomecinemamag.com/cgi...?reviewid=2697

http://www.whatvideotv.com/testbench...ngHT-DM150.php

http://www.totaldvd.net/reviews/Home...ngHT-DM150.php

[mxs]

Pay an extra £50 and go for a Sony DAVS 550. I think Richer sounds are still doing this deal

[bonzobanana]

Why would you want to do that? The DAVS550 has a lousy dvd drive, grainy s-video picture, zero rgb scart connections and a gutless subwoofer. It poorly supports other formats like vcd/svcd, requires a special remote to make multiregion and multiregion ability can be lost if the system has a hard reset due to error.

Its a lovely stylish system don't get me wrong but unless you can make use of its component output socketry or want SACD support its the wrong system for most people in the uk. There are many better options out there.

There are dvd players costing £30 that have a better picture than the DAVS550 on most tvs because the sony has no RGB output.

thanks for the info on this system and the links to the reviews. I ordered one yesterday and arrived home from work today to find that the parcel company had attempted to deliver it...
quick work eh
looking forward to setting it up tomorrow
will post again once it is up and running

[bonzobanana]

Any problems setting up don't hesitate to ask. One thing not made clear in the instructions is that in the speaker box you should find some chunky stick on rubber/foam feet. These are for use with the five satellite speakers (not subwoofer). If you mount the speaker on the wall (they have wall hanging holes at the back) then isolate them slightly from the screw by putting pvc tape around the screw and then use the 3 or 4 of the pads to isolate the speaker from touching the wall behind. This improves sound. If the satellites are shelf mounted then put some of these foam pads underneath to isolate from the shelf.

Also you will need to tame the subwoofer unless your hiding it behind the sofa by reducing its power. Its the same subwoofer supplied with other samsung systems most of which are less powrful so the htdm150 drives it a bit too strongly.

A good test for speaker rattle/vibration is running it at high volume playing the fifth element where the alien diva opera singer sings.

When you use the testtone button on the remote to make sure all speakers are connected be aware that no sound comes out of the subwoofer as it can't produce the high frequencies of the test tone.

Have fun.

yep its a good one, got it for ma and par over a year ago, very good 1 box, better than that Sony....any easy to multi region hack.

Darren

bonzobanana
Thanks for the instructions and the offer of further help in setting up.
I am planning to unpack it tomorrow; get rid of all the kids for a couple of hours and give it a whirl.
Although I have owned good quality Hi-fi separates for a number of years, I am a complete novice with home cinema equipment,so I may well need advice on cabling etc.
I have ordered one of these for starters :-

Thor 1.5m Scart To Scart

cheers
George