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66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I Really Really Wanted to like it!, December 14, 2009
This review is from: Samsung HT-BD8200 Blu-Ray Sound Bar Home Theater System (Black) (Electronics)
When my 10 year old projection TV finally died recently, it was finally a good enough reason to buy a flat panel TV. I ended up buying the Samsung UN55B6000 55" LED. Of course once I got it home it confirmed to me what I knew would be the case, the sound on flat panels isn't great. It's just hard to make speakers small enough for a flat panel that are big enough to be good.
So after all of my hunting, I found the HT-BD8200. I thought it would be perfect. I could get rid of the stack of stereo and AV components and replace them with this. In theory it can replace the Radio tuner, CD player, DVD player, Blu Ray player and receiver.
I received it, hooked it up and started admiring it (I discovered rather rudely that Samsung does not put an HDMI cable in the $800 box so had to go buy one). The wireless subwoofer is awesome and I was able to hide it out of view behind the couch. The unit itself looks like it was made for my TV. It's the same glossy black glass look with the red touch of color.
I had visions of wall mounting my TV with the HT-BD8200 wall mounted right under it (it comes with a wall mount kit).
The controls on the unit are super cool touch controls. No buttons, just symbols on the top of the disc drive area that light up. Just touch the glass over the control and a small beep lets you know it's activated.
It comes with a wifi adapter so that you can stream netflix, pandora, blockbuster etc. to it over your wifi network at home.
I could babble on forever about the cool things it does which is why it breaks my heart to have to list the bad things and ultimately why I had to return it.
Once I got over the thrill of having a new toy, I started to notice buggy behavior that makes me think Samsung rushed this out or cobbled it together without enough QA testing.
- "MODE NOT SUPPORTED"
Since I connected the unit to my TV with HDMI, it activated the Samsung "Anynet" feature which basically let's the TV and soundbar talk to each other and activate Samsung specific features. For example, when you put a disc in the soundbar, it'll automatically change the TV to the correct input and start playing the disc so that you don't have to go through the "source" menu on the TV. What I found was that from time to time I'd put a disc in the soundbar, it'd change the source on the TV but then the TV would just display "Mode Not Supported".
Nothing in the manual said anything about this error and a google search came up with a million unrelated postings about the error on various Samsung products. I was able to get around it by switching the HDMI cable to another port on the TV. When the error would come up again, I'd switch it back to the original port and it would work again. Pretty crappy for an $800 product.
- "Misbehaving Night Light"
Like my TV, the soundbar has a small accent light at the bottom of the center of the unit. You can set it to be on while the unit is on, off, or all the time. I set to to be on when the unit is on. When I went to bed I turned the unit off and the light went off. The next day when I came home from work the light was on and the unit was off. I checked the setting in the menus and it was still set to be off when the unit was off... but it was on. Annoying
- "Ghost in the machine"
The soundbar started to turn itself on by itself. The first time it happened I thought maybe I had left it on without realizing it. So I made it a point to verify it was off when I went out the next day and sure enough it was back on when I came back that night. I had to start leaving it set to an unused input before turning it off to make sure it wouldn't come on blasting the radio mid day or mid night.
- "Low Volume on TV"
The volume when watching movies or listening to CD's can reasonably loud. Don't get me wrong, you cannot ever go deaf listening to this unit on max volume because it just doensn't go that loud but watching TV, the max volume seems to be roughly one third lower than on movies. I found myself watching tv on maximum volume all the time. If it was loud outside or someone was making noise in another room, max wasn't loud enough.
I thought maybe the HDMI audio was the issue so I went and bought an Optical Cable (buy the AmazonBasics one, good price and decent quality). I hooked up the Optical cable to my TV and the result was exactly the same. I then hooked the optical cable directly to my cable box. Exactly the same. Nothing could make the soundbar louder while watching TV. The TV speakers themselves were often similar in volume or louder than the soundbar. The difference was that the soundbar had richer sound. Still not acceptable when the main reason I'm buying it is because I need more volume.
- "Anynet" annoyance
As this list grew and my patience thinned, I finally hit the last straw. I wanted to play a music CD while putting around the house. The TV and soundbar were off. I turned the soundbar on and dropped in a CD. The soundbar automatically activated the anynet feature, turned on the TV and switched to the HDMI input for the soundbar as if I was going to watch a movie. Apparently Samsung didn't bother programming the soundbar not to switch if it's an audio CD. "no big deal, turn off the TV" you say? I did... and Anynet promptly shut the soundbar off with the TV. ARRRRGH!
Could I just disable anynet? Sure! But losing a big chunk of functionality when I bought two Samsung products that are supposed to work together is unreasonable to me, especially when they are as expensive as these are.
So I resigned myself to thinking this was a defective unit and I'd give it another try. I boxed it up and sent it back to Amazon. I was ready to reorder a new one, but they weren't in stock. I decided this was a good thing as if mine was defective, hopefully I'd get a newer one from a newer batch.
I waited a couple of weeks and Amazon finally got them back in stock. I ordered another and it arrived. I connected it and found that only ONE of the issues above had gone away. The new unit didn't turn itself on by itself. All of the other issues were still there.
I finally had to give up and admit that this product is just not what I hoped for and the quality was not worth $800. I sent it back and am now looking for an alternative.
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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it, September 20, 2009
This review is from: Samsung HT-BD8200 Blu-Ray Sound Bar Home Theater System (Black) (Electronics)
I used to have a DirecTV DVR (stopped the service, but still had lots recorded on it), a (sucky) DVD player (do not buy cheap GE products), a VHS player (also sucky, but indestructible), a great bookshelf stereo, a video game console, a TV and an input selector to switch between all of them. Connecting all these devices was a fishing net of cables that could drown a dolphin educated in basket weaving. Just disconnecting and reconnecting all those cables to move stuff around easily took 45 to 60 minutes. (I like them to be tidy, but I don't take the time to label them. Go figure.) Also, the whole setup was contained in an Ikea entertainment center that was 3 feet tall, 2 feet deep and just over 4 feet long.
Enter the HT-BD8200.
I knew I wanted this thing when I heard it's announcement last January. The more I read about it, the more I liked it. It seemed to have every feature I was looking for: compact size, wireless networking, connects to network accessible hard drives to show audio and video and images, streams Netflix and Pandora Internet radio, Blu-Ray (so I can be like the hip kids). Wall mountable, too! This thing was finally released in August, and I scooped 1 up. But, at $800 I started to worry that my expectations were a little high, and that I would be sorely disappointed.
Streaming Netflix directly to the TV is pretty cool. You cannot search for movies to watch through this system, but after you add them to your Watch Instantly queue on the Netflix website, the movie is immediately available to watch through the HT-BD8200. Similarly, the streaming Pandora music is cool, but also has limitations.
My HT-BD8200 is connected to my TV (also Samsung) by HDMI, both of which have the AnyConnect+ feature, which allows the 2 devices to adjust each other depending on what I am trying to watch. One thing I dislike about the streaming music feature; if I switch the TVs input source to the video game input, the music is turned off so that the HT-BD8200 can play the sound from the video game. What I wanted to do, though, was surf the web with the video game console while listening to Pandora's music. This could be a configuration problem, and there's probably a way around it, but for now, it's only slightly annoying.
The 2.1 virtual surround sound is really good. It can definitely put out more noise than I care to find out. With the volume at 20 (I think it goes to 100), I can easily feel the hardwood floor vibrate from the bass. I'm no audiophile, but I appreciate quality sound. The HT-BD8200 produces crisp, rich and clean sound. The virtual surround sound does work provided the sound being played was recorded with surround sound.
I feel like I have only dabbled in its many features. For example, I have not been able to get it to see a hard drive on my computer running Ubuntu/Linux, but a stand-alone networked hard drive should work well.
Yes, it's expensive, but it seems to have just about everything I can ask a small, wall mountable, attractive system to be capable of.
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26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
HT-BD8200, October 28, 2009
This review is from: Samsung HT-BD8200 Blu-Ray Sound Bar Home Theater System (Black) (Electronics)
SAMSUNG HT-BD8200 - I like it, but I hate it. Requires that you use HDMI cable AND Optical cable. When connected to the new Samsnug LED TV's, it disables ALL special sound features, and many picture features on my SAMSUNG UN55B8000 and 8500. The most anoying is the Automatic sound level that gets disabled. One channel volume is blaring, while another is low.. Whats up with that? when you disconnect this unit, everything is fine. You can configure the soundbar to turn off with the TV, but not to turn it on. You must keep BOTH remotes handy at all times because Samsungs own LED TV remotes will not work on the sound bar. Whats up with that? When you use this with WIFI, it conflicts with many other WIFI devices during power on causing connections to fail on other wireless devices(computers etc), while the HT-BD8200 powers on. All settles down and other WIFI devices start working again in a few minutes. It does not give any likness to 5.1 sound.
Overall, its overpriced .. It has some problems, I should have sent it back, but I didnt. The Netflix streaming is cool, but The HT-BD8200 does hang during netfix play, and needs powered off and back on every few days. I will live with it till its oblsolite.
The sound IS better than just TV speakers, but the loud fan noise kinda offsets that plus.
When I first called Samnung Tech support to report the flaws they had never heard of the HT-BD8200, whats up with that? finally after a week or so of calling for support, was told they have no plans to update the firware. I was given an option to send it back to Samsung for repair at my expense. I choose to just live with the flaws, but I kept thinking to myself, I bought it new, I should not to have to live with a repaired unit. I expect the repaired replacment would have been somone elses return with its own set of problems, and at least i know whats wrong with this one .. hahaha
Bottom line.
1)There are many formats listed in the manaual that clearly state will not play
2)This sound bar does not integrate with samsungs own high end TV's(cant speak for other TV makes and modles)
3)Loud fan noise
4)Flawed WIFI causes interfearance with other devices on your local Wireless
5)loose USB ports on internal circuit boards may be contributing to its issues
6)special TV sound and video features become disabled (at least on my 8000/8500 LED TV's)
7) There are some oddities with 8200 powering itself off when nteflix play times out, but not the TV.
8) There are some oddities with 8200 powering off the TV when removing a DVD, and closing the drive but not the 8200.
I see a lot of reviews from people who have paid full price, and are totally happy. I would question those, seriously ...
I say, buy it, and see for yourself. Just make sure they have a liberal return policy and dont pay full list price. I predict You will see it for $500 or less. Prices are droping on this unit for a reason.
(update, I did see this priced at $480 during christmas)
Lower price = fewer expecations. for the right price, its a GREAT sound bar.
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