Customer Reviews

Samsung HT-C6930W 3D Blu-ray Home Theater System

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I had a 10-year-old rear projection TV (it died), so I went with the HT-C6930W home theater w/ 3D Blu-ray player and paired it with the PN58C8000 58" Plasma TV. A very good combo indeed! With respect to the Samsung Home Theater unit - lets talk about the 'pros' first...

Overall the components are all 'shiny black' and look futuristic without being gawdy. The Blu-ray player is the brains of the system, and it has a beautiful blue-glo when turned on through touch-sensitive icons that serve as buttons. Most programming is easier done through the remote.

There are many settings available on the Blu-Ray unit to tune sound and video. You won't be wanting there. Many of them will work 'just fine' in Auto, so you don't have to be a genius out-of-the-box. Still, you have the option of tweaking them.

Let's talk about the speakers - the front towers line up well sitting with your TV at eye-level. The center speaker sits well just below your TV screen, and the sub-woofer on the floor. The remaining 4 speakers provide your rear pair and side pair -OR- you can put one pair up-front to get 'vertical' sound. One of these pairs is 'wireless', sort of. The Blu-ray player has a transmitter card that sends the signal to a plugged-in reciever unit. The speakers still have wires running from the reciever to each speaker. Useful if you don't want to run wires from the front to the back of the room. Otherwise they aren't much of an improvement over wired. That said, they still sound very good, and 'no' you can't wire them into the Blu-ray player directly because there aren't any inputs for them on the player, so wireless components had better work. I only bring this up because on my first unit the wireless system didn't work, so I had to bring the whole home theater back in exchange for another one. Ignoring that - the speakers are very good.

The Dolby LPZII audio feature is amazing - beautiful 7.1 sound and even with HD cable most all of the stations take full advantage of it.

Cons - let's talk about them:

I already mentioned that the wireless speaker are just 2 of them, and there are still wires. Of course, to power speakers without wires you need each speaker to have it's own power source (either a battery, or a power cord). So, it does eliminate running wires from front of room to back, and that's helpful. Too bad my first wireless components were bad, and I worry that in the future, if they fail again, I'll have to return the whole system (not just the wireless) for repair.

Some of the video and sound settings seem to fight with each other. They have a feature to level sound when switching TV channels (so the volume won't suddenly increase on you), but that turns off the LPZII feature. Similar thing with video. But, this is the exception, and most all features don't fight with each other.

Overall, this is a great system, and it integrates well with the latest flat screen TVs, plays Blu-ray well, and even works with the Samsung 3D glasses (I got 2 pairs and 'monsters vs. aliens' 3D for free because I bought both Samsung TV and 3D Blu-ray player as a combo). They should just include this 'starter kit' with every 3D Blu-ray system. That will get more people to buy 3D movies.

Summing up - this is a great system, just hope it doesn't need service because it's a monster to return. And they should make the 3D glasses part of the package.

Well as you can tell by the title what I think about this system. I would have given it 5 stars if only the music sounded good, but it comes off as boom box sound with a sub woofer. The DVD/Blue-Ray video and audio playback is where this system really shines. DVD up conversion is really good but not as sharp and pristine as Blu-ray. Setting it up with the sound calibrator works wonders as my right rear speakers are six feet further from my listening position than my left. Once calibrated you get the correct, in my opinion, amount of bass for the soundtrack and correct sound leveling for all speakers. Word of caution as the sound calibrator is very loud in when setting up. Paired up with my Samsung 46" LED LCD 6900 series TV sets up optimum video performance automatically, which is a beautiful thing. I cannot comment on 3D video playback because my TV is not equipped to do so but was worth getting just in case I do. A wireless card comes with the unit and will allow you to software upgrade the unit, view netflix movies and has a lot of other cool apps that may be to your liking. The rear surround speaker are wireless, not the rear speakers themselves, which are attached via a wireless receiver box that has to be plugged into a power outlet. In conclusion this is definitely a 5 Star unit for movies at this price range, but I have to take off 1 star because of the boxy music sound.

The player/receiver stopped sending a signal to my TV after about 1 month of use. I did basic troubleshooting to verify it was a problem with the receiver itself. After contacting customer service and dealing with their staggering incompetence (sending me a shipping label with an incorrect address even after I spelled it phonetically for the customer service agent and some other errors) I finally managed to send it off to be repaired. When I got the product back in about 3 weeks after my initial problems I set it up and experienced the exact same problem. Nothing was fixed. I believe they just put a sticker on it and sent it back. I had to send it for `repairs' AGAIN. Hopefully it will be working when I get it back.

I would like to comment on some of the other features but this Blu-ray player has been inoperable or out for repair longer than I have had it working. I don't remember being incredibly impressed with the features when it did function.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this home theater system and stick with Samsung TVs/monitors which have never given me a problem.

I tried to post a negative review on Samsung's official site for this product but the review was unsurprisingly denied.

Let me start off by saying that at this price range the speaker performance and amount of functions the system has makes it a great deal. And if your looking to have have DLP IIz set up it'll work just fine for you. However having said that this system is not designed for a traditional 7.1 set up!

To start with only 2 of the 4 rear speakers are wireless. The surround back speakers are still wired, while the surround speakers are wireless. Therefor if you configure your system in a standard 7.1 system you will still have to run at least two speaker wires to the back of the room, ultimately defeating the purpose of having a wireless set up. Even if you can overlook this not so wireless solution you'll then realize that the surround speakers and the surround back speakers are designed backwards! In a traditional 7.1 setup the two wired speakers become the far back speakers that should be facing the back of the head, requiring more wiring over a greater distance. The two wireless speakers are then used as the two that should be facing the side of the head, This then requires the wireless receiver to be placed right in the middle of the room, or half way in between each speaker. I guess this would be all right if you were placing them on a table or something right behind were you are sitting, but if you are mounting them on the wall you are stuck with either running wires across the floor to the right and left or some how mounting the wireless receiver on the ceiling and then running the wires to the right or left across it. The logical solution should have been to have the wired speakers facing the head and then the back speakers be the wireless set saving on wiring and and the positioning of the wireless receiver. Much like their Sony counterpart.

Overall I just can't help but feel that the original design of the system was a 5.1 setup, that was recycled and then had two more speakers "ducked" on to make it 7.1 . It just doesn't make any sense to me at all to make 2 rear speakers wireless and then require the 2nd two rear speakers to be wired, it just completely self defeating.

Setting this product up was the WORST experience I have EVER had with a Samsung product. Someone at Samsung should be fired for allowing a product with Beta firmware (at best) to be shipped. I love my Samsung TV (55" 8000 series) but.....their C6930W 3D Home Theater system is mediocre at best. I would rate their UI, firmware, and user manual a 1 star. I would give them a -1 in these areas if Amazon allowed.

The wireless rear speakers were either not well thought out or Samsung was just too cheap to do it right. You can only attach two of your four rear speakers to the wireless receiver. The other two rear speakers MUST be attached to the Blu-ray/FM receiver, so...out-of-the-box speaker placement options are constrained and therefore may affect your listening experience. I would rate them a 2.5 in this area.

As with other manufacturers, you will likely need at least two remote controls to operate your entire home entertainment system. I have a Scientific Atlanta remote control that I use for most stuff, but....I still need at least one other remote control for certain functions. Navigation in general on home entertainment systems leaves a lot to be desired, so I wont rate them on this one. My hope is that the intersection of TV & internet will finally spur someone to create a better mouse trap.

The overall sound quality is reasonably good for a sound system in this price range. I would rate them a 4 in this area.

The glossy finish on the product looks nice when its clean, but it's easy to scratch and shows ALL fingerprints, dirt, etc...

The version 1008.4 firmware update solved a lot of the initial problems I was experiencing, so...I rate the product a 3 overall. I've had above average experiences with other Samsung products (this has been by far the worst). Most of the problems I see with this product can be corrected via software, firmware, and user manual updates, so....hopefully Samsung will continue to address.

It was fairly easy to set up, there are lots of parts and wires still. This is not a knock on the product I just wish there was a way to have all the speakers completely wireless and have an efficient way to power them(have my cake and eat it too). Nobody likes wires. I love this product so far. I like all the features so far, have not figured all of them out but when I do it will be fun. Playing movies it sounds great, playing music it is good for me, because the volume does not go very loud. It works great with my Samsung TV.

We bought Samsung's home theater system. It worked reasonably well for a very short while, before the receiver suffered a debilitating hardware fault. Samsung accepted that the unit was defective and repaired it. Eighteen months later, the issue rematerialized, but Samsung refused to re-correct it - irrespective of the fact that their repair job didn't last.

Numerous calls to customer service achieved nothing more than unfulfilled promises that a manager would call us back, and the following message (almost verbatim):
"due to normal wear and tear, it is unreasonable to expect Samsung products to last longer than 18 months."

I've been using this system for about a month now and I like the way it looks as well as the sound quality. Don't expect an ultra professional system, but it's worth what you pay. I would agree with another reviewer, the sound is better with movies than music.

I didn't know this since I purchased the system: (this may change with a firmware upgrade in the future), but the Internet@TV contents of this system are not the same as the contents you get with an Internet@TV enabled Samsung HDTVs (xxxx6500 or later). Unfortunately, you do not get the Amazon VOD or other Yahoo! widgets with this sound system, the ones you get with this one are all Samsung Apps which is a different set. This was a bit disappointing. This should have been clearly indicated in product descriptions.

I was a bit hesitant after reading some negative reviews, but this model had everything that I was looking for in one box -- hard to resist. I am pleased to report that I have had zero problems with this unit. I was especially surprised to find that my unit shippped fully 3D ready with the latest firmware update already installed. I went to update the firmware and was so happy to get the message that I already have the latest firmware. Mine is connected to a Verizon Fios HD STB and a Vizio 55-inch 3D LED HDTV. I have not played a 3D DVD yet, but I have watched 3D pay-per-view movies on Fios. I did have the movie get "stuck" once, but I don't know if that had anything to do with the home theater -- it more likely had something to do with the Fios signal. The sound quality is certainly not professional home theater quality, but it is great for everyday use and good enough for enjoying movies in surround sound. I love the "wireless" rear speakers -- they work great. I put the other rear speakers above my TV in the IIz setup as described in the manual. Not the most impressive surround sensation in this set up, but it makes for a nice clean living room setup without a bunch of wires everywhere. I just hope that everything holds up well over time. The DVD disc tray and access panel for the usb port are pretty flimsy.

While the price is a bit steep, I highly recommend this system. Amazing picture and sound quality. That being said I don't understand why on earth the touch sensitive buttons on the disc player are on top? Most people put the player in a entertainment center where the front is accessible. Also I wish the speaker towers were an adjustable height. Other than that I like everything else. The wires for the speakers are super long and the wireless speakers in the rear are great addition. The front access ports for a USB drive and a Mic are perks as well.