Samsung HT-DS690 DVD Home Theater System with Wireless Surround Speakers

by Samsung

Product Details

Product Manual [9.56mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0002CEJVC
• Item model number: HTDS690
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,352 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

High technology, high style, and high convenience--the only thing about Samsung's HT-DS690 home theater system that isn't high is the price. The set delivers DVD and music playback in dynamic surround sound, without the need to drape speaker wires across your living room for the surround speakers. That's right: the HT-DS690 comes with a special high-bandwidth 2.4 GHz digital transmitter that beams the data for the system's left and right surround speakers right to a nearby wireless receiver, so you can enjoy enveloping multichannel surround sound without the fuss of drilling holes or hiding speaker cables.

The front left, right, and center speakers all use cables, of course (supplied), but--being closer to the system's unified DVD player/surround receiver--they'll be relatively unobtrusive. The HT-DS690 spins DVD-Video, high-resolution DVD-Audio, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) CD, as well as JPEG image CD--great for living-room slide shows of your digital photos.

The amplifier delivers 100 watts per channel to each of the system's 3 front speakers (left, center, and right), along with 60 wpc to the left/right surrounds. The stand-alone subwoofer receives a hefty 100 watts for wall-whopping bass. A built-in AM/FM tuner comes with 30 station presets for easy tuning to your favorite stations.

All major movie and music surround signals are decoded and routed to their appropriate speakers: multichannel DVD-Audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II (which generates 5.1 surround from any stereo source, whether movie or music), and DTS 5.1-channel surround sound. The system includes an AM/FM radio tuner with 30 preset memory settings, and a headphone jack for private or late-night listening.

DVD-Audio discs offer super high-fidelity sound, providing 192 kHz/24-bit multichannel and/or stereo sound (depending on the disc), high storage capacity, and unique bonus materials not available on regular audio CDs. These discs often have compressed Dolby Digital soundtracks for listening on standard DVD players, but true DVD-A decoding such as this system provides is required for full sonic appreciation.

The system's progressive-scan component-video output prepares you for the future, with the ability to use the system in conjunction with a high-definition or HD-ready television. Smooth progressive-scan images are free from even the slightest hint of blurring or distortion, bringing new realism to DVD movies and other selections.

The HT-DS690 also performs 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; reverse 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

Auxiliary audio/video inputs (including component-, composite-, and S-video inputs) let you connect additional components like a digital satellite receiver and a VCR.

What's in the Box
DVD player/integrated surround amplifier, 4 satellite speakers, 1 center speaker, a powered subwoofer, a remote control, remote batteries, 1 wireless digital receiver tower, FM/AM antennas, a user's manual, all requisite cabling.

Product Description

Samsung HT-DS690 Home Theater Sound System - Adding a home-theater sound system to your TV is a wonderful thing. Many people, however, find it challenging as they try to wire the rear surround speakers. Not all rooms are shaped to accommodate this feature. Samsung has incorporated Bluetooth technology to make the rear speakers of this system completely wireless. Component Input, Composite and S-Video inputs Front and rear digital inputs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works great! If you need wireless rear speakers, get it!, January 6, 2005

By 

Arnold G. Tijerina III (Moreno Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung HT-DS690 DVD Home Theater System with Wireless Surround Speakers (Electronics)

Due to the configuration of my house, it's cost-prohibitive to hide rear speaker wires, so when I heard about this unit, I started investigating. I "had" a Bose Lifestyle 12 system that cost me about $2000. I loved it but the speaker wire made the living room look tacky and I couldn't hide it much (ie. i could put it under the carpet but it would still be going up the walls) I was concerned about this unit from the "few" reviews Ive read here and online. I ended up buying it and I'm quite happy. Sound is great. Not quite as loud as the Bose, but then I never listened to it louder than the Samsung is capable of going anyways. The "interference" people are talking about is non-existent (and I have a microwave, a 2.4 gHz phone, and Wi-fi in my house). There is absolutely no static or anything from the rear speakers. There is only 1 CON that I can think of along the "interference" line:

My laptop is connected via Wi-fi. "Occassionally" my laptop will lose the wi-fi signal when turning on the Samsung. It's an easy fix. All I have to do is change the channel the wi-fi is broadcasting on through the base-station and - ouila! - fixed! Too bad Samsung didn't let you choose a permanent channel for the wireless signal, then this problem wouldn't occur. However, while it was quite annoying at first as I didn't know WHY I was losing a signal on my laptop, once I figured it out, it takes me all of 30 seconds to restore the wi-fi connection.

Samsung "could" have given more digital inputs also (seeing as most components have digital inputs now).

You can use all 4 audio inputs for separate components if you choose - DIGITAL IN - DVD - AUX1 - AUX 2 (which is what I do). Obviously, with a built in DVD player, the "DVD" input is non-existent but dedicated to the built-in DVD player (5 disc changer). So you can effectively hook up three additional AUDIO components. HOWEVER, if you choose to run your VIDEO through the Samsung also (chain the components), you only have TWO inputs (not including the dedicated DVD input). Video inputs are as follows - COMPONENT - AUX 1 - AUX 2. However, if you use the component video input, that video will also show on the AUX 1 video. So you can only run TWO video sources through the receiver in addition to the built in DVD player. Personally, I just use the audio inputs on the receiver and plug all other video directly into my TV as my TV has many video inputs. However, if you need to chain them (ie. your tv only has one video input) then beware that you'll only be able to hook two more video components into the Samsung.

All in all, very happy with the system. Works well and easy to use with great sound. I have this system in a LARGE room (30x20) and it fills the room with sound albeit at the higher end of the volume level (but without distortion).

PROS:

1. Great sound
2. Easy to use
3. Wireless rear speakers

CONS:

1. Knocks my wi-fi connection out due to random channel selection. Easy fix but annoying at times. This is only occassionally, by the way.
2. Needs more digital audio inputs (only 1 like most HTIB) and more video inputs (for chaining)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sounds great, interference is the only downside, October 5, 2004

By 

Leonardo (London UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung HT-DS690 DVD Home Theater System with Wireless Surround Speakers (Electronics)

The image and sound quality are really good. I do not know how it compares to a Bose system, but then we would be talking about a whole different price range...

Some nice features, such as MP3 and WMA player are definetely a plus. The reason why I chose this unit is because it is the only system with wireless rear speakes and an extra component input. That is to say, on other systems, you will get nothing better that composite input if you want to plug something to it. If you have limited video inputs in your TV, do not have a receiver, and care about video quality, this product is the best option you can find at the moment.

The only downside is the interference suffered by other appliances that work on the 2.4 Ghz frequency, such as microwave ovens or wireless phones. That is important if you cook and watch TV on Dolby Digital 5.1 sound at the same time. :-) Not very likely.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice package for the money, not compatible with my DVD-RWs, October 24, 2004

By 

Mikey94025 (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung HT-DS690 DVD Home Theater System with Wireless Surround Speakers (Electronics)

I bought this system for my bedroom and it is unique from all the other "home theater in a box" systems that I could find in that it has a component video input. I needed this because my cable box supports HDTV through component cables. The Samsung provides this feature with its "digital in" input selection and nicely passes through the component video throught its own component video output.

I didn't need or want the DVD changer but the lesser Samsung model leaves out the component video input. I found using the changer a little bit of a hassle to insert and remove single DVDs and it seems slower than using a single tray.

The speakers are nice and small and that's what I was looking for. The microphone to auto-balance the sound is a really nice feature and works well (it's all automatic). I don't have any real opinion about the sound quality of the unit and speakers -- it seemed fine to me but I'm not good at evaluating sound quality beyond verifying the 5.1 sound.

The wireless rear speakers is an interesting gadget and does remove one set of wires from the unit to the rear. This really didn't matter much to me (my unit is placed against a side wall so running the wires across the floor isn't horrible). I did notice that there was some periodic interruption of the rear sound even within the small size of my bedroom. I rotated the receiver and it seemed to make it go away during the sound test.

I ultimately returned this unit because it was incompatible with DVD-RWs that I recorded from my Tivo in a different room. I'm pretty surprised that such a new unit would have this incompatibility (I've seen some older computer laptops have the same problem). Because of this, I had to attach a separate DVD player and this defeated the advantage of the small, all-in-one unit. I also couldn't take advantage of the component output of the DVD since there is only one component video input on the unit. Since it doesn't upconvert composite video I also had to change the TV input when I switched between cable HDTV and playing my DVD-RWs.

So for me it was just a lot of trouble. I gave up on the idea of a combined unit and got a separate A/V receiver with a separate 5.1 speaker set. More cables, more components to stack.