Customer Reviews

Samsung HT-WP38 DVD Home Theater System with USB Plug-and-play and Wireless Rear Channel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is by far the best bang for the buck in home theater currently. My Dad decided his system needed an upgrade and so I started digging around local stores and browsing the web. The more I checked around the more apparent it became that this system is head and shoulders above anything else in its class. The inclusion of the wireless rear channel is a $200 value in competing systems such as Panasonic's.

Setup was a breaze. All the speaker wires were color-coded and snap in and out of the rear of the unit which made adjusting wires during cleanup considerably easier. When we cranked it up the first time the dog went cowering in a different room because the roar of the lion's was so intense. Aside from the laughter/sadness of scaring the dog hopefully you get the idea that this can produce a lot of sound. The sound wasn't just loud either, it was crisp and responsive on a variety of DVD's I tried.

The only bump we hit in the entire process is that apparently the included remote is not compatible with Sylvania TV's (any Sylvania TV's). I ended up killing the remote while trying codes for other brands of TV's to the point that it wouldn't work on the home theater any more. I called Samsung and pleasantly surprised at how good their phone support was. They answered the phone within a couple minutes and I spent less than 15 minutes on the phone with them. They ended up replacing the remote via mail.

So, anyone that's not an audiophile with deep pockets will get a lot of benefit from this system. Highly recommended.

We had a Fisher home theater system that was somewhat anemic, and the DVD player seemed to always give us trouble with DVD-Rs or rented discs. So after joining an online DVD rental service, I decided it was time to upgrade.

I chose the Samsung based on the following factors:

Wireless rear speakers

Divx playback

USB port

Price

This device has met or exceeded my expectations. The 5 disc changer loads discs fairly quickly (I did have one problem during the initial setup where none of the discs would load, but that hasn't happened since and lasted all of three minutes.) Divx (Xvid) playback from CD-R and DVD-R is crisp and mostly easy to use, as long as your filenames are short and distinct. Regrettably it doesn't support Divx from the USB port, though MP3s and JPGs work well from a keychain drive.

The wireless rear speakers, once I figured out the instructions, worked like a champ, and continue to. No interference with or from my 802.11g network, which I remember reading about when researching this unit. Follow the steps closely is my best advice.

The sound is good for our half of a double town house, and the picture looks good on our 27" TV. People with more money than we have to invest in entertainment equipment might have different opinions. I've got a 1 year old and more Barney DVDs than movies, I don't need to be blown away everytime I put a disc in, I need something that works consistently and easily with a remote control that my wife can figure out (her words, not mine.)

Next time I'm looking for electronic equipment, Samsung's at the top of my list.

This system has mostly positives and some negatives. It is easy to set up, takes up little room, and produces excellent sound in all modes. It took some experimenting to get the wireless speakers to work, but they work well.

Two problems are worth noting. First, it did not recognize my MP3 player (Dell Jukebox). A call to Samsung revealed that most music players (including iPods) do not work on this sytem. They stated that only Samsung players work consistently.

Second, I have been losing sound when switching TV channels on my cable system. The settings on the cable box are correct, and Samsung support stated that they had no solution to the problem. It may be related to switching back between digital and 5.1 modes. It can be easily fixed by navigating through input settings back to "digital in" but it is definitely an inconvenience when every few channels lose sound.

Your satisfaction with this product will depend on how well you can tolerate these limitations.

I've had this HTIB since since for four months and it has vastly improved my home theater & music situation over a much bigger older Sony unit.

First the bad, cause if your interested in buying it you want to know that first. The only real inconvenience is the remote. There are too many buttons on it, which sounds dumb, but there really are a lot of odd, yet valuable functions The button name don't really describe them well, and it can be overwhelming to some. The remote ceased working about a month after I got it Except for a blinking light when I pressed buttons, none of the functions worked, which was also a problem becaus there are few controls on the unit itself. I was very angry for a week or so, then I finally called Samsung customer support. The rep was knowledgeable and told me how to 'reset' the remote. Lastly, the remote doesn't control GE brand televisions :( The speakers have some weird proprietary connections, and you can only use the wires that come with it. When I first set up the unit, the rear speakers weren't working. I checked out the manual and did something with a button to establish the connection, and it has been fine ever since.

That said, I think it rocks. The main reason is the wireless rear speakers. The others are that it has AM/FM tunerplays CDs/MP3 files/JPG files/DixV movies and has direct USB input on the face, though I haven't used it. Being able to play DiVX movies allows you to play movies that previously could be limited to the PC. I have burned a couple of DiVX movies to CD (not DVD), and they will play in this machine, though I was not able to use the fastforward function on it. When you insert a disc full of JPG photos or images, it plays the images without you doing anything, or you can skip around, browse in a menu, whatever. It also shows the filename of the image on the front display. You can also open the disc tray to change discs without stopping what's playing. I have found the sound to be more than adequate, and no scratchy bass or noticeable noise. It fills my med. sized living room with sound or most any part of my house when I turn it up. There are several sound presets for different programs. The unit is also kind of attractive and the speakers are not obtrusive. The manual is generally helpful, though there are so many extras on this machine it can be difficult to find what you are looking for.

I noticed that one reviewer did not like the receiver, or felt misled about the wireless rear speakers. THe unit keeps you from snaking wires across the living room, but the rears are plugged into a receiver/amplifier, which must be plugged into a wall. I consider this a vast improvement, and I hope too many people aren't swayed by that review. If speakers were completely wireless, they would have built in recievers and be powered by batteries or solar or dilithium crystals. In short, they would be space-age, and you couldn't afford them.

I give it a large thumbs up, with no major flaws.

Update: I've had the unit for about 3.5 years now, and I've noticed that it doesn't have a shuffle function, which I miss. The bass is not as impressive as I used to think it was, though I think the unit sounds the same. And in the last few months, it has developed a glitch where sometimes when I use the power button on the unit it will switch functions instead of powering down. Usually if I press it a few times, it eventually powers down.

After reading through all of the reviews, I decided to roll the dice and buy the Samsung HT-WP38. There were a few write-ups where people were complaining about wires, hissing, skipping, even customer service... well, I haven't seen any of these issues. I think a lot of issues about wireless devices can be attributed to people not understanding the technology. This device uses the 2.4 GHz band, the same band as a lot of cordless phones and wireless networking devices. Do your research, check your phones and WAPs, and replace anything that might interfere.

I have a 5.8 GHz wireless router sitting right behind this reciever and there is NO interference, hissing, static, crackling. Sound is crystal clear. And yes, the wireless just keeps you from running wires from the front of the room to the back. The rear channels ARE wired to a reciever box, but it's no big deal to put that out of sight. I think the pictures detail the setup well.

Anyway, overall a great entry level HTS.

First lets start with the pluses. The unit has a lot of features for the price. The sound is great and the wireless rear speakers work well and ease installation. The USB connection works well and finds MP3 and JPGs when a USB HDD is or a flash memory stick attached.

My minor issues with the design: The unit has a fan in the back, a lot like a computer, and is noisy. The remote is poor, with poor layout of buttons and a very weird fast forward and rewind. You must hold the FF to get it to FF rather than go to the next scene. One slip and you are going to the next scene whether you want to or not. The rear speakers play when you listen to CDs or MP3s but not when the radio is played.

Now for the bad, the service if there is a problem sucks. My first call into the service center landed me with someone who was apparently the gatekeeper for the service center. I had to convince her that I had attached all the wiring correctly before I could talk to anyone in technical service. It was additionally frustrating that she was telling me to attach everything all wrong. Once I was talking to the technical service, everything seemed OK. I was given the address to send the unit to (at my cost).

One month later the unit came back with instructions on how to solve the problem. Unfortunately these instructions made no sense based on the problem and the problem was unfixed. I called technical service again and was talked into sending the unit back to the service center.

This is the point I am at now. The unit is going back a second time. I have owned the unit for 45 days and have used it for only about 4 days. Not only do I have the cost of the unit but the added cost of shipping and my time invested at this point. This may be just a bum unit that is atypical of the lot but I feel that the service I have received has been very poor.

I can report on overall success and some challenges I overcame in hopes it will help others as well.

First, the definition of wireless can be debated, but for the price of the unit I appreciate eliminating the really long wires snaking up and over doorways and furniture to get across the family room to the rear speakers. The wireless base unit is sitting right behind me now while I type this on my wireless laptop, so no interference problems.

Second, DVD playback is great with 5.1 Dolby Digital, although yes, there is some hissing that inspires you to move the rear speakers a little further from your head. Also, experiment with different sound settings (single button on the remote that cycles through options) when the input is not really 5.1 sound. I find that stereo usually sounds more full and true than using the system to create pseudo-5.1 sound. This is especially true for FM radio.

Third, I had a major confusion about VCR hookup. My TV is a low end 32 inch Panasonic CRT with only 1 Video input screen and no sound outputs. I wanted the VCR routed through the speakers too, so I followed the instructions to use my VCR outputs connected with (red, white, yellow) component connectors to the AUX 1 input on the DVD player/receiver. No such luck at first. Audio was fine, but video was blank. It turns out one simple solution is to switch to channel 3 or 4 (4 in my case) on the main TV tuner (not Video 1 as is the case for DVD playback) and then turn on the TV/Video option of your VCR. Sound and video were then in sync and running through the receiver.

I recommend this system given the price and functionality.

UPDATED: I just wanted to add this to my original post that's below. The DVD player will not work anymore. I had a disc get stuck inside to where I had to take the whole thing apart just to get to it. The surround still works and I just watch movies from my Xbox360. I think you just get what you pay for. I want my next system to be the Onkyo HTS894.

I bought this system from SAMS Club and the first one I brought home sounded fantastic. After about a week all of my DVDs were stalling halfway through and turned out the laser wasn't switching to the second layer of the DVD so I took it back and got another one. This one has had a couple of problems including a small hissing sound coming from the wireless back speakers. It's only noticeable when no sound is being transmitted to them. Another is that the fan in the back sometimes gets screwy and makes a really loud noise, but after tapping it a few times it seems to have gone away for good. Xbox games and movies are so much more enjoyable with surround sound. If you like NIN check out the dual discs featuring 5.1 mixes. It can't be beat.

works really well and very easy to set up. outstanding sound and features for the price.

We got this about two years ago from Sam's Club. It has been nothing but trouble. We returned the first system because it wouldn't read any discs. The second system has multiple problems: (1) It won't read the CDs or DVDs at least 50% of the time. No kidding, sometimes I put 5 discs in there and it will cycle through all five and then finally say "NO DISC." There is nothing wrong with the discs; sometimes I can get them to work after multiple tries (and sometimes not). (2) The surround sound usually does not work. My husband gave me a Post-It Note that we keep on the system with a series of steps we have to take to reset it so that the blue light comes on. (3) When they do work, the back speakers hiss.

Even though Amazon no longer carries this unit I was searching to find out if there was any recall or anyone else with the same problems. We registered it on the Samsung website to see if they come up with a recall notice. (We were about to dump our Canon digital camera recently when it stopped working - it was past warranty - but my husband found out it had a recall on it. They fixed it without charge.)