Customer Reviews

Samsung HT-Z420 Home Theater System

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Was looking for a system for our samsung plasma TV. This "box" system really fits the bill. Easy to set up. Has a really neat auto-calibration feature which does a good job of balancing the speakers. You won't mistake it for a high-end system, but it really does deliver very good sound; plenty for our 20 x 20 living room. Sub-woofer is passive not powered, but adequate. I-POD dock is a nice "extra". The upscaling DVD player is just fine; kept us from having to have a separate player--fewer wires. If you're not an audiophile, and you're looking for simplicity, ease of set-up, and bang-for-the-buck, this is your choice. By the way, the wireless rear speakers work fine and have not interfered with the wireless network for our laptop.

I bought the Samsung home theater because I have a Samsung HD TV and the two are supposed to sync up. The claimed benefit is that you can control both with the same remote. This integration proved more of a nuisance, because it has a mind of its own.
You control both, but you cannot control either. For instance, you cannot power off the home theater unit without automatically powering off the TV and vice versa(from either remote). Having a DVD in the HomeTheater unit makes the system assume you do not want to watch TV but the DVD and switches over. You cannot have both the TV speaker sound and the Home Theater sound on and independently controlled. This may be desirable because there is no center speaker sound if the TV transmission is not 5.1 sound (HD). A good TV speaker will substitute for a center speaker. With a non-Samsung Home theater, the 2 audio systems can be controlled independently and simultaneously.

Now about quality:
The Samsung elements feels light weight and cheaply made. US models for Samsung are made in China (Home Theater), or Mexico (HD TV) not in Korea. The unit and the speakers weigh about half that of the Panasonic system in the same class (SC- PT670, made in Malaysia). The speaker wires are really thin.

This Samsung Home Theater has a much underpowered CPU: the system is actually a computer that runs Linux. But is is so-o-o-o-o slow! It takes 35-50 sec to power up or shut down. When it comes up and dicovers its HDMI link to the TV, it takes 40+ seconds to "load" (with a progress bar displayed on the TV). When you select a different input source on the remote, or click to switch tracks on a CD, it takes 20-40 sec to act on the command. This gets quickly annoying.

There were real defects in the unit I got as well:
1. I could not get surround sound or pro logic sound to work (and use all 6 speakers by mimicking surround from simple stereo inputs). After struggling with the manual for an hour, I finally called Samsung support. I have to say Samsung support (live person!)was quick, courteous and knowledgeable. They determined with me that the system was defective.

2. I had no problem connecting to the rear speakers through the wireless module, except that that module's cheap fan kicked in intermittently and was really noisy. I rather pull wire than live with it. Also, this solution is not really "wireless". The receiving module has a power cord and the two rear speakers need to be wired to the receiving module with 10+ ft wires.

Some other quirks: The box says you can play jpeg images or mpa3/wma sound. True enough, but guess what: the file names must be 8 characters or less (an old Linux constraint). Chances are your existing files do not comply and unless you rename each of them, you cannot display photos and images you have as is or play your music playlists.

I returned the unit (which was defective) but have not rushed back to replace it with the same model. The sound was OK, but I fear this model even if working fine when acquired, will not last. My experience tells me it will die the day the warranty expires.

By the way, I bought this system and TV to replaces a 25-year old 35-in analog Sony TV. That Sony was made in Japan with top quality materials and craftsmanship: it never failed and after 30,000 hours of service still has a terrific image. That was Sony craftsmanship...in the 1980s.

I purchased this set at Best Buy for a great price and rushed home to set it up to go with my new Samsung syncmaster HDTV. The set up was a snap but I have yet to figure out how to do the auto-calibration: The quick start guide doesn't mention it. When we turned on the radio to test the speakers, sound was only coming from the three front non-wireless speakers. After about 20 minutes of frustration, I finally realized I had to change the sound setting to output in surround sound. 5 seconds later I heard wonderful music from all of the speakers! Watched Valkyrie last night and I have to say both the upscaling and the audio are awesome. At several points in the movie, I had to rush to turn the volume down to keep neighbors from thinking explosions were going off in my house. The volume was only at 22 at the time, so I doubt there will be a problem with the sound being too low. I still have to tweak some things today and figure out auto-calibration, but right now I am very happy with my purchase and would recommenced these speakers.

Oh and FYI, the rear wireless speakers are wireless from the front receiver only. There are still wires running from the back two speakers to a wireless receiver that must be plugged in. However, these are all just behind my couch and is barely noticeable. The wireless receiver is much more convenient and better looking that running wires up the wall or across the floor.

Received this for a birthday present and decided to keep it after all was said and done. It is a nice basic system with good sound. I like the wireless rear speaker system (although more on that in a little bit). Also it comes ready for the Ipod. It was fairly easy to put together. I had to buy an extra HDMI cable to connect it to the TV, so there was some additional expense.

Once I had it set up, I plugged in my Ipod expecting sound from all 5 speakers and discovered there was no sound from the rear speakers. I checked all my connections and they were fine. I got online with Samsung support live chat. It took him a while to find the product in his database. Then he basically sent me a web link that had me double check my connections again (which I had already done). When I told him the connections were good, he told me I needed an online service order. Instead, I took it back to the store and got another unit. Hooked it up only to realize (again with the Ipod) the rear speakers did not work. I finally realized that each time I synced the ipod to the home theater, that it automatically went to "speaker" mode, which mutes the rear speakers. I had to manually press the "mode" button on the remote to choose "music" mode (or a number of others) to enable the rear speakers.

So my only beef is that 1) Samsung support failed me big time (it was quite an easy fix after all)
and 2) I would like to switch on the Ipod without having to fiddle with the mode

Now that it is up and running I like the product and feel it is a good buy for the money. I use it for Ipod, DVD, Cable TV, and the Wii (which the kids love). The TV and Wii required an RCA audio cable from the TV back to the home theater.

What can I say. Bought this item to go with a full new set for theater in the house. Worked great for a few months and then room filled with smoke and it was done. Got ahold of Samsung because of the fire and warranty they were less than helpful.I ended up having to buy a new one and then taking my system back to the store I bought it. My next system worked for around 8 months last night the same thing happened the room filled with a very horrible smell and then a little flicker of light in the back of the system it was on fire. Scared the crap out of the Kids I will not buy Samsung for the fact the Customer service sucks along with there product. So I would say stay away from samsung.

This is the perfect system if you want a good sounding wireless surround sound solution and don't want to drop a lot of money. The iPod/iPhone dock is very convenient and keeps the iPhone in 3G mode so you can stream Pandora or other audio over the speakers. The wireless rears sound great with no hum or background noise. Set-up was easy but make sure you pick up an HDMI and opitcal cable for best results. The FM radio is also a nice feature if you don't want to listen to your own music. There is some difficulty getting the remote set up to work with everything (which I am still working on) but I'm sure it'll be fine with a little time and patience. Overall, it's definitely a good value for your money.

I cant believe how BAD this system sounds!
My pc with $65 Logitech speakers sounds way better!
I cant believe how BAD SAMSUNG SUPPORT IS!

I called Samsung support to ask what the THD % RATING is, but they don't even know what THD stands for!!! (Total Harmonic Distortion, a BASIC rating used to measure the quality of any amplifier). I could tell they were frustated with me for asking.
I asked about the 'Optical' interface because there was a time delay in the audio...
"Uuuhhh" - Seemed like I was speaking with Beavis & Butthead instead of Samsung Technical Support!

I wanted this unit because of the 1000 Watts, wireless rear speakers and the USB HOST.
(USB HOST is great because you can put ALL of your movies & music on a single USB drive and its like a juke box for all of your media).
The interface software should be re-written for easier navigation, (more like Windows Media Player).
The wireless rear speakers are easy to install, but who cares if they sound bad?!

I ended up buying a Phillips system that has the same power output, is half the price, and sounds much better. I had to sacrifice the wireless rear speakers, but so what. At least I enjoy listening to it! The user interface for the USB HOST is much better too. (But still could take a lesson from Windows Media Player)

I'm so dissapointed in Samsung!
They dont even know what they sell, much less how to support it.
I asked them which unit they recomend that would suit my needs and they told me to go look at their website because they didn't know which unit had which features!
They have no idea what USB HOST even is! I had to explain it to them, but they couldn't care less. They just wanted off of the phone because I was asking them to THINK and do their JOBS. They hated me for that, and it showed! TSK! TSK!

I've read the reviews on this Home Theater System, & really didn't need the $1,000+ sound system. I just wanted to upgrade the sound from my Samsung 52" T.V.
Well, when I see that the rear speakers are "wireless" & have to use WIRES to connect to a wireless device, it's a little deceptive. I can't just put these speakers anywhere. They've got to ge attached to a wireless receiver that's plugged into a wall socket.
I must say that it's an upgrade from the television's speaker system & works for my 400 sq. ft. room.

My entire perception of SAMSUNG changed after owning this item. It comes with a wireless receiver for the rear speakers which, when I plugged it in for the first time made a loud racket, it was the cooling fan, and it was annoying. This is my second SAMSUNG product to be defective, the first was a handheld camera that the screen stopped working in only 2 years, and they wanted to charge $180 to repair it when the camera costs $250, ridiculous. BUT, this theater was brand new and I was well under warranty, so I called SAMSUNG and sent them the receiver, their customer service was below standards, when I called to follow up, they told me the ticket had closed and my item would be returned unrepaired, I had to argue for a supervisor who finally located it in their repair center and had it re-opened, AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH! THEY SHIPPED IT BACK IN A LOUSY BOX HARDLY PROTECTED AND WHEN I OPENED IT, MY NEW RECEIVER HAD BEEN SCRATCHED ALL OVER, INDEED, I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND OR BUY SAMSUNG AGAIN.

I got this since I have a Samsung TV and figured they would integrate and make setup and use easy. Not the case.
Only partly integrated, random things show up on the TV screen, and not always same place. Very poor interface design.
ipod dock useless except as charger. On screen ipod interface does so little you can't even select what to play except by scrolling thru all one at a time, VERY slowly.
Sound is fair, not great. No equalizer.
I would not buy this again. Might be good for a kids bedroom.
Skip this and get a real stereo.