Customer Reviews

Sony BDVE500W 5.1-Channel High-Definition Blu-ray and DVD Disc Home Theater System (Black)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Great product from Sony, I have had it for about 2 weeks now, I have played it every day made it go through some rigorous tests. Works perfect, I did a compare with Bose 321GSX and found this to be a lot better for half the price!.

Excellent surround sound effect, IPOD dock works great, rear wireless speakers are amazing, even though Sony says not to keep the unit under the shelf, it still works great and the rear wireless work perfectly.

Easy setup, and looks great, I even hid the subwoofer behind the TV and did the auto calibration..sounds great.

I'd recommend a 100% buy.

This system is awesome. I've had it for about a month now and watched a few movies with it. I'm not an audiophile and this is my first surround sound system for my primary living room theater.

I picked this system mainly because of the tower speakers and the S-AIR module. It's a all in one system with a blue ray disk player that supports about 5 different digital audio codecs. It's a clean minimalist design. I was surprised by the depth of the receiver. It's bigger than I expected and fills the majority of shelf space in my entertainment stand.

One thing that bugged me are the the buttons on the top front edge of the receiver. They are small, the same shape and color which force you to read the label to tell what they are. This makes it even more irritating because the remote doesn't have an eject button and I had to learn which of those tiny buttons would eject my disk. I guess I'm really lazy.

Assembly took all but 15 minutes. It took more time to arrange the pieces around the room. There's a quick setup guide that will calibrate your system with an included microphone.

One thing to be aware of, as with most HTIB, there are no video inputs. What this means, is that you'll need to connect all your video sources directly to the TV or a HDMI switch. However, there are mutliple audio inputs. So for example, if you wanted to connect your XBOX 360 to this unit, you'll have to connect your HDMI to your tv and then use an optical cable to route the audio to the receiver. Or you could use the optical out from your TV. This is not ideal, in my opinion, but then again that was not a goal for me.

The sound is crisp, and clean. The sub-woofer gives strong enough punch that you can feel in your chest.

Blue ray disks load quicker than my LG blue ray player.

I'm very happy with my purchase. This was the right unit for me and I would recommend this unit to anyone else looking for an all in one system.

This system has everything we wanted all in one box. We have it hooked up to a Samsung 52" LCD tv. It was a quick setup and we love the effects of the sound. The blueray player is excellent. Movies are clear as a bell. It's great that we don't have cords running to the back of the room. Overall, we couldn't be happier with our purchase.

This system was a major disappointment for me. I removed an older, cheaper, great-sounding Aspire home theater system and put in this Sony BDV-E500W, and was aghast at the dreadful sound quality. First - don't believe the 500 watt claim. The specs say it draws 120 watts, and "watt you put in is watt you get out". It may put out 500 watts momentarily, but at great distortion (10% according to the specs) and cannot sustain that output for more than an instant. When driven, it sounds like you taped pillows over the speakers. Muddy, muffled, lifeless. This may be okay for you if you only watch action movies, but if you enjoy watching concerts recorded live, this disappoints. I will say that my room is large, if you have a small room with few furnishings, it may suffice. BUT - these are not great speakers, anyway. A look behind the grille of the front speakers finds only one 2 5/8" speaker - they call it a woofer - and a tiny tweeter. Yes, in those 40" tall towers, that's all there is. The center speaker is even smaller, and no tweeter. The surround speakers are 2 5/8", and no tweeter. The subwoofer is only 8". You have to move air to fill a room with sound, these can't do it. Then, there is little you can do to tweak the system for your room. There is a bass boost, but I found it only added muddy distortion. There is no real equalization possible, just mild adjustment for treble/bass that do little to enhance the sound. Think of your 1985 Walkman tone control.

Second - I found the BD/DVD player to be somewhat stone-age in capabilities. You cannot open/close the DVD drawer from the remote. Vital? No. Convenience? Big time. There is no zoom in/zoom out. You cannot see what the player buttons and lights refer to unless you stick your eyes 6" from the front - and where is your player located? I have to get on my hands and knees to see the thing. I suppose the Sony engineers thought this was fine when it sat on their workbench. I found the DVD upconverter (to near HD) not as good as that on my OPPO DVD player, as jagged edges are visible in the picture. The remote control itself is poorly designed, the locations of most buttons are not intuitive, it is not lit in any way, and it is easy to hit the wrong button accidently. Yes, the picture from a Blue-Ray disc is excellent, as with any Blue-Ray player on the market.

Third - the seller - Home Theater Store - sent me a request to rate it highly, and they would put me on their preferred customer list. Pinch me, am I dreaming? They even suggested positive catch-phrases to use.

This is a revision from my first review, and I have to say I am only more disappointed in this system, because lacking any real equalization, there is no way to make it sound better. I will add that the "wireless" system for the rear surround speakers worked without problem, but it didn't make installation in my room any easier. I would rather be able to run wires from the main amplifier, and you don't have that option. You are stuck with the "wireless" S-AIR system, which is not really wireless at all. Sony layed an egg with this home theater system, my advice is to buy something else. I will.

I purchased this set after reading all the 5 star reviews here on Amazon.I have to admit setup was very easy and it worked great right out of the box.My disapointment came when I found the subwoofer was passive.Nothing I had read mentioned This important fact.For this price I had expected a Powerd subwoofer.Even though I hate to be the first one to break the 5 star streak on what is an otherwise outstanding HTIB.I had to knock off 1 star for a unit of this price having a passive subwoofer.However I do Recomend this product to anyone who does not care about having a powerd Subwoofer.For those who are Interested.With power you controll the amount of Bass you get,Without power you have to take what you get and if you want more you are just out of luck.The wireless speakers work great although a little weak and are overpowered by the front speakers.I suggest experimenting with the positioning of them before commiting to anything permanent.I will say that the Operating Instruction Book looks like it may have been written by LARRY,CURLY and MO.

Greater quality than Bose systems that go for more than twice the price of this system. Sound is very realistic and it includes a few very nice extras such as the ipod dock and the wireless adapter for the back speakers. Very good purchase and relatively inexpensive if you compare it to another systems.

This is my second HT but my first Blu Ray HT. I got this bundled in with a Sony Bravia 52 W5150 LCD TV two weeks ago from HH Gregg for $1800. It seems to be a great package. The sound quality on this unit is amazing and the wireless rear speakers work exceptionally well. For me, the powered subwoofer is a non-issue - it's alot of low frequency sound (terrifies my dog)! The manual is a little shaky and the buttons are small on the top right of the unit. This receiver can receive internet through an ethernet cable but I would have preferred wireless connectivity like my PS3. I have my PS3 audio going through the TV and into the Blu Ray receiver -- it sounds a little too life like through the HT system! The tuner (both AM and FM) is nice but the IPOD adapter is unexpected and works well. I would have liked a longer IPOD adapter cable, however. Since I have all Sony components (TV, PS3, BluRay) all of the remotes work seamlessly together. The front speakers look modern and complement the system well. I'm not an audiophile but I'm very happy with this unit -- it is dramatically superior to my previous DVD based HT. Even my normally "non techno" wife likes it.

This is a great sound system. I got it free with the purchase of my bravia. The wireless back speakers are amazing. The speaker setup was not easy. I watched dark knight immediately after the using the easy equalizer. The sound overwhelmed the dialogue and it ruined the first half of the movie until i manually changed it. So i would not recommend doing auto setup. I have used several systems before..pioneer, bose, and samsung.. and this stands out because it plays blu-ray and plays an ipod. A lot of people complain about how you have to manually control the ipod. Playing with the ipod rather than scrolling slowly on a tv is simpler as everyone knows how to use an ipod. Sound quality is astounding. It's just frustrating that sony uses 6ohms for their base instead of standard 8ohms (so adding klipsch or other speakers is out of the question) but i guess thats how proprietary systems work. The system has BD-LIVE so it has been updating itself here and there. Blu-rays take on average 30-45 seconds to load, which is around standard timing for this new technology. Player has bravia sync which is easy and completely reliable. Controlling your tv and sound with one remote is now possible without the use of a logitech harmony remote. Overall, I'm glad i got it for free. I definitely wouldn't pay the retail 700 dollars for it, but I believe the 500 is a good deal. IF you have any questions...feel free to ask away.

As an audio video technician with nearly ten years experience in home theater installation and programming, I would recommend this product based on it's performance. The surround sound experience that Sony delivers with this product is extremely satisfying! I have had systems consisting of thousands of dollars that didn't deliver the enveloping movie watching experience this product does. Since Sony makes the each piece of the system, they control exactly what you get. I'm not saying that it's as feature rich or customizable as a custom home theater made up of separate components...but for what this unit does, it does it great! I must complain about the iPod dock though, it does not pull meta data from the iPod (meaning the info on your iPod doesn't show up on your TV) so you have to control the iPod manually. I would have expected the meta data functionality at this price, for $800 full retail price Sony should give you this. Finally, the limits of the system can be easily overcome by purchasing an optical switch so you can hook up all your stuff to surround sound.

We bought this system around a month ago. I did not have any problems setting it up in a big room of our basement with 52 Sharp LCD TV. I was not able to check HD radio as I need an outside antenna; otherwise system looks great and works great.
We selected this system as it has all the features we were looking for (IPOD dock, blue ray player and wireless rear speakers). It looks like it does not have competition at this time, if you compare features and price. I did not expect to get high end system for $600 and was not disappointed. System had 6 speakers: 3 front, 2 rear and subwoofer. Subwoofer is passive but it is powerful enough for us. Overall we all enjoy this system.