Customer Reviews

Sony HT-DDW900 Complete 5.1-Channel DVD Home Theater System with HDMI Passthrough

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a terrific value on an entry-level HDMI-based home theater system.

A small but telling detail: I appreciate how every knob on the front of the unit is a different shape and size, and is spaced just far enough apart so you quickly learn its role. Yes, I use a remote for the most part, but it's still good design. The knobs feel right, too.

Because this HTS is pass-through, expect to buy several optical digital or coax cables for your audio (the system inputs support two digital inputs and one optical input, along with a slew of other inputs). That said, buy those cables on Amazon through one of the better third-party vendors and you'll be fine, and I won't tell if you use cheap RCA cables scrounged from your old stereo until the new stuff arrives. Also toss the 22-gauge (or whatever it is) speaker wire and buy 16-gauge from Amazon or Radio Shack (don't bother with Monster unless you feel the need to waste money).

I thought the system was fine but not remarkable (sturdy, nice-looking, squarish but not overly huge) until I got digital coax cables for the audio with my new upconverting Sony HDMI DVD player and got a digital optical cable connected with my older Yamaha CD player (CDC-575). On the latter, because I had initially connected with RCA, I had to fiddle with the HTS settings, and was sitting inches from the front speakers with the volume cranked up when I found the magic toggle that set input to digital. The resulting sound blew me away bottom over teakettle, but when I recovered, I could not believe how clear and rich the sound was. The same is true of the coax audio from the DVD player, which had us thoroughly enjoying "Little Miss Sunshine" as if we were in a theater.

Honestly, because it is pass-through, I'm probably experiencing the original equipment more than I am the HTS. That said, the HTS does a great job of coordinating all those parts, and does so without creating interference for the audio while passing it on to speakers that are remarkably buff for their small size. (I have larger, theoretically much nicer speakers that I'm going to attach as front speaker Bs and see if I can tell any difference.)

My attached devices include a Comcast setbox with DVR, a DVD player, a 5-disc CD player, and a HDTV. If I had another HDMI or digital optical/coax unit in the mix I might find myself a bit challenged, but this worked out perfectly. (If that were the case, I'd use RCA for the CD player, but having heard it play for the first time over digital optical, I am glad I don't have to go back to the farm.) I also listen to National Public Radio quite a bit, and another tip of the hat for the decent FM tuner that sounds terrific pumped through the unit's speakers--a nontrivial detail for some of us.

If nothing else, this unit could be the solution if you have an HDTV with one HDMI and are now scratching your head trying to decide if you need a switch or some other method to use a setbox and a DVD player without manually swapping out HDMI cables. You'd get the solution for your problem plus whipped cream and a cherry on top, at a price that isn't that much more than some switches.

Minor gripes: The speaker wire, as noted, is a joke (so between speaker wire and cables, factor in another $30-$75, though if you read the reviews for other units you'll see you would have to do that with most systems). As with all theater equipment these days, I seem to have ended up with yet one more not-quite-right remote, and will need to bribe a 12-year-old to come over to our house and program a universal remote. The subwoofer is awfully big for its woof, and comes with a ridiculously short cable. The documentation is coy and poorly organized. But for the price and the satisfaction of this purchase, these are minor issues.

Excellent product. It even comes with a calibration microphone that tests and calibrates all the speakers and lets you know if any of them is misplaced/out of range for optimum performance.
I read the other buyer's review about the remote. Mine does not appear to be defective, although at first I did have trouble using it properly; they have somewhat of a strange design for the COntrol Button with up and down arrows that won't work unless you hit them at exactly the right place. Overall the sound is excellent, everything seems in proper working form, and Amazon gave me free shipping (almost one hundred dollars in extra savings considerng the weight of the box these things come in). I had previously purchased a comparable RCA, that I gave a good review to, but this unit is by far better, both in features and in performance.

I just received this last week. From the reviews, I gathered enough information to make the purchase. Everyone was saying it's the best bargain for the price. It IS.

I hooked it up today and was ASTOUNDED at how nice it sounds. This thing compares to my father's Bose setup. The only difference is how high you can turn it up. For mid-sized rooms, this system goes PLENTY loud enough to fill your insatiable appetite for sound. The system has plenty of inputs and outputs, including 2 fiber optic inputs, component inputs, many RCA inputs, and even HDMI pass-through.

One thing that needs to be mentioned: this system doesn't actually decode or process HDMI audio, it only through-puts the audio and video signal. It's great for cutting down cable use (use HDMI for video and audio instead of clunky component tri-cables and RCA audio). You can find HDMI cables on the CHEAP if you look around. Then just use digital coaxial or fiber optic for sound.

*EDIT* To clear up some confusion. HDMI Pass-through means all this system does is "pass-through" the signal to your TV. It DOES pass-through the audio and video signal BOTH; however, the receiver doesn't interpret it. The sound will not play through the receiver (via 5.1 setup) but the audio WILL play through your TV. Simply passes the cable through the receiver into the TV. Why is it even on the receiver if it doesn't provide audio support, you ask? It provides two inputs and one output. Cuts down on cables. You can switch between the two.

The bass is superb. It's not "rattle your guts and make you think something is wrong" loud, similar to competition subwoofers or Bose systems, but it's AMPLE for a mid-sized room.

I can't recommend this system enough. For $250 (or less if you look hard enough), this is one of the best bargains online. Great sound, great quality, great value.

Minor complaints: speaker cable is thin, subwoofer cable isn't long enough for rear-mounted subwoofers, receiver itself is kind of big. Nothing that hinders this great deal, though.

Although I'm no audiophile, this system sounds great. The auto-setup function made calibrating the speakers a five-minute breeze. Even though the manual is quite thick and laid out in a hard-to-read and confusing manner, setting up the inputs to all of my devices only took about half-an-hour (that is NOT counting the two hours I spent trying to decipher the manual. You could probably figure out how to set up the inputs by just skipping to the manual sections that cover them).

The reason why this only gets four stars is because, apparently, "HDMI Passthrough" means that the sound signal isn't leeched from the HDMI cable before it gets passed on to your TV. This means that for each HDMI cable you run from your sound source to your receiver, you must also run either an optical audio cable or a digital audio cable from that source to the receiver. And since there are two HDMI inputs, both optical audio inputs will be taken up with their accompanying sound signals. There is also one digital audio input. In total, you can only have three 5.1 surround sound signals connected at once. It should be noted that this receiver cannot convert digital video to audio and vice-versa (so if you have video coming into the receiver via a component video input and one HDMI cable going from the receiver to your television, then that video will NOT be passed to your TV through the HDMI cable).

My inputs consist of three devices:
1) A Sony DVPNC85H/B 5-Disc DVD player (which is a perfect complement to this receiver since it outputs its upconverted signal over HDMI and the receiver remote works for this device, too) is connected via HDMI and its included digital audio cable.
2) A Motorola HD DVR cable box (from Comcast) connected via HDMI and an optical audio cable.
3) An Xbox 360 connected via an optical audio cable (the component cables are connected directly to the TV since I don't need to switch between component video devices).

Each audio output can be manually paired with a video output and assigned to a configuration button. These buttons are on the remote and allow you to switch both audio and video inputs at the same time. So, for instance, if "Input 1" is set up to switch to your cable box (suppose it's connected like mine), then pressing the "Input 1" button will switch to the cable box's HDMI input and to its optical audio input.

As with many complete surround sound system packages, you will likely have to buy extra speaker wire since the included wires are too short. Measure the path your wire will take from where the receiver will be to where the furthest rear speaker will be. You want both rear speakers to have the same length of wire, so the longest wire path should determine the length for both. Here's another tip: don't buy expensive HDMI cables. You can get them for about five or six bucks if you look around (try an Amazon search since one of their Marketplace stores has great prices). The differences between cheap and expensive HDMI cables is too small to warrant the price variance between the two. HDMI cables transmit digital information, and digital signals don't degrade like analog signals do.

So, if you have three or fewer devices from which you want to output 5.1 audio, then buy this sound system. It's hundreds of dollars less than comparable systems. If you have more than three output devices, then you can either settle for this and use a separate optical audio switch, or upi can shell out two or three times as much for a receiver with extra audio inputs AND HDMI inputs.

I got this item from Amazon when it was back ordered, but when it was available it shipped (for free!) on Saturday and I received it on Monday!

If you are looking for an easy, inexpensive way to enhance your TV and movie watching, this is the best product to get. The system has PLENTY of power to shake the house if you want it to (200W 8" subwoofer with its own power cord), and it takes all of a half hour to set up. The sound from the speakers is crystal clear compared to what comes out of the built in speakers in my 51" Hitachi HDTV. If you didn't have a surround system before, you can't imagine what you are missing out on. The included microphone for Auto Calibration works wonders with just a press of a button (adjusting each speaker for position and distance - most of us can't get the surround speakers exactly where we'd like them - this will compensate for that). There are plently of input/output jacks in the receiver that give you many options for setting up different components between analog and digital signals.

The speakers cables are of adequate length for an average sized room (I was able to run my surround cables through the floor and up into the wall with length to spare). The only extra purchase that you might need is a longer subwoofer cable, but that will depend on your preferred placement of the sub.

I would definitely recommend this system to someone that wants their living room to sound like a movie theater without spending big bucks.

Pro's:

* The receiver has a very nice feature set, particularly considering the pricerange. HDMI switching is very useful.
* Adequate power for a small - midsize room (for reference, my living room is 17' x 17').

Con's:

* Receiver doesn't decode audio information from HDMI signal, making it necessary to run Optical or Digital Coax to transmit the audio signal.
* No analog --> digital conversion, but that's to be expected in this pricerange.
* Included speakers are absolute garbage, they sound TERRIBLE. Seriously. I threw them all away less than a week after receiving this product.

Other thoughts:

* Plan on replacing the stock speakers (I went with a set from Polk, on sale for $250).
* Don't be fooled by the "900" watt power rating. They're 140w x 5 @ 1KHz into 6 Ohms... which means that their actual (estimated) full range rating is probably closer to 70-80w x 5 @ 20Hz-20KHz into 8 Ohms.
* Bottom line - spend a couple hundred more and get a nicer system. Yamaha makes a pretty good product for around $500.

I bought this unit along with the Samsung 56" DLP TV. It came very quickly from Amazon (received in 2 days). It is excellent quality, exactly what I was expecting from a Sony. It setup very easy, I am running the HDMI Passthrough for both my HDCable Box and the Samsung HD960 unit as well. The setup of the device was extremely easy, easy to rename inputs and the theater setup wizard is very easy and works very well.

Overall, the system is excellent and was a great value through Amazon. If it was at a retail price, I am not certain, but for the Amazon price it is definitely a good bargain.

This is not my first multi-channel sound system, but it is by far the most powerful, and the best. There are a few documentation issues that need to be cleared up, and the remote needs some reworking, but over all I found this to be a very nice product.

Installation was a breeze. The two optical ports and a coax digital connector are a great feature. All the connectors are well labelled but some are a bit close to each other. I choose to start out with higher end Monster cables and it was not easy to squeeze the component connectors on. Also the posts for the speakers are really bunched together so it can be hard to get cables in place, You really have to plan out the order you install each cable. Apply power and "Oh my goodness! I didn't know that sound was there!"

That being said, there are some problems:

1) The documentation is a bit misleading. I went online and downloaded the user guide and all the setup info from Sony weeks before putting down my hard-earned cash. I expected the unit would take in multiple video sources and reprocess them into a new output stream. I expected to plug-in the component cables and the receiver would re-process into the composite "Monitor" output. While I didn't expect a higher quality picture, I had hoped for the simplicity, It is likely this was more about my ignorance of the technology but the user guide is so vague it can lead you to think this. The documents are clear on the "pass-through" only function of the HDMI ports. I wish it was just as clear on the video.

2) "My remote is broken!" I've gone over this thing six-ways-to-Sunday. I cannot program it. The booklet list only one code for our older Sharp TV, but I cannot get the remote to work. The remote for my DVD-RW/VCR controls the TV and uses the same code. Mind you, there is no code for my Sony made DVD-RW/VCR. And nothing for my HD-DVR cable reciever. I am now doing my research for a real universal remote

3) The provided Sub-woofer cable is a joke. It is maybe 2 meters long (6' 6") and thinner that some pastas. Dispose of it in a safe and environmentally sound manner. Buy a real sub-woofer cable.

4) The provided speaker cables are too short. Unless youo like a spider's web of cables on your floor, you need longer cables. I used the "surround" cables for the front speakers and bought new 50' cables for the surround speakers. This allowed me to "hide" the wire along the base boards.

Overall, I am very happy with the product, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to add higher quality sound without adding too much cost. Just remember to buy new, high-quality inter-connect cables.

This home theater package, despite being attractively priced considering its apparent functionality, is ultimately very disappointing.

I'm new to HDTV and HDMI so I didn't know as much as I needed in order to make a fully informed decision. I have a Sony Bravia XBR3, Oppo upconverting DVD player, Scientific Atlanta HD box and Nintendo Wii game console.

This unit only offers pass-through video, so you have to have separate video connections from the receiver to the TV for each type of input (HDMI, component, etc.). For the price difference between this and other receivers that will convert to a single connection, you'll pay in extra cabling costs.

The HDMI on this unit carries video only - no sound - so you have to have separate cabling to carry audio from your DVD or cable to the receiver, and then from the receiver to your TV. Again, major inconvenience and lots of additional connections.

The manual for this unit is beyond terrible. I'm astounded that an international consumer electronics firm like Sony would provide a manual as difficult to use and just indirect as this one. For example, there was a hum when watching TV that turned out was because the speakers while looking identical are not - some are shielded and some aren't. Nothing in the manual about this.

There are probably just enough HDMI and component connections for the basic user like myself.

Plus side is that there is no DVD player with this, so I can use my own.

Given a chance to do this again, I would spend a little extra on a unit that converts signals to a single output.

I think the complaints about the "pass-thru" HDMI are completely out of context. Sure, it doesn't carry audio or upconvert analog signals over HDMI, but come on people - what else in this price range does?

I've got this system connected to a Panasonic TH-42PH9UK plasma display a Dishnet VIP622 receiver and a new Philips DVP5982 upconverting DVD player. This HT setup gives us ALL the features we wanted, performs wonderfully doing it and didn't force us into the poorhouse.

PROS: inexpensive, sounds great, powerful active subwoofer, black color, easy install, lots of inputs (including 2 HDMI!), lets you use your own DVD player, small footprint speakers, AM/FM radio, auto-calibration, decodes Dolby-Digital/DTS/PL2, headphone output, doesn't use proprietary speaker wire connectors.

CONS: no speaker stands included, cheap speaker wire, manual could explain things a little better.

BTW, this system came from Vanns and I got EXCELLENT service. In fact, a few days after receiving it, I found it advertised on their website for a bit less than what I paid. After speaking to one of their customer service reps, they arranged to pricematch themselves and refund me the difference! Very cool!

All in all, I'm VERY pleased with this purchase. It's almost identical to it's replacement, the HT-7000DH, but costs MUCH less $$$ and doesn't lock you into a DVD player you may not want. Don't pass up on this deal!