Customer Reviews

Zenith XBS444 250-Watt Home Theater System with Progressive-Scan DVD/VCR Combo

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When we bought our new bigscreen TV, we shot our budget on the TV itself, and then were disappointed in the sound it produced. I checked at Best Buy, at Circuit City, and at Target, but found Amazon to offer the best value for this product, which seemed to suit my needs very well.

It arrived on two days, a nice surprise. Out of the box, the only thing it did not include was the special Y Pr Pb cable needed for my HD-ready TV, but that was easily found at the local Radio Shack. If you are buying this at Amazon, however, you might want to buy the cable at the same time.

The set up instructions were well-written and easy to follow, even for a non-techie like me. Within 15 minutes, I had Monty Python and the Holy Grail blasting in my rec room. Piece of cake!

The combination DVD/VCR saves space and offers both formats with only one hook up. This makes for fewer cables and connections. In fact, I still have plenty of connections to add a video game system and my old BetaMax (which is still in like new condition) and have a complete video system. The picture quality of both DVD & VCR is very good.

The sound quality is better than I expected for the price. Aesthetically, the unit is pleasing, and the speakers small and inobtrusive. I feel like I got a lot for my money, and if you are just looking for something to pump up the volume a little, this might be a good purchase for you, too. I am certain that a true audiophile would find fault with this, but to my untrained ear, my movies and CDs sound great!

The remote seems a bit hard to learn, but I am certain I will get used to it. All functions are menu driven, and the menu seems easy enough. It is just getting used to what button does what that I need to practice.

Overall, I can't believe that I got this much sound and function for under $200 including shipping! Looking for a home theater system that won't break the bank? You found it!

Lesson learned with this item? Always buy a service plan. I bought this DVD/VCR home theatre in December 04 and Right after the warranty went out in May 05 of course the entire system broke down. The machine would turn on and after 5 minutes the subwoofer would start making a thumping sound and the whole apparatus would shut off. After being off for about an hour the whole process started over again. Luckily the parts were still under warranty so I took it to my local guy and he has had it since then (it is now October 05 of this writing) and he hasn't been able to figure out whats wrong with it. He also informed me that three other XBS444's have been turned in all of them doing the same thing. I haven't heard anything of a recall but I want my 250 investment FIXED NOW! I have had the same problem with most things I have bought at Circuit City and Best Buy, and they want you to cough up the extra 200 bucks because they won't stand behind the products they sell. My Desktop Computer in 2000, my DVD/VCR in 2004, and my Laptop in 2005 all died after 6 months to a year of use. Luckily by the time I got to the laptop I wised up to the game. Everything is designed to break once. So get a service plan. (PS when it worked the machine was fine and all the features were wonderful, however the timer on the VCR would only allow you to record one programed event, and then it would eject the tape, so you can't leave for a week and expect it to tape 7 hours of material at different times)

I bought this system for two reasons; price and features.
I can switch between DVD, VCR and radio all on the front of the machine and I can change channels and chapters. Most systems just have play and stop on the front.
The power is perfect for an apartment environment. Just enough to still sound great.
The only ding I give this unit at this time is that it only seems to decode 5.1 channel audio in DVD mode. Surround sound channels from my cable box end up only in stereo, but the MATRIX setting works OK to send sound to all the speakers.

The overheating, shutdown thing just happened to me as well this week. From what I gather, it's a lost cause at this point.

But even before that, there were problems . . .the amp wasn't especially strong, it wouldn't play some CD's, and forget about picture discs.

I'm just glad mine lasted almost 3 years.

Well, this unit was great until it died. Now, like a majority of people who have reviewed this, I am having the exact same problem. I turn it on, it's good for a few moments, (usually less than a minute), and then I hear some thumping from the Sub and deadsies. My guess is it's the power supply or maybe the cooling system, either way, there is a common theme among these units, whatever is defective in mine, is most likely defective in everyone elses.

Failed out of box. Talked retail seller into a swap (normally wait forever from a "Qualified Service Dealer"). Failed a year later (boxed most of that year). Over heating caused shut down. Reviews on web indicate this is a common problem. At a minumum get a service contract, but be prepared to regularly send it back.

Worst (quality) consumer electronics device I've ever owned.

Ditto - We received the XBS444 as a Christmas gift in 2004. It worked great until approximately the end of Nov 05. Then just like some of the other reviewers stated in just quit working. It will operate for about 5 - 10 minutes, start making some thumping sounds through the speakers and then shut down. The power light will stay on, but when you push the power button on the unit or the remote, nothing happens. Unplug it for awhile and the same thing happens. Just got the run around from Zenith - "don't really care" attitude. We would like to have the same type of unit, but would definitely not purchase a Zenith product.

Originally, I thought this innexpensive and somewhat under-powered audio-video system did an almost adequate job for the price, but 2 months after buying it, our unit started to give us trouble when inserting slightly scratched DVDs. The DVD functions became unresponsive, seemingly stuck in a loop of "reading" and "reading" while a non-normal sound comes from the DVD drive. While the unit was stuck in the state, the DVD tray would not eject and the audio amplifier was silent, allowing no audio to come through the speakers. Often, we were forced to unplug the power cord to cycle the unit.

NOW, just two days shy of its one year anniversary, the unit is unilaterally shutting off and making the same thumping noise mentioned by another reviewer. Also, while in this failure mode, the characters on the display panel are jumbled. Lame. Free would not be cheap enough. Avoid this unit at all costs.

Has sensitive tuner and separate inputs for tv and radio. This is a good thing because my cable tv provider has dropped FM radio so I use a separate antenna for the radio.

I planned to use only 2 preexisting (built-in) speakers even though the system supports 5/1. If you are watching DVDs then you must at least have the center (3rd) speaker connected. You can't select stereo only mode with DVDs (this could be a downer for some folks with built in speakers).

I had the same power problem as everyone else here is the letter I sent to Zenith.
Last year in April 2005 I purchased the zenith XBS444 home theater system, almost immediately it started intermittantly turning itself off, the problem went away for a time and then almost the minute the warranty expired, it came back for good. I sent it in for repair (which I paid 70 dollars for) and it was good for another 6 months. Now it is doing the same exact thing so rather than forking out another 70 dollars I am putting this thing in the garbage where it belongs. If you search for this model on Amazon or any website and look at the reviews you will see that 3 out of every 5 people had the same problem. Obviously zenith knew this was an issue if there have been this many complaints, but rather than doing the responible thing and offering a recal or a refund, they are simply going to allow their customers to come to the same conclusion I did. That is zenith made its money selling known faulty products and now is not interested in offering any kind of support. I am very dissapointed and I doubt after this experience I will purchace any product from zenith in the future.
And here is Zenith's reply:
Thank you for inquiring of Zenith Electronics. We appreciate your comments. Had even a portion of the number of people, that you are suggesting have this problem, contacted us concerning such a problem, we certainly would have documented incidents of such occurrances, and as such, would have developed some sort of fix for this. However, this has not been a standard issue with these units. Currently, for correction of such a problem, the unit will need to be sent in for factory service. For further information or troubleshooting, you may contact us at 800-243-0000 for LG Customer Service assistance. An agent will be glad to assist you. Thank you again for contacting LG Electronics. Neil E-mail Administrator Customer Interactive Center LGEAI

Interesting isn't it? This many people had the same problem but I was the only one who reported it? I find that very hard to believe!