Home Theatre/TV: Samsung HT-BD2 Home Theatre System Review – 70

Purists are often sceptical about ‘one box’ hi-fi and home theatre solutions, but here’s a product that challenges old biases and assumptions, and at a price that will have some saying, “no, it can’t be so”.

Samsung has become omnipresent in consumer electronics, in fairly short order battling its way from raised eyebrows to grudging acceptance to widespread admiration for its range of products that are of good quality and reasonably priced.

An important part of a package of recently introduced HD goodies is this HT-BD2 7.1-channel receiver/speaker system that brings Blu-ray together in one box with full HD 1080p home theatre and the sound capabilities of Dolby’s two highliners, Digital-Plus and True HD.

It could be easy to dismiss this product in the shop. Part of the ‘box’ and the speakers are finished in a glossy black piano finish that looks more honky-tonk than Steinway, set off by those damned blue LED accents that for some reason seem to be mandatory on anything Blu-ray.

I’ve already experienced Samsung Blu-ray so was expecting the on-screen knife-sharp images and fast-paced action scenes free of the various nasties that used to take the edge off movies, although the bravura performance is as much due to the quality of our Samsung reference panel as the home theatre box.

The HT-BD2′s Blu-ray player has full compatibility with 24 frames per second movie playback, reducing unwanted artefacts. It also upscales regular DVDs to 1080p.

Speaker manifest comprises a powered subwoofer, four slender towers, a centre channel, and two satellites at the rear; let’s hope you can keep all those cables hidden under a rug.

And the package delivers – better than any similar and similarly priced product so far wheeled through the Tonecave’s testing room while this reviewer’s been donning tights and cape.

The real high point was the quality of the sound that Dolby technology has provided – and which the HT-BD2 processes with verve. It sounded like it could have come from something costing thousands more and I kept nervously looking to see if someone had pulled a switch. I’d not experienced the pain of 007 rolling his Aston in the Blu-ray Casino Royale quite like I did with the enhanced sound from this setup. Others may think differently (see ‘What they said’, below).

Some people (well, me, actually) may find the BD2 a bit slow to actually start doing what the remote demands, and there’s quite a lag between putting a Blu-ray disc in and anything happening. If I had a marketing job I’d say that it’s not slow at all, it just heightens the anticipation.

Enhance The Trance

A key to the HT-BD2′s competence is its ability to process Dolby’s Digital Plus (DD+) and Dolby TrueHD.
DD+ was developed for high-def TV and the HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. Developed from Dolby Digital, it supports a greater range of bitrates and offers up to 13 full-range audio channels instead of five.

Dolby TrueHD is an advanced lossless multi-channel audio codec primarily for HD home entertainment gear. This is the ‘better’ format (for example, offering a max 18Mbit/s compared to 1.7), but in the real world of blobbing out in front of your panel, you might not notice much difference compared to the ‘lesser’ DD+.

Both are very, very good.

What they said:

“The bottom line: The Samsung HT-BD2 delivers the sort of top-notch video quality you’d expect from the world’s first home theatre in a box with built-in Blu-ray – but its price, average audio quality, and lack of extras make it
tough to recommend.” – Cnet.com

Specifications

Playable Discs: BD, DVD, CD, JPG

Amp Power: 125w x 7 plus 150w

Dimensions (Body): 440 x 396 x 86mm (W/H/D)

Pros

• Killer system for the

• Price

• Cutting edge in a box

Cons

• A bit slow

• Styling

Verdict: Don’t judge a home theatre by its piano finish

Rating: 4/5

Phil Hanson

This article is from Tone issue #070.