First deal so please be gentle. =)
Saw the HT-D330 deal come up but that's just DVD where as this one is Blu-Ray and supports 3D, MKV/AVCHD playback, HDMI out, better speakers, bigger sub woofer, DTS-HD support, iPod/iPhone over USB and much more. All for $198 with free shipping/pickup from JB HIFI.
More Info: http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/tv-audio-video/home-theat…
Two different products….. the other would be a 'shed' system, where this one might be a 'bedroom' system. Both have their niches :)
Not disputing that, I'm just saying I prefer this one. To each his own :)
But frankly, you are comparing this to another product which is 2/3 cheaper than this. You get what you pay for.
I could use one of these for my plasma in my living room but have no idea what to look for in a system. Would anyone recommend this or perhaps something else?
For the price this will be fine/cheapest you can get. For other suggestions neew to know your budget, lounge size and plasma model.
Depends on your budget. If you want a blu-ray player + 5.1 speaker system on a super budget, this can't be beat pretty much. This can also support 1 more digital input from another device such as PS3/XBOX360 etc. (Unless you hook up your TV's optical output to it) If you are however planning to have more devices such as XBOX 360, PS3, Wii etc and want to be able to have the sound output (and also video) controlled from 1 device, get a proper A/V receiver and set of speakers. (or as a package)
Anyone know if you can hook up your HTPC to run through this or would you need a proper receiver?
This has optical digital input. As long as your HTPC has optical output, it can output sound through it without problems. (well, if you really want, you can output stereo through standard 3.5mm but that's not worth it)
Yep, just use the HDMI out of the PC direct to the TV and the optical out from the PC into the Samsung.
Since this model can handle DD & DTS (unlike the cheaper $78 one), you should have no problems getting 5.1 out of your HTPC.
if anyone has LG LED TV, you know it can not play DTS movies (need to remux) with this one, it will play straight away, correct?
If you output from TV's optical out, it should. It supports most common (DPLII/DD/DTS etc) sound formats.
No HDMI in…
Not good with input/output, how would this effect anything?
from google, there is no need of br player to have hdmi input.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091104101605AA…
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1221445
No HDMI input is irrelevant as this is not an AV/Receiver. For video from another device (e.g. PS3), just plug the HDMI cable to the TV and not to this. This player has 1 optical "audio" input for 1 extra device such as PS3. Should be enough for most who are after such a budget HT setup anyways. Heck, even if you have both PS3 and XBOX360, just swap out the optical cable as necessary. =p
Silly question but I noticed it says USB host. Does that mean I can connect a HDD to this and watch MKV files?
Yes, that's correct. I'm not sure if it supports NTFS although I have noticed that most LG/Samsung models support NTFS these days so I expect that this should also.
Does anyone know much about the "Smart Hub" feature on this device?
I have gone through the Samsung site and it doesn't seem very informative….the manual shows the same information as the 5 and 6 series home theatre systems however at http://www.samsung.com/au/tv/home-theatre.html "Smart Hub" isn't even listed as a feature of this set…
Nice! I'd go for this over the other one if I was looking for a home theatre setup.