Home Theatre in a Box

[utmck]

Here is my situation:

I bought a 42" Samsung, and a Phillips HTIAB system about 20 months ago. But the Phillips system has crapped out twice now. I understand that the Phillips system is not the "best" system there is, but my days of needing massive amounts of HI-FI over kill just to watch movies and sports are long gone.

So I went to Best Buy to see about replacing the receiver and the sales guy said that none of the HTIAB systems are worth a damn and that I should expect about 12 months or so before any of them crap out.

Is this common knowledge or are they a viable solution and if so which one should I buy?

I simlpy want upgraded sound quality and to be able to play CD's and DVD's without having to spend $1,000 to get it.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[hlaustin]

Stay away from the units that have the dvd player and receiver all built into one piece. I like the yamaha htib systems, you will probably get a good unit from onkyo as well. Both of these use great receivers and use an ok speaker system.

 

[TheFied]

I have the Sony Dream System and it has worked great (almost 3 years old).

Sony

I also have the Denon S101 (Denon) for 2 years and it has worked great.

Both have DVD player integrated in the system. For my needs, I wanted 1 box for receiver and DVD player due to the furniture I have (fits in our armoire which we had before and I also have my HD box on the other side, I don't have room in there for another box) and I also wanted a 2.1 system b/c I didn't want speakers everywhere.

A friend of mine has an amazing 5.1 system and he laughs that I am happy with a 2.1 system but to each his own.

 

[longyak]

Sounds like BestBuy was trying to up-sell you.

AVS forum has a whole board devoted to HTiB. I'd go read up and ask questions there.
AVS HTiB

 

[Hobbes2702]

Agreed. The guy at Bestbuy was trying to get you to buy something else. He wanted you to buy something better.

 

[longyak]

Having given this more thought, unless you blew out your speakers, and you really don't care about sound quality, you should be able to get a receiver for under $200 and an up-converting DVD player for under $75 and use the speakers you have with them.

 

[utmck]

I thought HTiB was a receiver/DVD/CD all in one with speakers. Is that not correct?

 

[Hobbes2702]

It is. If you are not overly concerned with sound quality then HTIBs are a good way to go cuz you get all in one and get an upgrade to surround sound.

 

[longyak]

HTiB basically means it all come in one box. Yes, many have the receiver/DVD/CD as one unit. But you can use your old speakers with any surround receiver(the exception is Bose as the "bass" module controls what frequencies go to the speakers) and any DVD player works as a CD player too.