Philips AmbiSound Home Theater Sound Bar with Integrated 1080p-Upscaling DVD/MP3 Player
Sometimes the quest for home surround sound is as ignominious as seeking the holy grail. Where do you place all those speakers? Do you have to reshape the room? Philips engineers have tackled that problem. They've managed to take the output from 5 distinct channel amplifiers and placed them in a single speaker called a Soundbar. Within the soundbar, speakers are angled to provide a realistic audio environment that literally emulates sound as if it's coming from all sides. It's 5.1 surround without the mess! In addition to the latest audio technology, the Ambisound system is only five inches thick and can be easily mounted onto a wall underneath an existing Flat-TV. The simple, yet elegant design enhances the décor of any home theater space, regardless of the room layout or design. The center console is designed to be mounted on a wall or resting on a stand.
For maximum audio quality and clarity, the Ambisound system features a 3-band equalizer and DoubleBASS deep bass performance, creating a smooth cross over between sounds. The speakers feature soft dome tweeters for increased clarity and clear voice performance and are designed for maximum efficiency for full midrange performance. Additionally, users will enjoy the Smart Surround feature, which automatically ensures correct surround sound settings whether a movie or music is playing. Though not exactly 5.1 channel sound, The HTS8100 uses a host of technologies including array processing, precise driver positioning and psycho-acoustic innovation to achieve the full surround sound performance that is 5.1 channel compatible. Auxiliary input ports Subwoofer Only five-inches thick, the Ambisound SoundBar provides a stylish system with amplifier and a DVD player all in a single sophisticated design Philips advanced Sonowave surround SonoWave surround sound technology is compatible with all 5.1 channel surround-sound sources, such as DVDs, SACDs and s
Philips AmbiSound Home Theater Sound Bar with Integrated 1080p-Upscaling DVD/MP3 Player Accessories
 Cables Unlimited 6-Foot HDMI Male to Male Cable (PCM-2295-06)
Cables To Go - 40315 - 2M (6.5ft) Velocity HDMI Digital Video Cable (Blue)
Peerless ST650P Tilting Wall Mount for 32" to 50" Flat Panel Displays (Black)
HDMI Cable 2M (6 Feet)
Sony PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc Remote
Peerless Universal Tilt Wall Mount for 37"- 60" Flat Panel Screen with one Touch Tilt
Cables To Go - 40019 - Optical To Coaxial Digital Audio Converter
PlayStation 3 Wireless Sixaxis Controller
Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control
Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote
Philips AmbiSound Home Theater Sound Bar with Integrated 1080p-Upscaling DVD/MP3 Player Reviews
The sound this system generates does not match a "hard wired" surround system. Like the others who have reviewed this product, I do not have a house that lends itself to installing a true home theater system. I love that these are on the end, allowing me to easily connect and disconnect mp3 player and laptop with ease. For those who have been critical of the auxiliary inputs being placed on the end instead of behind (and out of sight) I offer this - when mounted, these inputs need to be accessible unless you want to permanently keep devices plugged in. For the money, this is a great solution for those who want more than the canned speakers on the tv and who can't, or don't want, to install a true surround system.
It was loud and the subwoofer wasn't bad, but overall I had wished that the clarity of the sound was better.
The only time you will receive surround sound will be from DVD's.
Another big issue for me was that there are no video inputs on it.
Anyway I returned the system and bought a Samsung surround sound system for $200 less and am much happier.
I was forced to use the standard red and white RCA jacks for my TV sound.
I purchased this system at BJ's wholesale for $500, which in my personal opinion, I expect pretty good sound for that price considering my last system was half that and sounded great for the time.
What this meant for me was that I could not run HDMI from my cable box and get the surround sound through it from HD cable.
This thing really never prodiced surround sound, so do not be expecting a surround sound experience too much.
The upscaling looked decent, but it was the first time I had ever seen upscaling, so I don't know how to compare.
I was excited about this unit but ended up returning it when I discovered it has no optical input. Both of my HDTVs pass-thru sound via an optical output and that's really what I wanted from a unit. Next time I'll do a better job reading the specs.
All in all, you get an audio system that is much less "invasive" in your living room, but you pay with a fairly limited Surround experience. In addition, just having one digital input (and co-ax). And the design is very sleek, too. seems a bit outdated to me. And what's the idea behind having it in the subwoofer rather than the main bar, where all the other plugs are. The Surround sound experience is somewhat ambiguous, there are moments during a movie where you are indeed tricked into thinking you are hearing sound effects from the side or behind, but 90% of the time you won't. However, the set-up is really easy and I don't miss all the wires my previous 5.1-system had at all.
Essentially you get significant video noise in the form of green vertical lines in 1080p. Could be wrong about that but I do know that Philips has their head in the sand when it comes to this problem and their customer service (if you can even call it that) is horrible. Or they don't have a 1080p capable TV. Too bad because the unit is a good idea, looks great, and otherwise functions as advertised. I'd wait until another company with a clue comes out with something similar in Blue Ray. There is a discussion thread concerning this in the discussion area so check it out. Be careful buying this product if you expect to upconvert to 1080p resolution. Frankly, the more I read the more I suspect that most people simply haven't tried 1080p and thus haven't encountered this yet.
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