Zenith ZHX-313 300-Watt Home Theatre System with DVD/VCR Combo
Zenith Electronics is focused on the digital future, building on a proud heritage of leadership in entertainment products for the home and professional markets.PRODUCT FEATURES:Complete Home Theater Sound System DVD player, Hi-Fi VCR and Digital Receiver combo including a built-in AM/FM tuner;300 Watts of Dynamic Sound Five 45 watt speakers with one 75 watt subwoofer, provides 300 watts of ultra-clear, dynamic sound;MP3, WMA, JPEG Decoding Plays CDs filled with hours of MP3 or WMA files downloaded from your home PC;Multi-Format Disc Playability Plays DVD, DVD?R/RW and CD-R/RW;DTS and Dolby Pro Logic II Digital surround sound provides a theater-like atmosphere with six separate audio channels;4 Head Hi-Fi Stereo VCR Superior slow motion and stop action features along with hi-fidelity stereo sound;Progressive Scan Video Out Transfer data without losing picture or sound quality.
Zenith ZHX-313 300-Watt Home Theatre System with DVD/VCR Combo Accessories
Zenith ZHX-313 300-Watt Home Theatre System with DVD/VCR Combo Reviews
I have now gone through two of these units. I will never purchase a Zenith product again after this experience. The first one lasted 10 months and the second one lasted 4 months. Zenith's warranty is 3 months for labor so it would cost me more to repair it than to just buy a new one. In both cases, the dvd player broke.
I'm sure there are individual products which offer superior DVD players, VCRs, receivers, speakers, radio tuners, and control. I've gotta say that this thing is a "no-brainer". I've listened to this product and for whatever deficiencies anyone could name, it's pretty darned nice. But, to get all of this in a single VCR-sized box and for only $150. Like one of the other reviewers who wrote about this product, I was just looking for a VCR replacement, with possibly a built-in DVD player. I found myself looking at this thing, which was only $30 more than a middlin' quality DVD-VCR combo deck.
The picture is great even with the old TV set. I installed this system in a Class A, 37 foot RV. I got it at Circuit City.
When I replace the TV set with a newer one, I can bring the video over via a S-Video cable and I expect the picture will improve dramatically. The system is perfect for an RV since it saves so much space because everything is in that one case and the power will not overpower the RV and blow the windows out. For the money, this unit solved all the problems I was having with the old system that was in the RV completely.
The other units I saw were 600-700 watts which would overpower the room size and get you kicked out of the RV campground by the Campground Manager :) Also, this unit is not much bigger than the standard DVD and it has not only the DVD but also the VHS VCR. In addition, it has a RF output for use with the older TV sets in older RV's; therefore you do not need an RF modulator. It is excellent for the small sized area in the living/kitchen/dining area of a Class A RV.
The RV had front speakers and rear speakers so I added two more front speakers, a center speaker and the sub-woofer.
I was looking for a smallish DVD/VCR home theater system for my bedroom at home, and was surprised to find that there weren't too many choices out there. I wasn't able to compare this unit directly with other similar systems, but I did see some bad reviews for Magnavox and Philips (my last Philips DVD/VCR standalone constantly ate tapes). Firstly, setup was easy; I had no problems with the manual (actually didn't have to refer to the manual very much), and had the system up and running in about 15 minutes. This is a good system for a small apartment or bedroom, since the audio won't be overpowering for a small space. Audio isn't great, but I didn't expect superb quality with this system. Quality is fine. This Zenith system fits the bill, and performs pretty well, considering the price.
One complaint is that there aren't any equalizer settings; in fact, you can't even adjust bass or treble. However, it is good enough, with nice bass from the subwoofer. But so far, I'm pretty satisfied. VCR works well, with fast rewind and fast-forward. DVD video quality using progressive scan and component video is excellent on my 32" Proview LCD TV. Another complaint is that the search function is clunkypress the search button once, and you skip to the next track; press and hold, and you can search; in order to increase the speed of the search, you have to repeatedly press and hold, which is a slow process. Radio also works well (at least FM; AM is staticky, which I presume is due to interference from the TV or possibly the theater unit itself).
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