Samsung HT-BD2R: Blu-ray 7.1 home cinema system

Related entries: Home Cinema

Building your own home cinema is never going to be the cheapest decision you make. Once you factor in the cost of a Blu-ray player, an HD TV and a surround-sound system you're going to be getting some very cross phone calls from your bank manager. One way to reduce the cost is to buy an all-in-one Blu-ray and surround-sound system, such as the Samsung HT-BD2R.

What you get in the pack is a Blu-ray player, which also acts as the amplifier for the speaker system. There are four tall-boy speakers, a centre-channel speaker, a subwoofer and a pair of mini-satellite speakers -- for the extra channel that 7.1 provides over 5.1. The system claims an output of 1,100W, with each channel offering 135W -- the sub can crank out 155W.

The system supports Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Master audio on Dolby True HD for making the most of those lossless movie soundtracks Blu-ray boasts. In terms of video, you also get DivX support, and the player can handle video on CD or DVD too.

Samsung does lose some points for only including support for Blu-ray profile 1.0, instead of 1.1 or 2.0. This means you won't get the best interactive experience or any online enhancements. The good news is the player will lob a lovely 'Full HD' 1080p picture in the direction of your TV. It also upscales DVDs to 1080p too, in as much as anything can upscale a standard DVD to 1080p.

We won't pretend it's a solution will suit the audiophile among you, but if you want a simple home cinema that comes in one box, you can setup this one without hours of tweaking or the need to carefully select every component for maximum compatibility. The HT-BD2R costs about £799 online, but if you wait a few months the price is sure to drop. –Ian Morris

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Comments

AnonymousTue 22 July, 2008 7:09pm

does this system really support Divx/Xvid support? because according to its manual it doesnt.

i m really curious about this because i m strongly thinking of buying one of those beauties to connect to my newly bought Samsung LE37A656 TV.

also somewhere in the manual it claims that the firmware can be easily upgraded, but still if even with a possible firmware upgrade Xvid/Vidx playback isnt possible i was wondering if buying a "cheap" divx player like philips dvp5980 and hooking it directly into the Samsung HT-BD2R would do the trick.

in the manual of the HT-BD2R it claims the following:

OPTICAL : Connecting an External Digital Component
Digital signal components such as a Cable Box/Satellite receiver (Set-Top Box).
Connect the Digital Input (OPTICAL 1 or OPTICAL 2) on the main unit to the Digital Output of the
external digital component.
Press the D.IN button on the remote control to select D.IN 1 or D.IN 2 input.
You can also use the FUNCTION button on the main unit.
The mode switches as follows : BD/DVD ➞ D.IN 1 ➞ D.IN 2 ➞ AUX ➞ FM.

To see video from your Cable Box/Satellite receiver, you must connect it's video output
to a TV.
This system supports Digital sampling frequencies of 32 kHz of higher from external digital
components

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so in other words, i could plug the HDMI cable from the DVP5980 to the TV set, and the coaxial Coaxial/Digital Out to the Samsung HT-BD2R for gaining 7.1 sound.

would this really do the trick?

since i m no expert when it comes to eletronics, i could really use your help here,

thanks.