Entered CNET Catalog: 02/28/2007
SKU: 609585127272
Manufacturer: Philips Consumer Electronics
Manufacturer description
HTS8100 is the new Ambisound home theater system. Featuring Philips' proprietary Ambisound technology, the HTS8100 SoundBar creates a full 5.1 surround sound experience through a one-piece fully integrated home theater system. Ambisound represents the future in audio innovation integrating the latest technology, in a sleek, sophisticated design. Only five-inches thick, the Ambisound SoundBar provides a stylish system with amplifier and a DVD player all in a single sophisticated design. Whether listening to a CD, watching a favorite DVD or enjoying a TV program, Ambisound will ensure consumers are enjoying an immersive entertainment experience. The Ambisound SoundBar features five amplifiers, similar to a 5.1 system, integrated into a single horizontal sound bar. The HTS8100 uses a host of technologies including array processing, precise driver positioning and psycho-acoustic innovation to achieve the full surround sound performance. 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. 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 FlatTV . 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. Featuring a single central sound bar and sub woofer, there is no risk of cluttered space or obstruction of speaker wires. For added convenience, the HTS8100 is ready to use immediately out of the box, with a quick and easy set up session. Combining amazing audio performance with stylish design, the SoundBar also creates a best-in-class viewing experience with Faroudja DCDi and HDMI 1080p picture quality, delivering outstanding results. Perfectly complementing the Philips Ambilight FlatTV range, the HTS8100 creates a truly immersive entertainment experience.Product summary
The good: Stylish, minimalist design; built-in DVD player concealed behind motorized door; very good video quality on DVDs; four total audio inputs; iPod dock included.
The bad: No video inputs; sounds better with movies than with music.
The bottom line: The exceedingly stylish Philips HTS8100 SoundBar packs the home theater experience--including a DVD player--into one slim package plus a sub.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 07/23/2007
Editors' note: The rating of the Philips HTS8100 has been changed since publication to better reflect its value compared to competing home theater systems.
A lot of people love the idea of a home theater system until they realize they need to run wires all over the living room to make it work. Companies have tried to solve this problem with a variety of solutions--wireless rear speakers, virtual surround from less than six speakers--but there's no denying the appeal of recent single-speaker solutions for design-conscious buyers. The Philips HTS8100 SoundBar is one of the newest virtual surround systems with a single speaker plus a subwoofer, and it manages to stash one more trick up its sleeve: a built-in DVD player. In all, the HTS8100 comes through on most of its promises. It does a pretty good job of approximating the surround experience, we liked the styling, and it even impressed us with its video quality while upscaling DVDs. We had some minor gripes, namely that it lacks video inputs and doesn't sound great with music, but we're betting many style-first buyers are willing to live with those compromises. We can't say we're thrilled about the $800 list price, but it's available for less online, and it's competitively priced compared to many other high-style virtual surround systems, such as the JVC DD-3 Sophisti.
Design
The Philips HTS8100's look is extremely stylish. The main unit consists of a long, thin speaker system--the SoundBar--that measures a svelte 5.75 inches high by 36.81 inches wide by 5.35 inches deep. For a system this thin, you might be surprised to find out there's a DVD player packed in there as well; with a tap of the open/close button, the black reflective panel in the middle slides back to reveal a vertically aligned DVD player. The SoundBar can either stand on a table or be mounted on the wall with the included bracket. All in all, it comes close to the ultimate in minimalist home theater--just one component under (or over) your TV that acts like your receiver, DVD player and surround-sound speaker system.
Of course, it's not quite that simple. The SoundBar unit must also connect to the included subwoofer, which definitely makes it harder to wall mount and still keep the wire concealed. The smallish sub measures in at 18.5 inches high by 11.61 inches wide by 11.61 inches deep and has a modern look at goes well with the aesthetic of the SoundBar.
Philips also includes an iPod dock in the package, and this connects to the main SoundBar using a proprietary connection. We love that Philips included the dock, but the extra wires and separate component does put a damper on the simple design. It would have been nice if Philips had designed the dock into either the SoundBar itself or the sub, but with a separate dock, you'll need to pull off some creative cable management to hide the additional wire.
The cool-looking remote features a glossy, black finish, which may look nice when you take it out of the box but quickly becomes a magnet for fingerprints. Button placement is fine for important buttons like volume, playback controls, and the main directional pad, which are clearly separated and easy to use by feel. On the other hand, the rest of the buttons are all the same height and directly adjacent, making them more difficult to differentiate.
Features
Like just about every HTIB with a built-in DVD player, the HTS8100 comes with both standard Dolby and DTS surround-sound processing. Of course, the HTS8100 doesn't actually have six discrete speakers, so it uses its own processing to simulate the surround experience from one speaker.
The HTS8100's functionality isn't limited to just DVDs, though, as it can function like a mini-AV receiver for switching between additional audio inputs. The HTS8100's connectivity is limited to audio--there are two stereo analog RCA-style inputs on the subwoofer, two stereo analog inputs on the main unit (one RCA-style, one minijack), and one coaxial digital audio input on the subwoofer. You can still connect video components by running just the video cable(s) to your TV and the audio cables to the HTS8100, but you'll have to fumble between two remotes to get it all going. On the side of the SoundBar is a USB port, which can be used with JPEG, MP3, WMA, and DivX files.
For outputs, the highest quality connection on the HTS8100 is the HDMI output. It's capable of upscaling DVDs to resolutions as high as 1080p, but that doesn't mean it will make your DVDs look like high-def. Despite marketing claims, upscaling generally only yields slight increases in picture quality, and how much of an increase you'll experience is very much dependent on how good your TV is. This is because every HDTV already has upscaling processing built-in, so the increase in quality can only occur if the DVD player does a better job than you TV does--and we'll cover the HTS8100's performance later. If you don't have an HDMI input on your TV, there's also a component video output and a composite video output. The SoundBar's upscaling is only capable via HDMI.
As we mentioned before, there's an included iPod dock that connects to the main unit. As with almost any iPod dock, you're able to listen to and browse your music collection using the remote control and an onscreen interface that displays on your TV. There's also a video output on the dock, which you'll have to connect separately to your TV to view photos and videos from your iPod. It would have been nice if this separate connection wasn't needed, since the HTS8100 is already connected to your TV. Also note that when viewing photos and videos, you'll have to navigate using the iPod's screen rather than on the TV.
Audio performance
We started off our listening test of the HTS8100 with King Kong on DVD, and we definitely preferred to activate the multichannel Ambisound mode. While CGI Kong may have not always looked convincing, the HTS8100 did a pretty good job of approximating the surround experience. There were several instances where it seemed that sound was coming from the sides of room, such as when Kong is sprinting through the jungle or during the thrilling dinosaur stampede. Of course, it doesn't compare to a sound system with six separate speakers, but for those who put a premium on style and can't stand the wires of a full system, it should be an acceptable compromise.
For music, we preferred to leave the HTS8100 in stereo mode as opposed to multichannel. While multichannel mode may widen the soundstage a little, we found it thinned out the sound too much and ended up sounded unnatural. Listening to Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue, we felt the HTS8100 fell a little short of delivering the sonics we expect from a home theater system. As we notched the volume up, it sounded like the HTS8100 started to struggle and the music would get a little harsh. On the other hand, we felt the subwoofer and main unit were nicely matched and did a decent job handling the acoustic bass on this album. When switched to Jeff Beck's Truth, we were impressed by the HTS8100's ability to create a pretty large soundstage from just the SoundBar, but the little system didn't quite have enough guts to keep up with the band's hard-rocking sound--cranking the volume up resulted in some boomy bass. In all, the HTS8100 will definitely suffice for casual music listeners--and it can sound pretty good on some songs--but more demanding music fans will still long for a bigger sound.
Video performance
We started off our DVD image quality tests using Silicon Optix's HQV test suite. Overall, we were very impressed by the HTS8100's DVD performance, especially for an integrated unit (as opposed to a standalone DVD player). It aced the initial resolution test, demonstrating its ability to display the full detail of DVDs. The next two tests were also solid, as the HTS8100 was mostly jaggy-less while display a rotating white line, as well as three pivoting lines. The HTS8100 even passed the difficult 2:3 pull-down test, which means its video processing kicked into film mode in about a second, so there was no moiré in the grandstands. It did struggle a little with horizontally scrolling text in 1080i mode, as the words left some slight trails behind them, but there was no sign of it in 1080p mode--so those with 1080p TVs would be wise to set the output resolution to 1080p.
We also took a look at some program material, and the HTS8100 continued to hold its own. It again proved its 2:3 pull-down prowess on the intro of Star Trek: Insurrection, as the hulls of the boats and railing of the bridge were rendered smoothly, without any jaggies. The HTS8100 also did a good job on intro of Seabiscuit, which is a very difficult sequence, as it successfully rendered the pans over the black and white photos without a problem. All in all, the HTS8100 delivers very good image quality, especially for a virtual surround/HTIB system.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20out of 20 user reviews
THE BEST EVER !!! absolute 3d surround with no wires!!
Pros: inegrated dvd, usb tc
sound quality
easy installation
absolute 3d surround with no wires!!
better than conventional home theaters
Cons: radio presets or stored stations get erased once you turn of the main power although there is the option of auto install that comes up every time u power up
out of 20 user reviews
Stopped working in less then a year
Pros: Small, non-intrusive sound bar that sounded great! Loved having the I-pod docking. Will miss this product!
Cons: DVD, Ipod stopped working in 5 months. VERY poor customer service from Phillips. Unable to repair or replace with same or different type of home theater system. Attitude was "sorry, your out of luck". Took MONTHS to process paperwork for refund!!
out of 20 user reviews
Delivers the goods. Not 5.1, but gr8 2nd system.
Pros: blends nicely in small entertainment center. great connectivity for a basic package, the iPod dock is a killer little bonus. sound is great for general purpose use. really helps keep a sleek looking set-up in living room.
Cons: not a substitute for a "real" surround sound system.
picked it up for $299, very happy with purchase.
out of 20 user reviews
Great Powerful System! Hook up Properly. Read Review.
Pros: * Great Deal for all Options
* Price is Low
* Great Sound
* Virtually No Wires
* HDTV Optical Out (will explain later)
* HDMI connect
* USB connect
* Ipod or MP3 player connect
* Many options
Cons: * People should not get confused and think this is a 5.1. It truly is a 2.1, but breaches upon the 5.1 area especially if you connect the optical out on your HDTV receiver box.
Having been sick of hiding wires, running them and such I was looking for a simple system to hold me over till I can really spend the money for a true 5.1 system. This seems so practical and it is. My wife is happy as well. No mess.
I am on Dish Network and have HD thus my receiver has an optical out. If your receiver has an optical out I highly recommend you do this. I read this here on CNET and have not looked back. Go to momoprice.com or your favorite website and buy an optical in to audio out converter, about $11.00 and change, then buy a Optical Toslink to Coaxial (RCA) Digital Audio Converter, a 3FT Optical Toslink Cable $3.00,6ft High-quality Coaxial Audio/Video RCA CL2 Rated Cable - RG6/U 75ohm (for S/PDIF, Digital Coax, Subwoofer. $3.00. All for about $18.00. I think shipping is about $5-7. Totally worth every penny as is converts your optical sound from your HD to your sound system. Amazing! That is where it breaches on 5.1. They call it Ambisound and it is good. The bass now comes through and on wood floors it kicks. (Connect the optical out (HD receiver) to the optical in on converter box, RCA subwoofer connect on out of box to in of subwoofer, plug the unit in.)
You can control the sound to a certain degree, but again taking advantage of the optical out makes the difference. You will learn to play will the setting to see what is right for your room and tastes.
I listen to music in stereo and HD in Ambisound. Very Nice.
Upscaling DVD looks great. I have not watched a full movie. Just tried it out. Again sound it great and it will pick up if the movie has surround sound.
Great feature is the USB port. Amazing. I had a movie in my computer. I transferred it over yesterday to thumb drive, plugged it in to sound bar and played it. Wow. It was only XVID, but I was impressed with quality. The HDMI connection does a nice job. By the way I upgraded my HDMI cable as well for a little over $3.00 at momoprice. I am excited to see how a HD quality movie looks on USB drive. I did notice that the surround sound was not able to have all functions work. I don't know if this was because it was a low quality movie or just the system. Again, the sound the great anyway. I will find out next time around.
The best part of this system was the price. I paid only $279.00 and that included shipping! They are out there friends, brand new, and you don't have to go on eBay although you can find them there too. Go to pricegrabber.com and have some fun searching.
For under $300.00 to have a system that offers all that this does to boost your sound for your HDTV and get some good music playing out of your stereo, compact with hidden wires, it's a good deal in my book!!
out of 20 user reviews
mine was great untill it stoped playing dvds
Pros: great sound
Cons: it just stoped working even after being cleaned several times the dvd would not play
out of 20 user reviews
Phillips HTS8100 great, but hook up could be easier.
Pros: Outstanding sound qualty with DVD's. CD music quality is OK. Better then Samsung HT-DB390 it replaces, but not fantastic.
Cons: The hook up is ridiculous getting the cable to the main unit is difficult and the rear cover is flimsy and will not stay on. Hook up to the subwoofer can leave a mess. iPod dock should be intergraded into main unit.
out of 20 user reviews
Not bad for what it is.
Pros: compact, sounds OK , picture good with 50 inch panasonic.
Cons: Not true surround sound, no support for using a universal remote. Phillips does not support the use of universal remotes. No codes for their product. This of course requires multiple remotes.
out of 20 user reviews
Awesome...If you hook it up in the correct way !!!!
Pros: Great looking all in 1 with good sound
Cons: Sub cable is big and a bit hard to fish through walls
It is great looking and provides an all in 1 solution for those who do not want clutter on the wall or in the room (IPOD, DVD, CD, AM/FM)
It will sound good out of the box but to really get the system going you need to use the DIGITAL IN Coax on the back of the sub...The problem is most of the newer SAT boxes and TV's have an OPTICAL OUT which is not COAX. To remedy this I bought a OPTICAL IN / COAX OUT converter (monoprice has them for 12 bucks).
With this converter, I took the Digital Audio fiberoptic line from the back of the TV or SAT and plugged it in to the converter, then took a Digital Coax cable and went from the converter to the SUB.
Now you are able to get the full experience of the system as the RCA jacks they tell you to use do not transmit Surround Sound.
It is really night and day in terms of quality, listening field, and virtual surround.
Do your self a favor and use the digital not the RCA cables...
For the money, I think this might be the best overall value out there. My requirements were an all in 1 system with a sub. I looked at the Sony CT100 and the Samsung 810 for comparison.
This system blew them both away and comes with an IPOD dock, AM/FM tuner, sub, and DVD/CD player.
With that in mind to realize the full potential of this system YOU HAVE TO HOOK IT UP USING THE DIGITAL IN ON THE BACK OF THE SUB.
The manual tells you to hook up using RCA cables (red and white) which will sound fine but they do not accept the same quality of signals the DIGITAL PORTS do. For example, RCA does not accept surround sound, only stereo, so any surrond with RCA is just manipulating the stereo sound.
Here is what I did:
I bought a DIGITAL OPTICAL TO DIGITAL COAX converter (monoprice - $ 12.00) then
I used the OPTICAL OUT on the SAT box (Dish Network) to the OPTICAL IN on the ocnverter. From there I used a DIGITAL COAX from the converter to the DIGITAL IN on the back of the sub.
The sound improved drastically and there was actually some virtual surround as well. Everything is cleaner, clearer, and the lsitening field is wider.
Great system, great features, great price!!
out of 20 user reviews
Best all-in-one
Pros: Everything works perfectly and is compact and sleek.
Cons: The is no fault to be had here.
It plays all ipod models (except shuffle?) with the included docking bay - which follows the same design model and looks great. The options are phenomenal.
There is no fault to be found from this unit. You pay around $700 and it is worth every cent. No way can you be disappointed.
out of 20 user reviews
Did not work
Pros: Nice design
Cons: Does not play DVDs
out of 20 user reviews
Returned 2 units, bad video, good sound, but stay away!
Pros: Surround sound was pretty good for 2.1 speakers
Cons: Lots of artifacts and pixelation in video
Now for the bad, I bought this unit at Costco for about $580. I returned the first one when I noticed huge and non-ignorable artifacts in dark movie scenes. It was totally distracting. Also, there was too much pixelation in general, especially in radiating-light scenes. I exchanged this one and got another, hoping mine was a dud. So, the second one was even worse. When I first plugged it in, the entire screen was pink. After fiddling with if for a while, I was able to make this go away, but it still had the same problems as the first unit. I even tried buying a better HDMI cable, but it didn't help. I ended up returning this second unit and got a refund for it.
My advise: stay away from this one until Philips works out the bugs. I ended up getting the Philips HTS6500 instead. It is less than 1/2 the price, has much better video, and has nearly as good audio as the HTS8100. I got it at Walmart for $248.
out of 20 user reviews
Great Space Saver, Good Sound Quality
Pros: Upconverts via HDMI, Good Sound Quality, Very Clean Ergonomic Design
Cons: Limited RCA Inputs
out of 20 user reviews
Very average!
Pros: All in one design
Cons: Faulty DVD player
out of 20 user reviews
Forget about 5+1 speaker systems when you only need 1+1...
Pros: Great design, fantastic sound, easy setup, quality dvd player
Cons: no optical inputs
I recommend this system for anyone that:
1. Hates wires
2. Likes simplicity
3. Requires great sound
out of 20 user reviews
A well beautiful design from Philips with european touch.
Pros: Bold, top technology do come in small sizes, deep sound and intense clear vivid video images.
Cons: Maybe a few more connections and a better FM radio antena.
out of 20 user reviews
streamline design sacrafices essental duties of HTS
Pros: DVD and IPOD Quality is Great
Cons: T.V. and Gaming(AUX) sound quality ,SUB-UNIT in AUX or TV modes. Price. ipod dock station
out of 20 user reviews
A great 'Stereo' system
Pros: Excellent connectivity; Lack of Cables; USB functionality; Compact and looks good
Cons: Virtual surround sound still not as good as traditional systems
On the first score, it's great. But on the second, I hoped for just a little more than it delivers - still good, but just not up to a traditional 5.1 setup. Thus the drop of one point from the score.
I've got loads of devices hooked in to this system (iPod, Cable, AppleTV, Wii) and it works great. But one bonus that I didn't know I was getting was the flexibility that the USB connection gave me.
The Xvid/DivX support via the DVD is great, but I didn't realise that instead of burning things to DVD to watch, I could simply copy and watch them directly from the USB Key. This works a treat and is so simple. Now if I could only get my 500GB external HDD to do the same I'd have weeks worth of on-demand viewing to be had !
out of 20 user reviews
Good sound with Great Video and Asthetics
Pros: A lot of value for the price. Limited amount of wires, great looks, HD video conversion, clean sound, and very good bass.
Cons: No video inputs, doesn't replace having rear speakers
out of 20 user reviews
A sleek fantastic system that looks and sounds great
Pros: Clean hook up, up converts standard dvds to 1080p,5.1sounds very realalistic, active sub woofer, ipod dock, LOUD!!!! on 4 this thing shakes my living room, very well constructed !!!!!
Cons: It's so sleek that making some of the conections was hard I have large hands. Other then that no Cons LOVE IT!
Two thumbs way up!!!!!!
out of 20 user reviews
Love this system
Pros: See my list
Cons: See my list
I saw the system online and to my surprise, it was marked up for $580.00 with $35.00 shipping and handling at buy.com. I thought it would be like $999.00 as mentioned last January. I got really excited and went to bestbuy to find out if they carry the item. Sure enough they had 2 in stock. They wanted $799.00 for it but I told them about the one that I saw online and to my surprise, they matched it. I bought it and took it home with me.
Exterior ------ This unit is so beautiful to look at. The sliding door has a black glossy finish with the mirror effect (similar to Samsung sliding mirror cell phones) and the top of the subwoofer also have black glossy finish to it. The silver top where the controls are gave the unit a more classy look. I mounted mine on the wall because the system matches my Philips 37” ambilight lcd tv. The wall mount is also included which makes it great. Together, they both look so beautiful and futuristic (even though my apartment looks ugly).
Connections ------ This unit only has 1 HDMI outputs which is ok but could have been better especially nowadays that most of the other systems have multiple HDMI connections. At the back of the soundbar there is a component output. Behind the subwoofer connections are as follows: 2 audio inputs, am/fm antenna, digital coaxial.
Performance ------ Playing DVD’s in this system is amazing. I can really hear the surround speakers working around me (its like having 2 channel speakers behind me). At volume 15, it gets so loud. It can go up to 40 but I do not recommend that to anybody unless you have a very open room. Subwoofer performs great in DVD’s but it is not loud enough when you play CD’s or the radio. I recommend to hook up your mp3 player on the side of the soundbar because it makes a difference soundwise. I have not tried the ipod dock (which is included) because I am not an ipod guy. I hooked up my tv’s SPDIF to the subwoofer’s Digital Coaxial Input and that also sounded really good (that’s for my regular and HDTV cable which is directly connected to my TV. I do not have a cable box). Setup is pretty straight forward which makes it easier. The unit adapts to whatever is in the DVD (Dolby digital, DTS, Dolby Prologic) but you can also change the sound setting. It can convert your DVD’s up to 1080p which I have not tried because my TV can only go up to 1080i, but the picture still looks great even on 1080i.
Pros -------- Stylish, easy to use, sounds great like a true 5.1 surround (although I have not tried it in an open room, my room is only 500 square foot and it sounds good), bass is excellent in DVD’s, not a whole lot of wires to run, cheap compare to other systems, and just plain beautiful.
Cons ------- You can not adjust the volume of the subwoofer (it can only go up to level 3), there is no manual equalizer (all the equalizers are pre-programmed for you), the wire from the soundbar to the subwoofer is bulky.
In Conclusion ------- I love this system, for those people who do not like wires, too many speakers, and is looking for a stylish system, this is for you.
