Page 1 of Home Cinemas in a box??? Are they really worth it???

I ahve a Samsung DVD-M105 which i THink is great, it`s multi-region and RCE free. I would however like either Dolby 5.1 or DTS. As the system has Digital Out but no decoder, I am looking into buying a decoder and speaker package? Are they really worth it? Is the sound experience that much better? I am looking at spending £200 max, and have seen the Sony `Babe` package and the Digitheatre. Has anyone got opinions on what I shoudl do?

Erm... it depends what you like ! my mother for instance hates sound and she would go crazy if she bought one.

But compared to normal stereo TV most systems will show a great improvement! And with Digital quality sound on every DVD you get a much full-er film experiance...

Tim

I`m in the same boat as you. All the stuff I`ve read points to the digitheatre being better but I do prefer the Sony name (for no good reason at all).
I`ve decided to wait 6 months to see if the price of the AEGO P5 falls from £480 and also keep saving as its a decoder and speakers plus the sound will be sufficiently good for my stereo so I can do away with the stereos speakers. Its a bugger having to wait though.

The Sony HTK215 is in your £200 price bracket, and is a superb system.
Does everything you want, including DTS, and has won numerous awards.Nice styling as well.
Why look elsewhere ?
I go by awards. If whathifi or home-entertainment magazine give it a ` best buy ` award , then that`s the one for me. All my equipment is award winning stuff.Not because I want to blow about it, but because I don`t have the time to check out loads of options myself and I trust their judgement.

The basic rule with Home Cinemas in a box is that you get what you pay for, so from a purely audio/visual point of view, the majority of people will be well satisfied (i.e.; people who can`t/won`t/aren`t allowed to turn the volume past 2 or invest in anything bigger than a 28 inch t.v.). I`ve also noticed that many Home Cinema packages, which include dvd players, don`t include SCART connections which is a tad worrying (Sony`s entire range).

I personally prefer to save up a bit of cash, read as many reviews as possible and buy separates.. it`s sometimes a painfully slow, more expensive process but the results are much better (just ask my girlfriend and my now-not-so-friendly neighbours).

This item was edited on Friday, 17th January 2003, 11:52

The scart issue doesn`t seem to come into this guy`s query as he already has a DVD player.
His Home-cinema-in-a-box tag is a bit misleading. It does appear he only wants a surround sound system.

I ahve looked around and the Sony HTK215 is over £300, woudl appreciate it if you could tell me where I can get it for under £200???


Thanks

Jim

Techtronics used to do them for £219 at one point, but I can`t get their website to load just now.
Empiredirect are doing the Sony HTBE1 `babe` system for £209.Real cute looking wee thing. It does everything the HTK215 does (5.1, DTS and DPL2), but slightly less power. Still 105W though,which is exactly the same as I have in my surround set-up. It`s plenty loud enough for my room which is approx 22 x 18 feet.
Loud enough for the neighbours to think there`s a war going on, and loud enough for the missus to keep telling me to turn it down at anything more than half.