Page 1 of Are Home Cinema Kits in a box worth it?

What`s the concensus? Are these all in one kits worth it? What about their capability for playing normal music CD`s? What`s sound quality like?
Anyone have any thoughts, or recommendations for particular kits? Would be looking for good sound, and reliable DVD playback with good picture (flowing in action scenes etc.) and sound.
Thanks!

I`ve yet to read a test of one that is good in all departments.Some have good sound but rubbish picture,and vice-versa.
One of the major things they seem to miss out on is scart sockets.
Hardly any have got them, which is really extremely weird.
You want a scart for gowd`s sake !
In my opinion, you`re much better off buying your kit in 2 seperate components. The player and a surround system.
You don`t mention your budget but most `one box` solutions are £400ish. For that money you could get something like the Toshiba 220 or Pioneer 545 DVD players ( both award winners and both have scarts ) for around £130 , and then a surround sound system like the Sony HTBE-1 or the Sony HTK215 for between £200 and £270.
No more difficult to connect up then a `one-box` solution.

I have the Pioneer DCS303, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It has everything you could want - 75w per channel, Dolby Pro Logic II, DD, DTS, optical in, multi region great picture and all for £285.
You could also consider the Samsung HT HM150 which has a similar spec (buy only 40w per channel) and can be bought for £240.

Still no RGB output and still no scart to scart connection though I see.
Only S-VHS or composite.
Very strange.
Cheers

hi,
i recently bought a sony davs550 system and its the danglies !, cd playback and dvd playback are excellent, it looks great too ! great all round system, have it linked up with a 32"100htx panasonic flatscreen, and hey who needs the cinema - wheres the popcorn !!!

Go for the JVC TH-A5R, 250w output, great performace, DVD, VCD, SVCD, Cd-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R and RW, MP3, Multi region, great performance, and £249.99 in Comet.

I got the JVC THA 9R, (like Jim`s but a bit older), music plays fine and the sound (to me) is incredible. Go for it. Got mine set up in about half an hour, all leads and connections were there, everything was compatible with everything else - simple. s`pose really it depends on your budget, room size all that kind of thing. Good luck anyway.
ATB...F...

Hmm. Didn`t realise these do not come with scart sockets on the back for RGB. A real let down, as these are my main inputs. I`ll have to give it more thought.
Thanks for all your replies!

If you are looking for a home cinema in a box with a scart then take a look at the new range of Philips. All model play DVD, CD MP3, VCD etc and some also play SACD and naturally have DD and DTS on board.