Page 1 of Home Cinema In A Box

Can you help me please? I`m looking to purchase either the Sony DAV-S500 or the Philips MX1060D Home Cinema kit.
The Sony has great reviews; the Philips hardly any, ( that I can find!).
The price difference is minimal, about IR£50, so I`m not to pushed about stumping up that much extra if the Sony is worth it.
If any of you have experience of either peice of kit, I`d like to know your opinion, please.
Thank You...

I`m not sure about the SONY (haven`t looked even) but I bought the PHILIPS MX1060D and as for the system I like it, it sounds good in my livingroom and the video looks fine (u need a good tv too).

However... I can`t seem to find any1 that`s actually got any hack to work, doesn`t seem to be one out yet :( So no multiregion and no copying to WHS or whatever.

I`m also having problems finding any kind of specs on this system. Even called Philips and asked them to fax me the specs on what this system can play. According to that the system only plays DVD and CD (found a funny little remark that could be interpented as it could play MP3 (!?)aswell, not sure tho`).

Have tried to play VCD, SVCD and even XVCD and nothing..... :( I`m seriously considering returning the system and getting something else...

My 2 cents anyway...

/tickfree

Sony - no SCART output, plus can`t be hacked so make sure you buy it already multiregion, or face a big bill for alteration.

I bought the Sony Davs500 over christmas, nice kit.. excellent video and sound. I spent a couple of weeks buying Home Entertaiment mags, reading reviews, reading forums such as this.. and for an all in one system the Sony stood out from the crowd...

The lack of scart is a pain but not the end of the world, you get a composite to scart adapter in the box. The only issue is that if you want to watch a DVD without the surround speakers on (OK, I know.. why would you!) you don`t get any audio through the TV...

There is a simple solution though, the DAVS comes with a single composite video out... but also an additional set of RCA out connectors for video and L/R audio which I use instead... The only problem now is there is no auto channel switching when you turn on the DVD player due to the lack of scart... in reality this just means an extra button press on the remote.

Bought mine, fully MR + RCE for £479 inc vat from www.av4u.co.uk

You might like to consider investing in a decent scart adapter cable (i.e. asingle cable with Svideo plug on one end, scart on the other (rather than a cable plus scart adapter)), to allow the SVIDEO signal in to the TV, rather than using the composite vid you are using at the moment - quality should improve. You can also get them with the 2 phono/RCA cables as well, to allow the running of 2 channel audio into the TV with the same adapter.
Try http://www.beyondhifi.net, and have a look in the leads¦svideo leads - there is a techlink with just svideo (no audio), or BTech XS32 with svideo and phonos for £9.50 plus vat & del. I have a BTech scart lead, and it`s excellent. There are also cheaper ones, but I would say it`s worth getting a decent cable.
Good price for the S500, BTW!

This item was edited on Wednesday, 9th January 2002, 14:03