Samsung HT-BD8200 Blu-Ray Sound Bar Home Theater System
- Integrated Blu-ray
- 300W Output power
- HDMI out with CEC + 1080p
- iPod video, audio + iphone support
- Stream Blockbuster, Netflix, YouTube & Pandora
- Bluetooth
Product Description
Blu-Ray Home Theater… More >>
Samsung HT-BD8200 Blu-Ray Sound Bar Home Theater System
We had purchased the Polk Soundbar first, but had some major issues with it. First, the remote would stop and start working at weird times. Plus it was hard for me to hear dialogue when their was background music. So we packed it up after a week, and sent it back. Deciding on this soundbar was tough. I had looked at the other Samsung model at BestBuy, but I wasn’t happy that it didn’t have Blue-ray. I figured I’d be better off spending the extra $100 on this model to keep from paying it later & having to deal with another component to hook up.
All in all, I’m very happy with the sound we receive from the Soundbar. It obviously isn’t true surround sound, but that’s a trade-off I’m willing to make rather than have speakers hung all over the place. The bass is definately better out of this unit than it was out of the Polk, and the sound seems more balanced to me. We’ve tried almost every feature – the Netflix streaming is awesome (and once Netflix gets some better quality titles available, it will be even better), the USB drive function is very nice as well.
A couple of minor issues
1, when you are listening to a connected iPod, you can’t listen in shuffle mode. I have no idea why they wouldn’t have included this feature, but hopefully a firmware upgrade can resolve this issue.
2, A lot of folks have discussed the fan. It is true that it does emit a low hum, but its not noticeable (at least to me) when the unit is in actual use. However, it does become annoying when someone (my wife) doesn’t turn the soundbar off and leaves the fan running.
3, To go along with above, I’d like to have the unit turn off automatically if it doesn’t play sound for an hour. Not sure if this possible.
4, The screensaver that runs on the TV when the soundbar plays music from the USB drive is really choppy. I get around this by just turning the TV off during playback.
5, I haven’t tried the HDMI out yet (still have an old tube TV), but review the other reviews to see some of the issues other folks have had with that.
And finally, the things I really like about the Samsung Soundbar:
1, Good sound
2, Netflix & Pandora playback
3, Stylish – I especially like the glass touch-sensitive buttons.
4, Having the DVD player & audio all integrated into one device is nice.
Rating: 4 / 5
What is the deal with the fan noise? I have to turn the unit off and on at least four times before the fan stops making noise. It actually sounds like a disk is grinding in the unit. Samsung says it could be a problem with the “cooling” system. Maybe the unit thinks it is hot when it is not? I combined this with a 55″ SAMSUNG LED TV (both wall mounted) and they look great. Bummer to have to return the 8200 for repair, but my options appear limited. Probably zero chance of firmware repairing this problem.
Rating: 2 / 5
I own a new samsung lcd tv, so naturally I assumed a Samsung soundbar would share the same software and hardware interfaces, so I wouldn’t have to worry about incompatibilities between unlike platforms, e.g. a Sony vs Samsung. In the two months since I received it, I have struggled to get the soundbar and the tv to recognize each other without having to turn the equipment on and off repeatedly. J. Sundquist’s review is spot-on. The anynet feature, and their bd-wise software muddy the waters so much that you never know what you’re doing wrong, if anything. As a simple audio component, the soundbar is fine–better than the tv speakers, but not high-end, but I could have bought something else as good for a lot less. And the netflix/pandora features are very nice, but the ordeal of getting them to work correctly makes me wish I’d never heard of Samsung. I have worked with computers and software for over thirty years now, and this is a very tacky performance by Samsung and its software engineers. Now that I’m into a $2500 investment in their equipment, I have had to promise my wife that we’ll never consider another Samsung product again.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is the perfect add-on to our Samsung HD TV.
It was almost plug and play. Very easy to set up and operate.
The sound quality and DVD video playback are amazing.
Rating: 5 / 5
Like another reviewer here, my disc loading mechanism has jammed. But I am worse off, after only 2 days.
Now awaiting Samsung to come see to it.
I have doubts as to whether the mechanism is actually robust enough to last for a year or months of use now.
Anynet is dumb with this product. Any sound settings has to be made in Blue Ray mode with no disc in it, or the disc in Stop mode.
I actually use a 32″ Samsung TV as a computer monitor, and use the Picture In Picture a lot. Sometimes I want to enable the audio from the smaller picture source instead, and it only works with Anynet HDMI+CEC off!
~~~~
So they have replaced it with a new main unit.
Lo and behold, the dreaded “LOADING LOADING LOADING” syndrome still occurs. With or without any disc inside it!
I don’t know what is wrong with this model. They did an awful job with product testing, that is beyond any doubt. You do see several returns going by user reviews on the internet.
I think this might be a fix,
* on your TV, set your Samsung’s Anynet set to ON.
* switch the BD8200 off, do not power it on, use the remote control’s Eject Button at the top right. I think this then starts to open up the disc slot mechanism.
Hopefully this works for you. Hopefully you didn’t buy it in the first place.
If you did, you will get ‘muddy’ bass, and poor sound staging and stereo separation even by 2.1 standards,(it has just a 70db signal-to-noise specs. No speaker wires needed, yes, but as this thing has such limited inputs, you can’t use it as a receiver, you will have to use the TV’s inputs for your video peripherals, and then still need an Optical Audio Cable from the TV.
The Worst is trying in vain to load or unload a disc in front of onlookers. In hindsight, perhaps the 5.1 BD1252/1255 would be a better buy, in terms of usability and sound quality.
Rating: 1 / 5