Home Theater System Live

5 Responses to “Sony BDVE500W 5.1-Channel High-Definition Blu-ray and DVD Disc Home Theater System”

1. S. Misal Says: June 27th, 2010 at 7:51 pm

   Great product from Sony, I have had it for about 2 weeks now, I have played it every day made it go through some rigorous tests. Works perfect, I did a compare with Bose 321GSX and found this to be a lot better for half the price!.

   Excellent surround sound effect, IPOD dock works great, rear wireless speakers are amazing, even though Sony says not to keep the unit under the shelf, it still works great and the rear wireless work perfectly.

   Easy setup, and looks great, I even hid the subwoofer behind the TV and did the auto calibration..sounds great.

   I’d recommend a 100% buy.
   Rating: 5 / 5

2. HP Says: June 27th, 2010 at 8:53 pm

   This system is awesome. I’ve had it for about a month now and watched a few movies with it. I’m not an audiophile and this is my first surround sound system for my primary living room theater.

   I picked this system mainly because of the tower speakers and the S-AIR module. It’s a all in one system with a blue ray disk player that supports about 5 different digital audio codecs. It’s a clean minimalist design. I was surprised by the depth of the receiver. It’s bigger than I expected and fills the majority of shelf space in my entertainment stand.

   One thing that bugged me are the the buttons on the top front edge of the receiver. They are small, the same shape and color which force you to read the label to tell what they are. This makes it even more irritating because the remote doesn’t have an eject button and I had to learn which of those tiny buttons would eject my disk. I guess I’m really lazy.

   Assembly took all but 15 minutes. It took more time to arrange the pieces around the room. There’s a quick setup guide that will calibrate your system with an included microphone.

   One thing to be aware of, as with most HTIB, there are no video inputs. What this means, is that you’ll need to connect all your video sources directly to the TV or a HDMI switch. However, there are mutliple audio inputs. So for example, if you wanted to connect your XBOX 360 to this unit, you’ll have to connect your HDMI to your tv and then use an optical cable to route the audio to the receiver. Or you could use the optical out from your TV. This is not ideal, in my opinion, but then again that was not a goal for me.

   The sound is crisp, and clean. The sub-woofer gives strong enough punch that you can feel in your chest.

   Blue ray disks load quicker than my LG blue ray player.

   I’m very happy with my purchase. This was the right unit for me and I would recommend this unit to anyone else looking for an all in one system.
   
   Rating: 5 / 5

3. P. Ford Says: June 27th, 2010 at 10:22 pm

   This system has everything we wanted all in one box. We have it hooked up to a Samsung 52″ LCD tv. It was a quick setup and we love the effects of the sound. The blueray player is excellent. Movies are clear as a bell. It’s great that we don’t have cords running to the back of the room. Overall, we couldn’t be happier with our purchase.
   Rating: 5 / 5

4. D. W. Ewing Says: June 27th, 2010 at 11:32 pm

   This system was a major disappointment for me. I removed an older, cheaper, great-sounding Aspire home theater system and put in this Sony BDV-E500W, and was aghast at the dreadful sound quality. First – don’t believe the 500 watt claim. The specs say it draws 120 watts, and “watt you put in is watt you get out”. It may put out 500 watts momentarily, but at great distortion (10% according to the specs) and cannot sustain that output for more than an instant. When driven, it sounds like you taped pillows over the speakers. Muddy, muffled, lifeless. This may be okay for you if you only watch action movies, but if you enjoy watching concerts recorded live, this disappoints. I will say that my room is large, if you have a small room with few furnishings, it may suffice. BUT – these are not great speakers, anyway. A look behind the grille of the front speakers finds only one 2 5/8″ speaker – they call it a woofer – and a tiny tweeter. Yes, in those 40″ tall towers, that’s all there is. The center speaker is even smaller, and no tweeter. The surround speakers are 2 5/8″, and no tweeter. The subwoofer is only 8″. You have to move air to fill a room with sound, these can’t do it. Then, there is little you can do to tweak the system for your room. There is a bass boost, but I found it only added muddy distortion. There is no real equalization possible, just mild adjustment for treble/bass that do little to enhance the sound. Think of your 1985 Walkman tone control.

   Second – I found the BD/DVD player to be somewhat stone-age in capabilities. You cannot open/close the DVD drawer from the remote. Vital? No. Convenience? Big time. There is no zoom in/zoom out. You cannot see what the player buttons and lights refer to unless you stick your eyes 6″ from the front – and where is your player located? I have to get on my hands and knees to see the thing. I suppose the Sony engineers thought this was fine when it sat on their workbench. I found the DVD upconverter (to near HD) not as good as that on my OPPO DVD player, as jagged edges are visible in the picture. The remote control itself is poorly designed, the locations of most buttons are not intuitive, it is not lit in any way, and it is easy to hit the wrong button accidently. Yes, the picture from a Blue-Ray disc is excellent, as with any Blue-Ray player on the market.

   Third – the seller – Home Theater Store – sent me a request to rate it highly, and they would put me on their preferred customer list. Pinch me, am I dreaming? They even suggested positive catch-phrases to use.

   This is a revision from my first review, and I have to say I am only more disappointed in this system, because lacking any real equalization, there is no way to make it sound better. I will add that the “wireless” system for the rear surround speakers worked without problem, but it didn’t make installation in my room any easier. I would rather be able to run wires from the main amplifier, and you don’t have that option. You are stuck with the “wireless” S-AIR system, which is not really wireless at all. Sony layed an egg with this home theater system, my advice is to buy something else. I will.
   Rating: 2 / 5

5. J. Akins Says: June 27th, 2010 at 11:39 pm

   I purchased this set after reading all the 5 star reviews here on Amazon.I have to admit setup was very easy and it worked great right out of the box.My disapointment came when I found the subwoofer was passive.Nothing I had read mentioned This important fact.For this price I had expected a Powerd subwoofer.Even though I hate to be the first one to break the 5 star streak on what is an otherwise outstanding HTIB.I had to knock off 1 star for a unit of this price having a passive subwoofer.However I do Recomend this product to anyone who does not care about having a powerd Subwoofer.For those who are Interested.With power you controll the amount of Bass you get,Without power you have to take what you get and if you want more you are just out of luck.The wireless speakers work great although a little weak and are overpowered by the front speakers.I suggest experimenting with the positioning of them before commiting to anything permanent.I will say that the Operating Instruction Book looks like it may have been written by LARRY,CURLY and MO.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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