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5 Responses to “Samsung HT-C6500 Blu-ray Home Theater System”

1. Chris Boylan Says: July 1st, 2010 at 7:29 pm

   Some HTiB (home theater in a box) systems are inflexible, hard to use and offer questionable performance with cheap, flimsy construction. One might even call them “cheesy.” The Samsung HT-C6500 Blu-ray/DVD Home Theater System is not one of these systems. It offers solid audio and video performance, a wealth of online streaming features, including Netflix, Pandora and VUDU, built in Blu-ray, CD and DVD playback with pretty nice upconversion, WiFi networking and ample power to drive the 5.1 channel speaker system in a decent-sized room, and all for a reasonable price. Also, unlike many HTiB systems, the unit features two HDMI inputs, so you can add on a cable or satellite set-top box and/or a gaming system with single wire audio/video simplicity.

   The system includes on-board decoding of the latest surround sound codecs, including DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD so it can take full advantage of the sonic capabilities of Blu-ray Disc. It also features snappy load times, loading a DVD in about 9 seconds, a simple Blu-ray disc in 11 seconds and a BD-Java Blu-ray Disc (the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” film) in about 25 seconds. These times compete with the fastest standalone players currently on the market. The initial boot up is a little slow at 22 seconds, but the player is doing a lot of stuff at start-up, including searching DLNA devices for compatible networked media files, as well as loading the code for streaming providers such as Netflix, VUDU and Samsung’s own Internet@TV service.

   During the review we did notice one disc compatibility issue (the unit can’t get past the trailers on “The Incredible Hulk” Blu-ray Disc), but this can be worked around by disabling the BD-Live feature on the player (not ideal, but hopefully Samsung will fix this in a future firmware upgrade). Also, while the audio portion of the iPod dock worked flawlessly for us, if you want to also play video or photos on your iPod or iPhone through the system, you will need to connect an additional composite video cable between the HT-C6500 and your TV or projector (a basic video cable comes in the box). And don’t look for anything fancy like album art in the iPod interface, because it just isn’t there. However, controlling iPod song access from the unit’s remote was very handy.

   Speaking of the remote, this is probably the weakest link here. The navigational buttons are a little too low and transport buttons are a little too high to comfortably navigate through set-up and disc menus or to easily control playback. We were happy to see an auto-calibration system on-board (with included microphone) which can get the basics of speaker level and distance calibration accomplished without having to revert to test discs and SPL meters.

   Performance tip for owners: if you feel that the bass lacks some definition or sounds a little “thumpy,” try inserting a piece of foam or cloth (or some old socks) into the subwoofer port. This will actually tame the boom without losing a significant amount of sonic heft from the mix.

   Overall, we were impressed with the HT-C6500 and would recommend it to anyone in the market for a mid-range HTiB system. It’s long on features and performance but relatively short on price: a good combination.

   You can read our complete review at Big Picture Big Sound (dot com).
   Rating: 4 / 5

2. C. Sieg Says: July 1st, 2010 at 9:56 pm

   First of all, the main capabilities of this HTiB are great. Excellent sound quality and Blu-ray capability.

   I’m no audiophile, but I think the sound quality is superb. It’s something else when you have to turn around to see if a noise behind you is real. It booms when it needs to and is accurate and quiet when required. I also like how it will utilize different speakers depending on what you’re doing. Playing a war game with explosions and gunfire going off all around you? The surround speakers are cranked up to put you in the middle of the action. Watching House? Most of the dialog is going through the center speaker for a more casual viewing experience. Listening to music? The front left and right speakers are working hardest to fill the room. I don’t select any of this manually, it just seems to know what would be best.

   The Blu-ray capability seems good. The first one I tried to play was Avatar, and the player needed to update. I thought this was strange as I’ve only had DVDs before and have never needed an internet connection let alone an update. But, it was a fairly painless five minutes while I made popcorn. The movie looked and sounded great as expected.

   The main extras like Pandora and Netflix streaming are good. For some reason, Netflix seems to look better on this than my Xbox 360. I have a relatively slow internet connection so I’m impressed with the quality. I don’t care for the cheesy web applications that have little use on your TV.

   The interface is a weak spot. It slow and sometimes painful. They tried to set it up the interface like it’s a primary entertainment device but it runs like a strictly DVD/Blu-ray player with extra features. If you have a DVD/Blu-ray in the drive it’s constantly trying to load it. You may want to watch some Netflix or play some music but this HTiB ALWAYS wants to play the movie. I really wish there was a way to disable this “feature”.

   I also bought a Samsung plasma TV and this HTiB connects automatically to it through the Anynet+ feature. This is great while using my TV’s other inputs. It automatically changes settings for optimal use of the HTiB. But, it’s often very wonky when trying to change the TV’s input to the HTiB. It has trouble recognizing video settings and I end up having to mess around for a few minutes to get it to work correctly.

   You may ask why I don’t have everything running through the HTiB to the TV, since it does have two HDMI inputs. Well, this unit has a component OUT but not in. I didn’t notice that when I purchased so I would have to run the component cables from the Wii to the TV and everything else to the HTiB, this would no doubt utterly confuse the girlfriend and I would be forever running the TV for her.

   Overall it’s a great system that they just need to spend some time updating the software for. If they could fix the interface problems, add an option to turn off the drive auto-start, and add internet connection sharing, this HTiB would be superb.
   Rating: 4 / 5

3. Bret Foreman Says: July 1st, 2010 at 10:12 pm

   I really like the integration of so many things in one package – surround sound, Netflix and Pandora clients, blu-ray, WiFi, and so on. The software, though, is a bit flaky. There are several cases where it “hangs” and I can’t navigate the menus at all until I cycle the power on the unit. The automatic InternetTV service update has also hung several times and it’s maddening that the automatic part can’t be turned off. I’m going to see if Samsung has a software update and I’ll augment this review with how easy the process turns out to be.

   As for the hardware, it’s a very attractive unit. I like the soft blue backlighting of the controls and simple styling of the box. The only significant fault that I’ve found so far is that the speaker connections are made via an unusual connector system. So you have to use the included wires or else splice on the wires you want. I was fine with the splice option except that one of the included wires (subwoofer) is faulty. So now I’m stuck without a subwoofer for two weeks while Samsung mails me a replacement wire. Given the cost of the unit, I think including an extra wire with connector in the package would be a good gesture on Samsung’s part.

   Samsung’s technical support has been very good so far. They have 7-day-a-week phone support and 24/7 online chat. This is very important because the manuals are not especially well done and the unit is fairly complex to set up and use.

   I’ll add more to this review on the sound as soon as I get the subwoofer wiring problem fixed.

   Rating: 3 / 5

4. mrcatman Says: July 2nd, 2010 at 1:09 am

   This unit would be 5 stars… if the audio and video would sync properly. But, alas, it doesn’t.

   This unit has an A/V Sync control feature that lets you set a number of 0 to 300. That refers to ms delay for audio, so the larger the number, the more delay you apply to the audio. The problem is that Samsung assumes you will only have audio ahead of the video, but for me (and apparently another owner; see below), the video was ahead of the audio. So delaying the audio made the sync even worse. Even at a setting of 0 ms audio delay, the sync was still visibly off. Not horribly so, but enough to be noticeable (even to my wife who doesn’t typically notice those things). We tried to “live with it,” which lasted all of one night. After a few hours, it was beyond annoying – and we were really trying to ignore it and be immersed in the show. If Samsung let you set this number into the negatives (say, -5 or -10), that would fix everything. But until Samsung releases a firmware upgrade to solve this problem, you’re out of luck.

   One suggestion we were told was to make sure to use “lip sync technology HDMI 1.3c” cables. We tried that, and it had absolutely no impact. The sync problems were still there. We happen to have two of the identical TimeWarner DVR boxes (model DCH3416), so we tried them both, going DVR’s HDMI out to the HT-C6500′s HDMI input, and HT-C6500′s HDMI out to our Sony TV’s HDMI input (KDS-50A2000). Both DVRs had identical sync problems. The sync problems also happened watching Blu-Rays (using the HT-C6500′s Internal player!), DVDs, a connected new Canon HF 20 digital video camera via HDMI and even the internet applications (YouTube, etc.). This ruled out our DVR being the culprit. Seems like any video source going through the HT-C6500 had the issue.

   I was considering bringing the unit back and exchanging it for a new one (in case it was a lemon), but I found another person online who had identical problems. He brought his back, exchanged it for a second unit, and had the exact same problems. If you google search for, “HT-C6500 lip sync” you’ll find his post on cnet forums. This product is so new that there really isn’t enough people out there to see how widespread an issue this is, but the fact that my unit produced the problem and another person experienced the same issues with 2 other units tells me there is likely something wrong with the HT-C6500 itself (as opposed to it be isolated to something on my end).

   It’s really too bad, because outside of the sync issues, this product was really the best of the competition, especially sound quality (meaning Blu-Ray HTIBs with HDMI inputs). We tried the LG LHB535 and LG LHB335, and both had “popping” sounds in the speakers doing anything (DVR play, rewind, fast forward, changing channels, changing inputs) as well as a horrible tea-pot-esk “whistling” sound in the speakers (even with volume down and muted).

   An audio expert friend of the family told me that Samsung is notorious for not releasing firmware fixes for existing products, and instead, simply fixing the issues with the release of a new product – which, of course, doesn’t help us current owners. I can’t imagine they wouldn’t fix this for such a new product, but I returned mine.

   Other Products We Tried
   
   We bought (and returned) the new LG LHB335 and LG LHB535, which had poor sound, popping and whistling sounds and HDMI problems. We also bought (and returned) the Sony HT-CT150 soundbar/sub HTIB. It has 3 HDMI inputs (no Blu-Ray, no streaming, no real surround) and had poor sound quality on par with the LGs. We also bought (and returned) the new YHT-S400 soundbar/sub HTIB. It sounded on par (or slightly better) than the Sony HT-CT150, but was expensive for what it was.

   Conclusion
   
   At the moment, all the HTIBs (1) in this price range, (2) with internal Blu-Ray and (3) with HDMI inputs have unacceptable issues (to us, at least)… assuming you use the HTIB as the “hub” for all our incoming sources. I recommend you get a decent HDMI receiver and grab the $135 Panasonic BD65 (Blu-Ray with streaming).
   Rating: 1 / 5

5. Big Guy Says: July 2nd, 2010 at 1:15 am

   The system comes as advertsed. Easy to connect and install but does not access media files on pc as advertised. There was a need to install software on PC to be able to access files, but even with doing so (with very limited information on manual and on Samsung website mind you) still did not work.

   I am a fan of Samsung products, but you wouuld think that they would be able to get better on their support.

   The system has good sound, deep and rich, not like a BOSE system, but still very good sound at a much better price.

   One other item: when powering off the system, the Any-Net service is too smart for its own good and reverts back to the TV input. The problem is I am a set op box on input and there is no way to default to this input. Minor inconvience, but still yo uthink they would have accomodated for it.

   Rating: 4 / 5

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