Sony BDVE670W 5.1Channel 1000w Blu-ray Home Cinema System
87 of 88 people found the following review helpful
Nice piece of kit in the end, By
J. Erlank (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony BDVE670W 5.1Channel 1000w Blu-ray Home Cinema System (Electronics)
I would recommend, it's not the cheapest, but I'm totally happy with the investment.NB: if you don't have a spare HDMI cable, order one at the same time.
Great sound, and when I watched The Day After Tomorrow I got the full bass effect of climate change, as did the neighbours :-) I really have no complaints in this area. The Blu-Ray video playback is great as well on the Sony Bravia KDL37EX503U I bought at the same time.
It more or less configures itself. It comes with a little microphone that you can stick in the middle of the room and it will automatically adjust the gain of the individual speakers to the right level. Cute, probably not essential, but overall the setup is pretty quick and painless.
When I checked out the model in a retailer, I was a bit put off because it seemed a little cheap and tacky, but having got a new model installed in my living room, I have to say that it looks better that I expected, quite sleek and monolithic, and complements the Bravia that I got at the same time.
I spent a loooong time considering different models, especially thinking about whether to go for the Sony BDVE370 or the Sony BDVE870 instead. The main difference is that the E670W has wireless rear speakers, while the other two are wired. I guess this accounts for most of the price difference. The E870 also has speaker stands, which I didn't particularly like (the sound system I had before had similar speaker stands and they really clutter up the place). Apart from that, there are some power differences between those three models, but no other differences that seemed important.
Note that "wireless rear speakers" is nothing to do with the wireless network I discuss below. The wireless rear speaker kit is included, for the wireless network you need to buy extra kit.
I'm just going to comment on one feature which was high on my list. I wanted the ability to stream media from a DLNA media server, which I have running on an LG NAS device, which is primarily hosting my iTunes music collection. This is where it gets a little technical...
(1) You can get a USB wireless network adapter (Sony UWABR100 Network Adapter), about £65, which allows you to hook up the E670W to your home wireless network. Now, most of the reviews for the UWA-BR100 said that it wasn't too reliable, so I debated whether to get a powerline adapter instead (which runs Ethernet through the normal 240V power lines in your house). In the end, I went for the wireless... and it does work OK... but it required a bit of jiggling of the wireless router in the other room. It was also slightly tricky to set up, because I've configured my router to only accept a pre-defined list of MAC addresses, and I had to hunt around the menus in the E670W to find this particular bit of info - but it is there if you need it.
(2) Having got the wireless sorted, the next step is upgrading the firmware. You can do this either by downloading the files and burning onto a DVD, or directly online using the network. I wasn't yet confident enough in the stability of the wireless network (see 1 above!), so I just went with the download-and-burn approach, which worked fine. The firmware upgrade is also required to watch BBC iPlayer and other online content (some of which is premium content as well BTW).
(3) Lastly, the format of the files the E670W (and E370 / E870) can play over DLNA has some surprising restrictions. I did my homework (i.e. I downloaded the user manual beforehand and read the small print), so I was expecting this, but in particular note that it doesn't play AAC format files streamed from a media server. I think it handles the AAC format, just not over DLNA. So I've converted my iTunes library to MP3 format. You may want to read the small print yourself if this bothers you (and maybe a future firmware upgrade will change this anyway).
So after a bit of tinkering, I've got exactly what I wanted, which is good (virtual surround) sound in the living room served from my NAS. I have to say after all the effort it sounds pretty sweet!
The main gripes:
(1) no HDMI cable included, which was really... Read more
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Fantastic product, By
M. Kasthuri (uk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony BDVE670W 5.1Channel 1000w Blu-ray Home Cinema System (Electronics)
I have a new modern flat with a big living room and I have a 'Sharp 46" ' HDTV. Wasn't happy with the TV volume, so went around looking for a good sound system. I was keen to get a good system with excellent acoustics and one that score fairly well on aesthetics as well.After having researched through AV receivers (Honda + Toshiba Blue Ray combo), Bose and Samsung systems finally settled for the E670 mainly for the wireless rear speakers.
However, I have to say that I am extremely happy with the overall system. Key positives,
1. Super high quality acoustics
2. Inaugurated it with the timeless Arnie classic 'Predators' - completely relived the original theatre experience that I had so so enjoyed when I was a teenager!
3. The main speakers are small, sleek and look fairly nice, can be easily hidden
4. The kit comes with an amplifier for the wireless rear speakers. I did not know about this at the time of buying and wasn't sure how the wireless will be setup. It is actually simple. The main unit transmits wireless to the rear amplifier and the rear speakers are connected by wire to this amplifier. The package is self-sufficient and easy to setup
5. Set-up is easy and takes no more than 10 mins. I was engrossed in my movie 15mins after the kit was delivered
6. The 1080 up-scaling is awesome. I was impressed at the clarity when I played my old DVD
In summary, if you are looking for a good home theatre system. This is really good value for money, no point going for separate bespoke expensive AV receivers, Amps, Speakers and DVD/Blue ray player. Sony has done a good job of bringing this all together at a good price point
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Great for sound, but...., By
Toffee (Here and there) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony BDVE670W 5.1Channel 1000w Blu-ray Home Cinema System (Electronics)
I bought this based on the previous reviews of this and the 370 model (thanks!). As the others said, the sound quality if excellent for the price. The blu-ray player is also very good. And it does all that it says. The difference between this "wireless" model and the 370 model is that the back speakers for this kit is not connected to the rest of the system. They are connected to a back amplifier or some such thing, though, so you will have wires. The only wire this model negates it the one running from the blu-ray/amp unit to the back speakers (front to back of your room). So yes, that makes it a rather pricey difference. Also, do as the other reviewers say and get yourself an optical digital cable and an HDMI cable if you do not have a Sony Bravia TV (mine is a Samsung).Now for the cons: The manual is not terribly helpful, but you must follow it, because it's not intuitive how the connections work (you can't just rely on AV in and AV out). The weirdest is how you get satellite TV to work. You have to run the HDMI cable from the sat box to the TV (not the Sony blu-ray/amp) to get the picture to your TV, and run the digital optical cable from the sat box to the Sony blu-ray/amp to get the sound to the speakers. So when I want to watch sat TV, I turn on the TV, my sat box, and the Sony unit. Then, I put the TV's source to the Sony unit so I can see what I'm doing there. Using the Sony remote, I select the sound source for the speakers (helpfully an icon in the shape of the cross-section of a digital optical cable plug). Then, I go back to the TV and change its source to the satellite (HDMI). I have to do this every time I change between sat TV, blu-ray, iPod, etc. So now you see the other disadvantage. It's not terribly user-friendly. What should be a twist of a knob (to change between Sat/Blu-ray/iPod) takes at least 30 seconds, if not a minute. More if you don't know what you're doing (like your guests). The most helpful modification Sony could do would be to have a little screen on the unit so you can see all the menu options on there rather than having to get it onto the TV screen.
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