I have bought this system as an upgrade from an old Logitech Z5500, of which I was happy but I felt it was time to replace after 5 years.
From the start, this turned out to be a huge disappointment...
Well the setup phase went well and I was excited, but the smile on my face soon became icy: the connections.
I had Cable TV, HTPC, AppleTV & PS3 to connect: ok, I knew the was only 2 HDMI in but I had a very good smart switch that always made the trick. And with that a logitech Harmony One with which I never had any problems.
Here is an overview of all the problems I had:
- The harmony remote never worked properly with it: the sound control was never satisfactory, most importantly the switch from an input to another NEVER worked. I always had to manually go back to the samsung device, or restart the other device to have the samsung device recognize it. So basically I am back to having 4 remotes....
- The Samsung menu is made simple... like 3 yr old kid simple... And is simply on of the worst I have seen in a long time. Advance setup is simply not an option or else expect to spend a full day on it, and also every time you wish to tweek it. No intuitiveness whatsoever.
- Obviously the HDMI switch is not working properly with it. Whether the Out to the TV goes from it or from the samsung system.
- The sound is good though, but the inability to tweek it or set it up manually in an efficient manner is definitely a minus for a tech savvy like myself.
- The internet acces is good but again very basic and cumbersome. Smart Hub is really not so smart after all!!!
- The AllShare had been a key selling point for me. But frankly again was a huge disappointment: especially since it creates in your folders .mta files which in the end, only polutes my folders on my HTPC...
In the end, if you are looking for a home cinema for only 2 external sources (and never more!!!) of which none is a PC of course, and if it needs to be as automatic as possible, it might be a good fit. But frankly you will find a better quality and cheaper with another vendor.
Oh did I say that after just 2 weeks It stopped providing sound? I spent a saturday morning with Samsung Support.
Special kudos for the samsung support guy who told to unplug all cables for 10 minutes and that it would work afterwards: this might be the most stupid advice I have had for a long time from a support person: Simply appalling.
Clearly, this will my last samsung purchase.