Customer Reviews
very heavy, quirky speaker settings menu 
2006-01-16
Yes, first the weight... why does it feel like it has a lead chassis inside? Really surprised me that it would be so heavy. Disc tray is only plastic, so that couldn't be the reason, so that leaves the amplifier transformers I guess.
I agree with a previous reviewer about the strong enough subwoofer and seemingly weaker satellites. Volume must be half (min>25>max) to be good for my small livingroom. And I expected a "powered" subwoofer that carried its own power supply/amplifier onboard. Although this is only my second HT I know the other had a passive SW and connects just like the HT-DB600 does (speaker wire only).
Speaker settings menu doesn't hold settings each time I go into it to make changes, so unless I'm doing something wrong then setting balance (or volume) is pointless. Something else amiss in the speakers menu is no Center icon in the Delay part, only has LS and RS show there, so I can't get that closest speaker to me to sound farther away. Not sure if this is a firmware issue, model/manual descrepency, or defect. What might point to it being a defect, of sorts, is how the test tone menu plays through the left front speaker in place of the center, as if there might be some internal problem. However, no problem is noticed during regular play.
Yet another possible problem is with DRC (dynamic range compression, or keeping volumes moderated). It might be making sound go out-of-synch. I'll know more about it as time goes on, so maybe I'll update my review here if I learn more or anything happens to change my mind about the average rating I gave.
All in all, if this home theater doesn't wreck any of my DVD or CD discs it seems a good system at the price I paid, which was about $177 after shipping. Good for people on a budget, like me, I believe, because the sound quality actually is good even if the volume must be rather high on the scale.
My First Surround Sound System 
2005-04-29
I got this @ Best Buy when it first came out. I was looking @ a sony but they didn't have speaker wires with it(open box item) and I asked the guy @ Circuit City if he could call Sony and find out how I could get them and how much it would cost me. It was 55mins later and the guy was pissed. He waited that long to find out that Sony was going to charge me as much for the wires as he was charhing me for the system! (Sony had special speaker wires)
Anyway I booked it to Best Buy and there it was the HT-DB600. I was impressed with the design and it was easy to use @ the store. I looked @ the other systems but they all cost more. It had the same watts as the other ones too. I got it and was eager to hook it up.
I took it out of the box and looked @ the instructions and I was done putting it together in about one hr. Like I said I never hooked up something like this but it was real easy. I have an HD tv and Xbox with all the stuff to make it HD and a sony VCR and A HD samsung direct tv reciever. It was pretty easy to get all hooked up to the surround system and everything had sound.
I have not had any problems with it scratching up discs or dvds or taking to long to load.(a sony playstation 2 takes longer to load) I've had this for 2 years now.
I got used to the remote for it but it didn't work with my tv so i just got a universal remote.( make sure when you get a universal remote you put all options the old one had otherwise you'll be even more frusterated)
Overall this is a pretty cool system. I live in an apartment so I can't have too much power but I still piss off the neighbors. It looks cool on the outside and it's not too tall so it can fit inside your entertainment center if you have one.
You can also save pictures on it so when you are waiting for it to load, you have a picture you can look at. I thought that was pretty cool.
I would recomend this to all who first start out and want to pay less for something that they can use for a while and understand how everything works. I'll be going back to Samsung to get more products in the future.
Terrible product - sister system, HT-DB390 
2005-04-24
My wife and I bought this wireless home theater system in August, 2004 for $500 through Amazon/JRMusic.com. Since the beginning, we have had problems with it.
To start with,the sound quality is not impressive and it seems pretty low power all around. Also, the wireless surround speakers ONLY work in surround-coded DVD movies, no matter what setting you use for regular tv broadcast.
The remote control for the unit only worked for about a month; Samsung sent me a new remote and that didn't work either. They determined it must have been a problem with the IR Receiver on the unit and I had to send the entire thing to be repaired. After nearly two months, they sent the unit back and the remote worked fine...but now the CD playing function wouldn't work.
Samsung was reluctant to pay shipping (they finally agreed) and I returned the whole unit yet again. After several weeks, they sent the unit back and everything worked fine for about two months when the remote/IR receiver failed again. At this point the remote control doesn't work at all and the entire unit, tinny speakers and all, is now sitting in my garage awaiting the day when I will have the nerve to throw it into the trash bin.
My advice - stay away from this line of products. If you have a problem with your unit, you will undoubtedly face the same time-consuming, expensive, and unhelpful repair process that I did.
Low power system 2005-03-01
It might work for your bedroom, but the system is not powerful enough for my small living room. The woofer is strong, but the rest of the speakers are very weak.
Add to that a confusing remote and long pauses at start-up, advancing tracks, and changing disks, and I would rather have gone with a small Sony, Panasonic, or Jensen.
On the positive side; it was inexpensive, plays lots of formats, it's very slim/stylish, it's easy to hook-up, perfect... if you're going to use it in your bedroom.
Beware 5 disc players 2005-02-13
This system worked great for a couple months. Then it started having trouble loading, reading, and playing discs. Finally , about a year later it won't play anything at all. There is a physical problem with the changer that actually puts scratches on the discs because it can't load properly. I've ruined a couple brand new discs. I've seen similar problems with other multi-disc players, so now I will only get single disc players.
Whadda ya want for $250??? 
2005-02-05
The HT-DB600 combines all of the source components of a home theater system into one compact, appealing product - it embodies simplicity and convenience for someone looking for the theater experience in their home.
System is ok, but provides absolutely no support 2004-09-18
Easy to setup to watch a DVD, but once you try to hook up additional devices to it - watch out.
1 - Manual is way too basic. It provides some help, but doesn't provide full explanations on how things work. It points to things on the remote and DVD player, but doesn't explain what its used for or how to use it.
2 - Website provides no support. Questions answered are akin to the manual. The same very very basic 'plug power cord into power outlet' solutions. Even searching for something like 'component video' yields *no results*!!! How can that be, there are ports right on the back of the player and there are no instructions on how to use it?
3 - Phone Support. Very nice people, but really didn't know how to use my machine either. Firstly they didn't understand my question. They were asking me things like 'tell me what buttons are on your tv remote'... um... '1..2...3'!?!? Even after understanding what I was asking, they didn't have an answer, and coudlnt' transfer me to someone else. They couldn't say 'I Don't know' but kept running in cirlces.
*How can a manufacturer put a product out in the market and not tell you how to use it???*
As you can tell, I TRIED ALL AVENUES OF SUPPORT TO NO AVAIL. So basically, I still don't know how certain aspects of this machine work. In short, I will never buy another samsung product again, since they dont' tell you how to use it. Its amazing that they can spend all this money on differnt channels of support, and to have absolutely no value.
A bargain when I got it, but newer models may be better 2004-08-14
I got this system about eight months ago and I have been very pleased with it. I do have a few complaints about it, however. My first complaint is the horrible remote, which never becomes intuitive no matter how much you use it. The chapter skip buttons and the fast forward buttons are one in the same. To fast forward you have to hold the chapter skip button for a few seconds. If you don't hold it long enough, you end up skipping a chapter when you simply wanted to fast forward. The fast forwarding, however, is very good, allowing up to 32x normal play speed.
Another complaint I have is the optical input. I had read that the sound lags behind the video, and I was dismayed to discover it was true. It can be very severe, like a couple of seconds. Then I discovered a way to correct it. All you have to do is pause and unpause the input source, and they will be synched. I tested this by connecting my PS2 and used it as a DVD player. The Samsung lost synch when starting a movie or skipping chapters, but after one pause and unpause of the PS2, remained perfectly synchronized.
Another complaint I have is that the rear channel sound during Dolby ProLogic II surround playback is too low in volume. You can edit the sound, though, to increase the volume to the rear speakers, and the unit remembers these values after it is turned off. I also found the Dolby Prologic II mode to be useless for anything but video games (which is what I use it for - and it is great). It makes music and tv sound like crap, so don't go out of your way to get Dolby Prologic II support if you don't intend to use it for gaming.
Even though I have some complaints about this system, I am still glad that I bought it, especially for the price that I paid; however, a lot has changed in the past eight months and many other players are offering similar features in this price range. This player is good, but it is not so good that you would not want to seriously investigate other buying options.
Sorry excuse for home theater 2004-08-10
We have had nothing but trouble with the DVD player since day 1. It locks up on ALL DVDs and in all slots at least once requiring a "reboot" so to speak. You have to turn the DVD player on and off, open and close the drawer, ect. to get anything to play. These same discs play with no problem on our single player on another TV. It's really ridiculous. This is the last Samsung product we'll buy.
Functional for Good Price 2004-05-11
I am not a sound expert, actually pretty much a newbie to audio equipment. Which means I can't complain about the speaker wire being too thin or receiver missing certain functions that I don't understand and will probably never use. My opinion is based what small knowlege I have on audio/video equipment.
I liked...
+ Simple installation - I actually set this up in 1/2 hour, I had to cut the rear speake wire to use existing wire but that's about it. All the speaker wires were color coded and back of unit was clearly marked.
+ 5 Discs - I didn't realize how useful this was until I actually used it.
+ Heavy - the main unit was darn heavy and so were the speakers. I usually grade A/V equipment's quality by its weight. I know it sounds dumb but I just don't understand why some units are huge but empty inside.
+ Looks good - it's got a nice finish and doesn't look cheap. It doesn't look like $1,000 set but it sure looks worth more than $240
+ Sound - I had a yamaha receiver and set of speakers that were more than 10 years old and I didn't have a subwoofer. OK, you can just guess what happened next. Sound was crisp and clear.
I didn't like...
+ No Audio Out? What the... - I bougth a projection TV last year and I think it has good speakers in them. I looked and looked but could not find audio out. Just video out, what the.... wasted fine speaker on TV. Maybe I could buy a TV w/o a speaker at cheaper price next time.
+ Remote - it's functional and it packed everything that you need. It's really non-complex looking remote. However, some functions require you to joggle around such as audio and subtitle of dvd. I use this function alot and seperate button would been a plus.
+ Aux - this unit only offers 2 Aux in, and I tell you 2 is not enough these days. I have the Dish, VCR (for my kid's VHS tapes), PS 2, and Karaoke machine. I have a selector unit but I think A/V quality degrade when it passes through this thing.
If you're looking for beginner set of Home Theater in a Box and don't want to spend lots of $, this unit will be it.
