Sony DAV-SB100 Home Theatre System MP3/ JPEG playback Best Buy

Fantastic sound, great price but awful usability - 25 Apr 2005

8 out of 10 found this review helpful.

I bought this system five months ago based on the reviews that said the sound quality was the best at the price point, and the sound quality is indeed excellent, as is the quality of everything about this system... except the remote control.

This products suffers from a common Sony fault - a terrible user interface. The most common functions are crowded onto a handful of keys, which often have to be pressed repeatedly to get to where you want. Switching the audio source from DVD to TV for example takes four (count them!) keypresses. The remote is however filled with dedicated keys for obscure functions that I've never pressed. The meaning of the most commonly used buttons depends on the current state, making multi-remote macros impossible.

I know I'm super-critical as I have a background in interaction design, but my wife also finds it hard to operate so this fault alone knocks my rating from 5 down to 3.

Great product at a great price - 22 Feb 2005

8 out of 9 found this review helpful.

I found this unit very easy to set up and I am delighted with its performance. The Surround sound from DVD is amazing - the neighbours thought Judgement Day had actually arrived! The unit also plays MP3 files from DVD and shows JPGs from DVD. The RDS FM Radio is an added bonus. Get one now!

Disapointing for a Sony. - 14 Jan 2005

21 out of 27 found this review helpful.

With all the above positive reviews of this system - I thought I would point out its down sides. It sounds great - but the volume control is limited (eg at volume level 6 it is too quiet so you turn it up to 7 and it is far too loud). Once you turn the power off you cannot resume play from the same point in a disc in the machine - it goes back to the begining (really annoying if you want to watch a long film over two nights - and a feature my old sony dvd had). The machine its self is very noisy clanking and ticking away all the time it is on and it takes a long time reading the discs before it will do anything (compared to my old sony dvd). I had intended the system to double as a cd player but aside from the fact it takes too long reading a disc before it will start too play there are other limitations. There are different sound modes - eg: normal stereo or dolby pro logic II (through all 5 speakers)but there is no way to save your preferences so every time you want too use the machine for cds you have to scroll through the sound settings to get the configuration you want. As mentioned in other reviews the dvd player is HUGE (looks like an early 80's VCR!). It may be cheap for what it is but I would not have paid more than £150 for this system.

Great system, Great brand, Great price. Simply the Best! - 27 Dec 2004

19 out of 20 found this review helpful.

Sony has once again created a masterpiece!! This is a first class system which can be used for playing DVD's, CD's, or any external source such as an iPod or an MD Player, or even a computer.
It provides fantastic quality for watching DVD's and the surround sound is just incredible. It is also very user-friendly-I didn't have any problem getting it to work first time, which is impressive as sometimes you have to fiddle around with the speaker connections on these things! Its setup menu is simple and the 5.1 Speaker Setup is great as you can set the levels for each speaker. It therefore provides superb sound quality with the 5 speakers pumping out 50watts each and the massive sub-woofer giving out 80watts of high-quality bass. Overall it pumps out 330watts of brilliant sound and for the price, you will not find a system like it anywhere!!
My only tiny critiscm is that the actual DVD Player part of it is really quite big compared to some of the other ones you can buy. It also doesnt come with a SCart or Video Cable to attach it to the TV which I thought was a bit strange!
However, it is a brilliant system and for the price, it is simply the best your money can buy!

Great system, fantastic price ! - 18 Nov 2004

18 out of 23 found this review helpful.

This is the best DVD-home theatre package that your hard earned money can buy, and Amazon keep dropping the price!It is packed with features, and the sound production is awesome!I've tried other similarly priced systems but nothing beats a Sony.Very easy to set up too.Only, you may need to order speaker stands as it is not supplied with these.