Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung HT-DB600 5-Disc DVD Home Theater System

I decided to take a chance with the Samsung and save a lot of money. I also doubt I'll be in my small condo for more than a few years so why spend $900 on something I'll probably want to replace in a few years anyway.
Positives: The sound is great with plenty of thump from the sub, satellites look good, DVDs look amazing on my Sony HDTV and the 5-disc changer comes in handy with a NetFlix account. I replaced a nice Sony system with this and the sound is just as good. I have a 12x12 living room with hardwoods and I have had to turn it up higher than my old STR component but I have never needed more than 75%.
Negatives: The unit did overheat after about 2 hours of watching the first movie so I just cut a larger hole in the cardboard in the back of my TV stand and haven't had a problem since. The blue light around the volume is annoying if you want to watch a movie with all the lights off but the remote has a dimmer button where you can turn down the intensity of the light or off completely. My only complaint about this is that it always turns on with the light on full intensity no matter what state it was in when you turned off the receiver. My biggest complaint is the connectors you must use to connect the speakers to the receiver. I already had Monster Cable run so I just stripped and crimped the wires just before the connector but I would have much rather just run my wires directly into the receiver.
Overall I would highly recommend this to anyone looking to get a great product at a great price for a small to medium sized room. The cost savings are well worth the few complaints I have above and I'm not even sure I'll try to replace it if I move into a larger place. A true audiophile may be able to point out negatives in the sound quality but I haven't heard anything that I didn't like.

First, Samsung could pack it much better. I had to return the first unit because of a huge dent on the DVD chassis. Amazon sent a replacement next business day so I wouldn't complain much about this. I didn't expect it perform as $1000-HTSystems when I placed my order. But I have to say it performs pretty well considering it's a sub-$250 system.

Pros:
1. Adequate power to accommodate a small/med-size living room or a bedroom. (80watts x5speakers and 100watts x 1 subwoofer, total of 500Wrms)
2. Progressive scan and 3-2 pull down. PQ is really good.
3. Multi-language support for MP3 discs. Not sure of what languages are supported. So far i was able to use cdr's in Japanese, Korean and English.
(MP3 GUI could be better.)
4. Chassis fan to cool off the unit.
5. Customizable Menu Background.

Cons:
1. No Coaxial Digital Audio input. (it does have an optical input.)
2. It cuts off signals from other sources whenever disc eject button is pressed even though you're not watching DVD movies.
3. No component cable? i wouldn't use theirs but still...
4. Remote control has a lot of room to improve.
5. Proprietary speaker connectors and wires.

Despite it lacks some of features; DB600 is a definite keeper for me. You can't simply beat the value, performance and features of this HTS.

***Update***
After a month of use, i'm loving it.
i don't know if there's any other HTS(under $200) does everything DB600 does. You will love DVD movies with DTS. It brings a theater-like experience to your living room. yet i still think their remote control is worst thing i've ever seen. it probably has a range of 15 degrees off of any axis otherwise it'll not work.

the reviewer above said there's no audio output. well, there "IS" one. a headphone jack is located in front of the unit. so with a right cable, you should be able to output audio to any device. but then why would you want to copy a DVD to VHS? not to mention Macrovision will prevent you from copying DVDs anyways. if you still need copying feature, you might want to check out Zenith XBS344 HTS. it has a DVD/VHS combo player and costs about the same.

We Purchased the Samsung HTDB600 system several week ago. Unfortunately, the DVD function seemed to be malfunctioning. We contacted Samsung customer service, and reported that each time we tried to load a DVD, the system would read "no disc." The service rep curtly told us that the system was in fact malfunctioning ( we got the impression that he was very familiar with the problem) and told us to send the entire system back to a location in New Jersey for service or replacement. Samsung did not offer to pay for or assist in shipping, and could not give us an estimate of how long it would be until our system was returned. We would have been stuck with a huge shipping charge, as the system weighs in at 55 lbs. Needless to say, we were pretty dissatisfied with Samsung's handling of their defective merchandise. So instead of going that route, we instead contacted Amazon.com, who we had purchased the system through. Amazons' rep apologized for the inconvenience, and arranged to have the system picked up from our home by UPS the next day. Two days later, a replacement system arrived via UPS Priority AIR. Now, there's a company who knows the meaning of the words CUSTOMER SERVICE. The replacement system has been functioning flawlessly for some weeks now. The overall sound is very good, and the subwoofer is amazing. The functions are really pretty simple to navigate once you get them down, but the print and pads on the remote are pretty small, and unlit, which makes operation a bit difficult in a dim room. Otherwise , we are satisfied with the system, and just hope we never have to deal with Samsung customer service in the future.

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.

Well.... I'm here to retract my 4-star rating for the Samsung DB600 Home Theatre System. I figured it was cheap enough to invest my money in and give it a shot... and well... I was wrong.

The digital optical-in DOES lag behind the video... most people probably don't know this because they just buy it for the internal DVD player. But it is true. And Samsung has horrible customer service for it. I called them like two days after I found out it happend and they told me they've been working on it just recently(read through some reviews below... it's been a problem since about Aug 2003)and one of the techs even had the nerve to tell me they'd never heard of it before. They then consulted the head tech and told me that it was a major problem with all the systems and that they were working to fix it immediatly.

They then called me back about a month later, put me on hold for ten minutes, and told me they hadn't figured out what the problem was yet (???). So... they called me and put me on hold to tell me that they hadn't made any progress. Thanks Samsung!

The DVD player is having problems playing my Family Guy DVDs with the "play all episodes" button. They freeze right before a new episode is about to load. I highly recommend NOT buying this system and to use another DVD player and buy the Sony HT-DDW750 Home Theater System. I have since become tired of dealing with Samsung and sold the junk on eBay. Maybe someone else with less expectations will find a better use for the system.

But seriously... releasing a product with Dolby optical-in that doesn't even work? What's the point of having surround sound if you can't get Dolby Digital?!