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

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is my first home theatre system. I found it at Sam's Club for $250 and I think it is worth the money. I bought it for the bedroom to match with the Samsung 22" LCD HD LT-P227W which is a great LCD midsize TV...the price on the TV has dropped, of course, about 400 bux since I got it Summer 2004. (Originally $1750 at Circuit City and they really screwed around getting it to me). Dimwits. Plus the TV takes a special wall mount that will run you 90 dollars. Enough about the TV.

I like the system. Sure, I'd rather have a $2500 Bose system but decided that for now, $250 ( a tenth of the $$$) is worth the "risk". The system, as noted above in others comments, is quite heavy in the box. The subwoofer seems substandard but the satellite speakers are solid and can crank Pearl Jam DVDs at a LOUD level. The center channel speaker is not great but there are a lot of options for the sound settings...ProLogic, PLII, Cinema, Music, Matrix sound, Stereo.

When a subwoofer costs $300, how can you go wrong spending $250 on this system? I don't much like multiple DVD changers but this one is really compact in height if overly deep. Sits on the dresser just fine - low profile. I would say it probably does better in a bedroom than in a den/living room theatre setup.

Someday I'll get a HUGE LCD or plasma TV and a full home theatre system, bought piece by piece - an Onkyo A/V receiver with 6.1 or 7.1, 200x6 watts, four/five nicely matched speakers, a great center channel speaker, and a powered subwoofer and tie it all together to the home PC. Pricing such a system got me to $1500+. But TODAY this $250 system fits my needs.

The newer model comes with wireless rear speakers which I couldn't care less about. I had been looking at a $500 Sony home theatre at Wal-Mart, and it (Sony) sounded a LOT worse (in the store, admittedly). This was very much an impluse buy but for the money it is good.

I have been an audio nut since the mid seventies and have seen them all...quadrophonic sound, a ton of Bose speakers, DAT, nine different Pioneer receivers in a single product line, Dolby 1 and 2, even had a in dash car stereo with a CB (1976, of course).

Audio/video products come and go and this one will go to the kid one day. It does JUST fine for now and keeps the wife happy watching her Netflix movies while I'm working second shift. Hey, if Mama's happy, we're ALL happy!!