Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DAV-BC150 5-Disc Progressive Scan DVD Home Theater System

I don't know what the first guy was thinking when he wrote this, but I will tell you that you should always believe the phrase.. You get what you pay for.. I am a BIG movie buff. I collect movies for a livimg, and spend a lot of time at home with a theatre system set up. My first system I built myself and it wasn't top of the line by any means, but it was decent enough to put out some decent sound. Finally my speakers gave, and a particular woman in my life decided to replace them and take the system for herself. This is the system I bought to replace it, and I couldn't be happier. It puts out massive amounts of sound, easy to set up, nice progressive scan capabilities, and the sub does enough thumping for anyone living in a house or apartment! Its 650 Watts rattles my windows at low volumes, and provides true 5.1 surround sound for what it is. If you nit pick of each speaker and need to fine tune everything, Id get a different system. but if you're just setting something up to get a nice decent sound, and something that rocks hard when you bump it up, this is the system, and a great price for it too. P.S. make sure you get the speaker stands that mount to the BACK of the speaker, not the bottom, as the sony speakers are flat on the bottom, but there is a screw hole in the back for mounting..

Consumer Reports nailed it with their review. No frills, Great sound quality. I wish people would do some research about bigger ticket items before they buy. They then wouldn't expect $1500 system features and performance from a $250 system. $250!!! If you're like me, you want basics, and you want the best sound. I play a cd I like begining to end, don't NEED random(also,I don't play scratched disks and expect non-scratched results). I LOVE movies, This is great theater sound on the cheap! If you are a huge "features" nut, buy something else. But this is as cheap as great sound gets.

I just bought this on 10/19, set it up, and put it through its paces. I'll agree with the other reviews on the difficulty navigating the menus to adjust the volume on each speaker. Now, I've determined that I can't "fill the room with sound" while using the FM tuner. No surround option when listening to the FM tuner? I can only get the front two channels and SW to play while listening to FM. I listen to the radio quite a bit and the AIWA system that this replaced (had problems playing CDs) was a lot more flexible. It had multiple settings for using all speakers (Hall, Live, etc) that allowed me to fill my TV room with sound regardless of the input source. Now I see that that there is only one Audio input. I'd like to connect my TV out and my VCR out to this unit. This might by the straw that breaks my back.

I like the sound it produces, however, I want that sound all the time, like when I listen to the radio. I also don't want to invest in an A/B switch so that I can connect a VCR and my TV out to the thing. Wouldn't you think a "Home Theater" unit would have more than one audio input?

I only paid $249 for the thing ($299-$50 coupon) and I'm sure I can't get this sound with more inputs at a better price.

One last annoyance, I want to call Sony to understand how to adjust the speaker balance. The only contact number is on a blue slip provided for registering the product. Turns out that the toll-free customer support number is misprinted. I think this is a bad omen.

I think we have some Sony reps on here posting 5 stars and phrases like "Sounds Great" because the first thing I noticed was the lack luster sound for being 650 watts.

The volume indicator only goes from 1-40. 40 seems like an incomplete number on a volume scale , and it seems to be very indicative of the seeminly lack of volume at MAX. The bass was practically non existant , even after flipping through the cumbersome menu to raise to 6 (its max). There is no boost for the front speakers, only balance, sheesh! Overall I thought the speakers had a very "canned" mid-range sound. I would give the over all sound a 5 out of 10. My old 400 watt panasonic actually sounded better.

Didn't notice any difference with "night mode" on.

Didn't notice any difference when setting surround speaker distance.

Didnt notice hardly any difference when setting center speaker level.

There are no nail holes in the back of the speakers, so be prepared to by your own speaker mounts. I thought this was TOTALLY lame.

Any plusses? The no brain speaker wire hookup makes it easy. The separate buttons and lights for loaded DVDs is cool.

Maybe if it was cheaper than the $299 retail price it would have deserved 3 stars but this thing is a solid 2.

Edited 6/26/2006
It died after owning it for 15 months.
I wish I had taken it back when I first got it.
Poor quality sound, now poor reliablity.
Downgraded to 1 star.


Oh and the SONY autmated phone system that steps you though about 30 questions for about 20 minutes and then says, "sorry no one is available during non business hours" is the most stupid thing I have ever heard of.

I ordered this Home Theater system last week. I love it. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to connect everything correctly. I am not a big sound/tech guru. But, I put it all together in less than a half an hour. The sound is splendid. The quality is top notch. I can't imagine getting a better value for the price!