Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung HT-TZ315R - 5.1 ch - 1000 Watt Bluetooth Home Cinema System - With HDMI - Black

Having had the HT Z35R previously I can honestly say this really is a superior replacement model. 1000W is more than enough - so much so that when the sub wasn't wired in it was still very very good (want a job done properley, do it yourself it seems as I didn't notice for about 2 weeks, when I checked the spring terminal was on the insualtion, not the wire). I haven't had it at full volume yet as 40 is more than loud enough to upset next door!
The Bluetooth seemed like a bit of a gimic, but when I connected my Sony K850i i was impressed again. It was really easy to do and I was able to pause, stop and change track on my phone by using the DVD remote control whilst displaying my phones bluetooth name on the display.
The HDMI upscaled picture is very good on my 1080i Plasma and it plays DVD-R without any problems. I haven't tried DIVX yet, but I'm confident that it will work well.
Included in the manual are codes to programme the Samsung remote to work with most TV's, meaning that you could geet away with just the 1 remote.
The speakers are tallboy/ floor standing ones, however all (except the sub obviously) have key hole cut outs to allow wall mounting.
The DVD player itself looks really smart either on or off. When it is off it is completely black with the exception of the Samsung logo. When it is on the outside of the volume knob lights up blue as does the standby button. The control buttons on the face remain black all of the time.
My only negative points are the lack of audio input from the TV. To get the TV (and associated players, consoles) sound out of it you really need a Samsung Anynet+ TV (which I don't have). Alternatively get a 3.5mm stereo to RCA lead and plug it into AUX 2 and the headphone out on the TV. Then you have to mute the TV otherwise the sound is slightly out of sync. Not a massive problem, but one worth noting if you like to use it properley.
The optical in works well with Sky, shame the cheapest optical lead is over £10 and my TV doesn't do optical out.
The other negative point is the brightness of the display. It is hard to see in daylight if you're over 3m away, but it is OK at night.
Also for an expensive (ish) system I would have thought that a 3.5mm to 3.5mm lead to connect an MP3 player be included in the box- but it wasn't.
All in all I'm chuffed to little bits with it and would happily recommend it.

Ok so i think system has a great 'bang for buck' value. The DVD playback is quite good, with pleasing levels of colour to the picture but still retaining the dark tones and that was using a £10 HDMI cable so i might try something a little more up market to see where the limit is for the samsung.

Now the 5.1 surround (after a little tinkering) works very well with plenty of bottom end from the passive sub and attack from the tallboy speakers with the centre speaker projecting voices very nicely into the mix, you could say it is quite a dynamic little package for an all in one. The only draw back (and it is nit picking at this price!) is the lack of refinement with music in stereo but this can be easily forgiven at this price bracket.

Connectivity proved to be a little less straight forward the bluetooth connection is a lot easier to use than i was anticipating although reading the manual is recommended. The optical input i have been using for my Xbox 360 which had a 0.5 sec delay in the sound to what was going on on-screen? I also found this to be the case with analogue input, so having a few surround sound receiver experiences in the past i hopped onto the setup menu which i found very easy to use and very intuitive, quickly finding the problem. For some reason Samsung seem setup the audio inputs to have a 0.5 second delay? Why i cannot say but it is easy to remedy and with that sorted my Xbox games have never sounded as good!

So to sum up the samsung does as good as any at the £200(ish) bracket and i even found myself comparing some aspects of it with £500 all in one systems.

Bought this System a few days ago. Found it easy toset up, and plenty of speaker cable for my 17' long lounge. Used HDMIcable to connect to my plasma tv, and must admit sound and picture quality are amazing. You do need to alter the playback setting to 1080i if you have a tv that will take upscaled dvds. Follow instructions in book, but be warned, everything happens very quickly, but it makes a great deal of difference just to follow these instructions. Speakers look gook, and sound is clear an precise. Loads of base from a passive sub-woofer, so no need to crank up the base. Picture quality is fisrt class, not as good as blu-ray, but look at what your getting for the price. Did a lot of research before I decided on this, as I dont have to drill walls or buy stands. It serves its purpose really well, and if your getting on a bit like me, where things need to be as easy as possible, you'll not regret buying this.

I agree generally with most of the other good ratings regarding value for money etc, and the movie sound quality is very good.

However, before purchasing please be aware of the following:

1. It is not possible to change the balance without first stopping whatever you are playing - this makes it difficult, inconvenient and time-consuming to adjust the balance (left/right, front/back, centre and sub-woofer level) as the audio source cannot be playing whilst you are adjusting the balance. This means that you need to stop playing, navigate to the balance screen, adjust the balance (selecting an arbitrary number), starts playing the film/music again, listen and reassess audio balance, and start over again (it usually takes a few times to get it right). Considering that you may want to adjust the balance or sub-woofer level many times depending on whether you a) change music/film or b) change sitting position, this feature is highly in accessible.

Perhaps it might be possible for Samsung to release a firmware update (assuming this is possible) to be able to use the remote control's up/down/left/right buttons to be able to adjust the balance and sub-woofer level directly... they would need to be a new way of toggling the mode of the up/down/left/right buttons, and this might be achieved from a new key combination of remote control (e.g. by a long press of the 'audio' button...)

The DRC feature also requires the machine to be in a stopped state before it can be changed.

2. The ' totem pole' speakers (as my wife calls them) appear smaller on the packaging and advertising pictures. The speaker stands are also quite wide. So I would suggest measuring up with a tape measure to check they will fit your watching environment before purchasing.

In conclusion, these ARE a good set of speakers, but it is not easy and time-consuming to be able to set the balance and subwoofer level as desired.

PS my raids this product with three stars not two (I cannot edit my initial star rating for some reason)

Firstly, this is a great system. It's well worth the money. Bass is good and its also feature rich.

My unit makes a buzzing sound when it's on standby (probably when its on too, but guess you cant hear it then) The buzzing sounds like its from the fan. It's in my bedroom too so it's even more noticable. Just arranged my return and replacement. Anyone else got any buzzing issues?