I recently bought Samsung HT -Q70 from a local Circuit City store for $329, Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16882676023) was a better deal, but oh-well. I've had it for over a week now and here's my observations:

Features:
- Has 2 AUX audio inputs and a digital audio input!

- HDMI output.

- Dolby PLII for converting stereo into surround sound. I fed the RCA right/left stereo output from the cable box to AUX 1 and got surround sound! In fact, there are several modes selectable: Music, Cinema, Matrix and just stereo. There are also "effects" which can be selected which affect the "width" of the sound image. I have tried these yet but it appears to be a full implementation of Dolby PLII. Interesting.

- Sound edit. The volume of each of the five speakers can be individually set.

- Sound delay. If the speakers are not all at the same distance from your listening position, then a sound delay can be inserted so the sound front will arrive in step.

- Dynamic Range Compression (DRC). For those annoying times in movies when the characters whisper, followed by the ratta-ta-ta of gun fire (invariably after others have gone to bed) - the directors seem to love to do this (to awake up the audience?). You wouldn't want it on all the time but it does help in following whispering dialog.

- HDMI delay. For some reason, when in HDMI mode, the sound may be ahead of the picture (video processing delay?). There's an adjustment to fix this so the sound and picture are in sync. I have not needed to use this adjustment when I used HDMI.

- USB Port: This is neat. I can take photos on my SD card, plug it into a USB thumb drive and then plug the thumb drive into the USB port on the front of the Q70 and display the jpeg photos on the TV. No need to burn a jpeg CD first.

- Lots of formats that it can play: In addition to all the standard stuff, it also plays DivX discs, jpeg, MP3, WMA

- Wireless ready: You can buy an optional setup for wireless rear speakers but I didn't use that, simpler to just run wires.

All the usual functions are present for playing CD's and DVDS so I want go into that.

Experience after 10 days:

Pros:
- HDMI is excellent: I had the DVD hooked up using the component cables since I didn't have a HDMI to HDMI cable handy. The picture was very good. However, when got my cable (http://www.optimization-world.com/products/catid/2.html) I found the HDMI picture to be vastly superior (clearer, sharper, good color). With the component cables, the output to the TV is only 480p but with the HDMI cable, the output is upconverted to 1080i, the maximum resolution of my set. Most noticeably, there is more detail in shadows.

- Surround Sound: When I first got the Q70, I was concerned I could not receive TV stations in surround sound. That was quickly settled when I used DolbyProII to convert the stereo feed through the red/white cables from the set top box to surround sound. Not being satisfied with that, I want to use the digital input of the Q-70 to see what advantage that would be, if any, for TV sound. The output of the cable box is RCA Coax S/PDIF but the input to the Q-70 is Toslink digital optical. I needed a converter box which I found here (http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/audio_toslink_adapters.html#pof-820). for $24.95. I also need a Toslink cable and an S/PDIF cable, bought here (http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&style=). Once plugged in, I found that I could get 5.1 surround sound from the cable box on HD programming! I listened to today's game between Ohio State and Florida in full 5.1 surround sound (no DolbyProII conversion, rather the real thing!) Now that's a good effect for a $300 system!

Cons:
- Speakers: Although much better than the TV speakers, they are not as good as my AR-2ax speakers with 10" woofers driven by my vintage Onkyo amp. The sub-woofer is fine. Again, it depends on what you're looking for. I mainly wanted to replace the TV speakers and for that it's excellent. They are never going to replace a serious setup for listening to music in detail, but they are okay for listening to DVDs and the TV. The earthquake effects came through loud and clear from "The Two Jakes" we listened to on DVD the other night. The walls rattled, I was somewhat surprised.

- CD/DVD mechanism. There have been several reports of the DVD/CD mechanism failing. The store model gave an alarming squeak when the CD tray came out. The boxed one I bought operates smoothly (so far). A concern but it does come with a one year warranty. I've had no trouble with it but then it's only been 10 days.

For controlling all this, I have a Harmony 520 (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?dest=9999999997&product_id=4302606&sourceid=0100000032573916702498) remote which can be had for $90 at Walmart. The best thing about the unit is the "Activities" feature where, for example, to turn on the TV, the Set Top Box and the AVR with whatever settings you want to default to (channel, picture settings, etc.), you just push one button and it's all on. To turn off, you also just push one button. If you want to switch between watching the TV using the cable to a DVD, it's smart enough to know if the TV is already on so it doesn't toggle the on/off switch. It's programmed via the USB port so the database of device codes is always up to date. Once programmed, it's easy for my wife to operate (one button on, one button off with the channel and volume controls always using the same buttons). I can't imagine controlling all this with anything else?! You've got to set multiple inputs for each mode (TV, DVD, CD, music over the cable, etc.), with this you just push one button and you're ready to go.

In short, I'm extremely pleased with the Q-70 for the money. The digital setup is very nice. In addition to offering a superior picture, it cuts down on cable glut - just one cable from HTIB to the TV. And, I got my surround sound from the TV!

I'll report back in this same thread after a month or so of use.

Bob

Nice review. I was thinking about purchasing this system myself. I don't consider myself a big audiophile, and this system seems to get the job done at a fair price.

Dontknow09,

Yes, it has amazing features for the price and the sound is fine. We were watching Dead Man's Chest (Pirates of the Caribbean II) last night and the calling of the Kraken shook the room! We have small kids coming over often and tower speakers would be a hazard, the smaller speakers of the Q70 attached to the walls work well. The USB is an often used option too, just pop the SD card out of the camera and into a USB pocket drive and plug into the receiver - instant video slide show! (your camera has to store the images in jpeg for this to work, mine do).

I use the Whole House FM Transmitter (http://www.amazon.com/Whole-House-Transmitter-Gold-Guaranteed/dp/B0007ODOMA) with the stereo output from the cable box to pipe music throughout the entire house (and at least 100 feet beyond the house walls), nice. Here's more detail from the manufacturer (http://www.wholehousefmtransmitter.com/). Unfortunately, I haven't found a way yet to pipe music from the CD player. The only outputs are the high level speaker outputs and the headphone jack. The Whole House Transmitter is also designed to also work with a headphone jack but I haven't tried it out yet.
Bob

I was listening to a football game today in HD with 5.1 sound. Nice being in the middle of the crowd. The announcers are where they should be (at the TV set) but the crowd noise is all around. Dialog is much more intelligible with the Q70 speakers than with the TV speakers, no contest.

I noticed that the commercials are not in 5.1 and the Q70 automatically switches between 5.1 digital sound and simulated surround sound using DolbyProII logic depending on the feed. When I adjust the sound for 5.1, I noticed that the commercials which are not 5.1 are down in volume - a great feature as far as I'm concerned. No more blaring of commercials, at least when you watching a program with 5.1 sound.

The more I use this model, the more I'm impressed by the features and the sound. I used to have a separate CD player, a DVD player and a receiver - now everything is in one box, much simpler.

Bob

Bob,

I've got the HT-Q70 going from HDMI out on the DVD player to HDMI in on my TV (Toshiba 50HP66 - 50" 720p/1080i plasma).

The DVD player is outputting 720p and the picture quality is horrible. Darker background colors and background color transitions are very banded and pixelated. Running RCA composite from DVD to TV produces a far superior picture.

Is there a way to change what the DVD player outputs (maybe I'd try 1080i instead of 720p)?

Other suggestions?

Daxon,

When HDMI output is used from the DVD player the video is automatically scaled to 1080i (according to the manual, page 19). For component video out, the video is automatically scaled to 480p.

I went through the instructions to switch between resolutions given on the same page at the top with the display of resolution mode on the AVR unit but I didn't see any differences between the resolutions. However, I do not have an LCD or plasma TV, I have the Samsung HDMI 1080i CRT set. It's not clear whether the resolution selection mode is functional since the manual states the output is automatically selected to 1080i with DVD output and an HDMI connection.

Your plasma TV, the Toshiba 50HP66, has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. A 720p signal is 1280 x 720 pixels which maps well to the 50H66. A 1080i signal is 1920 x 1080 pixels. If a 1080i signal is sent to a TV only capable of 720p, then the video has to be "condensed" to fewer pixels. The downgrading from 1080i to 720p can introduce problems in the picture (what's to be done with the extra pixels? - use them to generate a lower resolution picture, smoothly?), depending upon the quality of the conversion circuitry. I would be interested in how the 50HP66 performs with a 1080i picture delivered with HDMI over cable. Both the DVD output and the cable 1080i program would be 1080i and should present the same problems to the plasma TV for downsizing to 720p.

However, in order to generate the 1080i signal, the DVD player has to first upscale the DVD output which involves adding pixels. So for the DVD player, first you're adding pixels not present on the disc (interpolation circuitry) to reach 1080i and then with a 720p plasma, you're taking pixels out. Something has to suffer from all the pixel shuffling.

As to a suggestion, I would propose using the component outputs which would be 480p for DVDs and provide more resolution than RCA composite.

Bob