New Vizio VHT215 now up Sams Club site (link here) - Page 2

Davyo, thanks for the report on the VHT215. How did it compare to the VHT210. What was your take on how it handled dialogue.

I picked up the Vizio VHT215 Saturday and must say I'm impressed. This is my first sound bar, so I have nothing to compare it to. Simple plug and play setup. I took my cable box and Bluray player and connected it directly into the sound bar with HDMI cables and 1 HDMI cable out to my Vizio XVT42SV tv. It says if ARC is supported? It works even though I can't find anything on the tv that says it supports ARC. The subwoofer is impressive and being wireless is a plus.

My schedule changed and allowed me to pick up the Vizio VHT215 yesterday. Did have a few problems with connections but with Vizio tech support it was resolved.
As with Cuff46 I have the Vizio XVT42SV TV. And it is ARC supported. As mentioned my main objective was to improve on the TV speakers (as it applies to dialog) and the Vizio VHT215 does not fall short . Will need to fine tune but that should be no problem (with help and testing). As for surround sound it just won't happen with my room size and shape. To Big. 17'x 23' with openings to 2 halls at the rear and opening to a breakfast nook and a pass through to the kitchen. All in all I (and spouse) like the sound. With regard to the fine tuning. I feel good with the subwoofer adjustment. But I would appreciate some guidance in the bass/treble adjustments to fine tune for improved dialog. All that being said, only have 2 hours of viewing and listening so far.Up dates are sure to come. BTW i did find that the "WOW" setting was best for dialog. For my ears anyway..

Well after a weekend of televised football, movies, shows and music the wife and I are extremely pleased with the VHT215. The clearity of dialog is waaaay better that the tv speakers. And that was our hope. She is waiting for one more of her shows that always has a large amount of back ground noise before she will give her final stamp of approval. As mentioned because of our room's shape and size as for as surround sound there is none and that ok with me. Starting to get to many remotes so i guess its time to look at a Harmony.

If only Vizio would release it without the sub so I could have ARC while using my existing home theater sub.

thanks for posting your impressions, davyo and rcouret.

have either of you tested this out with music? that's been my big concern as i consider buying this (or any other) soundbar. could i plug in my ipod and be happy with the quality and volume that come out of this thing in a 13' x 19' (with 9' ceilings) living room?

or should i really think of this as a "tv-only" set-up?

thanks!

twineball my vht215 is used for directv,bluray and apple tv only.My room is large with side and rear openings and 14' ceilings so it negates any surround sound. But dialogue clarity has increased greatly. Which was my main objective. I have played music from the directv music channels with great results for me. The sub really helps with that. But it no way compares to a good mid 5.1 or 7.1 system with a mid receiver.

When I display the HDMI info from my BD player, it tells me that the maximum number of audio channels that can be accepted by the connected device (the soundbar) is only 2! This means that the BD player downmixes the 5.1 channel audio to 2 channels. The soundbar must be doing some DSP to create some surround effect from the 2 channels, but what it can do must be quite limited compared to what it could do with 5.1 channels. For instance, I'd like to be able to change the level of the center channel independently of the other channels, but there is no way I can do that with the VHT215.

Do all soundbars only accept 2 channels of audio? I get the impression that the Yamaha YSP-2200 can accept at least 5.1, but don't know for sure. I think for 250 USD the VHT215 should do better.

thanks, rcouret. yeah, it makes sense that this soundbar won't sound as good as a full 5.1 system with receiver, i'm just hoping it will sound better than my crappy ilive ipod dock stereo that my wife bought at kohl's several years ago, and which i'd like the vht215 to replace.

when you say you've had "great results" with music, it seems to me like you're saying it can do what i'm looking for - fill my room with pretty good (although not necessarily amazing) sound. am i right?

There are numerous soundbars that can decode 5.1 or accept 5.1/7.1 LPCM. Besides the Yamaha, Sony, JVC and Panasonic come to mind and I know there are others. There are some soundbars out now that can also decode the lossless codecs.

Picked up the VHT215 from Walmart yesterday for $275. Setup was quick and easy, didn't get a change to watch too much, but initial impression is definitely great. Used HDMI connection from my HTPC and out to Samsung plasma. Started up Dark Knight... sb detected Dolby Digital right away and sounded great... SW is nice and powerfull. I have concrete flooring at my apt. which I think makes a huge difference, since I have heard the VHT510 at my brothers apt and the sw didn't sound so good with weak flooring. Will provide more feedback after I've seen a few movies.
One thing I noticed - the soundbar detects dolby, but I didn't see dts mentioned anywhere... why no dts?

phillydude: Yeah, it detects dolby, but it's dolby that's been downmixed to 2 channels. That means left channel gets a mush of left front, center, left side, and LFE all mixed together. Same kind of thing for right channel. Don't expect to be able to pick out dialog well from a 5.1 source.

No dts, as you've noticed. So that gets downmixed to 2 channel LPCM, creating same problem as with dolby.

Ludovids - good to know, Thanks!
Anyhow, this soundbar is going back... what a PITA trying to get it working with HDMI. It works when it wants to, but when it does it sounds great. VIZIO really needs to figure out the HDMI issues, everytime I turn the Soundbar off and back on, it randomly plays sound... most of the times it doesn't no matter how many times I restart it. Sometime it messes up the resolution on my TV and then goes back to normal on restart. Finally, I decided to go with analog sound, but that defeats the whole purpose of me getting the soundbar (hdmi). I love the sound, only if VIZIO could fix these hardware/software issues... Not sure if I got a defective unit, but I don't feel like getting an exchange and trying it again. I'll give them one more chance when the VHT520 is released.

Hi all, the VHT215 is now $198.87 at Sam's.
This unit sounds great and works perfect so far. I can easily say it is 10 times louder and clearer than my LG's LED-LCD internal speakers.
I bought it knowing i was going to use Optical from my LG.
Zero issues at all and i am VERY happy especially at under $200.00
Personally i do not see why i would want HDMI (stiffer cable) from my TV to the soundbar. I think optical in my case works much better.
I also did not care about running wires to 5.1 etc but why bother. IMO this unit serves its purpose and then some
It even has Sub level, bass, treble settings etc.
very pleased.

ReAp.

After a long wait, I finally purchased the VHT215 and was very pleased with the sound. Filled the room as I had hoped. After 2 weeks the sound went out completely. Very disappointing and frustrating to have a brand new product go out in such a short time frame. I could just be part of the bad luck club, but other reviews on other sites suggest this is an ongoing issue with Vizio Soundbars.

I hope others enjoy the product as much as I did when it worked. Unfortunately my enjoyment only lasted 2 weeks.

sorry to hear that. That IS frustrating. I will post again if I have any similar issues.
Hopefully getting it replaced is easy for you
Chinese QC i guess....

So, after further reading I figured out why I was having such a hard time getting this to work using HDMI, its because my Samsung PN50C590 Plasma does not support ARC. Why would Vizio only support ARC? anyone know if there would be a way to disable this on the soundbar?

Trying to figure this out myself since my barely-2-year-old Samsung LED HDTV doesn't support ARC (2010 and newer do).

So here's what I'm thinking:

1. Boxee Box with Boxee Live TV (a USB dongle that connects to the Boxee Box and provides cable or OTA through Boxee itself - no need to go through the TV itself to watch TV) connected via HDMI1

2. Google TV with Blu-ray connected via HDMI2

If I was connecting just the TV itself to HDMI1 of the Vizio, I wouldn't get audio via HDMI unless I used an optical cable, correct?

Costco has this for $199 with coupon starting in a couple days so I think I'm going to pull the trigger and see how this sounds.

My new Mitsubishi WD-82740 apparently does not support ARC either.....though I am now checking directly with Mits to be sure. So today when I went to set up my 215, the sound was fine with digital audio...but no sound with HDMI. The reason I wanted to use the HDMI was that since the Mits has CEC, I could control the basic operations of the soundbar with the Mits remote (eg. volume, off and on). So, while attached via HDMI, I could indeed control those functions of the 215...however I got NO SOUND.

It turns out, however, there is a work-around. I simply attached the 215 to the Mits with BOTH the digital audio and HDMI connections. Now I get good sound through the digital audio connection and since it is attached via HDMI, I am also able to control the 215 functions with my Mits remote.

Does anyone know what happened to this soundbar?

I can't find Visio products anywhere in Canada.

Damn computer!

Double damn!

TRIPLE DAMN!

Now this is just f*cking crazy!