Philips HTS8000S Review

Although not "home cinema" in the 5.1 sense of the word the Philips HTS8000S home theatre system is a decent enough 2.1 unit to be reviewed here. The design, seemingly, is "award winning" although which part of it is award winning is quite unclear and maybe for good reason. Its ok in a overly-modern kind of way - the speakers certainly look slick enough but the subwoofer is not in our humble opinion exceptionally beautiful.

In terms of specifications its a fairly impressive system. It comes with all of the standard sound decoder formats, namely Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby ProLogic II, and supports a good range of media, including DVD, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD-R, SVCD, VCD, SACD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3/WMA CD and most impressively DivX CD. It also has a radio tuner with 40 preset channels built in, and wall mounts are included for fitting the Philips HTS8000S to your bedroom or living room wall. In terms of picture output it comes with an RGB Scart and the output is enhanced by progressive scan technology, but it is found wanting for an S-Video output. For audio, the built in amp has a not insubstantial 550W RMS output. There are also analogue phono audio out sockets, composite video out and digital co-axial in ports too.

The Philips HTS8000S is easy to set up. There are plenty of wires to fit together, so it might look a bit nasty if you're fitting it to your wall, but its certainly not complicated. Once its set up its time to test...

Picture performance on the Philips HTS8000S is surprisingly excellent - clear and crisp with no disappointments at all. The progressive scan helps a lot in this department, and there are very few problems with MPEG compression artefacts. Sound is a little less awe inspiring, as you would expect from a 2.1 system. It is 3D and it is powerful but it lacks the detail and the complete emmersion of a true 5.1 surround sound system.

Pros

Good video quality
RGB Scart out with progressive scan
Great format and media support
Easy to set up and configure
Plenty of value added features
Rare DivX and SACD support

Cons

Audio is not quite as good as a 5.1 system (but impressive for a 2.1)
No S-Video out
Beauty of subwoofer is distinctly in the eye of the beholder

Conclusion

The Philips HTS8000S is surprisingly excellent for a 2.1 system. Although lacking the detail and full sense of 3D emmersion that a 5.1 system would provide the audio is really not too bad, and the picture quality is excellent. Progressive scan, RGB Scart, a wide range of supported media, good decoder support and a great set of value added features all add up to make this definitely worth considering. For our money, we'd rather buy this than some of the cheaper 5.1 systems out there.

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