Philips HTS3544/37 Home Theater System

A few quirks, more than great value

By HenryJ  Mar 13, 2008 | 2 out of 3 found this Philips HTS3544/37 review helpful

Pros: Bass, sound quality, connections, can play dvds of all regions

Cons: Not enough sound adjustment options

First of all, I purchased this system when it was on sale at Target for only $149.99. At the time, the only other options for HTIB (Home theater in a box) at around that price for similar wattage are either budget brands, or those without a DVD playe...r (an 800-watt Sony system comes to mind). Philips HTS3544 not only have total system power of 1000 watts, but also comes with an upconverting (1080i) DVD player (single disc). A name brand upconverting DVD & DivX player alone costs at least $80.00. The value adds up only higher. As far as features go, Yahoo's Full Specs do a great job, so I will not be adding anything to it except for the following: It is possible to unlock this system's DVD player to play DVDs of all regions. No, we're not talking that it can play DVDs classified as Region 0 like some others (one of the Norcent players can play North American and "All Regions" DVDs), but literally, all other regions. This is by far the system's trump card compared to the others, and quite frankly, a feature which I am willing to take over better sound systems. The method by which to unlock it is available all over, so just search in Yahoo and you'll have no problem of finding it. It involves no uploading of any proprietary software, or software of any other kind. All it takes is a series of button presses on your remote. As far as some of the other features, the bass reproduction is very convincing if somewhat uneven. There are standard set of features involving audio/video syncing. HDMI connection will allow the set to produce excellent, uncompressed audio and video to your TV. Quite frankly, there is no reason to ask this set to take audio input from a TV. The unit has ample connection options, enough for me to hook up audio from 2 video game systems, HDMI out to TV. It also has a USB port, Line-in for all audio sources which use headphone jacks, an Ipod/Philips GoGear docking station. Now on to some of the negatives: This unit doesn't have many tuning options. There is no individual option to manipulate the bass/trebel in sound reproduction. There is one overall volume control and that's it. You can't adjust individual channel's volume on the fly. Instead, you would have to completely halt a DVD by pressing stop twice, navigate through the menu, and play with the individual channel's sound playback. Even then, each channel still only has a master volume control instead of individual bass/trebel. This option is quite a hassel to use, and certainly goes against Philip's slogan: Sense and Simplicity, as it makes neither. Another complaint is that the rear speakers are relatively quiet. That can be corrected through playing around with individual channel volume. A set-up options during initial start up would have been nice, to allow users to manually set speaker volumes before using the system. The remote itself looks very generic, though not as flimsy as typical Philips TV remotes. The buttons themselves still feel as though they can be worn very easily, although so far after using the unit for 5 months, there have been no noticeable wear and tear. Given all the above negatives, this unit is still an outstanding value and is definitely worth it for someone who imports many international films on DVD. Some of its lackluster audio options and performance issues can be easily overlooked as they really do not detract much from the overall experience of watching a movie. Also, as mentioned before, this unit upconverts to 1080i and plays DivX from both USB source and discs. Some of the test scenes I used for the purpose of this review: Claymore explosion scene in the beginning of Swordfish (bass, audio accuracy, robustness of sound reproduction) Several battle scenes in Braveheart. (effects) Dueling amongst tigers scene in Gladiator (audio accuracy) Drum dance scene from House of Flying Daggers (overall surround s Read more Less