Philips HTS3251B/F7 Home Theater

I purchased this system for a Philips 46" LED-LCD TV. I've connected the TV to the unit with a digital audio cable.

A major flaw with the design of this system is that it forgets the source setting when you turn it off. When turned on, it defaults to the Blu-Ray player as the source for sound. In my case, when I want to hear the sound of my TV, I set the source to the TV's digital audio cable. When I turn the home theater system off, when turning it back on, the system "forgets" it was on the digital audio setting. So every time I want to watch TV with this unit, I have to turn the unit on and press "source" on the button 5 times before I can hear the sound.

This system was designed with the assumption that most consumers will use it primarily as a Blu-Ray player, and that's why the unit always defaults to the player as the source for sound. On 12/20/10, I spoke to Philips tech support and they confirmed the unit was designed this way. They don't have any...Read more

istem has great sound, is super easy to install and took me less than 30 minutes to connect, get set up and start watching movies on it.

the only thing i do not like about it, is that it is not a true surround sound system. what i mean is that it is only the dvd/bluray surround. there is no connection for you to connect your cable/dish box to it.

i love the sound and this item is exactly what i needed but if you are looking for a system that enables surround sound all of the time and not just when you are watching a disc then this system is not for you.

overall great item though.

I purchased this on a Thursday and the actual box started making a loud noise by Wednesday. Mind you, I only watched 20 minutes of a movie on the player the entire time I had it. I tried finishing the movie days later and that's when it started making a noise that was similar to someone trying to start a car engine that won't start. I tried some troubleshooting and spoke to Philips who confirmed it was a brick. I took it back to Target and got my money back. I was just thankful that this happened so much sooner than later. Another thing that bugged me ( and others that posted a review) was the fact that you have to set the audio source each time you turned it on. I found a great deal on the Samsung HTC6600 at a different retailer.