VIZIO VSB200 Universal HD Sound Bar

5 comments

1. 

   Jorge Gomez on January 13, 2010 at 5:55 am

   A great sound bar for the price. Surround is great. I only have 2 issues of course the first is the remote really crappy. U have to point it directly at the corner right of sound bar for it to work. And it is also very flimsy. The other issue is that you really dont know when u have turned off the sound bar. When u press the remotes off button nothing happens on the sound bar nothing to tell u that u have actually turned it off. If it had a better remote and u were not worried whether or not you actually pointed correctly at it it wouldnt matter but whats to say it turned off because of its horrible sight issue and then theres nothing letting u know it turned off. But besides this its a great sound bar.

2. 

   Freeman G. Wilbur on January 13, 2010 at 7:16 am

   Installation of the sound bar was straight forward with no problems.
   
   However, after installation, the remote did not work very well.
   
   Changed the battery but with no improvement.
   
   Will contact tech support to find out more about this problem.
   
   Otherwise, I am very satisfied with this product.

3. 

   RJS on January 13, 2010 at 8:38 am

   This is a pretty good quality sound bar for the price.. I got a refurbished unit for $87.99 plus $10 shipping vs $149.99 new… Works great right out of the box… I have a Samsung 8000 series LED TV and even with the great picture the TV’s speakers are on the back of the TV and the Samsung wall-mount for this TV (and it’s thing design) the TV is flush against the wall meaning the speakers are pointed right at the wall. out of 100 I typically had to have the TV sound pushed up to 50 – 60 and on some blu-ray or DVD movies the sound had to push 80 – 90 and some times 100 to be able to make out the dialog. At first I purchased a Samsung surround sound system for close to $800 with the wireless rear speakers since I have a fairly large living room and didn’t want to run wires all over the place or the added expense of running the wires through the walls of the house. The wireless rear speakers worked in and out and I later found out wireless speakers can be messed up with a Wi-Fi network in your home… Which in today’s world even when I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment I had a Wi-Fi network… Now I have a large house with Wi-Fi and 3 computers connected via the Wi-Fi… Not sure if that wast he problem with the wireless subwoofer and rear speakers but even though the sound was probably better using just the front 3 speakers (Right/Left/Center) vs the Vizio sound bar cost wise $100 vs $800 the Vizio sound bar is hands down the much better deal. I don’t even use the Samsung TV speakers any more. I have the volume turned to ZERO and have just the sound bar running and even on those select Blu-Ray/DVD’s were I had to turn the volume up to almost the max on the TV sound great at about 1/2 volume on the sound bar (The wife will tell me to turn it down now from upstairs and around the corner) I use the virtual surround sound and to my ears it’s not a whole lot different on or off. it’s slightly louder in virtual HD surround but I do NOT get the feeling that I have surround sound. a 2.1 system is just that a 2.1 system which is perfectly fine for my use.

   As for the negative. The input plugs on the rear could have been better positioned. I am using an optical audio cable from the TV to the sound bar.. My TV is wall mounted and the bar has the option but right now it’s on top of my entertainment cabinet 2 feet below the TV and since my cabinet is black and the bar is black it bends in great. Because of the placement of the plugs on the rear it’s going to be a tight fit wall mounted. They really went all out on the remote (There should be a sarcasm font) it’s a piece but luckily my universal remote can be programmed to operate the sound bar. The only other negative is the “POP” sound you get when switching between devices… If you switch from the Cable Box to the Blu-Ray or Wii or back you get a nice annoying POP sound as your switching but that sound does not occur while watching TV only when switching between devices and even at 1/2 volume it’s a pretty loud POP for my taste…

   But again for the money………….. Darn good sound bar…. If only Samsung had better speakers on their TV’s to go with the awesome picture… On a side note I have an older Samsung LCD TV with the speakers front mounted on the side of the panel and the speakers on it are just fine. These new LED’s are just so thin they had to rear mount the speakers which is weird since your sitting in FRONT of the TV and the speakers are facing the wall…

4. 

   Black Knight 76 on January 13, 2010 at 11:13 am

   I purchased this sound bar to give my TV better sound quality and have somewhat of a home theater feel to my bedroom. Out of the box, the sound bar worked and sounded nice. It produced virtual home theater quality sound quite nicely. The highs and lows were very nice and the bass wasn’t that powerful on the bar itself, but perfect enough to enjoy. You can add a powered sub woofer if you want more bass to your system if you wanted, which I did and i worked lovely. I had connected my system to both analog and digital optical connections and it worked nice. Almost had a hard time distinguishing the quality but of course digital optical is the better.

   Now here is the big downfall as to why I didn’t give this bar a 5 star rating. This bar, although it says its universal, didn’t work properly with my TV (Panasonic TH-46PZ85U). When connecting it to through digital optical port, it would make crackling sounds when there is silence (ex: playing movie but silent moment, it crackles). This applied to EVERYTHING I watched or played. The only way to solve it was to connect through the analog port (which I didn’t want). As far as I know, this only happens on my TV. I tested this bar on other TVs in he household and they worked fine. I contacted customer service for both Panasonic and Vizio and both came to the conclusion that the bar is simply not compatible with the TV, digital optical connection-wise. In the end, I returned it.

   So unless you have the same model TV I have or even a Panasonic, just beware that it may not be compatible with the digital optical port connection. Otherwise, this bar sounds perfect for any small home theater system in a bedroom or small living room. Heck, it almost sounds as good as Sony’s HT-CT100 sound bar system.

5. 

   Cass G on January 13, 2010 at 12:27 pm

   I love watching movies, and sound can be a big enhancement but with neighbors and roommates couldnt really do a whole stereo set up, this works great for a small space where you want enhanced stereo sound for TV/Movies. I have it hooked up opticly to my tv, and rcad to my ruku, and dvd player, works as expected, it also has an output for a sub. Remote is a little flimsy but the unit is perfect for my needs. I just noticed the other review here for this, I have it connected to a Panasonic VIERA C12 Series TC-L32C12 and it works fine for me with this set.