Home Theater System

Flat Panel TV Stands – Getting The Best Out Of Your HDTV

If you're soon to be on the market for flat screen TV, then you're going to need to start looking at flat panel TV stands as well. LCD and plasma TVs are larger and in a wider aspect ratio than standard CRT TVs.

Sony BDV-E500W

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REVIEW AT CNET.COM

The good: Built-in Blu-ray player; 5.1 home theater system; wireless rear speakers; included iPod dock; wireless speakers performed flawlessly in our setup.

The bad: Expensive compared with competing systems; no streaming media services like Netflix or Pandora; should sound better, especially for the price; no video inputs; remote lacks an eject button.

The bottom line: The Sony BDV-E500W is an attractive home theater system with built-in Blu-ray and wireless rear speakers, but it's too expensive and lacks streaming media services such as Netflix or Pandora found on cheaper competing systems.

Now that Blu-ray players are officially a $100 commodity, it's no surprise that manufacturers are trying to cram the technology into home theater systems at the lowest price possible. Sony's BDV-E500W ($800) takes a decidedly more high-end approach, offering Blu-ray playback in a 5.1 home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) system, with step-ups like tall-boy front speakers and wireless rear speakers. Like many Sony products, the BDV-E500W exudes style, from the glossy black speakers to the glass-like front panel of the main receiver unit.

On the other hand, we were surprised by some of the BDV-E500W's shortcomings, especially the lack of any streaming media services, such as Netflix or Pandora–both of which are found on cheaper LG and Samsung Blu-ray home theater systems. We'd be willing to look past some of the missing features if it delivered better-than-average sound, but to us the BDV-E500W sounded just plain average. On its own, we had few complaints with the Sony BDV-E500W and it's one of the more stylish systems we've seen. It's recommendable for those who put a high priority on style and looks, and are willing to pay for it. Just be aware that competing systems offer more features for your home theater dollar.

Design
The Sony BDV-E500W consists of the 5.1 speaker package plus an AV receiver with a built-in Blu-ray player. The front speakers have a "tall-boy" design, measuring 48.9 inches high with plastic cabinets that certainly don't feel high-end to the touch, but look stylish from afar. Peak behind the speaker grille and you can see it's a two-way design, with a 0.8-inch tweeter and 2.6-inch woofer. The rear speakers are come in at 8.9 inches tall and feature a more modest matte black finish. Rounding out the speaker package is the subwoofer and a modestly-size center channel speaker….CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL REVIEW AT CNET.COM