Looking for an HTIB system that brings a lot of value for your money. Take a gander at the LG LHB953, which bundles a Blu-ray player with streaming media capabilities and a 5.1-channel surround sound system.
While Blu-ray HTIBs didn’t seem to make sense at the start, it sure sounds mighty appealing now. The LHB953 offers one of the best bundles in the bunch, throwing in unparalleled options for streaming content, along with the usual BD playback and home theater audio package.
The included speaker package consists of four identical small units, a larger center channel and a subwoofer. While the design is decent, especially for a system with this price tag, there are some issues worth mentioning. The speakers are generally larger than competing systems (all five channels), while the woofer is about average size. For the front/surround channels, the jack is slotted at the bottom (right on the stand), which can create problems when you’re rearranging the system. There’s no wireless option for the rear speakers.
Setup is extremely easy (it’s completely manual, though) with the help of the onscreen display. You’re not likely to encounter any problems here – just follow instructions and you’ll be done in no time. Even better, you can run this setup any time without having to dig through the settings, so changing the audio experience is always just a quick click away.
The bundled Blu-ray player is not as full-featured as LG’s standalone systems. Regardless, it plays BD content, supports streaming media (including Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, and CinemaNow), works with a wide variety of music and video content, rocks USB storage support and even comes with a slide-out iPod dock. It’s everything a humble home theater needs – with a few nice extras. There are no video inputs available, so you can’t run content of a separate box through the system directly.
Overall system performance was great. Sound was powerful and dynamic on both movies and music, while Blu-ray playback quality is almost a mirror of that on standalone BD players. Priced as low as $430 from some retailers, the LG LHB953 is one of the best-value HTIB systems around. If you have modest needs and want a Blu-ray player in tow, it’s possibly one of the top three choices you can find.
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