Gadgetory

remember the bad old days of home theater in a box units these incorporated a DVD or blu-ray drive and came in huge boxes with lots of speakers and so many wires well these have now been replaced with devices like this hi I'm Ty Pendlebury and this is the Philips blu-ray surround bass for $300 you get a single unit which sits underneath your TV has a blu-ray drive Smart TV and the faux surround sound speaker system the styling is reminiscent of old VCRs with this dark grey cloth and vinyl wrap but it still looks pretty smart the base is pretty sturdy too and designed to hold up to a 55 inch television the Phillips comes with a good remote though some functions can only be accessed in certain ways for example you can't use the source key to select blu-ray for example you need to press the home button and navigate to it on the on-screen display the menu itself is pretty clutter free with easy access to all of the apps connections include HDMI out USB optical coaxial and an auxilary this sound bass even has an FM radio performance-wise it holds its own against the similarly priced Sony XT one which comes without a blu-ray drive the Philips sound quality is pretty good considering it doesn't have a subwoofer and it is especially good with dialogue unlike other devices of this type it doesn't shame itself when it plays music either if you're looking for a cheap system to upgrade a second TV or holiday house then the Philips blu-ray surround bass is a good one-step solution this has been Ty Pendlebury for cnet.com