If you have one of these...you need to remove the speaker grille. Look on the lower right side and you'll notice an opening for the LED indicators, but they failed to create one in the framing to accommodate the IR receiver. A few snips with some sidecutters and you can solve the problem. My remote now works flawlessly from all angles at a considerable distance.
I have no room or need for a subwoofer in this application and this sound bar was perfect, at the price I could not pass it up. VIZIO VSB200 Universal HD Sound Bar
I got this for $99. refurbished; no tax, free shipping. read all the reviews (here & elsewhere), and seemed like a great deal.
easy setup. i bought an optical audio cable in advance, so could hook that up to my samsung tv. hooked an airport express up to the analog inputs (wireless itunes from my macbook). at first, thought the unit was dead; no audio. turns out the remote did not work. replaced the battery and...still nothing. emailed the retailer. but...bent the battery contacts carefully with a small screwdriver, and now it's working. should not have had to do this.
the unit sounds great. i usually do NOT use the surround gimmick (but it sounds great on "big" movies, ie "the fifth element", etc). remote works ok, it HAS to be pointed in the right place.
what i don't like: when i first took it out of the box, it could sit right up against my tv; but, with the cables (in the back center), it has to stick out a bit. shame the cables weren't on the back to one side. and the silver plate with "vizio" is a mistake; my eye is drawn to it periodically; the unit would be better all black (like a lot of soundbars); i want to watch the tv, not the soundbar. the remote not working, and now, working (but finicky).
still, overall, a great deal (even new at $150). the remote could be better, would be nice to have some eq settings options (even presets like "movie" "stadium" etc), but a great deal overall and worlds better than the internal speakers in most tvs.
3 1/2 stars really (docked a 1/2 for the remote).
EDIT: bumped up 1/2 star. vizio (quickly) sent me a new remote; i also removed the faceplate (and replaced the default 'legs' with small black rubber ones...
and am happy(er)...
EDIT 2: 2 days later, and the new remote stopped working. had to bend the battery clips inside this one as well... so 3 1/2 stars after all...!
We recently purchased a new Vizio LCD TV for the bedroom. The TV is fantastic, but the sound quality is thin as is the case with almost all LCD TVs. When I found out the price of this Vizio soundbar and saw the reviews, I came to the conclusion that this is a no brainer.
It produces surprisingly broad sound without a sub-woofer (a sub-woofer in a bedroom seems like overkill anyway). It fills the space wonderfully.
A few pointers:
The is an enclosed set of speakers with an amplifier. The soundbar does not provide any treble/bass/equalizer control over the sound. Thus, it simply broadcasts the sound based on the input source. Modern TV's tend to have very good audio controls for treble and bass. This is where you will control the breadth of the sound. The soundbar does however enable you to turn on or off SRS Surround. From trying it on and off, I found that 'on' sounds much better. I read one professional audio review of this sound bar that said half-jokingly, 'just turn on the SRS Surround then break the switch'. I would have to agree.
If your ordering the soundbar from Amazon you might consider ordering the toslink digital audio optical cable at the same time. They currently cost $2.77 w/ free shipping. At that cost for the improved sound quality it's an incredible bargain.
The soundbar has one weakness, as has been described many times from other reviewers. Out of the box the remote has a limited range. The problem is not the remote, it's the IR receiver on the soundbar hasn't got a clear line of sight to the remote from all directions. Vizio commmitted an engineering blunder here, but as mentioned by a previous reviewer this is easily solved:
- Carefully remove the speaker grill. It's connected with rubber plugs that hold it in. Start from one end, it'll come right off.
- On the bottom right side you'll see the LED lights and to the left of the lights, you'll see the little black IR signal receptor.
- The back side of the grill is a plastic honeycomb. Just cut a square out of the honeycomb to make room for the IR signal being careful to avoid cutting the speaker grill cloth at the same time. I used a pair of wire cutters.
Once I did this simple manuevuer I had an excellent signal from the remote from all directions.
If you're on a budget and want big sound at a reasonable price for your living room TV, I think this is an excellent choice. I would buy this without a sub-woofer. Once you hear it you can judge whether to spend extra on a sub-woofer.
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.
A word of caution: I purchased this Vizio sound bar from Amazon a week ago to be coupled with a LG flat screen, model42LD520, which has only an optical sound output. This LG TV outputs an optical signal that is not compatible with the sound bar S/PDIF input. This Vizio sound bar requires a PCM optical signal which is not available on this TV. Thus one can not run an optical sound signal via the TV from external components to the bar. The optical link works fine from a HD Direct-TV receiver. I call the LG Customer Service and was told that there was no way to change the TV output to PCM. The agent had heard of this problem before and it seems to be related to this Vizio sound bar not necessarily others brands. I find this sound bar to be a good value except for what is mentioned and it does have two R/L analog inputs. - Vizio - Speakers - Home Theater - Sound Bar'
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