[ Music ] ^M00:00:04
>> Hi, I'm Matthew Moskovciak, senior
associate editor at CNET.com and we're here
with the JVC TH-BA1. Now this is a sound
bar home theater system and what that means
is that you've got one long speaker cabinet
here. You got a subwoofer and that's it.
You don't need an AV receiver. You plug
everything directly into the main unit
here. Now as you can see, the style is a
little bland but it's pretty functional.
It has an LCD display on the front and it's
really simple with just, you know, red
numbers, but it's nice because you'll be
able to see, you know, how high the volume
is and also what input you're on.
Surprisingly a lot of the competing models
don't have this and you're kind of
navigating in the dark. Another nice
element is that the subwoofer is wireless.
Now this is already a pretty simple system
but the fact that the sub is wireless is
just one less wire that's gonna be running
from the main unit out to the sub. Another
aspect of the design that we really liked
is the remote. It's just a little bit
bigger than those credit card-style remotes
that you'll see on some other products and
that extra heft makes it feel nice in your
hand. The button layout is really simple
and you can do things like adjust the
levels on both the subwoofer and the
individual speakers on here and that's
really nice to be to go on there and do
that during the movie if say, you can't
hear the dialogue or the base is getting
too loud. If you look around back you'll
see the connectivity. Now there are no
video inputs on here. There are just two
optical digital audio inputs plus an analog
audio input. There's no HDMI input. So if
you're looking for HDMI, you're gonna have
to check out something else. Sony has the
HDCT 100 which is about the same price and
has HDMI connectivity so that's a good
option if you're looking for HDMI inputs.
If there's any weakness of the JVC system,
it's probably the fact that there are not
as many inputs as we'd like to see. In
terms of sound quality, we're never
expecting a lot out of a sound bar home
theater system, but we were pleasantly
surprised overall with the VJC. Like most
sound bars, it does a passable job on
movies and what surprised us is that it did
okay with music too. It's not gonna
replace is full 5.1 home theater system,
but this is one of the better sound bars
that we've heard, especially considering
the price. Now the list price on this
system is about $400, but we've seen it as
low as $300 online. And when you consider
how easy it is to use and the fact that it
has a wireless sub, which a lot of other
sound bar home theater systems don't have,
we think that's a really good value.
Although if you need HDMI connectivity, you
are gonna have to look elsewhere. I'm
Matthew Moskovciak with CNET.com and this
is the JVC TH-BA1.
