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RCA RTD207 Theater System Product Technical DetailsTechnical Details:RTD207 Key FeaturesIncluded Components:D...

5 Cd Changer with Extra Features! RCA RTD207 Theater System I bought this home theater system to replace my panasonic system. This system plays everything from DVDs (store bo...

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If you are currently in the market for a moderately priced Home theater system, most likely, you have been looking in Circuit City’s or Best Buy’s fliers, that so magically happen to appear on your doorsteps every Friday morning – just in time for the new sales of the week on Sunday.

But, how much are you planning to spend?

If you are budget conscious, most likely you are planning to spend either $100 to about $200 for a small home theater system. If that is the case, most likely you have come across the RCA RTD207 - which is being marketed as a $100; 5-disk DVD changer plus 5.1 Home theater system.

The RCA RTD207, is a budget home theater system… or perhaps I should say… ”bedroom theater system”. Though it has some sleek looks and a polished silver surface which try to make it look the part, its relatively low power output and flimsy speaker design make it suited for no more than the humblest of bedrooms.

I purchased mine, 3 days ago from Best Buy for exactly $99 plus tax.

I’ve had mixed reactions to it, that is why I waited a couple days to write my review.

While I can easily recommend this system to someone who wants more sound out of their DVD’s and are shopping on a modest budget, I would not recommend this system for a living room, a TV room, or any room larger than 20’L x 20’W x 10’H.

The Subwoofer for this system is underpowered. Firstly, it, unlike many other subwoofers on the market, receives its power via speaker wire, rather than having its own power supply. It is very small and not very heavy because the speaker is only pumping out 50 Watts - (a lot of car subwoofers standard with cars nowadays are doing way more work).

The sub has 4 settings – 1 being quiet and 4 being “powerful”. Even at its highest setting, it never drowns out the ambient sounds of a professional mastered 5.1 surround sound DVD.

Yes its weak, but then again, the entire system is costing less than $100.

The Speakers for this system (5 speakers included) give you 40 Watts RMS a piece. The wires for each speaker are color coded for ease of installation – but that doesn’t matter much anyway because the only two speakers you need to take special care matching to the system are the rearLEFT and rearRIGHT surround sound speakers. These speakers have about 10 feet of wire, but for some rooms (most rooms) that wont be enough…your gonna’ probably need to take a trip to a hardware store for speaker wire so you can get them way behind your sitting position.

Each speaker has holes sculpted into their backs so you can use a screw (not included) to mount them on your walls. Unfortunately, each speaker is built like a squared out coffee mug. They are pretty light and with insignificant force you can easy topple them over. Special care needs to be taken when placing them. You may even need to invest in Velcro straps to keep them in place.

Overall speaker performance isn’t half bad. The system has two settings – 5.1 and Stereo. In 5.1 mode the speakers adapt to the disks settings to balance themselves out in Dolby Digital Pro-Logic. I tested the speakers using the DVD HEAT (watching the shootout scene). Though the action wasn’t as loud as I desired, the speakers did an excellent job of differentiating Pacino’s SIG 550 SWAT rifle from Chris’s M4a1. I heard sounds in this portion I never heard before without 5.1 sound…and the rear audio speakers did a great job of allowing me to here the screaming of the terrified onlookers.

My major gripe with the system, however, is the DVD player/receiver base.

First of all, the base lacks a lot of major connections.

The unit includes a composite output, a component output, an analog input, a usb input and a single video-out output.

The only output to older televisions that lack composite inputs is a single yellow component output. You must listen to the DVD’s audio via the included speakers – if you wanted to simply use the player and your television, your out of luck here.

There is no optical cable input or output; there is no input for secondary add-ons such as a CD player or a PS3, XBOX/XBOX360. The problem with this is, you are stuck having to plug extra equipment (say an XBOX) into the television, and then running the audio from the XBOX through the TV, to the DVD player and then to the speakers. I would have preferred at least one more set of inputs for my video game systems but, as it is, you would have to buy a second piece of equipment, an actual receiver, to accommodate all your various hookups.

And don’t even think of trying to plug an opulent piece of technology such as a Playstation 3 through this player – you simply cannot miss out on the TRUE-HD 7.1 audio (which this system doesn’t offer).

The DVD PLAYER is the main draw to this system. It is a 5 disk changer with a front loading drive bay. After using the single tray of my XBOX for DVD’s and having to swap back and forth between movies and other games, the 5 disk changer is a welcomed feature. The video quality – featuring progressive scan and quick access to angle, zoom, languages, audio setup and subtitles is pretty cool – making this a simple player for first time DVD player owners to use. The only downside is that the remote has a very unintuitive feel to it and in the dark, its impossible to see what button your aiming for since there are no backlit buttons and none of the buttons feature glow-in-the-dark paint. There is nothing ground breaking about the DVD player that you haven’t seen on a hundred other models, but, the 5 disk changer feature coupled with the home theater components for less than $100 is nice. I just wish the genius who designed the player could have thrown in some fast-forward or rewind buttons to the face of the base unit, this way the remote wouldn’t be 100% necessary to get the most out of the player.

The base includes a USB input. The interesting thing about this portion of the unit is that it worked right away with two very different MP3 players of mine. One of them was a cheap Chinese made Ipod nano look-alike, and the other was a SONY minidisk player I bought a couple years ago. The system also works with newer apple ipods that connect via USB. I was also very happy to see that you needed input any software or download anything extra to get it to work – the player connects immediately and allows you to use your remote control to cycle threw songs on the attached player.

The player can also present a data access screen to your television through the base unit. This means that if you have an IPOD Video, you can watch videos on your television or use the television to cycle through songs.

Even better, the unit charges USB powered MP3 players while they are being played!

The only disappointment here is that the surround sound and center channel speakers don’t play simultaneously while the left/right stereo speakers and subwoofer player.

If you switch sound modes on the system from 5.1 to surround one set of speakers cuts off. This is also true when using the RADIO tuner. This is not a major disappointment however, since I have yet to meet a surround sound system that allows you to get virtual 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound from a non digitally encoded source.

Even though a set of speakers does cut off, I was amaized that the volume from music is actually higher than the volume from DVD’s even though the system has a volume limiter which doesn’t allow you to turn the music up as high as the DVD.

Weird.

With all I’ve said, you may get the impression that this system is not worth the money. On the contrary, for $100 you can’t beat it. A 5 disk changer DVD player with a subwoofer and 5 speakers ain’t half bad. Plus, RCA is a good brand name with reliable quality for a good 8 -10 years or until new technology arises.

The only thing you may want to consider is buying a receiver unit to add this DVD player to so you have access to more inputs. Of course, most receivers out there will push more than 40 Watts RMS so if they happen to come with speakers, you may as well not buy this model unless the receiver you get doesn’t have a DVD player.

The RTD207 is perfect for a small bedroom or people who want good sound without getting too loud.

You might also consider paying $100 more and purchasing this SONY made home theater system.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1140391964586%26type=product

One of my friends bought this model and I set it up for him.

It was a pretty simple setup and the powerful subwoofer made it rock the room.

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