New Samsung Blu-ray sound bar gets Wi-Fi

Philip Wong | Oct 02, 2009

(Credit: Samsung)

The Philips HTS8160B Blu-ray sound bar has a new rival in the form of the latest Samsung HT-BD8200. The latter is not only more affordably priced at S$1,499 (US$1,079.35), it also comes with a wireless subwoofer and 802.11n Wi-Fi support via an optional (S$89 (US$64.08)) USB dongle. As a Blu-ray player, the HT-BD8200 is BD-Live-ready and will decode high-resolution Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential out-of-the-box. That said, this Samsung kit lacks integrated memory and requires an external USB storage to enable the BD-Live advanced interactive features.

The HT-BD8200 also includes wireless networking capability to stream multimedia files effortlessly from PCs. In a separate news, the Korean chaebol is rolling out YouTube video streaming upgrade for its BD-P1600, BD-P3600 and BD-P4600 Blu-ray players, as well as the HD-BD1252 home-theater-in-a-box system in Asia. Users will have to activate the firmware update function on their devices with a live Internet connection for installation.

Model	HT-BD8200
Power	300W
Disc compatibility	Blu-ray, DVD and CD
Multimedia compatibility	JPEG, MP3, DivX and AVCHD
A/V inputs	Analog audio x 1, digital optical audio x 1
A/V outputs	HDMI x 1, composite-A/V x 1
Auxiliary functions	FM radio and Wi-Fi