Sony's BRAVIA BDV-IT1000 Blu-ray HTIB gets unboxed, previewed

When Sony unleashed its BRAVIA BDV-IT1000 Blu-ray HTIB back in August, we were given no indication of a price or release date. Clearly the time has (almost) come for prospective buyers to buy in, as Home Cinema Choice has procured the bundle and posted up a thorough preview. Upon testing, the crew found that it performed much better with movies than with music, and given that a BD deck comes packaged in, we suppose that's the point. The surround experience was also dubbed satisfactory, with "perfect channel separation" and a subwoofer with plenty of oomph. Hit the read link for the hands-on writeup, and get ready to pony up a staggering £1,500 ($2,168) when it ships in the UK this Spring.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 4:06PM]

I really doubt that speakers with the width of a finger or two are really reproducing great audio. Just saying.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 5th 2009 11:22AM]

We set one of these up at the Sony Centre I work at in the UK yesterday and the unit is certainly well made and sounds good (I totally agree with the reviewer that the separation is great as is the sub - one of the best passive ones I have heard) but is definitely not worth the price, you can get a 40w4500, bdps550 and a Decent amp and speakers (read not Sony) for the same price!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 4:21PM]

This set has been available in the US since December. Most Best Buys have them too. Design of the player is pretty cool.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 11:58PM]

The Best Buy I work at has the BDVIS1000 ($1,000) which has the golf ball speakers not these thin tall ones. Not sure if other Best Buys have this model though.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 5:25PM]

Wow, 2100 bucks? For that price, you can buy a Panasonic BD-35, Onkyo 606, and STILL have 1400 left over for some sweet speakers. This HTIB sounds like a rip-off to me.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 6:32PM]

Sony Audio is the worst crap out there. They wouldn't know an amplifer section if you threw a Krell at their heads.

Sure is shiny though. If you want an overpriced HTIB that has so much glare off of it you forget how bad it sounds, this is the HTIB for you!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 11:22PM]

I agree, I was a poor sucker that bought a Sony surround sound system about a year ago, fault after fault after fault, and sorry it just sounds terrible, would NEVER touch Sony now for audio if you paid me to!