Insignia IS-HTIB102 Theater System
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- Main Speakers Power Output: 135 Watt RMS
- Included Components: DVD Player
- Number Of Speakers: 6 Speakers and Subwoofer
- Subwoofer Power Output: 190 Watt RMS
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When it's good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad, it's HORRID!
Pros
When it's working, it has great sound, great picture quality, DVDs rarely skip, low price.
Cons
Unit doesn't last long. Spend your money on something worthwhile.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
In the words of Monty Python's King Arthur & his knights of the roundtable, RUN AWAY! It'll spare you lots of frustration and trips to Best Buy in the future.
I always thought off-brand products were nearly as good as the name brands. Evidently, that only holds true with Wal*Mart. When my husband and I decided to get a home theater system, we shopped around. The Insignia IS-HTIB102 is a 1000-watt DVD/MP3 player with 6.1 Digital surround and therefore, it comes with 6 speakers. We paid $170 for it, I believe. Much less than the name brands. I did my research online and most people said Insignia products were just fine, but I couldn't find any reviews of this specific product. (I bought mine on November 10th, 2005, and if you notice, the earliest review of this product was written a week or so later.) So we went for it. If only we'd known.
Once we got it installed, which took nearly an hour, things worked beautifully for 40 days. Great picture quality, great sound even cranked way up, all the speakers worked, etc. We loved it. Then one day, December 20th or so, it just stopped working. We tried every switch, unplugging and re-plugging in every cord and cable, everything. It was just gone. My husband took it to the store and the "customer service" (that's in quotes for a reason) said, "There's nothing we can do since you didn't buy the service plan." Excuse us for not wanting to buy a plan that cost over 1/4 of the price of the system. My husband explained to them that this being their brand and all, they should have to fix it and cover the manufacturer's warranty. Forget even that we had only used it for a little over a month before it died.
So, my husband returned home and called the Insignia customer service. The woman on the phone (who had a thick accent and was hard to understand) said to take it back to BB because they are Insignia's only distributor and therefore must fix the problem. This time he went to a different customer service area and was actually helped. The woman apologized when he told her about his earlier visit and kindly said, "Yes, we will replace the unit. We're the Insignia distributor." She gave us a new unit, got our DVDs and CDs out, and happy, he went home.
That brings us to now, January 9th, 2006. The past few days, our wonderful (that would be sarcasm) Insignia DVD player says it's reading the DVD when you put one in, but then decides there isn't any there and says NO DISC. I tried four different discs today and none worked. Then I took them to the DVD player in my bedroom and they all worked. Mind you, that one's a name brand and it's worked beautifully for two years. Looks like we're off to our local Best Buy for another replacement. I wonder if it's too late for a refund?
Anyway, if you notice my other reviews on Epinions.com, I typically only review things I like, because that's what comes to mind when I think of writing reviews. I'm a positive person. But $170 is a lot of money for many people, including us, and you need to know what you're getting into. If you really don't have the money to get a name brand system, that's fine. Just be ready to argue with the so-called customer service at Best Buy when they don't want to fix their bad-quality store brand.
Once we got it installed, which took nearly an hour, things worked beautifully for 40 days. Great picture quality, great sound even cranked way up, all the speakers worked, etc. We loved it. Then one day, December 20th or so, it just stopped working. We tried every switch, unplugging and re-plugging in every cord and cable, everything. It was just gone. My husband took it to the store and the "customer service" (that's in quotes for a reason) said, "There's nothing we can do since you didn't buy the service plan." Excuse us for not wanting to buy a plan that cost over 1/4 of the price of the system. My husband explained to them that this being their brand and all, they should have to fix it and cover the manufacturer's warranty. Forget even that we had only used it for a little over a month before it died.
So, my husband returned home and called the Insignia customer service. The woman on the phone (who had a thick accent and was hard to understand) said to take it back to BB because they are Insignia's only distributor and therefore must fix the problem. This time he went to a different customer service area and was actually helped. The woman apologized when he told her about his earlier visit and kindly said, "Yes, we will replace the unit. We're the Insignia distributor." She gave us a new unit, got our DVDs and CDs out, and happy, he went home.
That brings us to now, January 9th, 2006. The past few days, our wonderful (that would be sarcasm) Insignia DVD player says it's reading the DVD when you put one in, but then decides there isn't any there and says NO DISC. I tried four different discs today and none worked. Then I took them to the DVD player in my bedroom and they all worked. Mind you, that one's a name brand and it's worked beautifully for two years. Looks like we're off to our local Best Buy for another replacement. I wonder if it's too late for a refund?
Anyway, if you notice my other reviews on Epinions.com, I typically only review things I like, because that's what comes to mind when I think of writing reviews. I'm a positive person. But $170 is a lot of money for many people, including us, and you need to know what you're getting into. If you really don't have the money to get a name brand system, that's fine. Just be ready to argue with the so-called customer service at Best Buy when they don't want to fix their bad-quality store brand.
