The Koss KS3101 offers everything needed to enjoy favorite DVDs in full-bodied surround sound. The system consists of an audio/video receiver coupled with a single-disc DVD player and a 5.1-channel (left, center, right, left/right surround, and subwoofer) speaker package. The only other things you'll need are a television and a place to put everything. With a little help from your computer's CD recorder, you can even listen to CD-based MP3 files and watch slideshows of digital JPEG photos.
The system is equipped to deliver the full image potential of DVDs when viewed on a high-definition or HD-ready TV. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, providing higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. Top-of-the-line component-video outputs help minimize digital and line-scan artifacts on compatible advanced televisions, while composite- and S-video outputs bring compatibility with nearly any television.
The DVD player plays most standard disc formats, including CD-R, CD-RW, MP3-CD, DVD-R/-RW, and DVD+R/+RW--terrific for enjoying homemade DVDs from family and friends. With the KS3101's 50-watt-per-channel AV receiver, you'll get Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound decoding to put you in the jungle with the dinosaurs and in the concert hall with music videos, while a full-function remote control lets you manage the proceedings from a favorite spot on the couch.
The system includes all requisite cabling for hooking up the five satellite speakers and the subwoofer. The DVD player also offers a choice of two digital-audio inputs (one optical and one coaxial) and a single coaxial digital-audio output for channeling DVD or CD audio to a minidisc or CD recorder or, should you wish to do so, to a stand-alone surround receiver. (Keep in mind that anti-piracy software prevents you from making digital CD copies of most DVD soundtracks.)
Other features include five-disc resume play (which lets you restart discs from your previous stopping points), an FM/AM tuner with 20 station presets, and an onscreen display to simplify setup and operation.
What's in the Box
DVD player, five satellite speakers, a subwoofer, a remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, and all requisite speaker cabling.
1 Help
Hey was looking at this system because of the price and the tech specs for the price. I wanted to hook it up to my desktop computer so I don't really care if the dvd player busts. Does anyone know if the receiver will still take sound input using a Y-cable to the receiver? thanks
2 Poor excuse for a DVD Player
Player consistently skips chapters as you watch the movie. Does not recognize that a disc has beed inserted half of the time. A very frustrating piece of equipment to use. Poor choice on my part. Money would be better spent some where else.
3 Still going strong after 1 year
I ordered this from Amazon just about this time last year & the KS3101 is still playing every dvd I throw into it...Store-bought, rentals, dvd+ and dvd- that I've burned with my computer. I have a 27" TV with RCA in/out jacks, so I'm no audio or video expert (nor do I have pockets deep enough to become one). The sound is infinitely better than the TV's built-in speakers (the main reason I purchased it), the dvd player is much more compatible than my Panasonic progressive scan dvd player (which I paid about $70 for and won't play dvd+ & has trouble with paper labeled dvd's). I don't expect it to crap out soon (hope not either), but if it did I'd still consider it a good buy for the much, much improved sound quality while watching the tube and the ~300 movies I've watched on it without a glitch.
4 I really like this product
Just bought it couple of days ago. I really like it.
Hope it's build to last.
5 Useless
I bought this dvd player about 4 months ago.... for the brand I figured it would be a pretty good unit... I thought wrong though
right now the only movie I can get to work on this player without the speakers buzzing is Rocky Horror, and thats only if I listen to it in mono....
so far my Bass channel puts out just buzz... the internal fan went dead, so the only way to keep it from over heating is to keep the lid off it... the left and right channels buzz, the surrounds stoped working all together....
all in all, this unit is worthless... dont buy it!!!
and, if on the off chance that you already have one.... when it breaks down, save the speakers, they are the best part of the unit...
6 It didn't last 6 months.
Grr. What a waste of money.
The disk tray moves really slowly, as if it has to consider whether or not its going to open when you ask it to.
A couple times it refused to play DVD's while flashing a 'ratings' message at me (these were 50's horror flick DVD's - hardly objectionable material) so I had to completely unplug the thing and start it up again.
Then after about 5 months of intermittent usage, one day the speakers started humming really loud, and it was dead.
Bummer.
7 Poor electronics; KS3102 didn't last the year
My first review, and it's because I dislike this product so much I have to break the silence. I got the KS3102 nine months ago. Good speakers, lots of options, I thought it was a great deal. After 60 days, the sound went out completely. Tech support had me unplug the unit and wait. The sound came back but it never was the same again: DVD subtitles would be enabled sometimes when I powered it up to watch a movie, or the speaker levels would reset, or sometimes the Digital sound wouldn't properly use all speakers if I had been playing Playstation II in Stereo.
Now it's been 9 months. and it's completely broken and out of warranty. No sound comes out even with resets. The Front-Left channel started buzzing, then the center channel too, and now nothing works.
This unit is a piece of junk. I'm going for a Sony receiver now; I should have just paid a little more and done that the first time. I'll use the speakers from this Koss system and that's about all it's good for now.
8 ouch
i wold like to review how this sounds i relly would , but, it wold not even turn on; SO, no usefull review today (shame on koss)
9 Sounds great, problems with picture quality
Easy to set up, sounds awesome for an average apartment, sub-woofer a bit low, but OK for the price. But audio is probably the only great feature of this system.
I have tried the system for a few days now. Would have liked it if the picture quality was better. Adds a green tinge to the movie signal from DVD, so you don't get the true colors. All yellows seem a little greenish and all reds seem pale. Moreover, sometimes there are diagonal lines running over the screen .. they are a little hard to detect, but if you look closely you can see them. Moreover, mine does not play any discs other than DVDs. I have tried standard 128+ bit MP3 discs, audio CDs etc.. but each song/entry plays for a few seconds before stopping. Also, the remote does not have a great interface for browsing through the MP3 listings. I will probably return this thing to Amazon in a few days, unless I receive some suggestions as to how to improve things, particularly the video quality. These problems may not be generic and I would suggest you buy it, being a little bit cagey about it.
10 Awesome Theater System
I am so very happy with my choice. This theater system sounds and looks great. It has so much intesity and indepth sound. I would tell anyone who is in the market, to purchase this item.
11 Great starter system....
I received the unit this past Friday and hooked it up in 15 minutes. System sounds great. Haven't had the problems some of the other reviewers experienced, but sometimes the system will take an usually long time loading a DVD. Progressive scan is awesome and now I got the sound quality to go with it. Very satisfied. Now let's just hope it last longer than a month....
UPDATE: I'm starting to experience the problems like the other reviewers. System reseting itself, no sound , DVD jumping back to main menu in the middle of movie!!!!!!!!, stero-only sound when the display shows "prologic", etc....
UPDATE (1/9/05): System is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!
12 Great Home Theatre System...WHILE IT LASTS!!! }:-(
I bought the KS3102 (essentially the same as KS3101) for Christmas of 2003. It was easy to hook up and it sounded great!
Fast forward 3 months, I'm watching Lord of the Rings and FWUMP! the sound goes out. I contact customer service, they tell me to unplug and reset the player. This works temporarily.
I pay $20 to ship it to Koss and replace it just under the warranty deadline. I get my replacement and it work fine for, uh, a month! Now the subwoofer is making some kind of continous popping noise, and not even at high volume!
Bottom line, it's a great system while it lasts. So if you want a quality system, don't waste your $100 to $150 on this system. Invest in a higher yet moderately priced, higher quality Sony 5.1 DTS system.
13 DVD FANS BEWARE!!!
We purchased this product last night. It was on clearance for $139.99. We thought it was a killer deal. We weren't expecting to get more than two years out of it, but it was a deal none the less. When I hooked it up this afternoon, the sound quality was great! It was just like it was in the store, BUT THE DVD PLAYER WILL NOT READ ANY DISKS THAT HAVE ART ON THE TITLE SIDE. It would read double sided DVDs, but couldn't seem to read through any disk with graphics on it. It won't play about 80% of our DVD library. I immediately visited Amazon and was dismayed to see so many other negative reviews. We should have curbed our "getting a deal" impulse, and done a little research first. I will be taking this product back to where we purchased it this evening. I agree with the other reviewer ... save that extra hundred or two hundred dollars and purchase a Sony, Toshiba, or Panasonic.
14 DO NOT BUY KOSS
Go to any electronics store and you'll hear them say, "Do not buy Koss". While some review site that one person thinks is "THE authority" say it's quality, review sites do not use the product beyond an initial test. I've owned mine for three months, and originally, I thought I got quite a steal. Now the thing is dead, nothing more than awkward paperweight.
Whatever you do, do yourself a favor, save up an extra month or two and buy a quality sound system. Do some research even beyond this site and you will find that Koss is a huge waste of your money.
15 a great value for the money
the reviewer below sounds quite negative. the emphasize that Koss Tech support was in India. Newsflash: tech support for almost all the major consumer electronics firms is now in India. Is that good, I don't think so, but to go ioff on Koss over that is naive.
Koss is in fact considered to be a very good producer of consumer electronics and certainly no worst than other brands. This unit itself has very high consumer reviews on videohelp dot com which is considered THE authority.
I have owned about every maor brand and actually had the worst support and return problems with Sony. Here is the thing. Keep your original box with any consumer electronics for at least two weeks. use the product. if it fails in the first year, 99% of the time that failure will occur in the first few days. this is the case with the most expensive and the cheapest electronics. if you do have a failure simply return the product uin its original box for a new exchange or a refund, not a repair.
Beyond a year or two most consumer electronics that fails will have a mechanical component fail. that is why you have to be nuts to get a combo vcr/tv for example. vcr's fail all the time. In this unit the week link is the dvd player, which could last two years or could last more than five. BUT look up reveiws on Panasonic, Sony or even top brands dvd players. they fail all the time at two years also, and you are always out of warranty and repair is almost alwyas more than replacement.
So the caveat is if you get combo equiopment...like this home theater WITH dvd player, it may pay to go less expensive. And this is certainly the case with this price, which is outstanding. For the average person who hasn't had home theater and doesnt need to blast a college frat house you are going to enjoy dvd movie sound in a new way. And the stereo from the cd play and the tuner is much better than the average $150 stereo mini systems of a few years ago.
You get progressive scan, component, s video and composite video out, as well as both coxial and optical digital audio in. The speakers are well matched to the power rating and quite good.
All in all a good deal, and an exceptionally great deal at below 200 bucks.
16 Customer Service????
After 25, yes 25 calls to what Koss calls Customer Service, I finally got somewhere. They sent me a shipping label to return the 2nd, yes 2nd defective DVD player back to them for a REFUND, not an exchange.
I am no longer interested in ANY Koss product at ANY price based on my experience. More than once I had to ask their "tech support" for someone else as I could not understand what they were saying thru the heavy accent. India was where I was calling all this time. Finally got someone I could understand when I insisted on a refund.
17 Great system for the price
For the price this system is definately worth it. It was very easy to setup and once the Tone is adjusted to EX BASS and the volume turned up a bit the sound is better than I had expected. I bought this for the DVD/Tuner combo as a secondary system. Don't expect it to even touch high end systems, but as a secondary it's great. I would have given 5 stars, but I found the wires too short and I can't stand it when they apply stickers to the hardware that is hard to get off.
18 bad
this thing is junk!!dvd player could not read any discs!!sound is not that good!!take my advice,buy a SONY,PANASONIC,ETC.!!DONT BUY THIS KOSS JUNK!!
19 What Customer Service/Warranty problem?
This is the 5 Koss product I have purchased, they have a lifetime warranty on their headphones, and I have used that warranty and was sent a newer, better model, after owning my headphones for 3 years. I also have a Portable CD Player, Sports/Armband Radio, a Clock/CD/Radio, and a boombox, all of the items have exceeded my expectatons, and I have had great customer service. I will continue to purchase Koss items whenever possible. I looked at alot of other Home Theatre Sysatems, and was skeptical of this one on price alone, but it far exceeded my expectations, and worked perfectly. It was also far les expensive that most of the other systems I was considering.
20 Great Value!!!
This was very easy to setup. Both the sound and picture quality is great. I've had the system for over a month now, and haven't had a problem!
21 Broke down fast, Terrible Warantee Service
The Sound on my Koss home theater system stopped working 2 months after we bought it. Luckily it was still under factory warantee. Unfortunatly, after we sent it in Koss customer service was TERRIBLE! It took 2 monthes before Koss would even accnolidge they recived it. (I knew they had because of tracking numbers, but they wouldn't confirm that). They promised replacement units on 8 different occasions, sometimes even telling me it was in the mail when it wasn't. It took 3 monthes to get our replacement unit. Koss emplyees were very unhelpful, unproffesioal, and overall frustrating to work with. I will NEVER buy another product from them. My suggestion to you: Pay a little more and go with a good brand!!
22 System sounds great - until it breaks
I just got this system and the sound quality really is great, especially for the price. Its one of the few systems in this price range to have digital optical input, which is necessary if you're connecting certain components for dolby digital suround like an x-box. Although there is a setting called "Prologic", I'm not sure that it actually has a prologic decoder since the manual only says that it gives out prologic sound if hooked up to a prologic receiver. I'm only giving it four rather than five stars because I've noticed that sometimes it will read no disc when there is a disc there so it has to be ejected and restarted. Otherwise, its really a nice system.
Update- 11/29/04- My system died like many other reviewers. Can't recommend for that reason.
23 Very good system for this price
The reason I wanted a home theater was the built in radio tuner. Since, I wanted to buy a dvd player anyway, I thought why not have the whole package eliminating the need for a hifi system.
So, bottom line is that I love this thing. Probably my ears are not the most sensitive ones but I find the sounde perfectly clear.
It was very easy to set up.
You can even make it region code free if you search the net a bit.
Enjoy
24 Big bang for your buck
This product is a great value. I watched X-Men 2 last night and the sound was incredible. It is easy to install, but if you have a cable box be sure to use the directions came with the cable box because the directions that come with the unit are poor (just a diagram that shows EVERY type of configuration on one page). Also, the Sub-Woofer comes with an annoying sticker on it that took ? an hour to get off. I highly recommend this unit for sound quality and price.
25 Great buy
Easy setup, good instructions, colored cables not to confuse the user, solid speakers and GREAT SOUND.
Great packaging. It traveled to Argentina and the box "said" that it was not treated like a lady but when I opened it, the suppport is strong enough to resist some "airport soccer".
Lots of features, good radio. Much more than expected for the price.
26 What a system
This is my first Home Theatre system. Got the system in the states then brought it down to Zambia. It is lovely, has good sound production, the surround effect is fantastic and the sub woofer is outstanding.
Setup of the system was seamless. All the cables are colour coded and the speaker clips are colour coded too. The cables, more especially for the front, centre and sub woofer are rather short though.
The only drawback is the manual. It does not give any system specifications. This is important for comparison and , well, tech know how.
Overall, it is a lovely product.
27 Sound
I have set up my new system this week and unfortunately there must be a defect in the amplifier. The unit is not putting out 300 watts, my tv's 10x2 watts sound better!!!!
28 Great bargain with one big glitch
The price is definitely right, looks nice, sounds great. Unless you're setting it up in a closet you'll need much more speaker wire though. One big problem with mine, however - while playing DVDs the audio will mute at random times during playback, usually 3 or 4 times. Simply hitting the volume button on the remote brings it back, but it's quite annoying. Perhaps it's overheating (I have it set up in an entertainment center, not a lot of airflow) so it could be that the problem is on my end. If that's the case I would give it 5 stars for value for the money.
29 Sweet unit, best sound for the buck !
Got the Canadian version KS3102-2 from a membership warehouse store and it was highly recommended by the staffs there even over some Japanese systems. The biggest surprise was the wonderful sound, which at 300w is more than enough for a home setup, as I found now. The system makes movie watching very enjoyable and if I close my eyes, it feels just like I am at the theater. In my option, the price is worth the sound system alone (very powerful amp, great sub and speakers for the size) and the progressive scan DVD player is just a Huge plus. The dvd playing is smooth even for dvds/vcds that I had problems with my new-ish Panasonic. Simply, a very amazing and user-friendly system that I hope people weren't discouraged by the Koss label.
