JVC TH-S11

The TH-S 11 from JVC is a cracking 5.1 surround sound system, I paid £99 for the system from Comet, but I've seen it on sale in various places for around the £120-150 mark, which doesn't seem hugely over-priced for what you actually get.

The package includes 5 speakers and a sub-woofer, the front side and centre speakers are magnetically shielded (so they can sit on or near the TV without distorting the picture) but disappointingly the subwoofer is not. They produce a very clean and crisp sound and it isn't especially necessary to have them positioned for perfect stereo as they can be individually adjusted via the DVD player menu. What makes this system particularly attractive is that the speakers are small and unobtrusive and that the sub-woofer isn't a massive great bulk that looks out of place wherever you put it as with some other systems. As I previously mentioned though the sub-woofer isn't magnetically shielded which means that it can't be placed to close to the TV without distorting the picture - which for me was slightly awkward.

The player itself plays a good range of formats including DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, CD, CD-R/RW and also Div X files for those of you who download. It also plays mp3 and jpeg files from DVD/CD's. It also includes the usual range of scan, search, slow motion and replay functions that everyone has used at one time or another! A couple of useful extra functions are the resume which means you can stop a disc and come back to it at a later date and carry on from the same point and the express start which jumps the usual menu selections. It also has an AM/FM radio with RDS (which provides station name, Travel reports and News info - this can all be switched on/off to suit) and also be used for purely TV(or any other source) sound if you wish.

I am slightly disappointed that it isn't a multi-region player but I'm sure someone will come up with a clever crack code or chip to bypass this - obviously I don't condone any illegal activities!!!

The remote control is easy to use and has the normal self-explanatory buttons. It is however slightly crowded because, in my view, of the amount of functions available on the player itself. Catch-22!!! On the plus side it can be used as a TV remote as well if you have a JVC (or compatible) TV set.

Overall the player is quiet and easy to use. It provides a great picture - which you'd expect from DVD's - and excellent sound through the 33W speakers and 40W sub-woofer.