Harman Kardon BDS 800 5.1 Channel Blu-ray Home Theater Systems

harman kardon® BDS 800 At A Glance

• Complete, integrated home theater system
• Décor-complementing design
• Sublime Dolby® sound quality
• Crystal-clear HDMI® perfection
• Compact, powered subwoofer
• Preprogrammed/learning remote control
• Digital-amplifier technology
• Four identical, two-way, dual-driver satellite speakers
• Dedicated two-way, dual-driver center speaker
• Three digital inputs and two line outputs
• Dot-matrix information display
• Heavy-duty, gold-plated, binding-post speaker connectors
• Wall-mount hardware
• Magnetically shielded transducers
• Intuitive playlist memory
• Simplified system upgrades
• Headphone jack

Make every night “movie night.”
The BDS 800 is a fully loaded home theater system that comes with a Blu-ray Disc™ receiver, a DVD/CD player, Dolby® Digital and DTS® decoding, an HDMI® output, a USB port for importing music, video and picture files, and a preprogrammed/learning remote control that helps facilitate easy setup. There are no extras you need to buy. With everything necessary to turn ordinary film or TV viewing into an extraordinary experience, the BDS 800 is a complete system that transforms home entertainment into something you must normally leave the house to enjoy.

Décor-complementing design.
It might sound strange to hear someone compliment your home theater system on its surprising good looks, but with the BDS 800, it’s a distinct possibility. With its modern, high-style design, the BDS 800’s aesthetics are as expertly crafted as whatever you’re watching on screen – making it the perfect fit for most bookshelves, countertops or home entertainment centers.

Sublime Dolby® sound quality.
The BDS 800 is a complete home theater audio system. One special feature is Dolby® Digital and DTS® surround-sound decoding, which allows you to hear every nuance of the latest movie soundtrack – including Dolby and DTS high-resolution soundtracks – in their native formats. This way, you and your friends can enjoy a surround-sound movie experience that is completely faithful to what its creator intended.

Crystal clear HDMI™ perfection.
If you’re going to invest in a system with the extensive capabilities of the BDS 800, you’ll want the best high-definition picture and sound quality possible. Thankfully, with HDMI output, you’ll have it. By delivering HD digital video and high-resolution audio at the highest level possible (up to 1080p), the BDS 800 allows you to experience each frame of Hollywood action as it was shot – without quality loss due to conversion or compression of a video or audio signal.

A single system for all your entertainment.
Imagine a home theater system that can play every song, video, or picture that you send its way while it’s hooked up to your TV. Serving as a true multimedia device, the BDS 800 can play sophisticated formats such as Blu-ray Disc™ or DVD video – or casual, matter-of-fact videos shot on your iPhone device – via the USB port. Simply attach a device such as a flash drive to the front-panel USB port, and watch your media manifest before your eyes. That’s all it takes: One cable, and you’re instantly watching MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MP3, WMA and JPEG files with greater quality than is possible on your computer screen.

Compact, powered subwoofer.
Far from bulky, the compact BDS 800 subwoofer fits unobtrusively into your life. Yet it’s hard not to notice, thanks to its impressive output, acoustic loading and down-firing sealed enclosure in close proximity to the floor, creating tight, powerful bass performance. In addition, the glossy black BDS empowers you with volume, phase and bass-boost controls, so you can always create your ideal listening environment. The subwoofer also has an automatic turn-on and shut-off capability that responds intuitively to audio signals, so the system saves you not just time but energy as well.

Take control with preprogrammed/learning remote.
There’s nothing more frustrating than a coffee table stacked with more remote controls than coffee-table books. That’s why the BDS 800 simplifies your life with a single, adept remote control that can synchronize and coordinate your TV, cable boxes, satellite tuners and home theater system. And the BDS 800’s on-screen menu makes setting up and using the system even easier.

Dynamic digital-amplifier technology.
In so many ways, going digital has great benefits. The same goes for the digital amplifier that comes with the BDS 800 home theater system. With the BDS 800, you can keep your audio signal smooth by keeping it in the digital domain – from the sound source to the amplifier output – and avoid audio artifacts that pop up in converting sound from analog to digital and vice versa. By using digital-amplifier technology, the BDS 800 keeps its receiver size small to ensure that your system generates less heat than others – a benefit that allows you to minimize your carbon footprint.

Four identical two-way satellite speakers.
Sound quality, fidelity and consistency have been hallmarks of harman kardon speaker systems for 60 years. These signature traits are still in full effect, as the BDS 800 speaker system demonstrates. With a two-way, dual-driver configuration that lowers distortion for clear sound even at high volumes, the BDS 800 moves sounds consistently and realistically among speakers, drawing you into the movie experience while keeping your attention at every turn.

Dedicated, two-way dual-driver center speaker.
Voice-matched to the four satellite speakers, the dedicated center speaker provides heightened realism, clear dialogue and sound that’s consistent with the other speakers for a faithful and immersive movie experience. In addition, the dual midrange drivers let you achieve maximum clarity even at high volumes. So, ultimately, when it comes to that climactic action sequence, no distortion will ever interrupt your suspended disbelief.

Gain extensive connectivity through multiple inputs.
With three digital inputs and two line outputs, the BDS 800 gives you great flexibility in mixing and matching other systems. And even though the BDS 800 provides everything you’ll need for a stellar home theater system, you can expand it by using multiple audio sources at any time. In addition, the BDS 800 also offers extensive connectivity in ways that more limited systems can only dream of. It even has an Ethernet port that allows you to connect to the Internet via your local area network, so you can take advantage of BD-Live™ interactivity – a next-generation technology that allows you to import your own programming using MP3, WMA and JPEG playback.

Enhanced display features with energy-saving technology.
In addition to a dot-matrix information display that communicates freely with you to deliver status messages, the BDS 800 receiver lets you play music without having to turn on the TV. This forward-thinking feature saves energy. Additionally, a screensaver function prevents image burn-in on CRT and plasma displays. As a nod to its MP3 player technology, the BDS 800 even has a cover-art display function for audio files with ID3 tags (from USB devices). This way, you can see what you’re playing. What could be more convenient?

Improve the quality of your connections.
You can never have too secure a cable connection for preventing unwanted interruptions. That’s why the BDS 800 has heavy-duty, gold-plated, binding-post speaker connectors to help you achieve the strongest connection – and drastically minimize the likelihood of distortion or interference. The flexible BDS 800 system is also compatible with a variety of speaker wires, accepting banana connectors, spade connectors, pin connectors, bare wire and, likely, any other connectors you choose. There’s also a detachable IEC power cord that lets you connect to the installation site with ease – simplifying the connection process even before you install the unit.

Magnetically shielded transducers.
When you’re immersed in your favorite movie or TV show, there’s nothing worse than unexpected interruptions. With magnetically shielded transducers designed to eliminate picture interference and distortion, the BDS system allows you to place your speakers close to the TV screen – or wherever best complements your décor – to achieve the best possible picture and sound quality. The BDS 800 even has flat-panel midrange transducers of a honeycomb design with carbon-fiber skin, which deliver better sound quality than conventional transducers. And thanks to a 2-1/2-way crossover network that improves the transition between midrange and high-frequency drivers, you can expect very natural, transparent sound.

Intuitive playlist memory.
It’s nice to have a home entertainment system that remembers your favorite songs. With playlist functionality that stores the locations of your most frequently used media, the BDS 800 system makes it easy for you to play files stored on a USB device or CD-R – with a minimum of button pushing. It’s one thing to be able to listen to your home theater system, but when it listens to you, isn’t that a nice bonus?

Be system ready for upgrades.
Keep your receiver’s performance up to date with the latest software for improved operation, at the moment when upgrades become available, via the on-screen display (OSD). Using your OSD, you can simplify the upgrade process and ensure that your BDS 800 receiver is consistently running up to speed with the latest technology – and meeting its great potential.

Going solo.
Sometimes when you’re watching a sporting event or movie in your living room late at night using the BDS 800’s 5.1-channel speaker system, those sleeping in the other rooms (not to mention the neighbors) can get swept up in the excitement – whether they want to or not. That’s why the BDS 800 comes with a headphone jack, so you can enjoy your very own private listening experience and not have to worry that sound is traveling outside your four walls.