If movie viewing is your primary purpose for buying one of these systems, we have no problem recommending the HT33S.
Music
Although the movie performance of this system is very impressive, we aren't so keen on the musical performance. This has a fair amount to do with the subwoofer, which seems to be slightly too keen when it comes to music.
Although the HT33S manages pop reasonably well, its abilities are less impressive when it comes to anything more involved. Our first test track, Girls Aloud's Untouchable, sounded okay, with the vocal at the start coming through loud and clear. As soon as the track got busier though, the clarity really began to suffer.
Worse still, the live version of the The Veronicas' track Revolution sounded like someone had sabotaged the MP3. Although this particular track is tricky for surround-sound systems, it sounded much better on our headphones. However you look at it, music isn't the HT33S' strongest area.
iPod playback
As is the trend these days, the HT33S includes an iPod dock, into which you can place most modern iPods. You can use the dock in two modes. The first is typical, with whatever you play on the device coming out of the speakers. This works fine, but bear in mind our opinion on the musical performance of this machine.
With the second mode, you can navigate the contents of your iPod via an on-screen display. Sadly, the interface is very basic -- it's the sort of thing that would make Steve Jobs spit out his green tea. Navigating around an iPod with plenty of music on it is a pretty slow process. The system just isn't as responsive as we'd hoped, and it makes using the on-screen navigation more of a chore than a pleasure.
Conclusion
We really like the LG HT33S. The decision to make it a glossy black, finger-grease magnet is idiotic, but, if you never touch it and rely on the remote instead, you won't have any problem with that. The black surface is also reasonably easy to scratch, which could prove really annoying if you've just spent your own money on this machine.
The sound, however, is very good. We like the fact that it takes an optical input from our TV, and the improvement in sound is very worthwhile indeed. We're also big fans of the HT33S as a DVD player. The future, of course, is Blu-ray, but there are plenty of people out there with loads of DVDs and no desire to replace them all with high-definition versions. For such people who are seeking improved sound, the HT33S is a very worthwhile device.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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