Samsung 5.1.4Ch Soundbar w/Dolby Atmos Tech

I'd like to start out by saying I love Samsung products. I own one of their flagship TV's, the now discontinued 8500 (still works beautifully) and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Smartphone. Samsung makes some of the most impressive products I've seen. So it was a bummer to buy a product under their name that was a huge letdown. The Atmos Soundbar HW-K950. I don't do a large number of product reviews, but I feel the need to do this one, because I encountered enough problems with this system that people should know what they're getting into. Before I get into the bad, let's talk about some of the good points. Pros: - Well, there's only one good point. It does do Atmos surround sound. Pretty effectively mind you, when it works. We'll get to the problems later. First, you get a true surround sound experience from behind you (only from an Atmos source/BluRay that has an Atmos soundtrack) from its rear satellite speakers. Secondly, and what totally blew me away, is you get sound from above you from its up firing speakers (again, only from an Atmos source/BluRay that has an Atmos soundtrack). Let me stress this again, you really hear things coming from above you!!! I tested several BluRay's with Atmos soundtracks and found most appealing (especially before the firmware update, we'll get to that below). "Power Rangers" and "Game Of Thrones" sounded simply brilliant, while "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" still sounded good, but not as pronounced. [One thing to note: As I read in several articles, in order to effectively simulate height sound from an up firing speaker design (which is the HW-K950), you need to have a flat ceiling. I'm lucky in that respect, because I have such an environment. "Soundbar only" solutions also work best if you have a square-ish room that can effectively bounce sound off of, which I also have. If you don't have a flat ceiling in the room you're looking to use an up firing Atmos speaker solution in, don't bother with this soundbar system. Ceiling Atmos speakers, although more of a pain to setup, are a better solution for rooms without flat ceilings.] Now on to the Cons, which really sucks. Cons: - Out of the box movie nightmares! I found I couldn't play several of my BluRay movies when connected to the HW-K950 soundbar system. Sounds weird right? And the movies in question weren't obscure titles either. Movies like, "Rango," "Fury," "The Magnificent Seven (2016 remake)," "The Night Before" and "Young Frankenstein," just to name a few. My setup was a Samsung BDJ5900 BluRay player plugged into the HW-K950 soundbar and HW-K950 plugged into my Optoma projector. Standard setup for sure. When I tried to play one of the aforementioned movies, it would spin the disc, and then automatically eject with an error message: "Disc not supported." Now if I unplugged everything from the HW-K950 soundbar, and plugged the BluRay player straight into the projector itself, or used my older Yamaha soundbar (the ATS-1060) instead, these movies would play fine with no errors. I did try different BluRay players plugged into the HW-K950, my old Panasonic BluRay player and a Playstation 3, but they also wouldn't allow me to play the aforementioned movies. The good news is, this problem got resolved. I called Samsung support and they walked me through a fix. They had me reset the soundbar by holding down the plus and minus keys on the unit when it was on. This reset all the settings back to default, but now allowed me to play any movie through the HW-K950 soundbar system. I mention this issue, because it's one I had out of the box. - Soft rear speaker sound - This is a HUGE fail! If you are planning on having the speakers further than 2 feet away from the listeners head, then forget about hearing much. I think you can possibly get away with no more than 3 feet from the listening position, but you'll start to lose sound quickly any further than that. Even when turning the sound levels all the way down on the front soundbar speakers, and cranking up the rear speakers levels to their maximum volume (which when I didn't, made the rear speakers act like they didn't work), the sound coming from the rear speakers were still very soft. I had to buy long extension power cables and separate speaker stands just to move the rear speakers close enough to my head, so I could hear them. Kind of defeats the "wireless solution" aspect. Now when I go back to watch the Digital Trends' setup video, they had to set the speakers right next to the couch. This tells me they ran into the same problem, though they didn't really mention the soft rear speaker sound specifically. - Gargle-ly electronic distortion and hissing sounds from the rear speakers - WOW! just WOW... As soon as I hooked everything up, the rear speakers started producing a constant hissing sound, and randomly produced, what I can only describe as, gargle like distorted electronic sounds. Yes it was soft, but still noticeable. I tried turning the levels for the rear speakers down (which of course you don't want to do, because you won't hear anything at all), but the hiss would never go away and the gargle sounds came on and off at random intervals. When I spoke with Samsung support about the issue, they said I would need to get a firmware update that would fix it. And here's my experience with that. - Friendly, but unfortunately dishonest Samsung support - I decided to contact Samsung support on the myriad of issues I had with the HW-K950 system. They first fixed my problem where my BluRay player wouldn't play certain films when connected to the HW-K950 soundbar (see above). The technician then apologized for the issue where the rear speakers were too soft and producing hissing and distorted noises. They said this would be fixed with a firmware update. The technician said they would be sending me out a flash drive with their latest firmware. I did let the technician know my reservation about their latest firmware after reading about it on several forums (see more info below), but they said they could only send me the latest version, which unfortunately I read several complaints about. The Samsung technician said I would receive the flash drive in the next 2 to 3 business days and let me know I would receive an email from Samsung confirming this when we ended our call. I never received this email after the call, or that day. So the next day I called Samsung Support and let them know I never received the email. The second Samsung technician told me they couldn't resend the email, which I told them again, there's nothing to resend, I never received the first one. They gave me a reference number that was to validate they were still sending the drive. To this day, I haven't received the flash drive and its way past the 2 to 3 business days that they said I would receive it. While I commend Samsung for being helpful and professional on the phone, I don't appreciate dishonesty. As an aside, I was also told I would need to buy a separate cable in order connect the flash drive to the soundbar to do the update. The cable was cheap enough, so I bought it, but still, why not pack it in with the soundbar if you need it to update the firmware. - No love for DTS surround sound - Most BluRay media out there has a standard DTS or Dolby Surround audio track. Atmos soundtracks on BluRay's aren't as prevalent, ratio-wise, and are harder to come by (maybe that'll change in the future). So likely that means, most of your current BluRay library won't play in surround with the HW-K950 soundbar. The HW-K950, out of the box, will downmix a DTS soundtrack to a 2.0 stereo mix. Disappointing. However, Samsung claimed that they released a Firmware update for the HW-K950 that would allow it to properly decode a 5.1 DTS soundtrack and provide surround sound for that format. What a great move, right? Well the first firmware patch, 3113, would allow the HW-K950 to decode DTS soundtracks, so they would play in surround 5.1 (so it claimed). But future patches afterwards seemed to botch this. From what I could find on forums, Samsung released three more updates to their firmware, 3113.5, 3114, and 3114.2 (at the time of this review, 3114.2 is the latest version and was released in August 2017). With these subsequent firmware releases, people started to complain about numerous other problems. The rear speakers and subwoofer would randomly disconnect and the rear speakers would have a persistent hiss, were the two most egregious issues that were mentioned. As I mentioned above, my rear speakers hissed before the update. Of course I wanted 5.1 surround sound for DTS, again, because most of my collection only had DTS, but would I be able to get the earlier 3113 firmware patch, the one that sounded like it didn't cause any of the aforementioned issues? Well, not from Samsung's site, and I couldn't find version 3113 anywhere on the internet. But could I get 3113 firmware from Samsung's support? No (see above). So, I did end up installing the latest firmware 3114.2, which I downloaded from Samsung's support site onto my own flash drive (it was a nightmare, see below). Did it now allow the soundbar to play DTS in 5.1 surround? Absolutely NOT! At least I heard no difference. It still sounds the same as it did before the firmware update, a simple stereo mix. Huge disappointment! And did I experience the aforementioned problems that many were complaining about on the forums after updating my firmware? ABSOLUTELY! - Updating Firmware Nightmare! - So as I mentioned above, I never received the firmware flash drive Samsung tech support said they would send me. I figured as much, because I never received their conformation email. So as I stated above, I ended up downloading the firmware from the Samsung support page and unzipping all the files onto a flashdrive I owned. I bought the adapter cable Samsung said I needed (separately) and proceeded with the update. And what a pain that was. I followed all the instructions provided online, including some alternate ones, and I couldn't get the soundbar to update. I tried every combination from the documentation, and still no luck. I got creative (desperate), trying all sorts of "out of the box" things, and finally by accident, came up with a solution that allowed me to update (you won't find this on the internet). I plugged in the adapter with the flash drive into the soundbar and powered it on. I then did the trick of holding the plus and minus keys on the side of the soundbar until it turned off. I powered the soundbar back on, and after about a minute, the word "update" finally appeared and the soundbar updated. I'm not sure if my messing around will work for everyone, but this is how I finally got the soundbar to update. I then tested to make sure everything was working. First, the update didn't get rid of the rear speaker hiss and gargle-ly electronic noises. Second, as I mentioned above, the DTS 5.1 wasn't activated and was still downmixing to a DTS 2.0 stereo mix. Third, and this is where the real fun began, the Rear and Subwoofer speakers started dropping off (like mentioned in the forums). What's worse, the whole soundbar system, at one point, stopped playing any kind of sound at all. - Rear and Subwoofer Speaker dropoff and no sound (after firmware applied) - So as I mentioned above, after the firmware update, the problems that persisted before the update, and some new ones, arose. The new issue, speaker dropoff, was now happening. It started when I tested the Atmos version of Game Of Thrones. I noticed that I was no longer hearing sound from the rear speakers. Again, since the rear speakers were so soft, I thought at first it was just that. I then checked the rear speakers and they were blinking blue, meaning they were disconnected and searching for a bluetooth connection to the soundbar. I unplugged the rear speakers and plugged them back in, and they synced once more. Then halfway through a second Game of Thrones episode, I noticed a lack of BASS. I checked the subwoofer and it was also blinking blue. I used the same trick I did with the rear speakers, unplugging the subwoofer and plugging it back in, and it reconnected to the soundbar system. I then tested with the movie Power Rangers in Atmos. About a third of the way through the movie, all sound cut out (the subwoofer, rear speakers, and the main soundbar). I looked at all the lights and all the speakers had a solid blue light meaning they were still connected and functioning. I tried advancing chapters on the BluRay, but still no sound. I then turned off the BluRay player and turned it back on, still no sound. I then power cycled the soundbar and still no sound. I then unplugged the soundbar, subwoofer, and rear speakers and plugged them all back in (soundbar last). I powered on the soundbar and sound started playing from all speakers again. So yeah, the firmware update, as I feared after reading the forums, started causing extra problems that I didn't have before. And adding insult to injury, didn't fix the existing ones. As with any company, sometimes they miss with a product (ie. Samsung's Galaxy Note 7). That is absolutely the case with the HW-K950. Will this experience move me away from Samsung products? Not right now. As I said, companies sometimes stumble, and this is one of the only Samsung products I've had issues with. But I will be more cautious. If they do release a new Atmos soundbar system similar to this one, before I even think about purchasing it, I'll make sure it supports all the audio formats I need out of the box. I don't want to have to deal with firmware updating nightmares. I absolutely won't buy it at launch, and will pay closer attention to forum posts to see what others are discussing. Could I have gotten a defective unit? Anything's possible. And I thought about that. But after reading forum post after forum post of the same things happening to others, I don't think I did. These issues are widespread. It sounds like the HW-K950 is unfortunately a faulty product. Luckily I purchased it through Prime and was able to return it hassle free. After all the troubleshooting I had to go through, I'm glad at least one thing was simple. Thank you Amazon! I really fought to give this at least a 2 star review, but I have to go with a 1. The soundbar does sound decent with Atmos soundtracks, when it works, but the fact I had to go through so much work, and most everything remained broken, I don't want others to make the same mistake I did. This is Samsung's first attempt at Dolby Atmos and I think they deserve a chance to redeem themselves if they decide to come out with a newer model. That is if the competition doesn't beat them to the punch with a better product.