Sony DAV-C450 Dream System
By: Sony Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 32
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 On: 2008-02-17
I have had this system for about 4 or 5 years. And last weekend the DVD player malfunctioned. I rented a DVD, and it was stuck inside the unit, so we had to disect the thing to get the DVD out. It basically seems like it fell off the track....but it wouldnt eject any of the dvds in the player, nor would it play them....
It didnt get extreme use. Maybe 3 dvds per week? Not the kind of quality I was hoping for from Sony. I am not sure if we will be repairing it at all....
 On: 2007-06-06
worked for a couple years so I give it that. It now reads "no disc". :(
Thanks sony.
On: 2007-02-04
I purchased this product back in 2003 and it was fine at first. After about a year, I had some problems playing DVDs where it would start up, go to the main menu and then just stop and move on to the next disc. Sony tech support was no help, but I did find a soloution by randomly hitting buttons, trying everything and anything I could think of to make the system work again - I believe it was some sort of a region problem/setting on the unit that I somehow corrected.
Then, a couple of months later, I was unable to hear sound through any of the aux ports or radio. All sony can say is to send it in for service. My father in law bought a much cheaper panasonic home theatre system about 6 months before I got mine and his has never had any issues and sounds just as good.
 On: 2006-07-26
I purchased this unit in 2003 and it has been OK for the first 2 years. Once in awhile a disc would get stuck. Last week I was using the "shuffle" option and it stopped playing in the middle of a song and I could not get the CDs to come out. I called Sony help line and they told me to ship it to a Sony authorized dealer. It looks like a lot of people have this same problem but the guy at Sony said he never heard of any problems with this unit. I took it to a repair shop and they said a PC board was bad and would cost $295 to replace! They said it was cheaper to just get another system. Im considering getting a $40 DVD player to plug into the back of this unit so I can still have the AM/FM and surround sound. I am very dissappointed and will probably not buy a Sony product again.
On: 2005-03-03
Sony is perhaps the most popular electronic company on the face of the earth. With fleets of stereos, walkmans, discmans, laptops, tvs, and more, there aint no stoppin them now. Theyve also produced a large number of speakers that have gone up and down in quality. Home Theater systems have bursted so quickly onto the scene in the last few years, and they keep getting smaller, simpler, and cheaper. The only way weve really enjoyed home theater before all of the 5.1 to 7.1 capabilities with DTS and Pro Logic stuff, was in two channel stereo to four channel surround. And that usually was with your large tower stereo speakers and a killer amp. Even though there are much more accurate and powerful home theater components and speakers available, some people dont have the cash or space. So, their next option is for a more compact system thats all in one.
One of the earlier models that Sony offered is the DAV-C450 DVD Home Theater System. Sandwiched into a sincerely small system is a five disc DTS and Pro Logic capable DVD player. Wow, what a start! Each disc can remain inside the player (just like those cartridge or carousel cd players) while you watch one already playing. The power source comes from the integrated player which boasts a built in amp that carries enough juice to give each little cube speaker 80 watts, and totals in peak of 500 watts, so 400 watts goes to the five speakers, and the remaining 100 goes to the slim front ported subwoofer. Funny how little of bass seems to punch out of it. It gives a few hums of base here and there, but theres really only enough bass to make a cat happy. A sub that gives at least some good bass should be powered with its own amp, and this one is simply powered by a permanent wire that goes from the integrated unit to the sub. You cant call this thing a subwoofer. I call it the humming box. If this thing were cut open, I wouldnt want to look inside. Id probably cry.
The speakers themselves sound hollow, and not very direct-now, they dont sound TERRIBLE-no. But they sure could use a big upgrade (yeah, I know, what you spend is what you get). Whats interesting but not shocking is that the center channel isnt a true and dedicated center speaker. So voice and sound reproduction from the so-called center channel is nothing special-I could use any of the other supplied speakers as a center channel, since they perform and look the same way. But Ill be nice and do as the instructions say, okay Sony? The rest of the gang do their job and no more. Surround and direct sounds are average, and their 80 watts each seem more like 20. The volume capacity is pretty unspectacular, unless you have a pretty small room. In a room of about 10 by 15, the sound was just reaching the back of the room. I had to turn up the volume practically all the way just to be moderately satisfied. Regardless of these Happy Meal speakers, the sound decoding is accurate, and if you have better speakers, try them out with this player. Although this system is capable of giving you a bit of a surround theater feel, the speakers (yes, again) dont spread the sound very well, so you could say that they are "sweet spot stinkers".
Picture quality is more than fair, as long as your tv is a pretty good one. Lines and images are a little crispy, but at least well defined. Colours are nothing to complain about, especially when I slipped James Camerons "The Abyss" in for a while. Blues were not too loud, and any other images were pretty realistic. Even the faded white pipes on the mini subs or piping in the underwater oil rig station werent too white, and not too far off from the real thing.
Still, what can you say about a system you spend $450 on? A lot of sales guys in your electronic big box stores will praise these little systems because they are DTS, 5.1, and DVD. So....so what? Have you ever bought a car with power steering, a cd player, and great gas mileage? Aside from those little pluses, it still probably handles like a tricycle, and accelerates like a sloth.
The Sony C450 Dream System is something that parents should consider for their kids in the basement or bedroom, or any of their college bound kids. There are better mini home theater systems out there. If you think this Sony system is the awesome one to buy, keep dreaming.
 On: 2004-08-31
I have had this system for about a year now. I dont know why some of these people are giving this system a 1 star. Maybe its the way they treat their system. The installation was simple (except for the wiring, itd be a lot easier if Sony came up with the idea of wireless speakers, thatd save a lot of time). I do admit that the CD changing is slow. But I dont care, I keep the Lord of the Rings DVDs on slots 1-3. The other 2 are just there. The sound is alright for DVDs, but isnt so good with CDs. Not enough bass. Another problem is when I was watching Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (3.5 hour movie), the system really heated up. Other than that, the system is very good.
On: 2004-08-18
I bought this system about 2 years ago and within an year it had problems with DVD playback. By tweaking it, I could make it work for a while but it stopped working altogether. Luckily I was still in the warranty time period and the repair shop fixed it fine. But now, I am having issues again with the DVD function. The tuner and other inputs work just fine, though. The DVD tray wont open. Theres one CD inside and I cant get it out or get it to play. And since I am not in the warranty period, I am not motivated to get it repaired either. I guess I will just use it as a sound system and buy a DVD player separately. I am not impressed with SONY this time. Looks like many other users have/had similar issues with this "dream" system.
On: 2004-08-14
I bought my system (DAV-C450) back in 2002, for about $500. After only 6 months it stopped reading DVD discs, always giving me the "no disc" error. Yet it plays CDs, CDRs, and the tuner works just fine. The only problem is the DVD player (cleaning the lens didnt work). It always got way too hot on top and I dont believe it has a built in fan which I keep fooling myself into thinking might have been the cause of this. I was on deployment in the Navy and never had time to send this thing back in for repair. So my warranty was gone by the time I got back. Either way from what I read, this system was crap and made by sony just to be a temporary kind of device until you get a quality one, but for alot of $$$!! Now I just have it sitting on top of my computer desk as an amplifier system (I use it as the speakers to my PC). Atleast its good for that, playing PC games with surround sound, but at hell of a cost. Maybe theres a few out there that actually work for what they were intended for, DVDs. I wish I had one of those. I went out and bought a Cyberhome DVD player which lasted me up until yesterday, now it also doesnt read DVDs. Atleast that only cost me about $50 and lasted me 2 years.
On: 2004-04-06
I too have had the "Program play of title xx prohibited now" error and want to thank techiemcd for posting the review that contains the fix, since I couldnt find that info anywhere else. Thanks again, techiemcd! Other than that, I love the size and sound.
On: 2004-02-18
There is a reason that the warranty is only one year long. I bought this system last Christmas and I thought it was fantastic, until last week (Feb. 10) exactly 12.5 months later. It will not play any DVDs. I get a no disc error and it will not play. Ive tried everything and Im not quite sure yet what to do. I think it is convenient that Sony doesnt sell this system anymore. STAY AWAY!!!
by: Anonymous On: 2004-01-12
Its been 7 months since I purchased this unit, One day it refused to open the dvd disc drive, All my rented DVDs were inside the player. I had to open and the cover and manually remove the DVDs to avoid the late fees. Once I removed the dvdd it started working again. This problem happened thrice. As soon as I remove the disks it works. When it works the sound is good. I never expected Sony to build such a bad product. Looks like many have experienced the same problem.
On: 2004-01-08
(I am changing my review - after having my broken system repaired at a local repair shop - see below- for $115 we were told the reason it broke was due to one of the discs! The LAST disc played in the unit was a Dave Matthews live concert "Lets give this night up for Jerry Garcia" and the lable on it was paper that had been glued on. DONT USE DISCS WITH PAPER LABLES! The lable bent at one edge, just the tiniest amount, and caused a jam that ultimately worn down the motor! Cant say this was Sonys fault, however it does stink that it wasnt covered under warranty. Ill leave the rest of the review as it was, but upgraded from 2 to 4 stars. Since the repair, we are back to loving this system, which Sony has discontinued.) We bought this little system to use in our new basement playroom/family room. We wanted surround sound that didnt take up too much room and the small box speakers were perfect! However, we expected the system to last longer than it has! Now I have to mail it to Sony for repair (no local authorized repair places), out of warranty, at a cost of $138.90! It also has 4 of our audio cds and one dvd movie inside, which I wonder if Ill ever see again, and in what condition! I am very frustrated that I cant simply buy the receiver new and not have to spend SO much on a repair! My original cost at 6th Ave. Electronics was only $299! Sadly, we did not purchase the stores extended warranty. Sony does not sell this model any more, and the closest product is DAVFC7 for $500! And, of course, it is not compatible with the speaker set that came with the DAV-C450, so we have to pull down all the wires that we carefully tacked to the walls and painted to hide them! Perhaps my 2 star rating is harsh, however the inconvenience and extra cost associated with this product failure after just over one year (one month out of warranty!) is very frustrating! Prior to this problem we have been completely happy with the system and the sound was extremely good in our 13 x 23 room. We were able to have surround sound with our VCR and Sony Tivo unit through this system as well. (BTW, had to send our Sony Tivo in for repair within one year of ownership! Starting to reconsider the Sony brand, the reliability is just not there!)
 On: 2003-12-30
The day before yesterday, My compact av system worked perfectly as always! since the day I started using it (Jul 2002). But now, I cant get the tray to play or return my DVDS. This is the first time that I have a problem with a sony product and now It doesnt work properly. I bought it at Miami and now I have to take it to the nearest sony dealer in Honduras. I hope they can fix it, so I can continue enjoying my Great DAV-C450. ¨SONY, JUST TRY IT!¨
On: 2003-11-23
I really like the system, expecially when I play HD into my DLP projector. I just had a problem with some DVDs not being playable, getting the message "program play of title xx prohibited" (where "xx" is some track on the DVD). What a pain! I dont know where the problem came from, but I think it may have been my kids pushing buttons on the remote. To restore playing capability, all I had to do was turn off the "Repeat" mode by hitting the "CLEAR" button on the remote.
On: 2003-11-22
I really like the system, expecially when I play HD into my DLP projector. I just had a problem with some DVDs not being playable, getting the message "program play of title xx prohibited" (where "xx" is some track on the DVD). What a pain! I dont know where the problem came from, but I think it may have been my kids pushing buttons on the remote. To restore playing capability, all I had to do was turn off the "Repeat" mode by hitting the "CLEAR" button on the remote.
On: 2003-08-31
The DAV-C450 has been pretty good--when it works. The sound is great and there have been no performance issues with the DVD player (except for one major issue--to follow). The remote is probably far more complicated than necessary for the features the unit has. But overall, the unit performs pretty well, when it works.That being said, we had to replace our previous unit after a month because the DVD tray would not open. Our second unit has worked for about nine months and the same issue just began. We cannot get DVDs in or out of the unit. Ive read some other reviews here that suggest that others are having similar problems. This defect alone is serious enough to warrant avoiding this unit.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-07-20
Ive had this system for about 15 months and it worked great until the last month. Now it wont play my DVDs. In perusing other peoples reviews, poor longevity and quality seems to be a problem with these Dream Systems. Id stay away.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-06-26
After recieving this system for my birthday I was expecting it to hold up a lot better than my pioneer home theater, but was sadly mistaken. After a week I managed to blow out the two front channels and the sudwoofer. I took it back to recieve another hoping it was a defect. But it wasnt, soon enough I had blown out the same speakers again. While I still could I took the system back and got my money back. After I recieved my money I went looking for a better system. Best Buy is where I found it. fifty dollers more same wattage and no blowing out. Thank God.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-05-26
I just bought this system, and the label on it says 70x5 and 100w sub...which makes sense as this adds to 450watts (as does the model number indicate).....Why is it that everyone thinks this is a 500watt system? Is there another DAV-C450 that has 500watts or am I being daft! Will check my documentation when I unpack it at home
On: 2003-05-19
I bought the Dream System this passed December and its been a God-send since. The sound is great for both your DVDs and CDs. The set-up is so quick also. The time that would have been spent trying to find the right receiver and then the correct speakers was saved because of the Dream System. It takes less than 20 minutes to completely set-up. The system does get a little hot though but that is mentioned in the manual. I havent had a problem because of the heat. This is a great buy, especially since the price has gone down from when I bought mine.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-04-30
I recently reviewed this system and noted my positive experiences as well as the fact that sound to the speakers failed just after the warranty period ended. I returned it to Sony for repairs, but when I received it from Sonys Repair Center, it had the same problem. With my second complaint to Sony, they replaced the unit with a newer and more powerful system. This seemed very fair to me, and my faith in Sony is restored.
On: 2003-03-18
This is a great system! Very easy to put together, it took me longer to get it out of the box! The sound is fantastic! This is definitely a "Dream Machine"!
On: 2003-01-19
We love our Dream System. We bought it about 5 months ago and havent had any problems with it at all. It works great. The sound is awesome.
The only problem I forsee, which actually I dont think is a problem, is that it does get very hot. This issue is mentioned in the users manual, and they say it is normal. I still like to give mine plenty of air. :)
by: Anonymous On: 2003-01-07
This was a gift to my 23 year old son who is an electronics lover and music addict. He loves the sound this system has for his CDs but especially loves the great surround sound for his movie collection. This system arrived in 4 days from ordering in two layers of heavy plastic wrapping in excellant condition. This is my best on line order to date! Great System with Great Sound !!
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-19
The sound is great you should definitely buy!
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-19
I purchased this system because of my prior excellent experience with Sony products. I was also influenced by the fact that, unlike Bose systems, proprietary wiring is not required. I had the speakers installed by an experienced electronics technician, and the system initially worked well. I commend the sound quality, but the volume/power needs to be stronger for some DVD/CD selections. After viewing about 12 DVD movies, the sound stopped working entirely, and this was just after the warranty ended. It had no sound for the receiver, DVDs, or CDs. I contacted Sony, and the cost of repair is $[money] For a $[money] system, this seems excessive. Im still comtemplating these repair costs, but it may be necessary to avoid a [money] debacle. Im definately taking another look at Sony quality.
On: 2002-11-01
I got this system a couple of months ago and already Ive had numerous problems. First, the DVD drawer occasionally gets stuck and sometimes will not work at all. I have to reset the system to get it to work. Even then it will only be good for a few more opens and closes before it jams up again.
Second, it will not play some DVDs. It will start them, but once it gets to the main menu, it says "Program play of title # (weýve seen 4, 10, 20, 33, etc.) prohibited now" and stops the disc. Ive found a way to get around this on some DVDs, but it still creates great frustration, which is the opposite of what I want when I watch a movie.
Quite frankly I would expect higher quality than this from Sony. I am going to take this system in to have it looked at, but I am regretting getting it in the first place.
However, I should say that when the system is working the sound is great! Hence, the reason for two stars instead of one.
On: 2002-09-27
Im not an audiophile, but I was blown away with the improvement of the sound quality of my whole system. I also appreciated the fact that Sony thought about making this easy to use for the whole family. The remote is well laid out and I particularly like the arrangement of the main functions right on the top edge which is exactly where I can see them in my cabinet- no more crawling on the floor to hit tiny buttons behind some cheesy door. Thanks Sony- you continue to impress me.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-09-27
This product is a disappointment. Not only does it lack the power to promote adequate sound quality, after a few months the DVD player will stop recognizing that there is a disc in there. Unfortunately, it most likely will occur in the middle of a movie. Also, when this player gets warm after an hour of continuous use it will cease to play and the disc will begin to skip. This product great in theory, terrible in application.
On: 2002-09-27
Being a SONY fan, I was happy to see this system at a price I could afford. There is plenty of speaker wire, so placement of speakers is not a problem. The sound is great, and the AM/FM stereo capability is a nice added feature as is the ability to play CDs. What does bother me is the amount of heat generated by the unit. Playing a 2 disk movie, such as Harry Potter, got the unit smoking hot. I had to install it on a sliding tray and leave the door open on my entertainment system just to keep it cool. In fact Im considering the installation of a cooling fan at the back of the equipment rack. Other than the heat, it seems to be a great deal.
On: 2002-09-19
The Sony Dream Machine was easy to install. All the speakers and wires are color-coded, so you cant go wrong. The system is rather compact, so it fits nicely in a smaller room (my living room is 12 x 15). The subwoofer is no larger than your PCs tower, so you can place it just about anywhere without re-arranging all the furniture. The speakers are small, so they fit neatly in a bookcase or on a table. The sound is plenty to fill the room and is a huge improvement over ordinary television or stereo speakers. I admit that Im not an audiophile and dont require earth-shaking sound, but there is plenty of satisfying sound for me ... and without having to rattle the windows!Two valuable features you will enjoy are: (1) It plays the music CD-RW that you make on your PC. Most lower priced Home Theatre Systems I looked at dont have this feature. (2) You can change the sound quality of the system from the remote. You can choose from 10 different sound fields for music and tv, 1 for games, and 1 for your headset. The Sony Dream Machine is just that ... everything you could want at a price you can afford. An excellent value fully worth a 5-Star rating.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-08-11
I liked the way this home theather systems works together with a Sony TV I just bought! Easy to put it together.
On: 2002-07-05
This is a great system, the name says it all. SONY! You get what you pay for with this system. The name and quality of Sony. Great Sound, and even greater picture when you use the Component Video to the TV. The only downside with this model and all of the Sony All in One units is the over-heating issue. Please keep it in an open area, I have mine in my Sony stand and I think it might burn my house down. But I doubt that will happen. But still, 5 disc DVD, lots of power, and lots of Bass. Great Home Theatre Experience !! A+ to Sony and Japan!! Mr. Roboto would be proud :)
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