Onkyo CS-V645 DVD/CD Mini System First Look

I remember at my very first CEDIA I was talking to a company that sold networked media players. This was before Slingbox and a bunch of other products, so what they had was pretty advanced and innovative for the time. The thing that struck me was that the guy was "selling" me on the fact that you could view your content not only at your home but your summer home or cabin. This was back in the boom days of the housing bubble and even then I thought, "Does he seriously think I have a summer home?" Was it the Audioholics branded polo shirt what gave it away?

Now, in the current economy, it's even more outrageous to suggest that people have more than one home. I find it particularly humorous when it is coming from a company that is trying to sell sub $400 mini systems. So you can imagine that I couldn't help but chuckle at Onkyo's out-of-touch assertion that their new CS-V645 DVD/CD Mini System would be perfect for my "office, bedroom, dorm room, or summer cottage." Unless they mean the same thing by 'summer cottage' as I do - the backyard.

Marketing faux-pas aside, the Onkyo CS-V645 DVD/CD Mini System is quite and interesting product. Consisting of a combination of iPod dock, DVD player, and 40 watt per channel receiver, the CS-V645 looks to be a standalone solution for space and budget challenged customers. The CS-V645 has actually been out in Europe for some time but it is only now reaching the US shores (in fact, the specifications above were gathered from the EU website as the US one doesn't have the product listed yet).

The CS-V645 has an integrated DVD player and iPod dock. The unit upconverts video to 1080p over HDMI to a connected HDTV. There is a front mounted USB port for integration with flash drives and other USB sources. The unit is compatible with MP3, WMA, JPEG, and DivX file formats as well as DVD-Video, DVD±R/RW, DVD±R DL, Video CD, Audio CD, CD-R/RW. In addition, it can decode Dolby Digital and DTS 2.0+. It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, iPod classic, and iPod nano (2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th generations) and it charges them as well. The included remote controls not only the receiver and the DVD, but also connected iPods. The CS-V645 has a 20-preset FM tuner.

The CS-V645 sports a 40 watts per channel (into 4 ohms) two channel amp, driving the included speakers with a 1" soft dome tweeter and 4.75" OMF woofer. OMF stands for Onkyo Micro Fiber - more marketing speak for a coated fiber cone. The speakers are two-way bass-reflex, with the port on the rear. We were happy to learn that they've included a subwoofer pre-out as this is a speaker you're definitely going to want to add if you are going to use the CS-V645 for movie playback. For integration with other components, aside from the aforementioned USB port, there is a front mounted 3.5mm audio input for portable devices, component and composite video outputs on the back, and analogue and coaxial digital audio output. While they could have integrated more inputs (there is additional analogue audio inputs but no video from what we can find), instead they've built the CS-V645 to be integrated as a DVD player into a "real" home theater system rather than the other way around. Once you get a taste for a sub, you're probably going to want to add surrounds and as the CS-V645 doesn't support surround sound, we think this integration option makes some sense.

Conclusion

What we like best about the CS-V645 is the price. It will be available in early December with a suggested retail price of $399 - just in time for the holiday season. Onkyo has also released another audio-only mini system dubbed the CS-445. The CS-445 has a CD player instead of a DVD, doesn't have the front USB port, and sports double the number of presets. That'll save you a few bucks. The Onkyo CS-445 is out now with a suggested retail price of $329. These look to be very nice starter systems for students or people with little space. We could never get behind a system (two channel or no) without a subwoofer output especially one that was designed with video in mind. At less that $400, the CS-V645 has everything you need for a relatively compact system that can later be integrated into a more serious home theater. With 1080p upscaling, iPod integration, and ability to access USB content, the Onkyo CS-V645 should be everything your youngster needs to access their music and video. Now if only they'd get out there and get a job already.

For more information, please visit www.onkyousa.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.