Psycho Sonny: I think the point here is to compare what he could buy against the Samsung soundbar he already owns.
Dave85: Unless you spent £400-£500 on the soundbar then I think it would be safe to say that the Pioneer kit would offer better sound and of course more convincing surround effects too. Without wishing to put words in to Psycho Sonny's mouth though I think the point he was alluding to is that the Pioneer represents the very shallowest of shallow end AV receiver/speaker package kits. So while it meets your needs now, are you going to face a similar dilemma sometime in the not too distant future.
The Pioneer probably has more inputs-, and it will almost certainly offer more comprehensive audio decoding than the soundbar so you can take full advantage of HD audio. I think it supports 4K pass-thru too. All that is good.
People tend to fall in to one of two camps when starting down the AV Receiver/speaker package road. The majority are looking for a starter system that gives them a base from which to upgrade in steps as budget allows. The second group are those who just want a better quality solution than their current sound system but aren't interested in upgrading further. If this second group sounds like you then either the Pioneer or the Yamaha YHT1810 is right up your street. The £50 extra on the Yamaha goes in to speakers.
The main caveat with both the Pioneer and the Yamaha is the speakers; more specifically the sub. It connects via normal speaker wires which means it draws power from the main unit. That's not an immediate issue other than it does limit the depth and slam that's possible compared to a powered sub, but I bet the bass is still more tuneful and accurate than the Samsung. The longer term limitation is if you want to upgrade. The Pioneer and Yamaha kits can be thought of as complete systems. You'd sell the whole lot and upgrade rather than paying the premium for an AV sub that takes speaker level inputs.
