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Panasonic SC-HT80 Theater System Product Technical DetailsTechnical Details:SC-HT80 Key FeaturesIncluded Components:...

Won’t Play DVDs??? Panasonic SC HT80 Theater System This unit is nicely packaged, and easy to set up. The sounds is decent, given the low price. The picture is ok. ...

I was moving to my first apartment after getting out of college, I was starting from scratch and I needed a quick and inexpensive HT solution, a all-in-one system is perfect because my living room isn’t too big, and I won’t have to buy extra systems or components for listening to CDs.

I first went to Best Buy to look at what were available. I found this Panasonic SC-HT80 and the Sony DAV-S300. The Sony was listed a little cheaper but the sound quality wasn’t as good. The Sony also had a Passive Subwoofer, so the bass isn’t as good as the Panasonic. Bass is very important when you watch DVD’s. The Panasonic also has a 5-disc changer which was a very attractive feature since I will be using this system as my *only* system at home at least for the first year or so.

I finally bought the system for a little above $500 at eCost.com, I used one of those comparison shopping website and found it there. They gave me free shipping as well, it was like the best deal on earth!

The system is very easy to use, it was a little tricky to figure out how to adjust the seat positions and such, but you won’t have to even look at the manual for how to access the basic features. There are a couple of advanced features included, like simulated surround sound when the media isn’t encoded with surround sound, seat position compensation, etc.

For watching DVDs with cool sounds such as the Matrix, this system is awesome for its price. I have no complaints with it whatsoever for DVD image and sound quality. For listening to audio CD’s, the system is very good for pop music, however, if you’re into classical music and u have picky ears, you won’t be satified with the quality. But however, for $500. My classical CD’s definitely sound much better with the Harmon Kardon system in my car. =)

This system decodes ac-3, dolby digital 5.1 (center, four corners, plus a woofer), dolby pro-logic, but it has no DTS decoding. I think as of today (3/6/01) there are only a handful of DVDs that has DTS, and DTS encoded CDs won’t be out for a couple of years, so DTS decoder isn’t necessary. my has a regional encoding so it only plays DVDs in the United States, which is fine.

One thing this player lacks would be a composite video output. It’s not a big deal coz it has S-Video and the quality is really good enough, but it’d be nice to have it since one of the TVs I considered had it. I ended up buying a Sony without the composite video inputs since my players doesn’t have it.

All in all, this is an *excellent* system, I’ve had it for a little more than half a year now and it rocks. I love it! There is no way you can spend under $1000 and has a decent system with 5-DVD/CD changer, dolby digital 5.1, speakers, and radio (FM/AM).

Now there are a few more choices for all-in-1 HT systems in the same price range, like the SC-PM08, I think this is the same as the HT80 but with no DVD/CD changer. The Pioneer HTZ-55DV seems pretty nice and looks kindda cool, I haven’t had a chance to look into these so I have no idea how they would compare, but check them out too if you’re considering investing on a compact HT system.

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