Panasonic SC-BT200 1000W 7.1 Channel Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Sound System
From the Manufacturer (June 20, 2009)In order to truly appreciate the Blu-ray Disc experience, many have to upgrade the audio portion of their system. Recognizing this, Panasonic created their Home Theater Systems. Bundling a Blu-ray Disc player, AV receiver, and speakers, the SC-BT200 makes it easy for you to step up to Blu-ray and to 7.1 channel, 1000-Watt surround sound for incredible home cinema. Easy to set up, the SC-BT200 offers a high quality picture, dynamic and clear sounds, easy operation, advanced networking and connectivity, and plenty more. Panasonic Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Systems give you everything you need to experience all the emotional impact of a movie in your own home. A complete Blu-ray home theater system. Click to enlarge. Premium Sound Quality With features like front and center Bamboo Cone Speakers, a Kelton Subwoofer, and a simple setup process, the SC-BT200 delivers 1000 Watts of 7.1 channel sound in a snap. Speakers include: Home Theater Mo
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It’s a crying shame that many people who plunk down their hard earned cash on a flat panel HDTV never bother to add a high quality sound system, or even attach a true high definition 1080i or 1080p source. Some are put off by the added expense, some by the complexity of setting it all up. Panasonic’s SC-BT200 Blu-ray Home Theater system addresses all of these issues: it’s inexpensive, easy to set up and offers full 1080p high definition Blu-ray playback with matching high definition surround sound. And I didn’t even mention the integrated iPod dock or IPTV features! (OK, I did now).
This year’s crop of Blu-ray HTiB (home theater in a box) systems from Panasonic, the SC-BT200 and its big brother the SC-BT300 have made big improvements over last year’s more basic models, while lowering the cost of admission. The SC-BT200 under review here supports BD-Live (BD-ROM Profile 2.0), and offers excellent DVD upconversion as well as sweet sweet 1080p Blu-ray playback. If you like to get your content online, the built-in VIERA Cast feature allows you to view streaming videos from YouTube or Amazon, online photo albums from Picasa, stock quotes and local weather info. Also, almost unheard of at this price point, the BT200 and BT300 include on-board decoding of all the latest “HD” surround sound codecs, including multi-channel PCM, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio.
And unlike similar systems from Samsung and others, the BT200 and BT300 come with 7.1 channels right out of the box for the most immersive surround experience. We were surprised how good these little speakers and their matching subwoofer sounded, considering how small they are. And in case set-up and calibration seems like too daunting a task, both systems come with color-coded speaker wires of varying length (10 feet for the fronts, 26 feet for the sides, 40 feet for the rears) to make it as easy as possible to connect all the speakers. and once they are all plugged in, you can use the included microphone and auto-calibration software to set all the speaker levels and delays automatically (it’s like having a geeky friend come over with his sound meter, but without having to share your beer and pizza with him as payment).
As far as connections go, this really isn’t an “A/V receiver,” in fact the unit’s receiver doesn’t have any video inputs other than the integrated iPod dock. But if you have a Wii, PS3, XBox or HD cable or satellite box you can connect the video outputs of these to your TV directly and use one of the BT200′s two analog or digital inputs for the sound. This means you can get true 5.1 or 7.1 channel surround sound from your cable, satellite or over the air HD tuners, in addition to the built in CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disc player.
If you like to carry your music and iTunes videos around with you on an iPod, you’ll love the integrated iPod dock which pops right out of the center of the BT200 or BT300′s faceplate. While you’re listening to your iTunes or watching iTunes videos on your big screen (and controlling all the action with the BT200′s remote), your iPod is replenishing its internal battery with the built-in charger. As far as iPod compatibility, the BT200 will work with pretty much any iPod other than the shuffle with its non-standard pin outs. The iPhone is not officially certified, but if you put it in “airplane” mode, it will work fine with the BT200.
The system does have some limitations: there’s only so loud and so deep you can get with a sub-$500 system, and some of the video processing (including noise reduction) is weaker than in Panasonic’s standalone Blu-ray players. But for its price, the BT200 offers an impressive mix of performance, features and convenience. Highly recommended!
BTW, if you want something with a little more power, the SC-BT300 offers slightly higher power output, and larger, more powerful speakers for the front left, right and center channels.
A complete review of the SC-BT200 is available on Big Picture Big Sound (dot com).
3.0 out of 5 stars
Okay for those whose ears are not picky!
This product has a very clean output sound. The high-frequency sound is very good but the low-frequency output is not qualified.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great picture but don’t advertise as wireless rear speakers
Panasonic, and the retailer I bought this from, advertise it as having wireless rear speakers. Good luck finding the wireless speaker kits.