Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic SC-HT900 Home Theater System with 5-Disc DVD Changer

Very attractive system with many features. Progressive scan DVD player looks great on my projector, thanks to the high end video circuitry in the 5 Disc DVD changer. Sound is very clear and accurately reproduced though the six speakers. Movie dialogue comes through very naturally. Does a fine job at decoding Dolby Surround. Movie "bass" effects are clear and pronounced through the active subwoofer. I've tested this system in store next to an expensive Bose and the quality is more or less comparable.

It is a known fact Panasonic DVD players are among the best in the business. Many more expensive DVD players(costing considerably more than this system) made by other brands use Panasonic internals for their players.

All DVD players must contain an MPEG decoder. In addition, progressive scan DVDs must contain a special device called a deinterlacer. Interlaced video frames are sent to a television in two pieces, by first drawing all of the odd lines, then the even ones. The deinterlacer essentially doubles each frame of video(producing a very defined picture) by filling in missing information. That is the true meaning of "progressive scan." This is the basis for HDTV, and be aware that your (Projector,TV,LCD) must be able to display HDTV or progressive to take advantage of this great feature. As with any other product, deinterlacers vary in quality and must be able to handle various film encodings. Panasonic uses top notch internal hardware to perform the deinterlacing(DCDi) and decoding. The results are spectacular!

Don't expect the bass to blow your ears out - no system at or near this pricepoint will. The subwoofer is powered but yet conservative (but more than other systems in its class). Don't buy this unit to play at maximum volume. System can be cranked up to loud but not extreme voulme. Sound will be more than enough for rooms <250 sq ft. I would say the same thing about the expensive Bose. The true measure of a system is not how it plays at maximum voulme, but rather the accuracy and clarity of the sound.

This unit also makes a great system for listening to FM Radio, CD/R etc. Unit supports many types of Discs. Music seems rich and pleasing, in some cases exceeding much more expensive units.

The speaker stands will save you the cost of buying wall mounts. This system has a plethora of features that are stated in the manual. For example, there are multiple surround modes, seating placement adjustments and digital input capability. Unfortunately the owners manual is written like an engineering course lab manual - so it may take the non- technical some time to learn all of the arcane features. Also, you should purchase at least a 16 gauge spool of speaker wire - do not use the doorbell wire that is supplied with the unit.

Overall I will give this unit 5 stars, because it is priced very well with respect to its competition (Sony Dream system 990) and it exceeds that and other products in its class in terms of quality and features. On the other hand, if you desire a very loud, extreme bass systems - don't consider a home theatre in a box. Purchase a component receiver/amp with large poweful speakers. And of course, a Panasonic progressive DVD player for the best video!

The good news: attractive product, reasonably good sound and features. Please see many of the other reviews for more detail.

The bad: I had owned the system for several months when I started experiencing 'popping' sound through the speakers. And when I say 'popping', I mean truly heart-attack causing, like a lightning strike-very disconcerting.

Being a good techie, I immediately assumed I was experiencing power surges...although my surge protector wasn't tripping.
Step Two: Check all connection. Still have the problem.
Step Three: Waste an entire Saturday completely disassembling my AV setup (dvd, tv, VCR, Satalite, XBox), check every wire and connection, completely and carefully reassemble. Same problem.
Step Four: Search internet to see if anyone else has problem.
Bingo! (Note to self: Next time search internet at Step Three, instead of wasting Saturday...)
Known problem of overheating of circuit board in subwoofer. Game over.
Neat system, but appears I now have to replace the system; from what I have read, fixing is not going to be cost effective, and no guarantees that the problem goes away.
Buyer beware; there are a lot of people who are happy with this system, but a substantial number of us have had the same issue, and I wouldn't be surprised if more folks see this happening over time.

I have just bought a Panasonic SC-HT900 to replace a rather messy collection of aging seperates. I am a major Sony fan and of course audions a few of the Sony options first but could never quite get excited about them then the Panasonic was recommended to me so I gave it a go. It beats the Sony's hands down (I am sad to say!). Now, to get this out the way, unlike many of the reviews I've read, I have so say that the Panasonic unit is pig ugly. Especially compared to some of the Sony units but then I'll live with it's rather dated and cluttered apearance for it's superb picture and sound. I dont understand how some people consider it underpowered unless they have VERY large rooms but in my 12'x20' room, the Panasonic has no trouble at all in filling the space with detail and a deep, warm, well controlled bass. I wouldn't score it highly on ease of use initially but you get use to it. The 4 floorstanding speakers are attractive and seem to do their job admirally. The inclusion of DTS was a big plus for me but I'd never compared DTS with DD5.1 before. Only 2 of my DVD have DTS but flicking between DTS and DD shows a clear difference. Add also that apart from SACD, I dont think there is a shiny disc format it wont handle.

The system was a breeze to set up and delighted me straight away. For the money, this truly is superb.

I think the build quality could be better on the main unit. It feels a little flimsy so I will be especially gentle to it.

Bottom line, despite the negative points, I am delighted that I didnt buy the Sony. It would have been a choice of fashion over function and I have a better system for choosing the Panasonic. Maybe I'll get used to the looks. Who knows. Love is blind.

And just 1 final complaint to the manufacturers about all of the systems I looked at. Why do none of them have optical out? I will have to keep my CD player just to copy stuff on to my MiniDisc walkman!

So, why 4 stars and not 5? Well, not attractive, unclear manual, feels a bit poorly built. But I'll forgive a whole lot for what it does do well. Picture and sound are just great. I was grinning for ages.

Buy now and you wont be dissapointed. Especially at the price.

Just hooked this up to my Hitachi 60" LCD/Projection TV and am very pleased. You may read reviews from "bass-heads" who are only interested in ridiculous thumping, not purity of sound, but I can tell you this system sounds fantastic. My family room is 20 X 15 and these speakers fill the room with a rich, vibrant sound rivaling that of a Bose system (costing twice as much) that I tried and returned.

The subwoofer is perfect for the system - it adds rich base without sounding like one of those "installed by a teenager" car systems you hear so much of today, and it doesn't take up the entire floor to do it. We couldn't reach full volume before the system was too loud for comfort. 12dB on the dial was enough to drown out any attempts at normal conversation. The surround sound is phenomenal (Matrix Reloaded played Progressive Scan Component Out was our baseline movie).

The manual is a bit tedious. I'm pretty technically inclined, and this was a bit of a challenge for me. The fact that the remote has a Shift-key says a lot. Plan to spend some time mastering this thing.

Bottom line: If you're looking for a chest-cavity shaking, hip hop dance club thumping system, buy discreet components. If you're looking for an attractive, affordable, incredibly clean sounding system with very high quality components, this is definitely the system for you. Easily 5 stars for this price.

First the bad news, causing me to downgrade the rating by a star: I received this system via UPS ground ship on a Thursday. After the set-up of this system with my new Sony 27FS100 TV, the main HTIB unit failed to power on. Despite troubleshooting with Panasonic techies (800-211-PANA), I reluctantly disassembled the entire home theater and e-mailed Amazon at 10PM on a Friday night. Much to my surprise, I received a reply at 11:30PM apologizing for my troubles and informing me that a replacement system was enroute via 2-day Fedex. In addition, the defective system was to be picked up at my home, at no charge. UPS picked up the system on Monday, and the replacement system arrived on Wednesday. Amazing customer service by Amazon. Lesson learned: carefully unpack and remember how a large system such as this is packed, in the event one needs to repack and return. Amazon made this unfortunate occurrence a much more pleasant experience than it could have been.

Now for the system. I bought and installed 16-gauge speaker wire for ~$13 instead of the supplied thin (18-20 gauge?) wire. The larger speaker wire will not fit inside the slots in the supplied speakers, and I widened a few of the plastic slots with a Dremel--your call if you think it worth the trouble to use heavier wire. I did not replace the speaker wire in the upper part of the speaker tower.

The only cable supplied with the HTIB system is a single video composite cable. If you have a fairly new TV, you will get best video performance by purchasing one set of component video cables for the HTIB-to-TV (spent $24 locally, but noted afterwards you can get a component cable set for ~$15 on Amazon). I also used one set (~$7) of RCA audio cables (L/R) for TV audio out to HTIB TV audio in. I also used another set ($7) of RCA audio cables for VCR audio out to HTIB VCR audio in. Finally, I used the supplied video cable between my VCR and the TV (old VCR did not have S-Video or component plugs).

Other reviewers are correct about the operator's manual (tediously written by audio engineers) and the little buttons on the remote. Take some time to walk yourself through the features. DO follow the recommendation to select 16:9 output of the HTIB during "Quick Setup," if your TV can handle the input. My Sony has selectable "enhanced 16:9."

Sound quality was excellent in my 15'X18' living room. I will have to live with the system a while to see what audio settings I prefer among the presets (Music, Movie, Panarama) and the PL II presets. There are lots of options to balance speaker outputs and adjust for "non-optimal" speaker placement (real rooms shared with spouses are not a blank sheet of paper for speaker placement!). The woofer has 4 presets--I preferred the heaviest of the settings (4). There are several different tone presets (hall, disco (?), live, clear, flat, heavy, etc.). The radio tuner is surprisingly good, with better FM reception than the Denon system I replaced. The features in the manual under DVD viewing are probably much more extensive than I will ever use--and are probably the most confusing for the rookie. Time will tell whether I will ever use them.

Despite the false start, I am pleased with Amazon's customer service, price and responsiveness. Looking forward to getting the most from this system.