Panasonic SC-PT750 Deluxe 5 DVD Home Theater System
See it at Amazon.com for $252.00Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(3 out of 5)Good for all in one sound system, but beware of limitations.
I bought this system hoping to streamline what small living space I had, and get rid of big, bulky speakers and other audio/video components. I was quite pleased with the sound this system produced. However, as I was considering upgrading to an HD DVD player, I quickly realized the pitfalls and limitations of this unit.
First, although this systems has wireless rear speakers, the sound they produce is not as strong as the front speakers. Also, the speaker wire it comes with limits how far apart they can be, and if you need more distance than the wire allots, then you have to splice the speaker wire it comes with yourself to increase the length since you cannot simply replace the wire provided with longer wire. Panasonic likes to make things proprietary. On that note, if any component gives out on this system, like the receiver for the rear wireless signal, or the DVD player, or the receiver itself, then you're stuck with a useless system and replacing pieces here and there is not as simple as if you had separate components to begin with.
Second, if you want to upgrade later, such as a high end DVD player, there is no optical audio connection in the back of the receiver, so you will not be able to get DTS or Dolby Surround sound when you watch movies using a different DVD player. When I looked into this more, it turns out that when you have wireless speakers, you already loose the true surround sound by not having a physical wire connection from the main receiver to the rear speakers. That's why they didn't bother to put in an optical audio input. I didn't realize that when I bought it. If you don't plan to upgrade, then you're fine. But why spend hundreds of dollars on a unit that already limits you to expanding in the future. You should use the money towards buying a true theater sound system.
As for the upconverting DVD player, I never thought the picture was as good as my old Panasonic upconverting DVD player. I played around with all the different video settings, and I was never satisfied. So I ended up using my old DVD player in the end.
Given that there is a movement towards HD television and HD DVD, I wouldn't recommend buying this system. Save your money, and use it to buy a real receiver and speakers. I think it is fine as a starter for young kids or for a dorm room, but not if you are the least bit of an audio or videophile.
In the end, I wound up returning the system and buying "real" speakers so to speak, using my bulky, yet perfectly fine Denon receiver. I am much happier now.
(4 out of 5)Great System
I like this system, the quality is great and I had no problem with any cables. Movies show really clear. There are 2 negatives. The system does not have the capability to CD shuffle. I like to put 5 CD's and have it shuffle all 5. The unit only selects random! And Second - in order to hear a movie well in its surround capacity, you have to raise the volume to atleast 30.
(2 out of 5)Kills my wi-fi connection
I bought this system in October over the 950 and 1050 systems because the other systems didn't have bookshelf speakers. I don't know if those systems are any better, but I'm definately not happy with the 750. The only problem setting up the system was adjusting the speakers. In addition to the test sounds that the system generates, I used DVD Video Essentials to adjust my speakers. It took me forever to figure out how to adjust the left/right front speaker levels. Even though the front and rear speakers sound balanced using both the test sounds and DVD Video Essentials, the rear speakers are barely audible. The "dialog enhancer" for the center speaker doesn't seem to do much either.
One unusual problem I've encountered is that my laptop's wi-fi won't connect with my wireless router when the home theater system is on. For some reason it can't detect my wireless router with the home theater running.
Recently, another problem has developed with some DVDs where the system shuts itself off after playing for less than a minute. This happened most recently with the movie "Apocalypto." Eventually it started running fine.
One thing I hate about all the remotes that these home theaters come with is that they aren't illuminated. Good luck finding the menu or pause buttons in the dark while the movie is running. It's easy to find the "play" button in the dark by touch, but the fast forward and volume controls are too close to other buttons like the "source selecter" that will put you in auxillary/ipod mode. You'll have to switch back to dvd and start the movie all over from the beginning.
(1 out of 5)HDMI? Not the ones I tried.
I'm sorry to report I've brought two of these home in the last week, and in both cases the main unit won't recognize my existing standard HDMI cables. Both cables work fine with all other components I've tried. Panasonic tech support, after running me through setup and reset processes, says maybe laying out an extra $50 for their own HDMI cable would help, but a Circuit City guy tells me this is nonsense - cables is cables. Either way it's disappointing that a reputable company like Panasonic would market this as HDMI-capable without telling you the limits on the claimed capability.
(4 out of 5)Fantastic product for the money
Works well, wireless is awesome, no problems with interference with other electronics. The wireless system will change frequencies if another device is using the same frequency, and with minimal interruption. For the price you can't find a better home theater. It is currently upscaling to 1080 on my projection tv which doesn't look too good, you need to use analog cables, not component, to automatically stop it from upscaling. My new lcd will take care of this problem when it arrives. It sounds good all the way to max volume, it isn't the loudest system out there, but I can hear it clearly everywhere in my house and well into my backyard with the door closed at max volume. It has Dolby and four preset equalizer settings which is fine for this price. Bonus: it has a full Ipod dock for charging and playing, and everything is shiny black color. Forget Sony, that wireless uses a red beam that has to point at the transmitter. Either get Onkyo if you have money or this if you don't need 120 decibels.