Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic SC-BT100 5.1 Blu-Ray Home Theater System (Black)

UPDATED 9/9/2008 after several months of use...

I've updated my review to reflect that I'm very pleased with this unit. I originally give it a strong three stars, I'm now giving it 5 after some use. I thought the initial learning curve a little steep, but after figuring out how to run every feature I now feel like a king. The picture quality and sound have been impressive to say the least. I'm also addicted to the iPod dock.

Likes:
1. Sounds is excellent. Great quality for movies or music.
2. iPod integration is excellent.
3. Bluray picture quality is excellent.
4. Unit is very attractive. Doesn't look like a elephant in a nice living room.
5. VIERA link technology provides many conveniences for those using a Pansonic VIERA TV.

Dislikes:
1. Unit start up is very slow and takes a good minute to boot. Not like old school amps which click on in a second or two. This can be annoying when you are just booting up to eject a rental disk to return.
2. Remote and software is superior to most, but still not completely intuitive. Does take quite a few hours to learn all advanced features.
3. "Viera Link." Is powerful but still not enough to get you completely to one remote between your TV and HT.
4. Could use a second or even third HDMI for those with gaming consoles.

I think that the other reviews have done a fair job pointing out this systems pros and cons. I'd just like to add two things:

1) When using the Veira link, the TV comes on and off with the home theater system. Not a problem if you just want to watch BDs, etc. with it. But if you want to use the system to play music, then the TV stays on. There is supposed to be a way to turn the TV off w/o turning the player off, but there may be bugs with it.

2) If you use a digital optical audio connection, you can use the player's speakers when watching TV. If you have multiple HDMI or component video inputs on your TV (as most HDTVs do) , then you can use them and *still* have all the sound come from the home theater system. So you really don't need extra HDMI inputs on the player as other have complained about.

Overall, a solid 4! Great for apartment/small home living. Not what you need if you plan to set up a "movie room."

I just bought this refurbished from Good As New Electronics for half retail price. They were great to work with! The system looked brand new out of the box - I looked all over for a blemish and found none. The set up was easy. Basically, you just plug in all the speakers, the HDMI cable and toslink digital audio cable (both of which I bought on Amazon at the same time I bought this) and your AM/FM intennas and you're done! I played a DVD the first night and was amazed at how much better it looked on the Blu Ray than it did with my DVD player! Today I put in my first BD and WOW! Amazing technology! The sound is INCREDIBLE! Picture is awesome (I have it hooked to a Panasonic Viera LCD TV). I played my IPOD and my music has never sounded so good. I love that I can scroll through the music via the remote! I am totally impressed! I also took the SD card out of my camera and put it in the SD slot and viewed all my pictures from Nepal. This is the ONLY way to show off your travel pics :-) The only gripe I have (and it may just be my learning curve) is that if I want to listen to the TV with the home theater, I have to go to the box itself and cycle through about 5 option before getting to D-IN to turn on the surround sound. Learning to use all the functions on the remote is challenging, but this is fairly high tech, so I don't expect to be comfortable with all the functions for a few days. I think anyone would be impressed by the quality of this system. Highly recommended!

To start off with there are still wires with this thing. But, you don't need to run wires from the front player to the back speakers. There is a little unit that you plug your back speakers into and it receives the signal from the blu-ray player up front. I have my player next to my Television with the woofer, front speakers and center channel plugged into it. Then I have my back speakers mounted on the wall behind my couch. Those speakers are then plugged into the little receiver unit. Once you turn on your home theater the little receiver unit turns on and sends signals (sound) to the back speakers. You get true 5.1 sound with this wireless setup. You can even buy an extra unit to get 7.1 sound, but heck I don't even know if they are making any movies with 7.1 yet.

The speaker setup sounds fantastic, the bass is great and it even has a bass boost which will knock your socks off! If you live in an apartment and want to get back at your loud upstairs neighbor just buy this system and play the blu-ray version of the movie Twister at about level 45 with the bass boost on. You may end up with some plaster in your hair and the police at your door but you will truly see what this thing can do!

Not being a video or sound expert, I can only address this from the average joe user perspective. Sound is great, picture is fantastic, set up overall a breeze. I wish the wires were longer but at least I can deal with that and adapt. The "wireless" rear speakers are a bit inconvenient for my particular situation but I see as overall a positive aspect. Again, not a problem that I cannot overcome. Love connecting this to my 42" Panasonic Plasma! The old TV remote controls everything, including my magnavox HD/DVR cable box. The remote for this system is a bit overwhelming but with some patience and reading it can be dealt with also. I've only had it a few days, but already love it and can see a lot of enjoyment out of it. I've read about using a PS3 and separate sound system but my room layout would not allow for that much equipment so this all in one package works great for me.

UPDATE - Now that I have it installed and added wire to work the system into the room its in, I love it. I will agree that its a little slow starting up, but if thats my biggest problem I'm not too worried about it, I can wait the extra few seconds. Sound is very good and love the interoperability with my 42" Panasonic Viera Plasma TV.

UPDATE #2 - So far (2/9/09)the only problem I've had is that three times now the sound is uncontrollable with the remote and will either go all the way to mute or if I try to increase volume it wont stop. I have had to unplug and reset to correct. I minor inconvenience but makes me worry about the future. Of course, no different than having to do on my cable DVR box from time to time and rebooting PC. Still very happy overall with purchase.