Rating: 
Summary: Great Product!
Review: I want to share my one month experience with this receiver. I got it for 380$ in Romania (yes the taxes are huge in Europe). First of all, the European version is slightly different. There are no component video connectors on the back, just svideo and composite. There is no subwoofer button (the sub can be configured via remote though); instead it is used for the help function. And the help button is used for RDS (Radio Data System). Maybe RDS is a European only facility.
The good news is that the SA-HE100 is for sure Dolby Digital EX compatible. It is mentioned in many places on the web, in the manual and I also found it on the Panasonic website. This is what I found on the web: "Please be advised that Panasonic SA-HE100 also has Dolby Digital EX. Up until February 2002 the only way a company could advertise Dolby Digital EX was if the receiver was THX certified. After that time the condition was lifted and now manufactures can promote this feature without THX certification. Unfortunately lifting the THX certification requirement so late in the production development of the SA-HE100 did not allow Panasonic the necessary time to change the programming code for the microprocessor, the silk screening of the unit, the manuals or the box.
To turn on DD EX with older 5.1 films simply depress the "Enhanced Surround" button. Newer films with Dolby Digital EX logo include a "flag" that will automatically turn on the DD EX decoder in the SA-HE200 Receiver.
With the SA-HE100 this "flag" is not detected. As mentioned above, simply manually select the "Enhanced Surround" button to activate 6.1 decoding. Also please be advised that with all DD EX sound tracks, the surround back channel is in Analog. Dolby simply uses a Dolby Pro Logic chip to create the surround back information from the discrete surround channels from the 5.1 recording. The manual suggests using Enhanced Surround too for Dolby EX. And this is what I found on the Panasonic main website (resellers corner): "Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS-ES decoders with Matrix 6.1 and NEO 6.1 Enhanced Surround for a 6.1 ch. surround sound reproduction (Dolby Digital EX playable).
As I had a Technics amplifier before, I was pleased with the way the receiver sounded. Although the S/N ratio is lower, this is not a problem as there is no audible noise even at high volume. I am using a pair of Technics loudspeakers for the front channels, the SB-M500. These are excellent speakers but I noticed that the bass was not very powerful at low and normal volume. So I purchased a Panasonic SB-TP10 surround system, composed of five 40W satellites and one 100W active subwoofer. For 260$ these speakers are quite decent and the low frequency problem was immediately solved! To my surprise the LFE channel works with stereo too and gives punch to the low volume auditions. Of course the subwoofer can be adjusted or even completely shut down via remote. One neat thing is that the volume of the sub is memorized differently on each surround mode. Now concerning the various processing modes, don't imagine that stereo recordings will sound better with Prologic II or NEO:6 because they don't. Thankfully the stereo mode is gorgeous. This is really a good hi-fi amplifier with a great sound and a good power reserve. And it is DVD Audio compatible! There were some concerns about the heat generated by the amp and the fact that the players piled upon it could be affected. This is not a problem, I have the tape deck and DVD over the receiver and even at sustained high volume its surface temperature never went over 40C (104F). The receiver is great for movies too, giving a new dimension to the experience. Be advised that you will need an extra speaker for the central rear channel. If you already have large hi-fi speakers for R and L you can use one of the satellites for RC (rear center). I haven't found any DTS ES or Dolby EX DVD's, but the RC can be used even with normal 5.1 sound and it works pretty well. The tuner part is quite complete, with auto tuning and station name display. There are also PTY (program type) and RT (radio text) functions. There is a sleep timer and a wake function. As mentioned before the manual is a joke, but I had fun discovering the numerous and sometimes undocumented features. It's like they had this super versatile product and they were afraid people would be frightened by the possibilities and so they hid them! The remote is ok, working with my other Panasonic products, and though some of the features are not accessible through it (treble, balance, etc.) they are not important. I never had any trouble in 10 years with any Panasonic/Technics product and I believe they are built better than other similar brands at the same time offering many more features. It is 200$ cheaper than the Sony equivalent (STR-DB1080)!
What I don't like: lack of a second Tape or Aux input, no analog/digital input selection via remote and no enhanced surround/NEO:6 switching through the same remote. These are just some small nags that don't affect the great value of this receiver. I am pleased and will look for Panasonic products in the future too!
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Rating: 
Summary: excellent buy
Review: I was looking for a receiver so I could have Surround sound with my DVDs. There are very few low to mid level stand alone receivers (I already had a DVD player).This one is excellent. It has enough inputs that you can slowly upgrade parts one at a time (flat panel TV, DVD player, game console, CD-player, etc.). I bought 5.1 speakers, but it's possible I could upgrade to 6.1. It also has A/B speaker inputs so I can set up anouther room with music. An excellent buy. Great price too.
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Rating:
Summary: Spectacular surprise, incredible value as a receiver
Review: It seems as if everybody wants a home theatre now. There is such a thing as playing music just to hear music. That's my main use of a stereo receiver. I bought this system due to Consumer Reports' Best Buy rating. Our old receiver smoked and will cost a lot to repair. This unit seemed cheap enough to use as an emergency backup. WHAT A FANTASTIC BARGAIN! You can't GET much better than this - not even for five times the price. The radio tunes and plays with utter silence even without an antenna. The S/N ratio must be near or over 100 decibels. I live in a hilly city where losing radio signals is common too. The interface is simple and easy to use, no need for the manual. Everything works as expected; it's ergonomically correct. It has a buffet table of inputs and outputs, you can connect anything to it. It has smooth power and lots of it. I hooked up four 8-ohm speakers and it's still loafing. My only (extremely tiny) discomfort so far has to do with Amazon.com, not the unit itself. My vintage equipment needed special connectors. I ended up waiting a week for delivery of speaker wire to make cables for the new setup. It would have been nice if Amazon.com had included a reminder that maybe I should include some banana plugs and speaker wire while I was ordering the unit. It would have saved time. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of not repairing my old stuff. This really does sound just as good -- and at this price, there's an added pleasure from -- well, GLOATING actually. It does feel good to get more than you paid for.
Rating:
Summary: excellent home theater receiver
Review: Last Christmas when I was looking to get more serious on my Home Theater I decided to go for a 6.1 system with all the bells and whistles. Basically I was looking for a Yamaha receiver but when I get to the store the saleman recommends me the Panasonic SA-HE100 (silver) it was $ 100 cheaper than the Yamaha and offers more SVideo and deck connections so I decided to give it a try, I'm using a JBL SCS-135 speaker system and I added a NS-C103 center speaker to create the 6.1 effect. It works great!!! You can control the subwoofer with a LFE and create different surround effects. Although it does not have a lot of seetings for TV programming the enhanced system covers most of it and you wont notice the difference with other more expensive receivers. Also features three digital connections for dvd, cd and a tv and dvd 6channel too!. The instructions are clearly enough for setup but the enhanced configuration is a little vage, you need some trial and error before you get it set correctly. the digital input automatically recognizes any digital connection on your system.
I recommend it for entry level and intermidiate users.
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Rating:
Summary: Great unit
Review: Looking for a receiver to be the controller of your music/video center? This is it. I've given it 4 stars only because I haven't had it that long,but I suspect it does deserve 5.No complaints from me about this one.
Rating:
Summary: my friend owns this unit
Review: My friend own's this unit and I beleive he is fairly happy with it. One major complaint about this reciever is though...It does not proccess HDTV through the component video input. I feel that it is highly important for this problem to be discussed before the purches of your reciever. I own a Yamaha htr-5640 (about the same price) and it handles this task very well. Alse this Panasonic does not support DOlBY DIGITAL EX (Matrix 6.1). It does however have I believe two more digital inputs for sound. As of right now I have my HDTV cable, my dvd player and my xbox all running through my reciever and switch between them is a breeze.
Rating:
Summary: How to use the remote control
Review: Problem with the remote for this unit? That's because you didn't read the manual. This remote control unit is FANTASTIC - it goes for all you other gadgets as well! Use one unit to change channels on your TV - to run your DVD-Player etc etc. All you need to do is FIRST to press the button of the system you want to use (e.g. DVD Player) and THEN press the button of what you want this unit to do. Therefore, to turn your DVD-Player on, you need to press DVD and then "Power on". It's that simple - but you have to know it. If you only press power on, nothing will happen, as you didn't chose the source system first...
Got it? To play a movie on your DVD player, press "DVD", then "Play".
So - the Panasonic SA-HE 100 is a fantastic thing to own and the remote replaces all your other remote control units!
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Rating:
Summary: Super Happy!
Review: The only things I could find about this reciever that I didn't like were
1)The size; Around 5" in hight
2)You can not place anything on top of the reciever Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase and would urge you to also purchase this reciever if you are on a $500 and under budget. Of course you can find a better reciever for about $500, but this model was Consumer Reports "CR-Best Buy" and sold out very quickly in store nation wide.
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Rating:
Summary: An excellent value
Review: This receiver is a very good piece of equipment for the money. The controls are simple and it is easy to operate for the non-technical person. It puts out more than enough power for a normal home theatre installation. While it may lack some of the more esoteric features that expensive receivers have, these are really unnecessary for most users. I replaced an Onkyo TX-DS555 with this unit and the Panasonic is superior to the Onkyo in all respects. My old Onkyo's volume control was very touchy (from too soft to too loud with the merest touch of the remote). The Panasonic's volume increases slowly and smoothly. At only $240 from Amazon.com, it was an outstanding bargain and is a great performing receiver. This will meet the needs of almost all home users at a very reasonable price. If I had to cast about for a complaint it would be only that the manual was skimpy and was less than helpful on how to connect a non S-video equipped VCR to the receiver. A quick call to Panasonic's tech support line solved that (by reminding me of how I used to do it). Tech support picked up after a few minutes, a knowledgable young woman came on the line, and I was done in no time.
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Rating:
Summary: Does the Core Job 100%, Skimps a Few Frills
Review: This was my first purchase when putting together my home theater system, based on Consumer Reports' recommendation. I still can't believe what a value I got for the money spent. Does the job of decoding every type of DTS signal (even DTS-ES Discrete) and Dolby signals up to Dolby Digital 5.1 (however no Dolby Digital EX). One of the few receivers in any price range that is rated to power 4 Ohm speakers (albeit front only), and puts out more power than many [other]models. And of course the sound is great. This is the core of my system consisting of a 30" HDTV and 6.1 speaker setup. I will say that I am now limited on my digital inputs, having my PS2, DVD player, and laptop all giving it digital (via Toslink optical) audio; if I ever get digital cable the PS2 will have to go to RCA stereo output. Gives all the options you need for speaker setup, including filter for small speakers (100-200 Hz), individual speaker distance, and attenuation (+/- 10db). Frills missed: radio station labeling, sleep timer, 7.1 channel out, not as many "environment" sound fields (only 6) as some, and no on-screen display. I consider these inconsequential though... the only thing I can really pick on is the "universal" remote is garbage for controlling anything else. Fortunately my TV has a good universal for controlling the receiver, otherwise I'd have to buy one. There is a help function if there is a problem, I have never had to use it and can't speak to its effectiveness. It does require some time to setup, but no more than any other receiver should. The inputs and outputs are all clearly labeled on the back, and there is a composite video and RCA stereo connection in front for ease of use with a camcorder or video game system.
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