Rating: 
Summary: Good receiver, cheap remote
Review: All in all a solid receiver. As the title says, the remote is not up to what I would consider for something at this price range.
Something to keep in mind, the video output has to be the same as the video input - meaning if you use s-video to your tv/monitor, as do you have to use the same inputs from your components. This wasn't apparent from the description.
Don't lose the remote, as this is the only way to set up the surround.
Rating: 
Summary: stay clear of this product
Review: Despite what some other reviewers have said, I found this amp extremely easy to install and operate. I'm using it with a 6.1 speaker system, and the sound is wonderful. Great definition and accuracy across the frequency range, lots of 'punch'. For the price, I am very impressed with how many options there are for tailoring the sound. Being an avid LP listener, as well as CDs, I appreciate a modern amp that still has phono inputs!
Rating: 
Summary: great value for the price
Review: Despite what some other reviewers have said, I found this amp extremely easy to install and operate. I'm using it with a 6.1 speaker system, and the sound is wonderful. Great definition and accuracy across the frequency range, lots of 'punch'. For the price, I am very impressed with how many options there are for tailoring the sound. Being an avid LP listener, as well as CDs, I appreciate a modern amp that still has phono inputs!
Rating: 
Summary: Long-Term Durability?
Review: I bought mine from Circuit City almost a year and a half ago for $399, replacing a Kenwood 9G that I bought 25 years ago, which worked flawlessly, but lacked the convenience of a remote.
It seemed like a great deal, even at that price, working flawlessly until two months after the one-year warranty expired, when it began to show F70 on the display panel. The repair shop found a short and a blown fuse, costing $1.50 for the part and $55 for the labor (plus the 70 mile round trip to the nearest repair shop, twice).
Three weeks later, F70 showed up on the display again and another trip to the repair shop only to find another blown fuse, which was replaced free of charge. So far it has lasted 2 weeks without a hitch.
I figure if it keeps working this time it's still not a bad deal, but if it quits again I'm getting out the old Kenwood and this sucker is going on Ebay.
Rating:
Summary: stay clear of this product
Review: I bought this product brand new from amazon.com still in the orignal wrapping and box. Two weeks after receving this amp I had it in the shop where it is untill this very day. What really turned me against this product is when I got to the repire shop there was a receiver just like mine in there for the same problem, the surround channles blowing. Stay clear!!!
Rating:
Summary: How to use the remote control
Review: I just got my Panasonic SA HE100 Home Theater Receiver today. I was able to set it up in about a half hour. I remembered reading the complaints about the remote on/off control. I seemed to have the same problem until I figured out what was going on. The on/off for the tuner works fine but you have to be in the "Tuner/Band" mode for it to operate on the Tuner a.k.a. Home Theater Receiver. If any of the other modes....
TV, DVD, CD, Tape etc are selected you can only turn off or on that item. If you are pointing the remote at the Tuner and it happens to be in the TV mode you can not turn off the Tuner.I will write a more complete review in the future after I get to use my system for awhile.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good unit
Review: I just wanted to quickly say that I had the same problem with the on/off button on the remote. After unplugging the unit and plugging it back in, I went through each remote setting and hit the power button...nothing happened with TV, VCR, DVD, and Audio....however, when I hit the "Tuner/Band" setting, the on/off function began to work from the remote. I don't know why it does that, but at least it now works (I did this a few times to verify that it was the Tuner/Band button that seemed to fix things).....so, hopefully the other reviewer with the problem will read this and maybe fix their remote.
In regard to the receiver, the sound is great...like others stated, it would be nice if it had more SFC settings ("stadium" sound setting for example)....also, you cannot switch from digital to analog using the remote....besides that, it's great for the price and is able to go as loud as I have needed....I actually bought this one because my old one would always have an overload...no more overloads with the SA-HE100 so far. After buying this, I upgraded my speaker system and I am a very happy man. Now I need to save for that new 51" TV....LOL.
Rating:
Summary: Great mix of features and price
Review: I purchased this item based on it being top rated by Consumer Reports magazine. I have been very pleased with the ease in which it could be set up, and the thought that went into its design. The controls are easy to use and the sound is fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks good bass
Review: I recently purchased Panasonic receiver model SA HE100K mainly because it was top rated by Consumer Reports and listed as a BestBuy. I am using it strictly for audio (tapes, CDs, vinyl). I was disappointed in its lack of bass reserve even with the bass control turned all the way up. My very old cheap Technics receiver, which I thought I was going to improve upon, actually produces a richer sound with more bass. I was told by Panasonic that these receivers are now made mainly for home theatre systems and possibly the regular stero sound is sacrificed because of this. Too bad Consumer Reports didn't make any mention of this. The problem was solved by buying an equalizer, which really does improve the fullness of the sound, but resulted in making the operation of the controls somewhat more confusing. I feel I should have gotten the sound I was expecting with such a top rated product without having to make this additional investment.
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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