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.
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.
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.
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.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent performance, competitive price
Review: We bought this receiver to update our Sony analog pro-logic receiver that was still performing well (within its capability) after nine hard years in our theatre system. The Panasonic SA-HE100 performance is excellent, as expected. The digital features result in improved realism especially in DVD mode. There are, however, some features absent from this unit and included on the Sony, that I miss. 1.) There is no sleep timer.
2.) There is limited relative volume adjustment (+/- 10db)between front speakers and the other speakers in the theatre system. This prevents use of my TV's speakers for the center channel without an additional attenuator. (Sony had+/- 30db)
3.) No provision for title of radio stations.
4.) Not possible to operate in "surround" mode with speaker "A" (theatre speakers), when speaker "B" (speakers throughout home)is operating. (Sony didn't care.) "Stereo" is the only sound field available for theatre, "A" speakers, when 'B" speakers are in use.
5.) "Operating Instructions" contains all the necessary information to install and operate the receiver in the most complex system. Interpretation is another matter. A good deal of study is required to properly utilize the capabilities of this receiver. The Sony manual was far superior.
6.) The capability of the remote control is limited.
7.) No provision for connecting my second tape player.
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