Panasonic SCHT820V Home Theater System with Progressive Scan DVD / VCR Combo

Rating:
Summary: Consumer Reports, right on the money
Review: Consumer Reports rated this a best buy. I picked up my system today. Took more time to unpack the system and pull out the old equipment than to setup the new system. Total cake walk. If people only new how easy it was to setup a system like this, everyone would have a 5.1 system in their house. Not sure what everyone is talking about complicated. It's very remote driven, but it has DVD, VCR, FM/AM, so what I expected.

Rating:
Summary: Stay away from Panasonic!
Review: Customer Service - the Panasonic website claims this is very important to them. I had my home theater only 3-4 months when a VCR tape got stuck. I has now been at the service center for almost 4 months! When I am lucky enough to get a response from Panasonic (which is rare), they make promises of completion and/or replacement. But promises won't play the DVD's my family would have liked to watch together over the holidays. When we finally got through to the customer service center on the phone, they had the nerve to hand up on us twice. IF YOU WANT A COMPANY TO STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCTS - STAY AWAY FROM PANASONIC!!! I have truly given up hope of even getting my home theater back from the Panasonic service center.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent Combo System But A Little Complicated To Operate
Review: I like DVD/VCR combos for simplicity (one less remote to worry about) and wanted an upgrade w/decent sound quality. The Panasonic SCHT820V certainly delivers impressive sound quality! Physical setup was easy, the only snag being the discovery that you *must* use the included video cable to connect the main unit to your TV as the antenna/CATV cable hookup (unlike other systems) only passes your antenna/cable signals to your TV, *not* the DVD/VHS signals. Included speaker wires were refreshingly long (33' for the 2 L/R SS speakers). Picture quality is excellent on a std 36" TV (especially w/the S-video hookup I use) and individual speaker delay/volume is adjustable for personal preference. Lots of features listed in the specs so no need to rehash them here but the 5 CD/DVD changer is nice allowing you to store a couple of music CDs in the system while still loading/watching DVDs as you want. My only complaint is that the remote is a little complicated/cumbersome to use (the manual answers all questions). I would have given this system 4.5 stars because of this but to be honest this is nothing that a little practice won't take care of. I'd buy this system again.

Rating:
Summary: excellent but complicated
Review: i praise panasonic for making a 5 disc dvd home theater with a vcr included, but the operation is hard. in order to listen to just a regular tv signal you have to route the sound through the vcr. there should be a tv in mode to listen directly to the television, but there is not. otherwise sound is great and dvd playback is awesome, and having the speaker outputs on the back of the sub is actually really nice.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I'll start by saying I don't claim to be an "audiophile", but I know when something is crap. This isn't. I've had this system for about five weeks now and love it. It will play every DVD and MP3 CD disk I have (over 200). I enjoy the sound quality and am quite happy with everything I've seen and heard. I did get some 16-gauge and used it instead of the included speaker wire, however. I've owned three other DVDs and this is by far the best I've had. I am not wild about the heavy bass, but realize that's what a lot of people go for, so I won't knock it for that.

Rating:
Summary: Great product for the price
Review: One previous review mentioned that this unit would not have 5.1 sound if connected to a cable box with the 2-channel audio (red/white) cables. This is not true, 5.1 sound is encoded on only two channels. You will get 5.1 sound from a cable box if the program is encoded in 5.1. Another nice feature is that with the Dolby Pro Logic II, you get decent simulated 5.1 sound even with normal stereo programs.

This system is unbeatable for the money. I paid $400 after rebate from Costco, and the system included speaker stands. For the money, you get a 5-disk DVD/CD changer, a VCR, an AM/FM tuner, a surround sound amplifier and 5 speakers and a subwoofer. I am very pleased with this unit and would buy it again. Adding surround sound really make movies come alive.

There are a few things that could be better about this system. First, the remote is horrid. It will do everything, but it is very difficult to use. You will need to read the manual. For some strange reason, the volume adjustment only appears on -screen when playing DVDs, not when playing tapes or watching TV. The channel number does not appear on screen until about 2 seconds after the channel is changed. There is a front panel display of channel number, but the slow on-screen display is quite annoying. The clock is supposed to set automatically, but mine would not. The clock was not difficult to set manually. The DVD sends output to the composite output, S-video, and component video. However, the VCR only sends output on the composite output so you will need both composite and S-Video connections to your TV if ou want to take advantage of the S-Video. It would be nice if the VCR would also output on the S-Video connector, this would simplify connection to the TV. I wish there was a way to use the built-in TV speakers as either a center channel or front right/left speakers. This should be easy and cheap to add, but I have not yet found a unit that supports it. One last little gripe, the power ratings of this system are totally bogus. There is no way that the speakers could handle their rate power , and I seriously doubt the unit can actually put out 550W of audio power. The drive level is ample for home use, but the ratings are crazy. All manufacturers seem to be doing this these days.

Rating:
Summary: SC-HT822V system
Review: This is a great system, but I got mine from Costco and this version SC-HT822V have all features of SC-HT820 + 4 nice speaker stands included in a package.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent system for small home
Review: We have this system paired with a 30 inch LCD TV in our small cottage. We use it for DVDs, VHS videos for the kid and for jazz/classical CDs. We especially wanted a progressive scan DVD player with a 5 disk changer AND a VCR. We were delighted to find this because most of the other systems we saw had only a single disk DVD with a VCR, or a 5 disk changer with no VCR. The tradeoff from the 720 model is less wattage on the speakers in return for the VHS deck. (The 920 has even more wattage.)

I'm still playing with all of the bells and whistles, but everything has delivered superb performance so far. Setup was fast and very intuitive, taking maybe 15 minutes at the most. DVD picture between the progressive scan and the LCD TV is amazing. We keep seeing things in movies that we never knew were there. VHS is fine, not outstanding, but crisp and clear for the tape quality. Where I'm really blown away is the sound. The 5.1 Dolby surround sound is lovely - crisp, clear, good balance and no distortion. The sub vibrates my floors even on low volume. The jazz preset configuration seems quite adequate. I'm still playing, but I may leave it on the preset.

In a very large room, or if you like to give 'shake the house down' parties, you may want more power than the 500 watts this system claims. A few reviews say that 'true audiophiles' might not be pleased either, but until I actually hear the difference, this audiophile is quite happy. Consumer Reports ranked it highly, and I agree. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 only because I would like to have rich bass (eg. cello, string bass) on CD tracks without the vibration effect and I haven't been able to make it do that yet.

Rating:
Summary: Convenient, but...
Review: Well, I'd like to warn everyone about a serious (in my view) shortcoming of this system, which to me came as a big surprise. I am not a tech junkie, so I did my research in mainstream media - Consumer Report, Amazon etc...and I haven't seen this emphasized anywhere - there is no Optical / Coaxial Audio Input! Well, I didn't know what it means, but now I do - you have to connect your cable box to the system via regular Red/White cable. Thus, if you have a digital cable where many TV programs (movies, football, etc...) come in 5.1, you can't get the full 5.1 out of home theatre. Only when you watch DVDs or listen to Cds.

Now, I am NOT a TECH PERSON, and I love several things about the system - very easy to set up, one unit does DVD and VCR, etc... It plays DVDs great, both video and sound. Yet, unless someone can explain to me how to overcome the above mentioned shortcoming, I am planning on going through the hustle of packing everything back and returning the item.

Another warning - customer service wasn't very helpful, in responding to question on setting up the system.

Best of luck!