Panasonic SC-BT200 Home Entertainment Review

The Panasonic SC-BT200 is a 7.1 home theater system with a built in Blu-ray player that has superb sound quality for an HTIB. Excellent image quality from Blue-rays and DVD's comes coupled with this state of the art home theater system. The Panasonic SC-B200 also comes with an iPod dock built into an AV receiver combined with YouTube streaming and Amazon Video On-Demand. There are no video input slots on the Panasonic SC-BT200 which is somewhat disappointing. This home theater system also has no Wi-Fi connection and no access to Netflix or Pandora streaming. The bottom line is that the Panasonic SC-BT200 is a solid 7.1 home theater system with solid sound quality for its price, but it doesn't have Netflix or Pandora streaming like some of its competitors.

Design
Most of the Blu-ray HTIB's that are currently on the market stick to a 5.1 theater configuration. However, the SC-BT200 has a full 7.1 system which is somewhat surprising considering its low price. The Panasonic SC-BT 200 comes with six identical speakers. The speakers are slightly larger than a Gatorade bottle measuring 5 inches high, 3.2 inches deep 3.63 inches wide, and have a 2.4 inch bamboo cone cover.

Setup
Setting up the Panasonic SC-BT200 entertainment system certainly isn't the easiest task in the world. Plugging in the microphone was extremely complicated because of the cables short length; it measures 9.5 feet long which his less than half the normal length. You can begin the SC-BT200's auto set up by pressing the "Smart Setup" button located on the top of the Blu-ray player's front panel. The entire process takes only a few minutes, but you might have to adjust the speaker volumes after the initial set up.

Features
The Panasonic SC-BT200 has a Blu-Ray player built in and has similar functionality to Panasonic's entry-level stand alone player, the DMP-BG60K. Panasonics primary Internet content portalis called Vieracast and offers weather streaming, Bloomberg stock quotes, Amazon Video On-Demand, and YouTube streaming. Unfortunately, the Panasonic SC-BT200 does not have a Wi-Fi connection so you will be forced to use an Ethernet cable to access this content. The Panasonic SC-BT200 contains two optical digital audio inputs as well as one analog stereo input. You can choose between the different inputs by pressing the "EXT-IN" buttons which allow you to connect up to three different components.

Audio Performance
Considering the small size of the Panasonic SC-BT 200's speakers, the sound quality is fairly impressive. Panasonic's subwoofer seems to be the biggest difference maker when it comes to the system's sound quality. Listening to CD's through Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound or stereo sound provides just as high a quality.

The Panasonic SC-BT200 will cost you about $500 which is a fairly reasonable price considering the sound quality that it provides listeners with. It seems that the Panasonic SC-BT200 can be purchased for $500 online, but costs $600 from retail stores like Best Buy. If you're considering purchasing the Panasonic SC-BT200 then you should strongly consider purchasing it online.