Panasonic SC-BT100

The Panasonic SC-BT100 is tooled up and ready to take on the rest of the Blu-ray home cinema world. With 1,000W of power behind it, can it provide the sonic and audio performance that we’ve come to expect from such systems? Or will it fall down on its Hi-Def-toting rear? Let’s find out…


Pros
Like JVC’s NX-BD3, this Panasonic home cinema system is compact, with a small subwoofer and only three satellite speakers making it ideally suited to smaller living rooms. The Blu-ray picture quality is stunningly sharp – as sharp as that razor Paul Sorvino uses in Goodfellas to slice ridiculously thin slithers of garlic – and surround sound works fairly well despite the non-5.1 setup. If you like, you can actually buy wireless rear speakers to up the channel count to 5.1 or even 7.1. That should leave you feeling like your surrounded by sirens, gun fire and screaming babies. Especially if you live in Lewisham.

Cons
Sadly the wireless speakers didn’t work particularly well when we tested them, exhibiting more hiss than a snake-charmer convention, to go with the rest of the sound they chucked out. We also found the subwoofer was more overeager than a Blue Peter presenter, with bass often sounding flabby and uncontrolled.

Verdict
While it might have one or two audio issues, and looks-wise it’s more Croydon side walk than Milan catwalk, the SC-BT100 is a high quality all-in-one that gives you an instant High-Definition home cinema. Just plug it into your HDTV and you’ve got razor-sharp Blu-ray pictures that are so good-looking you’ll feel like Paul Scholes standing next to them. You also get decent surround sound and a gaggle of useful extras like an integrated iPod docking station and an SD card slot capable of playing footage from AVCHD-compatible camcorders. A top effort, then.

Picture quality

Sound

Style

Features

Value

Overall

Like this Blu-ray player? Get chatting about the Panasonic SC-BT100 on the PriceRunner forums.

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