1 comments about Panasonic SC-PTX5 2.1-Channel DVD Theater System.

1. This system has never worked right. I should have returned it immediately. It intermittently locks up on boot up and shut down. I've never been able to sync it to mt Panasonic plasma TV. I even had an installer try it. When I select the DVD/CD function, it locks up most of the time. The only resolution is to disconnect the AC power cord to reboot. I have until Sept. on the warranty so I'm going to try once to get it fixed, if I can find the receipt. Then I'll probably buy another system - no more Panasonic though.

5 comments about Motorola DCP501 All-In-One Home Theater Receiver.

1. I am very pleased with this product. I like the fact that it is an all in one system (including CATV tuner). My only negative is that the unit is very large (long in length). I use it to drive an infocus IN72 projector using s-video and surround sound speakers.



2. I had a Motorola unit which no longer worked. After shopping around for another unit in stores I realized I should try to replace the unit I had since it has everything I wanted including the DVD player. I was extremely pleased to find one for sale at a great price delivered to my door!



3. I Purchase this product a month ago and I'am so happy with it, Best ad vise is to get good speakers. If possible planing on getting a speaker package that's include subwoofer. Sourround sound is excellent, the only thing is that I had to pretty much bug the Comcast people/ The Cable Company to activated it, and it now work great with my digital cable package, save me a $4.50 monthly on leasing cable box.



4. Not a happy camper. I bought 2 dcp 501 for my house. 6 mts later i am down to 1. The unit about every 3 days has to have the digital activation sent to it to watch channels again. I was lookign for a replacemtn but after reading teh reviews i am looking for anotehr product.
   I am an EX Motorola tech and i am not a bit happy. Cant win them all



5. I bought the Dcp 501 on E bay Brand New for $104.00 sent to me.I love the system.Once you sit down and get the settings right it sounds great!!I highly recomend this reciever.You wont go wrong.I use the tunner on my DVD player although the tunner on the Dcp 501 worked.It didnt respond as quickly when changing the channels as the tunner on my DVD player.Other then that its a nice unit!1

No comments about Panasonic SCHT40 - 500 Watts CD/DVD Home Theater System.

5 comments about Magnavox MRD500VR DVD/VCR Home Theater System.

1. mine too was broken out of the box. it doesn't matter who makes them Magnavox puts their name on it, People trust that name, they need to do the right thing.



2. Got this at Christmas 2003. After about 4-5 months the audio on the DVD player worked only intermittently. That problem seemed to spontaneously correct itself, but now the DVD freezes up completely after about 1.25 hrs. of play. The remote doesn't have a mute button. The sound from the speakers is good, but the problems with the DVD player are unacceptable.



3. I bought this product from Target a little over a year ago. We use the DVD player maybe once to twice a month at most. About 2 months ago (just after the warranty expired - imagine that), the DVD player would start freezing and locking up after a certain period of time. Maybe 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours. Very disappointed with this. I read something about this being a program issue or something in this machine. Otherwise, it works great, too bad I bought it for the DVD player. I think magnavox should be held responsible in some way.



4. This is the worst piece of equipment I believe I have ever purchased. I had it maybe 8 months and it began to freeze. At 9 months the VCR went out. Now nothing works I would stay away from this product, I think Magnavox will put their name on anything.



5. I don't write many reviews but had to agree with everyone else here - our DVD player broke. This was a gift, unfortunately it's sitting gathering dust in the basement now.

3 comments about Philips MCD735 5.1 Channel Micro DVD Home Theater System.

1. It may look good, but this system is a waste of money. I've had 2 of these systems and had problems with both. The first system lasted 6 weeks before the dvd player started malfunctioning. I exchanged it for a replancement. Alas, the second system lasted 7 months before it started making an amazingly loud grinding noise in the base unit (NOT the dvd player). Unfortunately my only recourse now is to send it back to Philips who 1)won't pay the shipping 2)can not guaratee that I will get a new product in return 3) will not extend the warranty on the 3rd replacement unit. Purchase at your own risk.



2. Unlike the prior reviewer, I've not had any equipment failure here. The unit was purchased at discount from Target for $100, and I have far more than $100 of value out of it. The speakers sound fine. Not fantastic like my Bose speakers from the hifi, but they also weren't $300 each -- so one's expectations needs to match the production cost.
   
   The surround feature works well. I've never had a 'home theater' system before, nor ever heard the soundtrack from one of our DVD films from anything other than our 27" set's built-in speakers. That took a little getting used to (kind of like going from a clock radio to a decent stereo for the first time).
   
   This unit was purchased because we were looking for a system that wasn't large, and didn't look like a silly spaceship or macho pickup truck grill. The smaller speakers have a pleasing wood finish, and are about 5 inch to a side cubes. The larger subwoofer is much larger and needs space to be plunked down. I don't think we have that in the ideal spot, but it works. The 'center' speaker is just on top of the TV shelf -- and as one can see from the picture, it is the volume of two of the cubes. All speakers come with attached wiring that is color-coded. I understand why the engineers do this -- saves a little on the cost and forces the user to not use incompatible speakers to match the impedance, but I wish they wouldn't. Leave it up to me to match speakers properly. However, with the color-coded ends, each speaker wire is unique and there is NO way to make a rookie mistake for channels, etc. Unfortunately, one has to drill a larger hole if you want to fish the rear speakers into an attic or crawlspace to run them unseen. The subwoofer has a separate wiring harness, so that's easy enough with color-coded red/black leads.
   
   The central unit itself is two pieces -- an amp and a tuner/disc player. The visual is very appealing. Glass and chrome, but so small that it isn't an eyesore. There is an annoying blue led light in the disc bay -- would have been smarter to have it shine from the front to the back so it doesn't shine in the user's eye when changing discs. When a disc is in place, it isn't annoying at all. There are connections for sending signals to A/V component TVs (like ours -- the older style with a cable that has the Right-Red, Left-White, and video-Yellow RCA jacks), or composite (Red/GreenBlue Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr RCA style jacks with red/white stereo RCA audio in back from the tv) There's an RCA coax port. No hdmi jack, but we don't have a digital tv so that's of no matter.
   
   I don't care for the mechanical door to the disc spindle. That has to be opened and closed from a button adjacent to it -- and it doesn't seal completely, so eventually there could be an unnecessary dust issue -- maybe I'm too concerned. I would have been happier with a slot-load drive like the Mac Mini uses. But it works, and one has to physically snap a disc on to the spindle so there is no mistaking if a disc is in place.
   
   The front controls are limited to basic functions whereas the remote has all of the controls and management. Am and FM radio is ok. A better FM antenna is needed, and the one provided isn't split to do the best job of picking up stations. But it works OK with plenty of preset options. Using the disc drive to play CDs is also pretty straight forward. The sound reproduction is fine. Not audiophile by any means, but better than our older Sony that this replaced. Some of Sony's workmanship seems to have drifted down to lowest-common-denominator with parts failing only after a few years. At least at the consumer level... kind of a like cheap Dell computers these days.
   
   I give this four stars -- the sound isn't perfect, and the disc tray could have been less 'show-off-y' with the glass lid device replaced with a nice simple slot-load. But the overall layout and lighting of the display isn't distracting, the unit does what it is designed to do, and it allows for an aux input (the audio in mentioned above) where I can attach an airport express and use my iTunes to be a CD juke box or one of those CD carousels. Overall, this is a no-brainer for purchase and setup if you want a better sound than the anemic built-in speakers of many TVs (like ours). We aren't slaves to television, but when we watch, it can be fun to enjoy the film with better sound.
   
   Overall, we've had no problems with the unit. And, it plays our DVD-DL backups of our discs. Our household has small peanut-butter hands that hold and sit on movie discs, so creating DVD-DL backups of the movies we buy, we can keep the masters in a safe place and still have the kids handle and choose what they want. Peanut butter cleans up off of the glass of the unit pretty well, too.



3. My mom bought this system for their TV upstairs without consulting me, the audiophile. I had bought a previous HT setup from Onkyo a few years back for our projector.
   
   When my mom brought the setup in, I had low expectations from the small speakers and low feature offering. Now that I've actually hooked the sucker up and have been using it for quite some time (few months), I've come to appreciate it. The speakers are small but powerful, cranking up the tunes on FM to very loud they still sound clear. I haven't had a chance to properly relocate the rear speakers to be in back of me, but the front speakers give a proper surround sound.
   
   Feature-wise, it offers what the average consumer would be fine with. It has component (progressive)/s-video/composite output with a coax digital output for a multi-channel receiver. One big thing to note is that it doesn't have a digital input, only L/R which means that no matter what you do, you won't get true surround sound from DVDs or your cable box. Sure, it can emulate surround sound, it provides some Dolby Pro Logic II features including Panorama mode which can simulate 3D space, but it sill won't be real.
   
   I recommended this product if you want a better set up than your existing TV's speakers, are looking for something low cost, and just want to enjoy your movies with better sound.
   
   I would not recommend this if you're an audiophile, want true 5.1 multichannel, or want a built-in DVD player.
   
   PROS:
   * Low price
   * Average feature set
   * Good DVD playback
   * Good quality sound
   * Small and elegant
   
   CONS:
   * Severely limited input capability
   * No digital sound (DTS, DD EX, etc.)

5 comments about Panasonic SC-HT720 CD/DVD Home Theater System.

1. This system has several design flaws. One is the remote control design - intermittent at best. Another is the tray design. It misaligns itself, and scrapes up the disks inside. Do not buy this product. Panasonic needs to go back to the drawing board on this one. This really should have 0 stars, but that was not an option. A waste of time here.



2. This piece of junk failed within the first week. I sent it to a Panasonic Repair Center and after 3 weeks they couldn't repair it and now I have to sent it to the East Coast. I spent $300 for a product that not even the PANASONIC repair center can repair!!! Their warranty is worth absolutely nothing!!!
   
   STAY AWAY FROM PANASONIC! THIS PRODUCT IS ABSOLUTE JUNK. IT IS SO BAD THAT PANASONIC REPAIR CENTERS CANNOT REPAIR IT!!!!



3. My husband and I bought this system as our first try at a Home Theatre System. I'm not particular about speaker size or volume capabilities, unlike my husband. Needless to say, 800W of power for under $300 appealed to both of us. We bought this system in May '04. It worked great...for a few months. Then it stopped playing our DVD-Rs and DVDs. We brought it to the local repair shop and it took over two weeks for Panasonic to "diagnose" the problem and replace the laser/tray. Mind you, we had tried the online troubleshooting method--completely worthless. And, we called customer support--completely worthless. Unfortunately, here we are about 6 months after replacing the tray, and its not playing our DVDs again. I'm fed up. My 10 month old is frustrated becuase Mommy can't let him watch Baby Einstein and my husband is about to smash this crap system into a million pieces. So, long story short--don't waste your time with this system, spend the extra money and get a quality system from Sony or JVC...that's what I'm going to do.



4. I bought a HT700 two years ago and initially I liked it, played great. After 2 years it stoped playing all music CDs. Both mp3 and original audio CDs. Couple of months after that, it stopped playing 50% of blockbuster DVDs. I have a 5 year old $75 samsung player, that still plays great all kind of stuff. I don't think it's just the problem with this one panasonic system. It's all of Panasonic. It's just a piece of low quality stuff. They are just trying to sell to american market this piece of junk. Never buy any panasonic anymore unless you want keep buying every two years!!.
   
   - A disappointed customer



5. I agree with all the reviewers below. This equipment looks great on paper. You seem to get great features for the money. But just like other people, the system we bought showed problems playing some DVDs ~8months after opening the box. It would play only some DVDs and music CDs. And after a year, it doesn't play anything at all.
   
   The sound is not that great as they tell you either. Ok, if you stand at a specific distance from your speakers, and you place them so that they ALL face you... Then you hear ok. But just move a few centimeters from this blessed spot and it doesn't sound better than my laptop speakers. And you can't understand dialogues unless you push the volume to the point that all my neighbors can tell I am watching a movie.
   
   Don't waste your money and time with this piece of crap.

No comments about Panasonic SC-PT953 1100 watt Home Theater System with 5-DVD Changer 2 Tower Speakers, Wireless Rear Speaker.

No comments about HT-A4SD.

No comments about Debranded Toshiba 5 Disc DVD Changer 5.1 Home Theater System.

No comments about Bose Lifestyle (R) 35 Series IV DVD White Home Entertainment System.