No comments about Panasonic SCDK1 DVD Home Theater Compact Stereo System.

No comments about JVC THV70 Home Theater Mini System.

1 comments about Sony HT-1700D - Home theater system - 5.1 channel - silver.

1. The quality is good and for the price I think that the whole system has great cost benefit.

No comments about JVC MXDVA9 3 CD/DVD Home Theater Mini System.

5 comments about Panasonic SC-HT75 CD Home Theater Compact Stereo System.

1. For the first two years it worked fine. I have 3 kids under 5 and let me tell you--- it would play for hour after hour some days. However I did think it would last longer than 2 years for the price we paid. It started with skipping on new DVD's. Then the DVD door wouldn't open --it just froze. Now the DVD will not even read or even try to spin the DVD. We have done regular cleanings due to frequent usage. However it sounds like 2 years is as long as this will last. Save your money for something that will last longer.



2. I bought the first one of this product a couple of years ago because my family had good experience with Panasonic in the past. Not long after we bought it, it died. Luckly, we were able to exchange it for another at the place we originally bought it. I didn't have any more bad experiences until this past weekend when it did the same as the first system. While watching a dvd, it froze then quit reading discs - It would at first try to read the disc, but now doesn't, just immediately says "NO DISC" or "-----". It gets very hot (to the point you can't touch it for more than about 5 - 10 seconds) - I called Panasonic about this and they told me that it was normal and that the cooling fan is thermastat controlled, so not a problem but I suspect it finally just fried itself. Panasonic customer service was rude, on hold for 30 minutes before I just gave up. Tried to contact them via email but no respnse and no help or advise with the problem. So, now I have a very expensive radio taking up a lot of shelf space in my living room. Thanks Panasonic!!!!!!!!!
   Save your money, folks!!!!



3. Just as many here have written--if you get two years you are doing well. Right at the 2 yr mark my system which is used maybe once a month will not read the discs. Now to make things even more irritating--it will read some discs sometimes. However, it is getting worse and I came looking for reviews and reading I have now learned this is a common problem and now realize I will have to purchase a new system.
   
   This system is dis-continued and while it maynot have been the most expensive it was not cheap at 300 plus. Maybe I am old fashioned but I really think that for the money it should last more than two yrs at miminal use.
   
   I purchased an a really cheap 60$ off brand system for my elderly mother who plays it constantly and is far from careful with her DVDs and yet hers is still going 2 yrs later and mine isnt?
   
   Panasonic is not the brand it once was. I chose this unit because Panasonic at one time was one of the best.
   BUYER BEWARE--they are no longer a TOP brand.



4. Like many reviewers have stated, mine worked fabulously at first. My only complaint since the beginning was that the disk actions were too slow (changing disks and reading disks). But one month shy of 3 years old, it gave the 'F61' power error and died. I could get it fixed, but it makes me wonder what part of it may break next...



5. This systems seems nice, looks nice, but is extremely unreliable. After 4 months, it stopped reading disks. The drive motor is cheap and burns out quick. All that fancy design and features means nothing if the disk won't spin. Panasonic has been using these motors in most of their players. Just avoid the brand name.

1 comments about Dual Alarm & Ipod Docking.

1. Very satisfied with this. Charges the ipod, plays the ipod well and sounds great. You can even wake up to your ipod which is cool. You pick the song to wake up to, awesome! The speakers are better than I expected for a clock radioish player. Overall I recommend this player, looks good too without taking up your entire room.

5 comments about Philips MCD703 DVD Micro Shelf System.

1. Dont BUY.
   
   I bought this product a month back from amazon reseller. Audio (CD/mp3) works fine. But it cannot play DVDs very well. Every 2 to 3 mins it is stuck reading the DVD.



2. The main reason to buy this is to get all the features in a small package. The DVD player/amp really is compact. Although the top loading tray increases the space it needs in a bookshelf (vs. on top a table or dresser).
   
   The speakers sound pretty good for their size, and I've heard (and own) a lot of speakers. Luckily they seem fairly accurate, and not boxy sounding.
   
   But for $200 or so, you could put together a better system if you didn't need the compactness.
   
   The sub will end up in storage or (if I can do what should be done) the trash. The speaker itself is among the cheapest made I've ever seen.
   
   A few problems, though:
   - There are no balance or tone (bass/treble) controls! So unless you can position them perfectly for your sitting position, you will have to live with unbalanced sound.
   - The speaker wires are way too short.
   - Philips. Hit or miss quality and poor support if things go wrong.
   
   Surprise bonus: It seems to play mp3 DVDs (not just CDs), at least in an initial test it did - I didn't get all the way through. If so, that would let you put a lot of music on one disc.



3. I brough this MCD703 11 months ago from Philips Employee Store since I work for the company. Price is really good for what the system offers. Defintely the system has a very attractive look (slim and compact with wood-finished speakers). I also agree the sound quality is pretty good for my case. It has many preset sound modes which users can choose to accomplish different room environments. For me, I put it in my bedroom and mainly use it as the home system for watching TV and DVD moives and maybe listening to some CDs once in a while. It also has two AUX input RCA connections for your Video Game Consoles, 2nd DVD players, Karaoke players,.... Also, the system is quite easy to program in general.
   
   Now, let's get to the issues.
   1. If you are using Component (Y Pb Pr) cables from its DVD player to your TV, after you connect everything for the first time, make sure go to the menu and change your DVD video output format to "Component" (Y Pb Pr). Otherwise, you will see your first DVD movie playing only in pink color on your screen and you might wonder what's going on.
   
   2. However, the part that I hate the most is the DVD player itself! Ever since I bought it new, I realized the DVD player will often halt during play back. Almost every 5-10 minutes, it stops and kind of doing some processing. Then it might move on in some cases, but it could just halt like that. At first, I though it must be the disc is scratched. But these are brand new original DVD movies. I have tried many of them and they are all liked that. On the other hand, they can be played on my other $30 cheap DVD players and give me no problem. One thing funny is the problem don't show up if just playing music CDs. That's why I suspect it has something to do with the data processing of the progressive scan S/W of the DVD player. Anyway, I have called the customer service and have them replacing the units 3 times. Including my first unit from purchase, I am on the 4th units. Three of them were brand new from unopend retail boxes and one of them was obviously a refurb unit. Yet, this playback problem has been occurred on all 4 systems while they are just a week old - no exception. These 4 units were from variety of lot numbers based on their seial numbers and so they must made at different months of the year. Therefore, I pretty much conclude this is a design issue. But funny enough, when I searched on the web for other users' reviews, I can only found one other person talking about this problem. So just watch out if you are considering this system. Now I am approcahing end of the 1 year warranty and I guess I will just keep playing DVDs with my cheap player through the AUX connector.
   
   3. Final comment about it is their customer exhange/repair policy is bad. I have to pick up everything in a box and mail it to them (even the only componet has problem is the DVD player). Since the whole system is quite heavy, it costed me around $35 to sent it from CA to AR. You need to pay for the S/H for the very first RMA (return). Then Philips will issue RMA sticker for the rest of the returns within warranty period. Then it normally takes 5-6 weeks to get it back in mail and so I have the units for 11 months, but 4 of those months were spent on waiting for the return to show up.
   
   Hope this gives you some ideas. In conclusion, if you don't need to watch DVDs, this is a great choice for the money.



4. Almost all my electronics are Philips but I didn't buy this model MCD703/37. I went for the MCD908/37. Of course, it 3X more expensive. Nonetheless, if this is your first shelf system or money is an issue, this is a great system for the price ($130 or less-tax, s&h included).



5. Pretty and compact. Great. We have a very pretty and compact paperweight in the bedroom, now. After less than a year, must open and close the disc player several times to get it to recognize a dvd, if it will at all. The always-on blue light is so bright that we drape fabric or paper over it to be able to sleep. The sub-woofer is useless. Hook your iPod up and you can listen to your (muffled) music library, but you would be served better by a much smaller iPod dock for that. Just keep looking... We are... again.

5 comments about Sony DAV-C450 Dream System.

1. Sony is perhaps the most popular electronic company on the face of the earth. With fleets of stereos, walkmans, discmans, laptops, tv's, and more, there ain't no stoppin' them now. They've also produced a large number of speakers that have gone up and down in quality. Home Theater systems have bursted so quickly onto the scene in the last few years, and they keep getting smaller, simpler, and cheaper. The only way we've really enjoyed home theater before all of the 5.1 to 7.1 capabilities with DTS and Pro Logic stuff, was in two channel stereo to four channel surround. And that usually was with your large tower stereo speakers and a killer amp. Even though there are much more accurate and powerful home theater components and speakers available, some people don't have the cash or space. So, their next option is for a more compact system that's all in one.
   
   One of the earlier models that Sony offered is the DAV-C450 DVD Home Theater System. Sandwiched into a sincerely small system is a five disc DTS and Pro Logic capable DVD player. Wow, what a start! Each disc can remain inside the player (just like those cartridge or carousel cd players) while you watch one already playing. The power source comes from the integrated player which boasts a built in amp that carries enough juice to give each little cube speaker 80 watts, and totals in peak of 500 watts, so 400 watts goes to the five speakers, and the remaining 100 goes to the slim front ported subwoofer. Funny how little of bass seems to punch out of it. It gives a few hums of base here and there, but there's really only enough bass to make a cat happy. A sub that gives at least some good bass should be powered with it's own amp, and this one is simply powered by a permanent wire that goes from the integrated unit to the sub. You can't call this thing a subwoofer. I call it the humming box. If this thing were cut open, I wouldn't want to look inside. I'd probably cry.
   
   The speakers themselves sound hollow, and not very direct-now, they don't sound TERRIBLE-no. But they sure could use a big upgrade (yeah, I know, what you spend is what you get). What's interesting but not shocking is that the center channel isn't a true and dedicated center speaker. So voice and sound reproduction from the 'so-called' center channel is nothing special-I could use any of the other supplied speakers as a center channel, since they perform and look the same way. But I'll be nice and do as the instructions say, okay Sony? The rest of the gang do their job and no more. Surround and direct sounds are average, and their 80 watts each seem more like 20. The volume capacity is pretty unspectacular, unless you have a pretty small room. In a room of about 10' by 15', the sound was 'just' reaching the back of the room. I had to turn up the volume practically all the way just to be moderately satisfied. Regardless of these 'Happy Meal' speakers, the sound decoding is accurate, and if you have better speakers, try them out with this player. Although this system is capable of giving you a bit of a 'surround theater' feel, the speakers (yes, again) don't spread the sound very well, so you could say that they are "sweet spot stinkers".
   
   Picture quality is more than fair, as long as your tv is a pretty good one. Lines and images are a little crispy, but at least well defined. Colours are nothing to complain about, especially when I slipped James Cameron's "The Abyss" in for a while. Blues were not too loud, and any other images were pretty realistic. Even the faded white pipes on the mini subs or piping in the underwater oil rig station weren't too white, and not too far off from the real thing.
   
   Still, what can you say about a system you spend $450 on? A lot of sales guys in your electronic big box stores will praise these little systems because they are DTS, 5.1, and DVD. So....so what? Have you ever bought a car with power steering, a cd player, and great gas mileage? Aside from those little pluses, it still probably handles like a tricycle, and accelerates like a sloth.
   
   The Sony C450 Dream System is something that parents should consider for their kids in the basement or bedroom, or any of their college bound kids. There are better mini home theater systems out there. If you think this Sony system is the awesome one to buy, keep dreaming.



2. I purchased this unit in 2003 and it has been OK for the first 2 years. Once in awhile a disc would get stuck. Last week I was using the "shuffle" option and it stopped playing in the middle of a song and I could not get the CDs to come out. I called Sony help line and they told me to ship it to a Sony authorized dealer. It looks like a lot of people have this same problem but the guy at Sony said he never heard of any problems with this unit. I took it to a repair shop and they said a PC board was bad and would cost $295 to replace! They said it was cheaper to just get another system. I'm considering getting a $40 DVD player to plug into the back of this unit so I can still have the AM/FM and surround sound. I am very dissappointed and will probably not buy a Sony product again.



3. I purchased this product back in 2003 and it was fine at first. After about a year, I had some problems playing DVD's where it would start up, go to the main menu and then just stop and move on to the next disc. Sony tech support was no help, but I did find a soloution by randomly hitting buttons, trying everything and anything I could think of to make the system work again - I believe it was some sort of a region problem/setting on the unit that I somehow corrected.
   
   Then, a couple of months later, I was unable to hear sound through any of the aux ports or radio. All sony can say is to send it in for service. My father in law bought a much cheaper panasonic home theatre system about 6 months before I got mine and his has never had any issues and sounds just as good.



4. worked for a couple years so I give it that. It now reads "no disc". :(
   
   Thanks sony.



5. I have had this system for about 4 or 5 years. And last weekend the DVD player malfunctioned. I rented a DVD, and it was stuck inside the unit, so we had to disect the thing to get the DVD out. It basically seems like it fell off the track....but it wouldnt eject any of the dvd's in the player, nor would it play them....
   
   It didn't get extreme use. Maybe 3 dvd's per week? Not the kind of quality I was hoping for from Sony. I am not sure if we will be repairing it at all....