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Panasonic SC-PTX7 Premium Home Theater System |
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| Price: Too low to display |
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| Editorial Reviews: | | |  | | This Jukebox Theater System is a perfect combination of design excellence and entertainment features you need in today's flat-panel TV age. It's designed to deliver great entertainment, but without all the cluttered look of many other home theater systems. There's no visible center speaker, because it's built into the right and left speakers - so all you see are the compact main unit and the right and left speakers.Thanks to a high-capacity internal hard drive, you can store hours of music recorded from CDs, MP3 and WMA files from your PC, FM and AM radio, and other sources.Dolby virtual speaker technology gives high-quality sound and a lifelike surround effect. Plus MP3 and WMA music files take on new richness and depth, with built-in digital re-mastering technology that restores high-frequency data. | |
| Custom Reviews: | |
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| stay away from this one ! | |
| | This unit is just ok when working normally. But as other reviewers have noted, it frequently will freeze up refuse to operate, requiring unplugging of the unit, and re-booting. Telephone customer service with Panasonic was a nightmare. I brought it in for repair under warranty to an authorized serivce center. The shop kept it for 2 months, returned it to me in worse condition than before. When I complained, they said that replacing the hard drive might help, but that would cost about $175 for labor because the warranty had run out while the unit was in for repair.
Do yourself a favor, and pass on this unit. I wish I had.
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| Panasonic CD/MP3, Hard Drive Player | |
| | Good Product
Our use is specific - office based -- and it appears to work -
piping music into different rooms - though because bass is on a different channel, lacks the bass response in these other rooms which are wired with paired wiring. Also realize it appears to
need to have a TV attached to take advantage of full programming capabilities.
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| | I have had the system for two weeks now. The concept for this system is in general good and here is what I have experienced with the short time:
1. The freezing/hung-up issues that others are experiencing, I discovered it is a problem with the HDMI sync protocols. EZ-sync tries to sync with your TV but the fact that you are using a different brand it fails, panics and hangs. These issues are prominent if you are using different brands of equipment connected via HDMI. It seems there is no stand protocol between different manufactures. I have the same sync issues with HDMI 1.3a on my Onkyo Reciever/Sony PS3/Sony BD/HTPC and LG TV. (I have experienced sound issues when the TV changes the source or no sound at all if the TV is off). The solution is either you turn off EZ-Sync or use component cables. It seems the Receiver would be expecting some sort of response from the TV but gets none therefore it panics or it could be restrictions with the media issues. The most annoying thing is, those so called "support" bozos don't have half a clue what they are talking about or these manufacturers are hoping all their customers are stupid enough to just put up with half-developed systems they are being sold.
2. As for bootup/startup issues, taking into consideration that this system is hard disk based :30 startup from standby is fine with me, though cold startup is a little bit too long but again, that is not an issue given all other positive aspects this system has. You have an option keeping it on standby all the time as opposed to switching it off completely.
3. Learning HDD music collection navigation is on the steep side but once you get hold of it, it is pretty fine.
4. Sound is descent enough for a small room. I have the system setup in my bedroom and I am satisfied with the performance but if you are looking for an HT system skip it and find something with raw power unless your HT room is no more than 12' x 12'.
5. The major let down this system has is the music import. For haven's sake this the 21st century how could the engineering folks at Panasonic design a system with a stone-age communication procedure. They could have used USB or fire-wire or wifi but no they just to do the unthinkable (they could have used the serial port off the commodore 64 while they are still at it). I am not sure if my system is just a lemon or not but takes 56hrs to transfer 45gig of music even with the resets as advised by technical support small wonder they have the technical support number printed in bold on sticker pasted on the system. I am thinking of opening the system and try something crude including hard disk upgrade (that would be fun.. LOL more updates later).
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| Great System for the Price | |
| | I was looking for a complete system with virtual surround (VSS), I looked at everything from Bose to the Sony systems. They all had two similar problems, 1. You could not add your own sub woofer. - The systems are closed. 2.Except for the Bose GS 123 system, the sub woofer was very poor. Additionally Bose system did not support upconverting dvds.
I had almost given up when I saw the Panasonic SC-PTX7. It was sleek looking and had everything that I wanted including "Upconvert", VSS and tons of other stuff. What I really liked about this system is the ability to change the sub woofer out. This is where this system becomes very interesting.
So after adding my 12inch JBL sub, the whole system rocks. My friends are in awe. Adding the sub is very easy, just cut the ends of the wire that connects to the crappy sub that comes with the system. Now, connect them to your POWERED SUB and you are in business.
NOTE:ONLY USE A POWERED SUB, if you don't you can burn the receiver out.
DISCLAIMER:I accept no responsibility for anything. Try at your own risk.
In regards to the other issues mentioned in the reviews I am yet to experience them - maybe panasonic finally fixed them.
Hope you enjoy.
George Richardson
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| Several Problems Ruin This One | |
| | I went trolling for after Thanksgiving returns and found this for $275 with no box. The store was listing it at $799, so I thought I was getting a great deal. Even at that low price, I have just returned the product and moved on. The negatives on this unit didn't justify me keeping it even at that price. The most significant are as follows:
(1) Uploading a music collection onto its 80gb hard drive is absurdly difficult in today's plug-and-play world. The Panasonic rep I talked to had no idea about the unit or how to upload from my Windows Media Player to the unit. Turns out, I simply couldn't do it because it requires a router with two LAN inputs (she didn't even know what LAN was!). Yes, you have to be connected to the internet and set up some complicated network just to transfer music. To do this, you have to have a router with two LAN ports, which I don't. Why not just a USB transfer at this price?
(2) One reviewer mentioned a :30 boot of the unit; I've found it to be >1 minute every time, with as much as 3 minutes! Slower than my old computer to boot up, probably because of that hard drive (which, incidentally, is why it's priced so high).
(3) Proprietary speaker jacks means you can't add any different speakers or add more speakers, other than the $$$ wireless ones.
(4) I played a Pearl Jam DVD and the sound was nice at about 3/5 max volume. CDs also sound good, but my high quality mp3 player, plugged into an auxilary jack, was nowhere near the sound I had with my old system that had its own receiver.
(5) You can't play CDs without the tv on, and, when in DVD mode, you can't turn the tv off without the whole system shutting off (so, to play music, you then have to reboot it and wait).
In short, this unit is worth neither the price (especially the list price!) nor the risk, as you will be putting all your proverbial eggs in one basket -- if the dvd player, hard drive, or speakers go bad, you're pretty much screwed.
Thumbs down.
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