Panasonic SC-PT870 home theater system

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By Ian Morris, CNET.co.uk
Jun 19, 2009

DVDs contain a great deal of entertainment, but many people are only getting half of it. Why not just accept that the picture is great and spend some time treating those lugholes of yours? The Panasonic SC-PT870 is a simple home-cinema system in a box, so there's nothing else to buy in order to start enjoying films with 5.1-channel digital surround sound. Just pop a disc in the tray, and off you go.

Available for S$699 (US$502.12), the SC-PT870 system includes six surround-sound speakers, a DVD player, all the cables you need to hook it up, and an iPod dock, as the cherry on the top.

Editors' note:

This review is based on evaluations conducted by our sister site CNET.co.uk. Review ratings on similar products may differ due to differences in regional market trends and competing product lineups.

Design

As with all Panasonic's equipment, the SC-PT870 is built to last. It doesn't look like anyone at Panasonic HQ had any fun during the design phase, but that's really not the end of the world, because the SC-PT870 works perfectly the way it is.

The iPod dock is recessed and has to be pulled out of the front of the machine in order to place the iPod in its cradle. This is pretty neat, and keeps everything at the front looking tidy. The disc tray and USB socket are also contained behind little drop-down flaps that keep the machine looking sleek when nothing's connected.

While the main DVD player feels to be of quite high quality, the speakers have a slightly cheap feel about them. Exposed chipboard is visible on the subwoofer, which is pretty unforgivable on a S$699 (US$502.12) unit.

Strangely, the center speaker seems to be of higher quality, although our perception could just be a result of the fact that the extra shielding gives it more weight. The speaker cables are pretty flimsy too, which could impact sound quality slightly, but, in practice, at this level, it's not a massive problem.

Putting this system together is something of a pain. A fair amount of construction is required in order to get it up and running. This is particularly true for tall boy speakers which are made up of a base, a lower speaker stand and the main speaker. We'd suggest you earmark around an hour to get it all set up and maybe more if you're unfamiliar with home cinema systems.

Tags: Apple iPod, Speaker, disc, cable, Panasonic

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