Panasonic SC-BT330 5.1 Channel Cinema Surround Home Entertainment System

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 36 x 20 x 16 inches ; 36.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 39 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0038KV8SW
• Item model number: SC-BT330
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,540 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Get your home theater going right out of the box with the Panasonic SC-BT330 home entertainment system, which includes a Blu-ray Disc player/amplifier plus a complete 5.1-channel surround sound speaker system. The Kelton subwoofer adds impact to your movies and music with dramatic deep bass, while the two tallboy front speakers add dramatic visual impact to your home theater.

It also features 1000 watts of total power, Panasonic's VIERA Cast streaming video, 7.1-channel virtual surround sound (from the 5.1-channel speaker set), an FM radio, SD memory card slot of medial playback, and bamboo cones in the speakers. And you'll be able to play music and video stored on your iPhone or iPod thanks to the included iPod dock.

Key Features

VIERA Cast: Enjoy Great Web Entertainment on Your HDTV

VIERA Cast's assorted online content just keeps getting better--in addition to the popular contents such as YouTube and Picasa Web Albums, it now offers Pandora Internet Radio, movies streamed from Netflix (unlimited membership required) and Amazon Instant Video, exciting sports from FOX Sports, and tweeting web communications with Twitter.

And no PC is required. Connect to your home network via Ethernet or go wireless using an optional Wi-Fi dongle that connects to this home theater system via one of its USB ports.

VIERA Cast streaming content.

Cinema Surround: Reproduces Realistic Movie Theater Surround Experience

By using a combination of real speakers and virtual speakers, a more natural and smoother sound can be enjoyed. You'll notice the difference, especially in an action scene--you'll feel like you're sitting in the center of a true cinema theater.

Advanced Bamboo Cone Speaker: Clear, Beautiful Vocals

With the new bamboo cone speakers, the sound becomes much more responsive. Vocals are more pure and cleaner, and the dialog is crisper and easier to understand than ever before.

Audio Return Channel: Simple Connection with HDMI Cable

The SC-BT330 is compatible with a new feature of ARC (Audio Return Channel). ARC allows receiving audio signals from the TV, on top of the preexisting HDMI function of sending audio/video signals to the TV with just one cable. This new feature will simplify the connection by eliminating an audio cable connection between the TV audio output and the main unit's audio input. (ARC compatible TV is required.)

Specifications

Total power: 1000 watts RMS (125 x 2 for front speakers; 250W for center speaker; 125W x 2 for surround speakers; 250W for subwoofer) Dolby Digital decoder: Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital DTS decoder: DTS-HD Master Audio Essential, DTS HD High Resolution Audio, DTS DVD+R/RW/R(DL) playback formats: Video, AVCHD DVD-R/RW/R(DL) playback formats: Video, DVD-VR, AVCHD, JPEG, MP3 CD-R/RW playback formats: CD-DA, MP3, JPEG BD-RE/RE DL playback formats: BD-MV, JPEG SD memory card slot: Compatible with SD/SDHC/SDXC cards; plays AVCHD, MPET2, and JPEG media Universal Dock for iPod/iPhone: Integrated VIERA Cast: Yes Wireless LAN system: Ready (requires optional USB dongle) FM radio: Yes, with 30 presets Main unit dimensions: 2-1/8 x 16-15/16 x 11-5/16 inches (HxWxD)

Connections HDMI output: 1 Digital audio input: 2 (optical) USB port: 1 (for optional Wi-Fi dongle) Ethernet: 1 Audio input: 1 (stereo minijack, 3.5mm) Speakers Front speakers (x2): 2-1/2-inch full range, cone type; 40-5/32 x 10-1/32 x 10-1/32 inches (HxWxD) Surround speakers (x2): 2-1/2-inch full range, cone type; 4-11/16 x 3-5/32 x 2-11/16 inches (HxWxD) Center speaker: 2-1/2-inch full range, cone type; 3-11/32 x 5-23/32 x 2-13/16 inches (HxWxD) Subwoofer (Kelton Type) : 6-1/2-inch woofer; 10-inch passive radiator; 12-11/16 x 7-1/8 x 13-13/16 inches (HxWxD)

What's in the Box

Blu-ray Disc player/amplifier, 5.1-channel surround sound speaker set (subwoofer, center channel, two tallboy front, two surround), remote control (with batteries), speaker cables, video cable, operating instructions

Product Description

With 1000 Watts of power and 5.1 channels, the Panasonic SC-BT330 Blu-Ray Home Theater System delivers cinema quality sound to your home. By using a combination of real speakers and virtual speakers, a more natural and smoother sound can be enjoyed. You'll notice the difference, epecially in an action scene. And with the new bamboo cone speakers, the sound becomes much more responsive. Vocals are more pure and cleaner, and the dialog is crisper and easier to understand. The Kelton type subwoofer reproduces highly robust, reverberating bass sounds.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great product with minimal downfalls., March 22, 2010

By 

Shaunspad - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic SC-BT330 5.1 Channel Cinema Surround Home Entertainment System (Electronics)

I have been in the market to get streaming content on my TV for a while now. I compared this unit against the LG-LHB535. The LG has some added features.

1. Built in Wifi
2. Streaming software... which means you can stream from your computer.
3. HDMI inputs.

Otherwise the Panasonic works awesome. It's fast and responsive, easy to setup, small and sleek, and it's cheaper than the comparable LG unit.

It includes the following features.

1. Amazon video rentals... Awesome.. However it's $3 for most regular rentals and then more for HD. I'm still a bigger fan of RedBox $1 for anything... Amazon I might be holding out on your steep prices.

2. Netflix the same as everything else... other than the interface is really simple and ugly like the PS3 interface. It's not as easy to navigate and search like the X Box 360 or on your computer.

3. Youtube which is cool.

4. Picas pictures which is neat but almost useless in some cases.

5. iPhone/iPod doc that allows audio and video playback. Very cool, it charges and doesn't display the "this accessory is not made to work with your device" message.

6. Blue ray, DVD, burned DVD's etc.

7. Two fiber optic inputs that allow you to plug in your infamous HD DVD player or some other audio sources. Would have liked to see HDMI here... LG has it.

8. Viera Link which is cool if you have a Panasonic TV like I do. It turns the stuff on off etc by communicating over the HDMI cable.

9. The sound is AMAZING for as cheap as this unit is. The speakers are crisp and clear. Very nice surround sound. I had a Sony STR-K750P, and this Panasonic system is way better.


Overall the packaging was slick with everything well packaged for shipment. I couldn't find the electronic version of the manual online anywhere. The specs say it's wireless ready, which means it has a USB port on the back that you have to pay $100 to get the $5 Panasonic WIFI dongle. Total rip off. I just hard wired.

The menus are not quite as elegant as the Apple TV, it also has this hard switch thing.. Basically if you need to adjust any settings, it unloads the web content dashboard thing, then takes you back to the DVD menu. So there is a bit of a lag making adjustments. I don't understand why they just didn't layer the menus and then reload if your settings require it. It also has some sort of quick on feature. Basically if you start it up from scratch, AKA no power supplied, it takes about 30 seconds to boot.. So they added this quick boot thing which makes the unit run in some kind of a standby. It tells you it will consume slightly more power while in this mode. I did have a couple times where the web interface streaming thing had garbled text, I tried powering on off, but it doesn't fully reboot if you use the quick boot. In order to get it to fully reboot, you have to turn it off, then unplug the power and re-connect.

The manual isn't very descriptive and there is a lot of technical jargon as you wade deeper into the settings. Lots of color control, bit level, sound stuff, display stuff etc.

It does have the capability to adjust the surround and EQ levels while playing. It's not entirely intuitive, and the manual is wrong, but it works. When you use the buttons on the bottom of the remote to adjust the surround, it displays on little screen on the unit, the levels. In the manual it tells you to use up and down to adjust these. I must have wasted 20 minutes on this part before I tried left and right and then it worked. Looks like Panasonic needs an updated manual. The firmware on the unit is 1.0 which hopefully means there will be some software updates sooner than later. It would be nice to see layered settings menus, and they have some room on the dash board for new content.

The unit is so new that if you use a Logitec Harmony remote, it won't detect your unit yet. I had to use the older model Bt-300 or something to get my Logitec remote to work.

anyhow.. thats my review... Enjoy!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My HT Rave, August 28, 2010

By 

Ghost Walker - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic SC-BT330 5.1 Channel Cinema Surround Home Entertainment System (Electronics)

What a great home theater in a box. I did my homework checking out all the competition and reading the reviews.Then with the help of my IT manager we settled on a mid-range system that delivered great perfomance and Blu Ray at an affordable price. The Panasonic SC-BT330 5.1 met all of my criteria. The system was easy to install and the sound balancing capability was a bonus. It perfomed well in all modes. I especially liked the I-Pod playlist display capability. Bottom line is this is a great buy that as a discriminating consumer I can readily endorse.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Panasonic SC-BT330, August 16, 2010

By 

J. Billie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic SC-BT330 5.1 Channel Cinema Surround Home Entertainment System (Electronics)

Purchased this for a large den vacation property. The BluRay video system works surprisingly well. The audio is good for the price. It doesn't compare to Denon, but neither does the price. The wireless USB adapter works well. We use it a lot for Nexflix etc & the streaming working very well. Pandora Radio included in the system was a pleasant surprise. I'd not used Pandora Radio, but find it to be a great source of back ground music. The Panasonic system plays it very well. Sounds like an add for Pandora....but it is impressive, so much so I bought a Samsung BluRay player with Pandora to use for my home Denon system. With Denon receiver & Klipsch speakers Pandora is truly impressive. The reason I give the Panasonic a 4 is the Subwoofer isn't powered and quite wimpy. I replaced it with a Polk Audio PSW10 Powered Subwoofer from Amazon, and it completed the setup nicely.