Panasonic SC-HT900 Home Theater System with 5-Disc DVD Changer

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [2.48mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 85 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 90 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000092OWG
• Item model number: SC-HT900
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,161 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

The SC-HT900 handles the audio end of your home theater, providing surround sound decoding, amplification, and playback through a specially matched six-speaker system (left, center, right, left and right surround, and low-frequency subwoofer). Its versatility with media playback--from DVD-Video and DVD-Audio to MP3/WMA CDs and JPEG image CDs--means you're never far from favorite movies, music, or digital photos. The five-disc carousel system's DVD-Audio playback offers super high-fidelity (192 kHz/24-bit) sound. DVD-Audio discs provide multichannel and stereo sound, incredible storage capacity, and unique bonus materials not available on regular audio CDs.

DVD movies look and sound great through the system's 54 MHz/10-bit video decoder, video depth enhancer, progressive-scan video output (for use with high-definition and HD-ready televisions), and Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS discrete 5.1-channel surround decoding and rendering. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. This feature can only be appreciated on high-definition and HD-ready TVs.

The speaker set includes four specially designed "tallboy" floorstanding speakers (front and rear left and right) powered by 35 watts each, a 140-watt center-channel speaker (critical for handling most of a movie's dialogue), and a powerful, 150-watt subwoofer optimized for unobtrusive placement. The left/right/surround speakers stand 41 inches tall, a height designed to align them with a television screen for seamless sound/image matching. All speakers are magnetically shielded to protect your TV from distortion induced by the speakers' magnetic fields. A digital-synthesized FM/AM tuner lets you listen to favorite radio stations.

What's in the Box
DVD player/receiver, 4 slim "tallboy" speakers with detachable stands, 1 center-channel speaker, 1 powered subwoofer, and all requisite basic cabling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

97 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feature Packed with great sound, September 8, 2003

By 

Lenny "Handy DIY Master" (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic SC-HT900 Home Theater System with 5-Disc DVD Changer (Electronics)

Very attractive system with many features. Progressive scan DVD player looks great on my projector, thanks to the high end video circuitry in the 5 Disc DVD changer. Sound is very clear and accurately reproduced though the six speakers. Movie dialogue comes through very naturally. Does a fine job at decoding Dolby Surround. Movie "bass" effects are clear and pronounced through the active subwoofer. I've tested this system in store next to an expensive Bose and the quality is more or less comparable.

It is a known fact Panasonic DVD players are among the best in the business. Many more expensive DVD players(costing considerably more than this system) made by other brands use Panasonic internals for their players.

All DVD players must contain an MPEG decoder. In addition, progressive scan DVDs must contain a special device called a deinterlacer. Interlaced video frames are sent to a television in two pieces, by first drawing all of the odd lines, then the even ones. The deinterlacer essentially doubles each frame of video(producing a very defined picture) by filling in missing information. That is the true meaning of "progressive scan." This is the basis for HDTV, and be aware that your (Projector,TV,LCD) must be able to display HDTV or progressive to take advantage of this great feature. As with any other product, deinterlacers vary in quality and must be able to handle various film encodings. Panasonic uses top notch internal hardware to perform the deinterlacing(DCDi) and decoding. The results are spectacular!

Don't expect the bass to blow your ears out - no system at or near this pricepoint will. The subwoofer is powered but yet conservative (but more than other systems in its class). Don't buy this unit to play at maximum volume. System can be cranked up to loud but not extreme voulme. Sound will be more than enough for rooms <250 sq ft. I would say the same thing about the expensive Bose. The true measure of a system is not how it plays at maximum voulme, but rather the accuracy and clarity of the sound.

This unit also makes a great system for listening to FM Radio, CD/R etc. Unit supports many types of Discs. Music seems rich and pleasing, in some cases exceeding much more expensive units.

The speaker stands will save you the cost of buying wall mounts. This system has a plethora of features that are stated in the manual. For example, there are multiple surround modes, seating placement adjustments and digital input capability. Unfortunately the owners manual is written like an engineering course lab manual - so it may take the non- technical some time to learn all of the arcane features. Also, you should purchase at least a 16 gauge spool of speaker wire - do not use the doorbell wire that is supplied with the unit.

Overall I will give this unit 5 stars, because it is priced very well with respect to its competition (Sony Dream system 990) and it exceeds that and other products in its class in terms of quality and features. On the other hand, if you desire a very loud, extreme bass systems - don't consider a home theatre in a box. Purchase a component receiver/amp with large poweful speakers. And of course, a Panasonic progressive DVD player for the best video!

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beware of Known Defect, June 12, 2004

By 

Christopher A. Andre "chrian" (Placerville, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic SC-HT900 Home Theater System with 5-Disc DVD Changer (Electronics)

The good news: attractive product, reasonably good sound and features. Please see many of the other reviews for more detail.

The bad: I had owned the system for several months when I started experiencing 'popping' sound through the speakers. And when I say 'popping', I mean truly heart-attack causing, like a lightning strike-very disconcerting.

Being a good techie, I immediately assumed I was experiencing power surges...although my surge protector wasn't tripping.
Step Two: Check all connection. Still have the problem.
Step Three: Waste an entire Saturday completely disassembling my AV setup (dvd, tv, VCR, Satalite, XBox), check every wire and connection, completely and carefully reassemble. Same problem.
Step Four: Search internet to see if anyone else has problem.
Bingo! (Note to self: Next time search internet at Step Three, instead of wasting Saturday...)
Known problem of overheating of circuit board in subwoofer. Game over.
Neat system, but appears I now have to replace the system; from what I have read, fixing is not going to be cost effective, and no guarantees that the problem goes away.
Buyer beware; there are a lot of people who are happy with this system, but a substantial number of us have had the same issue, and I wouldn't be surprised if more folks see this happening over time.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Very good inded!, November 27, 2003

By 

Mr. A. Mcghee (Suffolk, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic SC-HT900 Home Theater System with 5-Disc DVD Changer (Electronics)

I have just bought a Panasonic SC-HT900 to replace a rather messy collection of aging seperates. I am a major Sony fan and of course audions a few of the Sony options first but could never quite get excited about them then the Panasonic was recommended to me so I gave it a go. It beats the Sony's hands down (I am sad to say!). Now, to get this out the way, unlike many of the reviews I've read, I have so say that the Panasonic unit is pig ugly. Especially compared to some of the Sony units but then I'll live with it's rather dated and cluttered apearance for it's superb picture and sound. I dont understand how some people consider it underpowered unless they have VERY large rooms but in my 12'x20' room, the Panasonic has no trouble at all in filling the space with detail and a deep, warm, well controlled bass. I wouldn't score it highly on ease of use initially but you get use to it. The 4 floorstanding speakers are attractive and seem to do their job admirally. The inclusion of DTS was a big plus for me but I'd never compared DTS with DD5.1 before. Only 2 of my DVD have DTS but flicking between DTS and DD shows a clear difference. Add also that apart from SACD, I dont think there is a shiny disc format it wont handle.

The system was a breeze to set up and delighted me straight away. For the money, this truly is superb.

I think the build quality could be better on the main unit. It feels a little flimsy so I will be especially gentle to it.

Bottom line, despite the negative points, I am delighted that I didnt buy the Sony. It would have been a choice of fashion over function and I have a better system for choosing the Panasonic. Maybe I'll get used to the looks. Who knows. Love is blind.

And just 1 final complaint to the manufacturers about all of the systems I looked at. Why do none of them have optical out? I will have to keep my CD player just to copy stuff on to my MiniDisc walkman!

So, why 4 stars and not 5? Well, not attractive, unclear manual, feels a bit poorly built. But I'll forgive a whole lot for what it does do well. Picture and sound are just great. I was grinning for ages.

Buy now and you wont be dissapointed. Especially at the price.