Panasonic SC-BT735 Blu-ray home cinema kit

Well-heeled home cinema devotees like to put together a trustworthy disc player, an amp built like a battleship and classy, carefully chosen speakers. Meanwhile, the budget and mid-range market is catered for by simple one-box packages, which flourished in the DVD era, so it’s no surprise to find an increasing number based on …

[shaunm]

really??

"The speaker cables use Panasonic’s own idiot-proof colour coded plugs but you can’t change the wiring for something better or longer."

That is more a lack of imagination on your part. Its nothing a small flat blade screw driver and a pair of cutters can't fix. Also you can take the terminal connectors apart and make your own up.

[The Unexpected Bill]

What's inside?

Do the reviewers at Reg Hardware ever get to take a look at the internals of the devices they review?

I realize that perhaps there isn't much point with a lot of things, but in the case of a home theater amplifier such as this one, knowing how sturdy the amp and its power supply are would be nice.

I wouldn't expect it to stack up to a receiver that weighs 30 pounds, but I would want to know that it wasn't going to come flying apart someday.

Otherwise, it looks like a decent package.

[Fluffykins]

Sorry, but no DAB radio is a deal breaker

Look, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that FM will be out of the frame for national broadcasting fairly soon.

This bit of kit would (I hope) last a bit longer than 5 minutes so why, oh why should I saddle myself with something which is going to be made obsolete so soon.

No DAB; no sale.

[Citizen Kaned]

eh?

erm, just use it from your TV output?

all freeview boxes and sky and virgin all do better than dab radio, so hook that up to the amp (if it has one)

also to the reviewer. i highly doubt a £650 system is anything other than budget to be honest.

my £2,500 system is only classed as midrange (denon and b&w).

i didnt see from the review if there is an amp in there too? surely people want their normal tvs etc i dont see the point in systems that just provide surround for 1 source (like the sony last week)

[Gideon 1]

Freeview HD

Yes yes, but does it decode the HE-AAC (or Dolby Pulse) used by Freeview HD? A waste of money and a waste of a review if it doesn't.

[John McGhie]

Power output is way off...

Guys: Look at the spec sheet. If this thing takes in 100 watts from the mains, it can't possibly put out 1,000 watts from the speakers :-) Everyone who has to pay a power bill wishes this were so, but the laws of physics sadly dictate otherwise. Some American rags might reprint the manufacturer's giggle-sheet unchallenged, but we expect El Reg to filter the hyperbole through the neurons on the way to the web!

[Richard 12]

Don't worry John, it's consumer audio.

Those of us in the professional live performance industry know that these figures are always badly exaggerated.

In fact, the figures given for all consumer audio (particularly Hi-Fi and what we lovingly term 'audio-phool') are always what we would generally call 'wrong', and are never comparable between different items.

- Even between items made by the same manufacturer.

In this case, the '1000W' figure is likely to be a momentary peak value - meaning the maximum total current * voltage it could output for 1/100sec (or less) across all 6 channels. You will never come close to this without trying to output a square wave, which will also destroy your speakers and possibly amplifier quite rapidly.

1kW of actual amplifier output also means 500W of speaker dissipation* assuming a perfect match between speakers and amplifier.

Actual sound pressure levels are really expressed in terms of dB(A) at a defined distance from the speaker. You will never see these figures on consumer audio, because they are small numbers.

- For example 80dB(A) is the level at which an employer must consider action to reduce noise exposure, and 140dB(A) is an absolute maximum even for a short duration as it will damage your hearing quite rapidly.

*Power transfer, obviously not sound output. No speaker is anywhere near 100% efficient.

[DMH]

Picture quality

I don't understand why this review, and many others, comment on the quality of the HDMI output of Blu-Ray players. Unless the player is upscaling / downscaling content (which it shouldn't be for 1080p discs output to a 1080p TV) shouldn't the HDMI output be identical for a given disc from player to player?

As far as I know, the player shouldn't be tampering with the data in any way, it's just decompressing the video data and outputting directly to HDMI. Or am I missing something?

[Citizen Kaned]

seriously?

youre a techie?

i take it you think that the output from a £20 tesco dvd player is the same as a dedicated £400 player too?

you get what you pay for. thats why most manufacturers do blu-ray players going into the thousands too.

[DMH]

Yes - the same

Yes - the output should be the same. We're talking about digital data being decompressed and output via a digital signal. The old analogue ideas about signal quality don't apply here.

[Anonymous Coward]

6.1

Whatever happened to 6.1. I have a DVD / Receiver with 6.1 and it's over 7 years old. I can't find a Blu Ray receiver or amp that's 6.1, everything seems to be 5.1. The rear centre is worthwhile...

[Citizen Kaned]

really??

eh? all decent amps have been 7.1 for 5 years now.

or are you looking at cheaper ones?

for 6.1 you just dont plug in one of the surround rears and tell the system its a centre rear instead.

i wouldnt bother though, only some movies are 7.1 (lionsgate ones seem to be)

ive gone back to a bi-amped 5.1 now.