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Panasonic’s SC-BT200 comes with four small satellite speakers. These little boxes punch above their weight, and we were impressed by the full-bodied sound. The receiver comes with a microphone for automatically setting up the speaker positions and timings, and the surround effects were crisp and atmospheric. A small tray with an iPod dock slides out of the front of the receiver, but you’ll need to connect the composite video out to your TV to watch videos or photos stored on an iPod. There’s a USB port under a narrow flap on the front, as well as an SD card slot, which is handy for storing BD Live content and means you won’t have to leave a USB flash drive plugged in. You can play files from SD cards, USB sticks and data discs, but only JPEG, MP3 and DivX files are supported, and the SC-BT200 doesn’t read DVD+R discs. DVD upscaling is average, and you can’t play Blu-ray content recorded to DVD, although AVCHD files burnt to DVD are supported. You can’t stream media from your PC, but the SC-BT200 has access to Panasonic’s Viera Cast internet service, which currently includes YouTube and Picasa. You can log into both services to access your own content, and the ability to play video playlists or watch photo slideshows is handy. Performance was poor. The SC-BT200 took over a minute to access the main menu of our Blu-ray film. Skipping chapters was slow and there’s no onscreen display of chapter numbers, which is annoying. The menu system can also be slow to respond, especially when switching from watching a disc to accessing the online Viera Cast service.
Despite this, the SC-BT200 is an impressive package for the price. Not only do the speakers sound beefier than their size would suggest, but the player packs in internet services, support for DTS-HD Master Audio and a built-in iPod dock. Media streaming is missing and format support is weak, but if you need a Blu-ray home cinema kit on a budget, you’d be hard-pressed to find better value. The SC-BT200 wins our Best Buy award.
