New home cinema systems from Panasonic

Panasonic have been producing great quality home cinema systems for some years now, and two of their latest systems are worthy of a further look, namely the new Panasonic SC-PT170 and the Blu-ray based SC-BT100.

The Panasonic SC-PT170 is a full 5.1 home cinema system offering the complete immersive surround sound experience for under £200. It has the looks to appeal to a wide range of personal tastes and with its small speakers and great performance it is a great value system suitable for many applications whether it is a lounge based system, or even for the bedroom. It directly replaces the Panasonic SC-PT160, but it only seems to differ in aesthetics and its power consumption.

The only drawback some people might have with the Panasonic SC-PT170 is that it is DVD based rather than a Blu-ray based system. This is where the Panasonic SC BT100 comes in as it is a Blu-ray based rather than DVD based system. Whilst it is nearly £300 more than the PT170, this system really is a peach. Not only can it play the latest high definition Blu-ray discs, but connect your iPod up to it, and you can play all your music through it too. This is a great feature and you can control the iPod through your television and play iPod video. Some people might be disappointed that it only offers 3.1 surround sound rather than 5.1, but you can optionally add a pair of wireless speakers to it (the Panasonic SB-HS100) to get the full effect. These speakers are around £50 - £90 depending where you buy and are a good value optional extra.

Both of these Panasonic Home Cinema systems are worthy additions to your home, and will add that extra dimension to your home movies. Read more about these systems, and others on the Home Cinema Buyer website.

New BD60 and BD80 Blu-ray players from Panasonic

Panasonic have just released their two new Blu-ray players to take over from the highly regards previous models, the BD35 and BD55.

The Panasonic DMP-BD60 is the natural successor to the BD35 and whilst the performance is about the same, the feature set has been improved to offer Panasonics new 'Viera Cast' functionality which allows you to watch YouTube videos and view Picasa pictures on your television.

The Panasonic DMP-BD80 also has this feauture set but offers a slightly better sound performance that the BD60 and also offers 7.1 speaker connections on the rear, something which the BD55, which this model replaces, offered over the BD35 as well.

Read a full review of the new Panasonic Blu-ray players at Home Cinema Buyer.