Panasonic SC-BTT370

Experts say that the 5.1-channel Panasonic SC-BTT370, a home theater in a box built around a well-regarded Blu-ray player, offers a compelling blend of features as well as stellar audio and visual performance. It's also a pretty good value, most say. Image quality is excellent with Blu-ray Discs and very good with DVDs. Audio performance also draws praise, though the home theater system lacks the punch of beefier options.

The feature line-up includes 3D support, along with the ability to convert 2D images to 3D. Although the lack of DLNA certification (for versions of the HTIB sold in this country) means you can't steam video or audio from your own PC, there's a good assortment of Internet content providers and the built-in Wi-Fi makes getting those from your router to the SC-BTT3770 a bit easier. BD-Live Internet content is also supported, but you'll need to supply the needed memory (in the form of a 1 GB or higher SD memory card) for that. Connectivity is excellent for an all-in-one HTIB, including two HDMI 1.4a inputs. If the Panasonic SC-BT3770 is a bit beyond your price range, the Philips HTS3251B/F7 (Discontinued) is less capable -- especially on the audio side -- but it still does an admirable job with Blu-ray discs.

Expert reviews have been slow to come in for the Panasonic SC-BTT370 in this country, but we found lots of reviews elsewhere. Top destinations for those include Britain's TrustedReviews.com, Expert Reviews and What Hi-Fi? Though there are some minor technical and feature differences (for example, non-U.S. versions support DLNA streaming) overall performance should be similar. Meanwhile, user reviews are starting to trickle in on Amazon.com.