Panasonic Home Theater Blu-ray

Now that home theater Blu-ray has secured its position as the one and only HD disc format, it's only natural to see it becoming more of a standard feature on desktop PCs, laptops, camcorders, and--now--home theater Blu-ray .

If the price sticks, it would appear to be a pretty good deal at first glance (plenty of high-style home theater Blu-ray systems can cost more than $1,000, despite being limited to playing back standard CDs and DVDs.) and wireless rear speakers. It's also said to be Profile 1.1 compliant, meaning that it can play the Bonus View found on some newer Blu-ray discs.

you'll need to invest in an additional set of speakers to get to seven speakers. Furthermore, the SC-BT100 is likely to have the same limitations found on the DVD-only Panasonic home theater Blu-ray systems for the 2008 model year: iPod video playback is only available from the low-resolution composite output, and the skimpy connectivity.

You can have your cake (home theater Blu-ray 2.0) and eat it too (7.1 home theater Blu-ray with plenty of inputs and outputs) for about $150 more than the SC-BT100's asking price by investing in a $400 PS3 plus a $750 Onkyo HT-S908 home theater Blu-ray system. As those prices continue to drop--and feature sets continue to improve--look for the reaction to such home theater Blu-ray systems begin to move from "why bother" to "why not."