Customer Reviews
Awesome sounds, a few complaints, but overall a great buy! 
2002-04-04
I bought this system about a year ago after hearing it side-by-side to a Bose Lifestyles home theater system. The audio clarity and performace of this home theater easily performed on-par with, if not better than, the Bose system. This combined with the convenience of a 5-disc changer, good on-screen controls, and a well-designed remote controll, makes it a great overall value.
As for the complaints: This system DOES NOT have additional Dolby Digital inputs, this means you cannot hook your digital cable or satilite systems to it and get true surround, you can hook up for stereo on simulated surround though. Another complaint is that it does not work with CD-R/RW's (at least not the revision that I have, they may have fixed this in the more recent versions). And my final complaint is that the speaker wire is built straight into the speaker enclosures, this means you will have to splice new wire on if the provide wiring is not long enough. It also means that you cannot add a heavier guage wire to the system to increase performance.
That being said, I still love this system. For the amount of $$$ that I spent on it, it easily was worth it, and I will buy another Panasonic when the time is right.
I own tons of these things, so I know everything. Really. 2002-02-13
Maybe I don't. However, I do own this bad boy. I call it bad because we have trouble with DVD playback and the fact that the speakers are hardwired and one of the wonder mutts has a love affair with wiring. We checked, but the vet doesn't remove teeth, just claws from cats. Luckily we live right up the road from someone who knows how to fix these things and has a license to do so. Unluckily, he thinks he should be paid for such activities and he doesn't accept dogs in payment. More often than we like we have trouble with playback on a DVD. It messes up frequently. We find that we have to clean it often, no the dog can't reach it, to keep the picture from disintegrating in seizure inducing fun.
The sound though, well just oh my gawd. I can lay in the middle of the living room and listen to the clarity with joy. Even better we can move the speakers to hang beside the half-deaf guy on the couch so we can actually turn down the volume.
Sweet system!!! 
2001-03-05
This is a sweet system. The reason I didn't give five stars is for one of the same reasons that someone else didn't. The speakers are hard wired and it does make it hard to run the wire. The other reason is because I have had a problem with mine! One night we were watching a sweet movie. The sound was great and everyone was into it. Then all of the sudden the sound turned off! The movie was still going but I couldn't hear any thing. When we turned it off and then on again it seemed to fix it. Then it did it again! So I took it in to get it fixed and they replaced a part in it that costs about $1.00. It didn't fix it. I have yet to have it fixed. Has any one else had this problem?
Excellent, Complete and Compact 
2001-02-20
This Home Theater System is the best. Complete (a receiver and DVD player with 5 speakers and subwoofer) that fits everywhere. This Panasonic system has all resources you will need !! I really recomend !!!!
Great Price, Great Sound and Visuals 2001-01-30
I bought the Panasonic SCHT80 for my mother for Christmas after doing some extensive research. I went to Bose and looked at their systems and Cambridge Sound, I checked out all of the on-line rating systems and even used Consumer Reports and all gave the Panasonic SCHT80 a great review. The sound is awesome and it is the most convenient thing to have a CD and DVD with speakers. I wanted to get my mother a system that was easy to use and understand. All I had to do was plug in the VCR and the Digital Cable box to the SCHT80 and you can watch television and hear it through the speakers on surround sound. On Christmas day when I got that bad boy out of the box and all hooked up it had even more than I had ever expected. I would recommend this to anyone who wants convenience, great sound, awesome visuals and all in one box with a price you can't beat.
HT80 good, not great 2005-12-31
Back in 2000, I purchased this system to be my all-in-one home theater. While $700 can now get you much, much more, this was a great system for me. Speakers are not overly powerful, but they are extremely easy to set up and run, good sound quality, and stylish. I have had it for almost 6 years and only complaint is a crappy DVD lense (reader). Some disks are stubborn, but still play. I typically troubleshooted by re-loading DVD until it would read. Then, I got smart and purchased a scotch DVD cleaner from BestBuy, which greatly helped.
Lastly, when Progressive Scan DVD players came down in price, I just bought one for cheap to get higher picture quality and ran sound through Panasonic (using as traditional receiver/speaker setup, not all-in one).
I have finally outgrown this set, but I do plan on running it in my bedroom as I replace with a higher-end, more digitally enabled system. Speakers are too weak for big family room, and no digital audio in/out or upconversion abilities.
Stay away from Panasonic! 
2004-12-24
Customer Service - the Panasonic website claims this is very important to them. I had my home theater only 3-4 months when a VCR tape got stuck. I has now been at the service center for almost 4 months! When I am lucky enough to get a response from Panasonic (which is rare), they make promises of completion and/or replacement. But promises won't play the DVD's my family would have liked to watch together over the holidays. When we finally got through to the customer service center on the phone, they had the nerve to hand up on us twice. IF YOU WANT A COMPANY TO STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCTS - STAY AWAY FROM PANASONIC!!! I have truly given up hope of even getting my home theater back from the Panasonic service center.
Do not buy 2003-12-22
Ok, the sound was good. Until a couple of weeks ago, that is. The latest CDs I bought will not play decently. The music is interrupted every couple of minutes by sounds that make you wonder if there is a record player inside (it sure is large enough...). Panasonic are saying I can have it repaired, which will cost me at least 40 dollars. Just about the price of a low end dvd player. You know, one of those systems that will play mp3, dvd, cd, cdr and cdrw instead of only dvds, like this Panasonic thing. Based on my experience and some of the other reviews it would seem Panasonic equipment lasts about 2 years. Hmmm.
SC-HT80 will NOT play new DVD and CDS 2003-09-13
I own a Panaconic SC-HT80. For the first 2 years no problem. Paid almost $700. Now it will not read any new CD's or DVD's. You can not use a rewritten CD on the system. Renting from Blockbuster is a hit or miss if DVD's will play. My local repair person tells me there is nothing wrong with the unit. Panasonic will not offer any spport. Buyer beware!!!!!!
DVD reader goes out after 2 years of use due to heat! 2003-01-05
Do not buy this player if you are considering it. It was nice for a couple of years but the DVD player Optical pickup unit(which from what I've read, commonly goes out on Panasonic) is failing. It was nice to get everything in one package but I recommend not getting an amp and DVD player in one case due to the heat issues. And I am now in the process of replacing this unit with Sony components(I should have done from the start!)
