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Home Theater in a Box

These five all-in-one systems pack cinema-style sound, DVD players, and more--just add popcorn, a big-screen TV, and your favorite movie.

Michael Gowan

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Onkyo HT-777

Gateway Gateway KAS-303 and Connected DVD

Toshiba Toshiba Sd-V55HT

Philips LX3750W Home Theater

Panasonic SC-HT720

Chart: Home Theater Sets: Convenient, Feature Rich

Click to view full-size image.

Photograph: Kevin Candland
Setting up a home theater system--the audio and video components that bring the movie experience into your living room--is a real pain. Should you get 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 speakers? And what do all of these numbers mean anyway? What's a watt, and how many do you need for a 6.1 speaker system? What kind of digital connection to the DVD player should you use--optical or coaxial? S-Video or component video? Ugh. A few years ago someone had a great idea: Put all the components for a home theater into a single package. The simplicity of the concept--not to mention affordable prices--made it easy for the masses to jump on the home-theater bandwagon.

I tried five home-theater-in-a-box units--Gateway's KAS-303 & Connected DVD Player Bundle, Onkyo's HT-S777C, Panasonic's SC-HT720, Philips's LX3750, and Toshiba's SD-V55HT--and found that today's models improve on the original concept. Current HTiBs combine simplicity with prices as low as $299 (see chart)--and with features that only a year or two ago were available only in high-end systems. I particularly admired the fine audio qualities of our Best Buy model, Onkyo's HT-S777C, which comes with excellent speakers and a six-disc DVD changer--a component that continues to command a significant premium in a stand-alone DVD player.

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