Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the SC-HT830V is ready to deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. The result is remarkably crisp movies that look as good as the films in your local multiplex. Further video enhancements include a selectable aspect ratio; a Cinema mode that reduces glare, softens resolution, and improves detail in dark scenes; and a depth enhancer that reduces image background noise and ensures true-to-life skin tones.

The DVD player/changer is compatible with a wide range of other disc formats as well, including DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, and CD-R/RW, as well as HighMAT, JPEG, MP3, and WMA file formats. The incorporated High-Performance Media Access Technology (HighMAT) provides an enhanced method of storing, arranging, and playing back personal digital photo, music, and video collections on recordable discs such as CD-RW media. The DVD-Audio compatibility, on the other hand, is particularly pleasing to audiophiles, as the super-high-fidelity (192 kHz/24-bit) discs offer multichannel and stereo sound, incredible storage capacity, and unique bonus materials not available on regular audio CDs.

From an audio perspective, users can enjoy 5.1-channel surround sound thanks to the built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoders. The Dolby Pro Logic II decoder also contributes by converting traditional two-channel sources into five-channel output. The receiver also boasts a dialogue enhancer, which increases the volume of the center channel during Dolby Digital 5.1 movies so you can better hear the conversations.

Finally, the four-head hi-fi VCR offers such functions as commercial skip, which fast forwards until the break is over, and a 600x high-speed rewind. Add in the digital AM/FM tuner, which sports 30 total station presets (10 AM and 20 FM), and you'll have a ton of components from which to choose. You can add more, as well, by taking advantage of the single composite video input and output, component video output, S-video output, or dual analog audio inputs.

Rounding out the package are the pair of two-way Tall Boy bass reflex front speakers--each of which comes with its own height-adjustable stand--the one-way rear satellite speakers, the two-way center speaker, and the powered subwoofer. All the speakers are magnetically shielded against video interference, so you can safely locate them near the TV.

The system's receiver/DVD player measures 16.94 by 4.12 by 13.94 inches (W x H x D), while the front satellites check in at 8.56 by 42.5 by 9.5 inches. Other measurements include 3.56 by 7.5 by 4.62 inches for the rear speakers, 12.62 by 3.94 by 3.75 inches for the center speaker, and 7.88 by 14.44 by 19.38 inches for the subwoofer. The entire system is backed by a 90-day warranty on parts and labor.

What's in the Box
Five-disc DVD/VCR combo with integrated amplifier/receiver, two front speakers with adjustable stands, two surround speakers, center channel speaker, subwoofer, remote control, speaker cables, warranty card, user's manual.