Thoughts of the inarticulate.
My thoughts, which I'm no good at articulating.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Panasonic SC-HT65 with the FX65 Wireless Add On

I picked up a Panasonic SC-HT65 A/V receiver with speakers pack, and the FX65 Wireless add-on for wireless rear speakers.

Its quite a neat, cheap package that has 2 HDMI ins and the option to purchase the wireless add-on pack to remove the need for front of room to back of room speaker wire.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Its not fantastic, but its not bad either, and the price is right (I got it for $599, plus $30 for the add-on).

My major, quite significant problem was the wireless speakers interfered with the wireless home network. Seriously interfered. Anything near the A/V receiver and wireless speaker receiver while it was on would lose access to the network (i.e. laptops, PS3).

After much fiddling around with channels on the network, I found that channel 3 seemed to work without a hitch. Problem solved.

I only did this about 30 minutes ago, and so far so good (every other channel had fails immediately) so fingers crossed.

If the interference problem isn't fixed, I couldn't recommend this unit. If it is fixed, then I think this is a very reasonable setup for a reasonable price. Other than the interference with other networks, the wireless works a treat and really does save a lot in not having wires running all over your lounge room.

Anyway, network still working well, and hopefully this is some useful information for anyone else with the same setup having the same problem. It may not be many people though as the FX65 wireless add on wasn't a popular option and is now very difficult to find as all retailers have stopped ordering them. I picked mine up on the bargain table at Dick Smith for $30, their last unit. They usually retail for over $100 I believe.

Update: Unfortunately the interference continues. I'm assuming the FX65 switches between various channels trying to find the rear speaker receiver. There really is no need for it to be so aggressive and so easily completely wipe out the wireless network. The PS3 and laptops can't even come close to connecting to the router.

I'm officially disappointed with the HT65 and particularly the FX65. If you need wireless rears, wait till they work out how to do it well, or maybe try infrared. Would be interested to know what experience other people have had with that.

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