Looking for good HTIB for under $400

Nothing in your budget has Dolby TrueHD, or DTS-MA. But you don't really need those features if your Blu-ray player can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA HD. Having a BD player that can decode the HD codecs will open up some more choices for you

If you are willing to spend $450 I might be able to setup with something

The Onkyo HT-S3300 will be able to accept LPCM audio so you would just have to let your Bluray player do the decoding

The Onkyo HT-S3300 does Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio Decoding.

http://www.us.onkyo.com/model.cfm?m=...ss=Systems&p=i

I am thinking about picking one of these up myself, and it would be in the budget you are looking for. The high end of the budget, but still in it.

try looking at dakmart.com they have the denon 590BA there and for a price with shipping being right over your budget. This way, if you ever get the upgrade bug, you can always upgrade the speakers or the sub
or if you dont care about upgrading, you could go with the onkyo HT-S3300 or the sony HTSS370

the sony Hts370 will decode the hd codecs over LPCM sent by you bluray player, the onky, which would be the better choice, last time i checked, is going for 400

in that case i would definitely jump on the onkyo then, as long as that fills all your needs, that is great price

Since you are looking for a "simple" system, check out the Panasonic SC-BT200 HTIB. It lacks bells and whistles, such as additional HDMI inputs, but it is an all-in-one that includes a Blu-Ray player. 6th Ave Electronics has it for 50 bucks below your top budget number.

This is a 7.1 system rather than a 5.1, so that could be an issue for you if the additional two rear speakers are not set up. I have not figured out how or if it downmixs 7.1 tracks into the surrounds when the rears are not connected. Also, I think the DTS-HD only occurs when playing a disc on the built-in Blu-Ray player, not from any of the other audio inputs.

Here is a review:
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Panasonic_SC-BT200_Blu-ray_Theater.shtml

Panasonic also shows a similar model (with a much lower retail) on their website called the SC-BT228 which is a 5.1 system and no internet connection. I have yet to find any vendors so I am thinking it has not been released yet.

Some of the Costco stores are selling a similar system by Sony called the BDV-T11 that is right at the top of your budget. This is basically the same as the more common Sony BDV-300, but with slightly less power and a little bit smaller speakers.

These units fall in to the Ron Propeil "Set It and Forget It" class of products. If you are planning to do enhancements, upgrades, inputing mulitple components, etc, then this product class may not be a good choice.

I have the Panasonic SC-BT228 and it sounds excellent. Granted it's only for our cabin, I have it hooked up to a vizio and the pic and sound are perfect for a med to small family room. The only prob I'm having is setting up my direct tv remote to control it..

The Sony (if we're talking about the SS360 or SS370) does have a smaller format receiver though and it has a mic/room auto-calibration as advantages. The I/O capability is about the same even with the slim receiver. On the other hand the full-size/real receiver with the Onkyo can be seen as an advantage as well. Guess it just depends on space. If you don't have the space for a full-size receiver or don't want one that big, the Sony becomes the better choice.