JVC's TH-P3 is the cheapest DVD home cinema kit here, though only by one pound. Everything in the box feels a little lightweight for our liking. The subwoofer, like many here, is driven by the main unit rather than having its own amplifier. The satellite speakers are small and square and are only rated at 40W. Unusually, the centre speaker is the same shape, but since it's rated at 100W you shouldn't have any trouble hearing any quiet dialogue.
The speakers and subwoofer have captive speaker wires that connect to spring terminals on the main unit. The only video connector provided is a SCART socket, so there's no progressive scan or upscaled HD video on offer. The SCART socket provides
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a good picture, although we got a better picture on our LCD TV from the component and HDMI sources on some of the other units. The SCART socket is bi-directional, however, and can therefore receive and output an audio signal from your TV.
One major downside of the TH-P3 is its terrible remote control. It's packed with loads of identically sized tiny buttons, many of which have multiple functions. The labelling isn't clear, either, and we repeatedly struggled to find the correct button.
Although the TH-P3 is supposedly capable of displaying photo and video files from a USB storage device, we couldn't get our test files to work. We managed to play MP3 audio files from the USB drive, however.
Audio quality was reasonable given the kit's low price. It seemed underpowered in the mid-range, with a noticeable gap between the satellites and subwoofer. Surround-sound effects didn't flow from one speaker to the next as much as we'd like, giving a feeling of separate speakers rather than an encompassing sound stage.
The TH-P3 isn't a terrible kit given its very low price. However, its poor remote control and SCART-only video output both count against it. If you're looking for surround sound on a budget, then Philips' HTS3154 is a better choice in every respect.
