I bought a Panasonic SC-BTT270 Home Theater from Noel Leeming Invercargill yesterday and I was hoping to have it ready to roll later that day.

More the fool me.

It all started after I hooked up the HDMI cable to the receiver in that it would only show the screen for around 3-5 seconds before cutting out.

The same thing happened when I removed the HDMI and tried the supplied RCA video cable even though I was able to get it to keep the picture up long enough to download the latest firmware.

When the unit cut out with either cable the display would still show "HOME" and the only thing working was the volume. The DVD tray would neither open or close unless powered down and unplugged for 60 seconds.

The main screen froze on three occasions and it was the same pixellated type of screen every time.

And the remote control code had to be changed due to a conflict with my Freeview HD recorder but when I checked it later, after a successful run earlier, the remote was inoperable.

Even the Freeview remote could work it and even this failed later.

This morning, after having unplugged it overnight, the receiver failed to load up the main screen and kept flashing "Please wait".

Panasonic may make good products but this one clearly slipped through quality control.

I am of the belief that the internal software in the unit (possibly Java) is faulty and it is causing the malfunctions above. I'm returning to Leemings tomorrow.