I may sound pretty 'whack' saying this, but because of reading several reviews before my purchase a few months ago, I'd heard that the Logitech Z680 system, which is primarily for PC use, can also be used for home theater. The z680s are a 5.1 system, THX certified, and they absolutely rock. Depending on when they were made, they carry frm 480 to 500 watts. It's a shame that I still have neighbors on the other side of my theater wall; I can only set my sub to about 3/10 of max (seriously!). I fear angry neighbors. The bass response is superb. Satellites on the z680s are pretty crisp. Some of the best features are the inputs and decoding: digital coax and optical inputs to decode Dolby Digital and DTS. The freaky thing is that the control center for the z680s is about the size of your hand. If you're not too keen on having another large piece of equipment to place who knows where, this is a great solution. I believe that the z680s are not being manufactured anymore, but there are still plenty of places to find them online.
The Z680 and similar Creative and Klipsch products (Mega/GigaWorks, Promedia) are fine speakersystems with a small price and size and still nice sound quality. They're not hifi, but a lot better than most of those receiver-dvd-speaker combinations from Sony, JVC, Pioneer etc. THX doesn't usually matter, but in this case the Multimedia-THX certified products are way better than the others.