Hi
Home Theatre in a Box or HTiBs as they are known are those compact systems which house everything together like DVD/Blu Ray + FM + System and has 2 speakers...these are not really TRUE home theatres....models like Panasonic, Sony, LG and Samsung are available at local departmental stores....These will not provide the awesome experience you would want to expect....
Entry level Home Theatre packages would be the Yamaha YHT 199 or 198 or YHT 298 or YHT 299...the rates would differ from anything between in India from 25k onwards till 35k.....Here there is a decent entry level Yamaha AVR (audio video receiver) and matching speakers...sounds good enough....then as you increase your budget, you can look at making combinations of different AVRs and speakers.....like for example, I use a Marantz AVR and Boston Acoustic Soundware 5.1 speakers which costed me approx. INR 50k purchased last year....
Fortunate for all of us there are ample Home Theatre dealers around us and you can take your favourite CD / DVD / Blu Ray and go window shopping to see which one performs to your expectations and budget....remember there are many models and brands available...you need to make a list of the ones you like...you can then get back to HFV to ask for further guidance....the internet also has ample reviews and videos of world wide users which can help you take the right decision....
You can click on my user name to see posts related to Home Theatres ...also you can search posts of Yamaha users or first time Home Theatre buyers on this forum.
I use a Pioneer Blu Ray player and you should consider the BDP 160...this player reads all formats of Discs and also plays content like music, FLAC, Movies, etc from an external Hard Disk (1TB)....MKVs play fine.....
All the best...
