Price

Terrible operation problems

I bought this machine brand new from an authorized dealer and 2 (Deep blue Sea & American Pie) out of the first 4 new dvds I tried have not played properly. They both would hang up, going black without picture or sound for a few seconds during play. Unfortunately I didn't read all the reviews for this product before I bought it. I give it one star because I have to now take it back to the store.

Excellent player, much better downconversion then the 2109. Faster access then the 414, and no lipsync or flicker.

I agree that the A120 is a very good unit for the price. My model though is the A120-U Anyone know if there's a difference? I'm still trying to figure out how to set the digital output in the initial setup. I have a DD DTS receiver and it suggests selecting YES to LPCM 96K-48K for DD DTS equipment, but then it adds below " to hear high quality sound do not connect to the digital outputs, use the audio outputs" WHAT? I thought the whole point was to get digital sound. OK, I know I'm missing something, but what is it? What's this about downsampling? I am new to the DVD stuff so don't slam me! I do like what I hear though and I've tried both YES and NO to that setup parameter and i really don't hear a difference. I'm only giving it a 4 because of the poor manual IMHO.

The first DVD-A120 I purchased played movies flawlessly until I rented "The Postman" and when it got to chapter 14 it started to pixelize really bad until it finally stopped playing. I thought it was the disk so when I explained the problem to Blockbuster video, they opened a brand new case and gave that one to me. Well, sure enough, at track 14 it started to do the same thing. Being less than one month old, I brought the unit back to SoundTrack where I purchased it. My salesman listened to me explain the problem and said it was probably a bad set of disks, I asked if we could play the disk (I had brought it with me) on his demo unit. We did that and found that the DVD played flawlessly on their demo unit, he then gladly exchanged my player for a new one, which when I got home and hooked up ran and played "The Postman " just fine. I have played about 10 other movies on the DVD player all of which had no problem with the old unit.
I would consider the DVD-A120 and entry level unit, and so my rating is based on a comparison of those units. The picture quality is outstanding, blacks are clear and concise. The 5 different fast forward and rewind speeds are outstanding. Audio can still be heard at 2x. Pressing pause freezes the frame entirely with no jitter or shake. This unit is both AC-3 and DTS compatible as long as you have a decoder in your receiver (or other hardware). Dolby Digital is outstanding and a must have for any HT buff. I have just ordered a Denon AVR-3600DTS receiver and anxiously await to hear how much better (if any) DTS is over AC-3. Tray loading is very fast.

This unit lacks a seperate laser pick up for CD's, but plays them fairly well. It also lacks a zoom feature that Toshiba has. Because of this and the fact that my first unit was defective I rate it a 4. The remote is laid out nicely and not too big. You will be very happy with this unit, but due to my problem with the first unit, I would suggest you play a copy of "The Postman " and see if it has problems after chapter 14. In lieu of this, I would be wary of buying a unit mail order since it's such a pain to exchange via mail. I picked this unit up for $315 on sale at SoundTrack in Boulder, CO. That was a better deal than I could get mail order. For the price, I would suggest this unit to anyone.

I ordered this player to replace my Toshiba 2109. The 2109 did a TERRIBLE job with downconversion and the Panasonic does a better job. Well, while i was waiting for this puppy to arrive, I saw it at a local store and asked for a demo on a Sony 32" V Series (what i have at home). It was definitely better than the 2109 but I felt it was not THAT much better. And to top it off, the A120 is BUTT ULGY and VERY cheap-feeling. I mean, the buttons would be pressed on the unit and you could hear the spring rebounding inside. Very flimsy. Then I demo'ed the new Sony 550 side by side and the Sony blew it out of the water. If you're like me and you are more concerned with the player's normal-play performance than with the bells n'whistles and free promotional stuff, check out the Sony. I also wrote reviews for the Sony 550 and the Toshiba 2109 in their respective areas. Emails are welcome. Sorry Panasonic, but make a nicer, sleeker looking unit (black or silver?) and put some $$$ into a well-built machine with solid buttons and controls and I'll give you more than 3 stars.

I bought the Panasonic A-120 about 2-3 weeks ago. Haven't had a problem with it. It was really a toss up between the Pioneer 414 and JVC 501VBK. I guess the only reason why I got the A-120 was because the lack of problems are being reported. And to my knowledge, this unit haven't 'freak' out on me yet. The only thing I regret is that the unit is not capable of playing any type of CDR or CDRW. (I've tried about 10-15 different manufacture and model CDR/CDRW). Otherwise the unit is great.
The remote is straight forward, you get to control everything from there. Even though I wish the front panel dimmer was just a touch of a button away. Pretty much all the settings are menu driven. So anything that needs to be change, you'll need to get to the setup menu.

The unit will pass DD/DTS info, and it has the new Component Video output for higher end TV. And let me tell you, the video quality from S-Video to Component Video is unmatchable!!!

Conclusion, if this baby would have played CDR/CDRW it truly deserve a 5, but unfortunately I'll have to give it a 4.

I received the A120 on Friday. Hooked it up and was very happy. Played "Tomorrow Never Dies" flawlessly. I haven't had too much time to mess around with it yet, but it also seemed to do well with "Air Force One" and "Mission: Impossible". The problem came with "Rush Hour". Starting around chapter 16 or so, pixalization (sp?) was horrible (this is my first DVD player, and first time I'd seen pixalization. I didn't think it would be quite that bad!). Sound cut in and out. Definitely not watchable. By the way, the DVD is brand new (just opened it). I'm going to try to play on a few other DVD players. If they play it, I'm sending this one back. Any suggestions on what to buy if I do?

I love my A120 DVD play. It basicly has all of the features as A310 except the buit-in Digital Dobby decoder. Since I am using the decoder within the Yamaha 2095 receiver anyway, it really work out well. The quality of this unit is excellent, I played both DD and DTS encoded DVDs, I have no problem at all. For about $350, I don't think there is any other product come in close.

I have used the A120 for three days. I am having trouble with pixelization(such a word?) and momentary pauses between chapters. I noticed an earlier review which had similar problems which were related to a defective player. I'm ready to switch to the new Sony's. I tried the JVC 501 but found the machine very slow to respond to commands and a little too complicated for family to enjoy.

Comments would be appreciated.

middlton@starlink.com
Jim Middleton

Like this player a lot. Compared it to Toshiba's 2109 and Pioneer's 414. It compared the following:
Picture Quality:
1. A120 2. 414 3. 2109
Error Correction:
1. A120 2. 2109 3. 414
Audio Quality:
Couldn't tell any difference
Disc Loading Speed:
1. A120 2. 414 3. 2109
Onscreen Menus, options, features:
1. A120 2. Couldn't decide

Picture Quality was determined on a Panasonic (4:3) thirty something inch direct view ($1700) that had a true black screen and almost flat picture tube.
The panasonic excelled, the 2109 looked good but moving objects next to still objects gave a almost a animated texture look. The 414 looked EXCELLENT very competitive with the A120 (maybe even a little nicer), but has some border flickers on certain movies whereas the A120 did not.

For error correction we took two discs one of which was The Wedding Singer, it was scratched VERY badly and fingerprinted even worse. The A120 played with no problems, The 2109 required ejecting it twice then it picked it up and the 414 required cleaning the finger prints off and several attempts, but mostly would read the disc at all.

Disc loading speed is a simple test, the A120 beats any of the players by 200%-1000% depending on the disc.

Menus for the A120 a nice, clear and adjusting config is very easy. It has a black level setter to 0 IRE and works VERY well with 3rd party remotes because of the FF and slow buttons are the same buttons but operate differently depending on if your paused or playing.

Display of Anamorphic DVDs on 16X9 screens is superb on the A120.

Only complaint is that it lacks a few features the Sonys have done really well like auto AC3 track pickup, Jog Shuttle.

I wouldn't give it a 5 for performance but since this is a value rating in my opinion I will give it a 5 for value.