Price

remote

After many days researching what dvd player to buy, I purchased the Panasonic 120A over Ebay. I condsider myself an DVD enthusiast, I have over 50 movies in my collection. I watch 2-3 movies every weekend. None during the week. The back of the unit says it was manufactured Oct. 1999. I had it for about 2 months. Towards the end of watching "On Any Given Sunday" the unit just froze-up. The counter stopped and the picture screen went blank. None of the buttons responded. Same symptoms after powering down then back up. I consider this unit a total failure. I would not recommend it to anyone. I would not touch it with a 20-foot pole. If I could give it ZERO stars I would. Sad, since Panasonic is suppose to be considered some of the better equipment out there. Not sure what brand to consider next.
I will have to start researching all over again.

I just purchased this unit and the model number has a U at the end of it. The manufacture date on the box is early May. It looks a bit different from the earlier version. You can check Crutchfields Web page as theyhave the picture of the new model up. The remote is also changed. Has no cheap buttons or connectors. So far I love it, I've watched three movies and it has performed flawlessly. Hopefully the pixelization problem was fixed. I played one rental DVD that had a few scratches on it. It didn't have a problem

I have had this DVD player for about two months and and have had no problemsto speak of, I did notice a slight break between layers on the 12 Monkeys DVD
other than that this unit is fine, I paid 289.00 delivered to my door the
before it was available at any consumer goods merchant.

This is in response to JTD. Connect your DVD player to your receiver's digital input and select bitstream and DTS yes on the DVD player's set-up menu. Connect the analog stereo output to a free set of inputs on the receiver (Tape 2, etc.). The reason to do this is because 96 kHz/24 bit is only available at the analog outputs. This player, like most (except Pioneer), down converts 96/24 to 48/16 at its digital outputs because of copy-protection concerns (thanks to the paranoid record co.s), not for any technical reasons. Therefor you need to use a digital output for DD and DTS, and analog to use the built in 96/24 DACs. By the way, I have the DVD-A110 (for about a year now) and never encountered the pixellization problem except on scratched rented discs (but the disc is at fault, not the player). Except for cosmetics, and the addition of component video out, these seem to be identical machines. Maybe there are QC problems with the 120, but my 110 has be trouble free in more than a year of use. Hope this helps you.

The Panasonic DVD-A120 is the first DVD player that I've owned. As most people, I wanted to get the biggest bang for the buck. This DVD player IMHO is terrific! Mostly, I'm comparing this two my VCR. With my VCR, I have a 2-speed viewable fast forward and rewind. The DVD player has a multi-speed fast forward and rewind but unlike my VCR, I can not switch back to slower speed without playing first. IOW, on my VCR, I press FFW once to go speed1, and again for speed2, then again for speed1. With the DVD player, FFW once for speed1, again for speed2, again for speed3, etc... but you can't slow back down (e.g., go from speed3 back to speed2). This is something I guess I just have to deal with.
On the positive side, the FFW speed1 has audio! This is really cool! You can get the gist of the movie conversation from the blurbs of sound at speed1.
I haven't seen any video shadowing or pixelation with any of my movies. I use s-video directly to my TV. I've read that they improved the performance of the MPEG video decompression on the DVD-A120 model.
All in all, I think this is a great DVD player and especially easy on my credit line at $300. Sure, there may be other better DVD players out there, but I give this DVD player 5 stars since you really get more than you pay for!

~ Mark (QAZ) -- Satisfied Customer

This is the 4th day into my onwership of the Panasonic A120. I have not read any of the reviews posted here before I made my decision to purshase this unit. Had I had the chance to read the horror stories regarding the pixelization I might have reconsidered, but alas, now it is too late. Sadly I must report that I too experienced picture breakup and pixelization(if there is such a word). I experienced severe breakup and pixelization when watching BLADE. I was very shocked and distressed at this. I wiped the disk down a few times and saw a great reduction in the amount of pixelization, however after a couple of replays of that particular problematic chapter the pixelization quickly returned. After having read the unfavorable reviews regarding this problem, I am now going to go and return this player and will replace it with the JVC XV 501. I have only managed to play about 5 different DVD's on this unit, all worked fine but Blade. I do not however wish to engage in a game of russian roulette when it comes to my DVD and the movies I buy. I also do not wish to have the hassle of having to exessively clean my disks before playing them. This player either has a flaw, or is way too sensitive whne it comes to dust and smudges. I was happy with the sound and picture quality when it worked. Also, I also thought that the remote sucked. Anyway, I cannot recommend this player due to that particular problem with the pixelization. I will review the JVC when I get it.

This was my first DVD player. Purchased it from Good Guys, and boy is it cool. Got it for $327 and it's loaded with options... DTS/DD ready, optical output, S-Video, Component, Coaxial.

Remote sucks. Tiny buttons. I have tiny asian hands and I still have problems. I constantly have to look at the remote to do things. Can you say "Sony RM-AV2000??" I knew you could...

ANYWAYS, I can't vouch for the audio part of player as i dont have a real stero system yet, so I shall leave it for another person to comment on.

The video is great.... EXCEPT... I've experienced a lot of pixelation problems with it. First, it would pixelize the spinning globe scene of the intro to Armageddon. I exchanged discs, the problem didnt go away. Next, it wouldn't even access the menu screen of boogie nights (brand new as well). So I exchanged the player after a couple weeks for the same model. The Boogie Nights/ Armageddon problems are gone, but when I try to play my brand new copy of Usual Suspects, i get more pixelation problems, this time in Chapter 3 when they are introducing the characters... I cant even acces chapter 4!

I don't know what to do. I like the player a lot, except for the glitching. I dont know if its a "panasonic" thing, or a "new model" thing, or a "contaminated batch of players" thing, or a "drugged out stock boy dropping all the players and restocking them on the shelves" thing.

800.com has the player for $350, but then you get $50 worth of movies from them for free, and then you get 5 predetermined movies from panasonic.

sigh. if anyone can tell me why these problems exist on a 4th gen model please let me know.

-tony tran
ninjaboy@ugcs.caltech.edu

Few good set of features, but nothing great

Can not play CD-R,having problems with DTS and I could not record DVD to VCR.

So far it is working fine with regular DVDs and CD's. Recently I tried DVD with is DTS capable and my home theater is DTS capable but it could not produce any audio, picture comes though.

Another surprising fact, I tried to copy some portions of the DVD picture actions to VCR and I could not record the picture or audio - really sucks here. Any one having this problem, and how to solve it please drop few words.

Inexpensive DVD player, '3rd Generation'

Freezed up after 1 year when warranty expires

Bought this unit in August 99 and was able to play DVDs, VCDs but not CDRs. Froze one day and came up with a screen stating 'This type of disc cannot be played. Please insert a different disc.' when DVD movies are inserted. Will play VCDs. Panasonic referred me to local service center that quoted $159.95 to look at it. I have not been able to watch DVD movies since last April.
The remote is not too bad. Apex and Philip remotes are even worse.
If someone knows how to reset please send me the directions.
Thanks.
Calvin

Similar Products Used:

APEX A-600A
Philip DVD-770

Excellent video & audio

Non that I have encountered

We purchased this unit in March 1999. It has been flawless. I have read other reviews concerning problems with discs over 2 hours in length, but have not experienced it. You do need to read the manual though. DTS is not enabled when you remove it from the box. You must enable it through the setup.