Appearance, Ease of Use, Component Video Outputs, Burr-Brown 24/96 DACs, Great Remote, Good Manual

As with all current DVD players, it doesn't play CDRs. It doesn't pass a Plug signal for use with Video Essentials.

I have had no problems with my player. I watch numerous movies, at least 5 per week. I own over 130 DVDs. Sometimes, I will watch 2 to 3 in a day. I use the player constantly. It has never failed me. And I use the fast forward and the pause, slow, etc. liberally. I paid $479 in October of 1998 to Onecall.com for the player. I have it connected througn its component outputs to a professionally calibrated (by an Images Sciences trained technican) Toshiba H97 Cinema Series 36 inch TV. The picture is incredibly good. Better than most theaters that I go to. It has 5 fast and slow forwards and backwards speeds. This beats my Toshiba 2108, which only has 3. I have over 1,000 CDs and when I want to listen to them in increased detail, I play them on the A310 in order to take advantage of the Burr-Brown DACs on board. Perfectly clear sound. This product was a steal at the price at that time. It was easy to setup and get going. Because it has an on board decoder of 24/96 signals, I can take advantage of the 6-Channel Direct connection on my receiver and listen to 24/96 DVD audios in real 24/96 unadultered form. It flows straight through to my Marantz MA700s. Try "Hobo" or "Sex Without Bodies", its like being there! I bought the player on the basis of the reviews in SGHT, Sound&Vision, and Home Theater Magazine. I have no regrets about my purchase.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2108, which is my other DVD player.

Many great features. Nice menu layout and remote control.
Good video quality. Excellent CD playback sound quality.

RELIABILITY!

I've owned this player for almost 2 years now and it seems that it's now ready for the junkyard. It has been in for repairs at the Panasonic (Forest Park, Ohio) Service Center twice. I had it repaired about 8 months ago for about $100 (plus approx. $40 in shipping charges). The repair would have been $290 plus shipping, but the cost of parts was waived because the problems were occurring in the warranty period (the player stopped working completely 3 weeks after the 1 year warranty was up). The replacement part was the traverse unit which caused "no disc" to appear when inserting any disk. It was also repaired under warranty for problems with the built-in Dolby Digital decoder. The bass management has never worked correctly. Bass should be routed the subwoofer when all speakers are set to "small", but this player has never done that!
The people I spoke with at the Panasonic repair center were helpful to me. I made many phone calls and wrote several letters to make sure things were kept on track however.
Needless to say, I'm very disappointed to be experiencing problems again (pixelization and frozen image this time).
I have had two other Panasonic products fail me very early that I had to get repaired also. Even though I was treated fairly by the repair center, I have better things to spend my time and money on. I can't afford Panasonic/Technics products because of the problems, so I will not buy another.

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Sony DVP-S530D

Interesting design and featre set for an early model

Laser assembly - warranty - factory support

A great player out of the box, it started hanging at the layer change. 92 days after I bought it it, it went in for service (february 200)and that is the last I have seen of it - Panasonic seems totally disinterested in covering the repair - I mean I am 2 days out of warranty and half the western world has had the same problem so why not bury their heads in the sand? I work in the industry and have experience with Sony, Pioneer (I own a DVL91), Apex (I own a 600), Madrigal etc and this is really unfortunate!!

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Sony/Pioneer/Apex

Does everything the manual claims

None that I've found

I read many of these reviews before I purchased my A310. I was surprised to find so many negatives and weaknesses (especially after so many glowing reviews it received from the audio press). I must say, after one year of use, I've had ZERO problems with the Panasonic A310! I read the manual thoroughly and then properly setting up my preferences & adjustments. I've had no problems with the remote, widescreen DVD's, other formats, 5.1-DD, 5.1-DTS, channel balance and levels or optic/coaxial output. I haven't played every DVD under the sun, but there has been no problems with the 2-3 DVD's I've rented and played each week for over a year now. It's still going strong with no problems and it does everything I need. I guess I got a "good" unit.

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A whole lot of em'

Fantastic picture and sound quality... when working

Only has a one year life span

My story seems to be quite similar to the others posted here, but I still felt like my two cents should be tossed into the pot.

I purchased my A310 two years ago (almost to the month). Of course, one year after purchase, I began experiencing the pixelation problems. Luckily, I still had one month left on my warranty and I took my player to an authorized service center where they replaced my optical unit and upgraded the firmware for the low, low price of $100 (labor). At the time, I also extended my warranty for another year for $50.

Now, up until a week ago, my player was doing great. Then, once again, one year later (i just got my warranty renewal info in the mail), the pixelation problems have reappeared. I think this time I'll use the next repair fees to put a down payment on a new player.

Looks like I've got a nice looking, $700 paperweight. Never again, Panasonic, never again.

Karoake

None

I was amazed to hear of all the problems people are having with this unit. In the two years I've owned this product, I haven't had any type of pixelization or breakdown in picture quality. This unit has worked flawlessly for me.

I own more than 75 DVDs and all of them have played in the unit without skipping or pixelizing. To put it bluntly: I LOVE THIS UNIT! My friends tell me all the time the problems they have with their DVD players and I'm always proud to say that mine works 100% after 2 years with any titles I've used with it.

Perhaps I'm one of the lucky ones who managed to get a unit that was not "defective".

One things for sure though, after reading about how poor Panasonic's customer service is and how many problems people are having with the unit, I'll probably buy a Toshiba DVD player next time around just to be safe.

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This is my first and only DVD player

features, decoders

pixelation

i am finding that my a-310 is having as much problems as others that have been posted here (i should have come here first) i bought it open box at circuitcity for $399. since i have had the player for less than a month, i have watched 10-15 dvds and all seem fine except for some noticable frame freezes (alien, enemy of the state, 13th floor) and most noticable was the pixelation on "the matrix". the dvd would play fine, then freeze up, especially while watching the white rabbit version. i tried a second and third version of the dvd (on recommendations) from others, but still the same pixelation. it has only played without problem 3 out of 16 or so times. after reading all the reviews on the model, i think that the cons outweigh the pros and i dont want to get stuck with major problems and headaches down the road. since i have not had the unit yet for 30 days, i am returning it and will probably go with sony or onkyo.

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none, this was my first player

5.1, DTS, price

Doesn't work

Well, I got it almost a year ago, and it had worked pretty well, it was very sensetive to any smudges. I had a lot of dvd's that would pixelate. Yesterday it just gave out. cannot read DVD's reads cd's ok, but the DVD's come back No play.

Oh well, time to buy a different brand.

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None

Great Picture and sound quality

Not work

The first 4 months, the player worked absolutely perfect. Then the pixelation started and after two hours of use, it won't take dvd,s, only cd's and even I can not turned it off with the remote. I recomended it to a friend and imagine the surprise, that about the same time it started with the same problems.

I had to take the unit to a local Panasonic customer service
and they said, in time that the "optic" (something like that)was broke. I was traying to make the point that the unit get out from the manufacturer with this problem and if I have to pay for labor, well they gave me this bla, bla, bla and ended up paying $60.00 for labor. Since then is working fine!

Looks pretty outside

Doesn't work at all Now.

Well had our K510 - (the $700 version of the 310
accept it has Karaoke) For 1 year and 2 months.
Problems have been mostly disc related before
with "The Man in the Iron mask" Pizels and chpt skipping.
We were watching "Replacement Killers" 1 hour into DVD
Screen froze and will not recognise ANY DVD or CD.
What a piece of crap. I trotted back to Video Only
where I bought it they just gave me the Panasonic
1-888 number and sent us packing.
Called 1-888 the guy said he would'nt tell me what
it might be that I would have to bring it into be
serviced some 30 miles away.
*** We need to take this to the top ***
Panasonic is stealing our money.
If this was a car it would be recalled.

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Pioneer LD