I have owned my Panasonic A310 for about a year and a half now. I'm using it with a Marantz SR-18 receiver and a Sony Trinitron TV. It started out to be an excellent player, playing every disc I gave it flawlessly, in both AC3 and DTS. A few months ago, my player started having problems which (from what it sounds like) is a common thing. There are little glitches, extreme pixelation, sound skips, and then the player either hangs or skips the chapter. This problem is getting worse and worse. I'm very upset about these problems in a player of this caliber and I will NEVER buy a Panasonic product again if they don't fix this at their expense. I'm fed up.

Excellent picture (excellent resolution and color; superbly low video and color-decoder noise).

Short-lived.

After two years and three months of delivering excellent video, our A310 developed the infamous pixelization problem. DVDs recently became unwatchable on the unit. It became routine to start viewing a DVD on the Panasonic until it refused to play the disc, then taking that disc into another room to finish watching the movie via our Sony 7000 player (which is over three years old and always performs flawlessly).

The Panasonic has very disappointing longevity, especially considering that our A310 has been used to play only about 2-3 movies a month.

I called Panasonic's Langhorne, PA, factory service center to ask about repairs. I was told the cost to replace the laser assembly was $117 plus $90 labor. Obviously, there's no point in spending $207 in repairs (which may or may not cure the problem), plus shipping, when a brand-new player costs only a little more.

No more Panasonic DVD players for us.

Two weeks ago I purchased a Sony 560 ($300) to replace the Panasonic. We are very pleased with it. Connected to a Sony 36" Wega TV (using component-video connections, as previously utilized with the A310), the new Sony player supplies a beautiful picture. Excellent resolution and even deeper and richer colors than the Panasonic delivered. A very film-like image.

Panasonic, you've seriously shaken my faith and trust in your product engineering. Two years and three months of light usage should not wear out a DVD player. You've lost a customer for quite a long time.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-S7000 and Sony DVP-S560D.

Good remote

See below

I will never buy a Panasonic product again. Loved the A-310 when it worked, but it died on me. I tried to get it repaired but the cost was more than current DVD players. The technician that initially looked at it noted that Panasonic uses cheap lasers and they break down. Panasonic would only provide a replacement laser but not labor. I used the product for less than a year.

Easy operation

Reliability

Bought in Oct 98, started using it Dec 98, broke down Aug. 99. Parts were free to repair, but had to pay for labor at a cost of $90. Ended up giving it to a friend out of fear it would break down again.
Ended up purchasing a A110 as a replacement in Jan 00 and I am starting to notice the pausing effects that started with the first player.

I am also thoroughly disgusted with the reliability with the Panasonic brand and will never purchase another system. I wished I would have known about these problems back then, but I gave Panasonic the benefit of the doubt that they built well designed units.

As the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

I hope there is a lawsuit against Panasonic for fraudulant merchandise. At least my Technics receiver/decoder hasn't broken down yet.

Buy anything but the Panasonic brand DVD players.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic A110

Panasonic has finally acknowledged the A110/A310 laser problem.

I had to do research and figure it out on my own. Otherwise I would have been as stuck as the majority of people listed here.

For anyone who was stuck with the defective A110 or A310 model, read Cliffk's comments dated 2/8/01. Follow his instructions exactly. I did and just found out that I too will get my A310 model replaced with the RK65. I'll just cross my fingers and hope this new model will work!

I'll give Value Rating a "1" because of all the pain and hassle of getting to where I did today. I'll give Overall Rating a "5" because of how it looks like this will turn out.

Cheers to Cliffk and Joel Leach (also on 2/8/01). Good luck everyone!

Broke on me

Sadly, I am numbering myself among those bitten by this unit failing. I'm also among those Panasonic wants to bend for another 154$ to repair it. I understand it's out of warranty, but I've never abused the unit and I expect it work work for more then 2 years. What got me most is that I had no warnings of impending failure. It just stopped in the middle of a DVD and refused to recognize any discs after that. I'm going to fight with Panasonic some more and see if I can get a replacement otherwise I'm going to bad mouth them as much as possible and look into organizing a class action lawsuit. They've handled this as poorly as I can imagine it could be handled.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-434

I wish I had found this site before I paid a boatload of money for this Panasonic product around last Christmas. The unit worked fine for 5 months (and my assumption has always been if an electronic product gets through the first 3 months, than you shouldnt have problems with it) but since then it has been just headache after headache.

Suddenly after playing perfectly for months, it just suddenly starting jerking and stopping on each and every DVD i put in it. I thought it was my DVDs.. were they scratched? Dust? So for a while I blamed the DVDs, but then I bought new ones and same problem.

Took the unit in for cleaning, and brought it home and it plays for 10 minutes and then the same problem occurs. This unit is just bad. I am very dissapointed, especially with the high cost, to get such a suspect unit.

NONE

has a LOT of problem playing DUAL-Layer disc's. Pixelates and frezzes/locks up. all the time... Only with Dual-Layer discs... which are 90% of all DVD's.

These players from panasonic are a pice of junk... All friends that have these players ended up throwing them out and purchasing other brands and have had NO problems with Dual layer DVD's since...

Stay away from these Players...

Similar Products Used:

A350 SAME problem.. NEver buy one of these players.

Karaoke

Optical Pick up

Well my Karaoke DVD K510 just won't take a disc anymore.
I have talked to the Repair center in Kent, Wa
I told the guy that these units have a big problem.
He would not admit or deny it. Missed my warranty
by 2 months but said they would wave the 89.00
EXAM fee. Man I feel like I'm getting the exam.
Anyway $208.00 later the unit should be back in my
hands tomorrow.
They said a whole 30 day warranty parts and labor
on the 'new' laser unit. I asked "what is the part number
they replaced? he said VED0378. Asked if this is an
UPGRADED laser unit or the same one as before that will
just break he said "probably" a newer version
we'll see.

Similar Products Used:

Samsung - No problems with it.

Picture Quality, Sound Quality, Dolby Digital Decorder, DTS output

older technology

Well, This review will be short. I would just like to say that I know some of you have experienced some trouble with this player. But I have not seen any of the flaws that I have been hearing about. For instance, none of my dvd have the lip-sync problems that i have been hearing about. And yes my panasonic has managed to play vcds. Now people, this player will play any vcds. I have played vcds from malaysia, which are top notch quality production. The only vcds that I may have had some problems with are the homemade ones. Another bonus is that this player is quieter than the pioneerdv414 and dv525. I got this player and it was bought as the floor model which means this player has had some wear and tear but it is still running strong. I would like to say I lucked out on a cherry of a dvd but my friend right down the other apartment has had the same satisfaction that I have had. this player is not that bad at all from my piont of view. Now I wouldn't take this player over the newer models if i had the choice but for it's time this player was a nice unit.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer dv525 dv414, Sony