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Poor picture quality Poor reliability Poor warranty

Just seconding some of what was said here. I bought this based upon good intial reviews. From my admittedly un-trained eye, the picture quality was garbage. Lots of digital noise, and everything was way too "warm" (every movie looked like it was filmed on Mars). I have it hooked up via component to an HDTV so I don't think that is the problem. The only reason I bought this thing was for the progressive aspect, and it failed miserably in terms of delivering a quality picture. And then...almost exactly 1 year after I bought it...the tray quite working and even when I manually pushed it in, it couldn't read the disk. I'm likely going to throw it in the trash and get another than go through the expense/hassel of trying to get it fixed (even though it is still technically under the "parts" warranty). Even though I am in a MAJOR city (Houston), there are only 2 authorized centers, both of which are too far to drive to. My first bad experience with Panasonic/Technics...hope it is not a trend. My 3 year old Toshiba is much better.

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Toshiba SD2109 Sampo

great for uae as a punching bag when it croaks and sends you int a fit of rage because your warranty has just ended.

ability to play dvd's.

this player was great untill month 13 of my ownership when the drive mechanisim stoped working and the discs stoped spinning. this is the most unreliable product ive ever seen (based on the reviews i've read) i'm buying a pioneer dvd45a , and recomend you seriously consider buying something other than the panasonic.

Similar Products Used:

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- picture quality - low drive noise - high-speed reverse/fast forward - easy to use, ergonomic remote

- progressive scan never worked - lousy reliability - no zoom feature - does not automatically memorize position in movie when being turned off

The RP56 made a good impression on me as far as picture quality, features, ease of use, drive noise is concerned (I owned a Toshiba DVD player before whose drive noise was louder than low-volume scenes in movies). However, the progressive scan never worked. To top it off, after exactly 13 months the player stopped working completely and all of a sudden in the middle of a movie. I couldn't even extract the DVD from the player. This is my last Panasonic purchase. We consumers have the power to punish manufacturers with lousy reliability records.

Similar Products Used:

- Toshiba DVD player

Everything works great no problems after over a year of using. Picture quality is amazing

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I'm confused. I dont know what the rest of the reviewers have been smoking or what they have done to their players but I have this player and it works great. Absolutely no problems whatsoever with any disc and all the features on it are great. Are the rest of you sure you didnt use it underwater?

cheap...but who cares when it breaks and can't be repaired properly.

Panasonic Servicecenter service is awful; warranty (90 days labor) is awful. They charged me $89 and sent me back a still broken DVD. Customer service/support is nil.

Broke almost immediately; pixelated and stopped for no apparent reason in random disks. It has nice features, but reliability is suspect.

Similar Products Used:

RCA DVD, APEX DVD.

picture quality

none that I have found so far - keeping fingers crossed

I purchased this DVD player at the same time I bought my Sony 32" Flat Screen Trinitron. (I have sent the TV back and got the Toshiba 32HFX72 . . . My Sony Flat screen cost $1750 CDN and I didn't have HD. For $1900, I got the Toshiba with HD . . . getting it delivered tommorrow . . . can't wait) Anyhow, I have had no problems whatsoever with this DVD player. Albeit I am worried now that someone else complained that the progressive scan did not work! I will know soon enough. I can only think of one or two disks rented from the local video store that did not work. Upon examining the disks they did look real bad and the video store couldn't get them to work either. They gave me another copy of the same movie at it worked fine. I'm very happy for the price I paid for the quality i got. [I am keeping my fingers crossed though] All I can suggest is that maybe there was a 'bad batch' distributed in the US since all the US reviews are not favorable.

Similar Products Used:

Sony - had more trouble with disk compatibility and sensitivity to imperfections than I had with my Panasonic

Paperweight

Cheap plastic gear mechanism

Do not buy any Panasonic DVD players. They all have cheap plastic gear mechanisms that will break after the 3 month warranty. I bought this unit less than a year ago after reading all the great reviews regarding picture quality and electronics. I'll admit the RP56 has good electronics for the price, however if the unit can't get the disc in and out, it doesn't mean jack. The is the main weakness of the RP56 and more recent Panasonic models. Cheap plastic gears to move the disc tray, and a worthless labor warranty. Even if you pay extra for an extended warranty, you have to go through the pain of taking it to the store and not getting it fixed correctly. Avoid the hassle and buy another brand.

This locking and freezing is a known problem and Panasonic admits there are problems with some of their DVD players. Granted, this one is a first generation DVD player, but I've read some reviews in this thread and a few users have eluded to the problem in their review. One reviewer said his player is extremely sensitive to DVD disk defects. I believe the problem lies with the 3:2 pull-down processing. All DVD players regardless of progressive scanning or not needs to convert the frame rate the movies are recorded in into an acceptable frame rate for display on a TV. The film records the DVDs in the film frame rate of 24 fps so the DVD player has to convert this using 3:2 pull-down, that is tito say alternating fields of 3 frames and then 2 frames compiled for display processing, either interlaced or non-interlaced (progressive scanning). I believe the problem Panasonic is having with some of their DVD players is with the 3:2 pull-down processing on some DVD recordings. I am currently seeking to have Panasonic replace my DVD player because of this problem. It has happened since I've owned the unit in 1998, but since it was new technology and it wad the first DVD player I've owned,

I'm writing this review of a Panasonic firat generation DVD Player. It is the DVD-110A u/ca. The reason I'm posting this review is I have experienced a locking and freezing of both audio and video when using certain DVD movies.

Nothing that stands out in its price range.

The thing just didn't last.

Panasonic is usually a solid product line. This is an exception. The picture quality is very good. The build quality is about as poor as it gets. I purchased this product right after the professional's raving reviews hit the press. I've used it 5 times in 3 months. On the 5th dvd-the audio started skipping and the video did its pixel moving thing. Brought it back to the store, only for the tech to sell me a cleaning kit. The player is clean but still not working. Bring it back-out of warranty by a week or so-now its time for a $130.00 estimate repair. That isn't going to happen. I've compared this to other dvd players (including an Apple powerbook's dvd) and enjoyed the movies as well on all. I have a Sanyo PLV-60 projector on a 5'X 9' screen and should have seen all the artifacts that would have separated the players from each other. Maybe if I'd go into the high end some more I'd see the things the pro's bring out. But for now I'll shop for another player (based on consumer reviews). Setup: McIntosh tube amps Harmon Kardon PT2500 processor AR 3's front AR 2ax rear.

Faroudja/Sage chipset (a real plus), price.

Annoyingly sensitive to minor disc defects.

I've had this unit for a little over a month and have decided to send it back. The problem is that it is extraordinarily sensitive to defects that don't seem to bother other players. And, when it hits a defect, the results are nasty; skipping or long pauses, gross pixellation, sound problems, etc. Quite disrupting if you're really into a movie (and embarrassing too if you wife and/or friends are there with you, lemme tell ya :-) Some of the defects are things you can see, like light fingerprints or dust. Some are apparently internal to the DVD because the disc surface looks perfect to me. However, either way, I have tried several discs that fail to play on the RP56 on my Sony DVD player and on a friend's Toshiba player and they play perfectly on both. I did return this unit to the store and get another one, hoping that the one I had was just defective, but no dice - the new one worked exactly the same way. If Panasonic had a firmware upgrade available I might consider keeping the player, but there's no mention of anything like that on the Web anywhere. It's a real shame because I love the picture quality and the excellent processing quality of the Faroudja/Sage chipset (that's the main reason I bought the player).