Easy to use, Great picture and sound, Ful featured

I had to replace the laser pickup assembly. Fortunately, it was covered under warranty.

This is my first DVD player. Feature/Price = OUTSTANDING! I found the unit very easy to use. Good instruction manual included.

I regularly rent DVD movies from netflix.com. I never ran into a problem playing over 40 titles.

Unfortunately, about seven months after I purchased the player, the laser pickup unit went out. Fortunately, it was covered under the manufacture warranty.

WISH LIST:
DTS

Similar Products Used:

NA

Low price, good picture, good performance most of the time.

Occasionally skips chapters at layer change, pixelizes, locks up on Thunderball. Poor information from Customer Service.

I bought this unit new in August of '98. I didn't own a dual layer disc until the 90 day labor warranty had expired. My unit has always had a tendency to skip to the end of the chapter, or to the next chapter at the layer change. However it doesn't do this unless I have accessed the menu features during play, prior to reaching the layer change. If I play the disc straight through from the beginning without exercising the menus or special features, I have no problems at the layer change. This appears to be a firmware defect, but repeated contacts with Panasonic have not resulted in any useful information except the suggestion that I re-initialize the player or take it to a repair shop. I have re-initialized the player, but I don't want to spend money on a repair without better information about the nature of the problem. I am recently experiencing pixelization and disc lockup on a new disc that I purchased, Thunderball. I have tried two discs, and they do it at different places, so I don't know whether or not it is the fault of the discs, or the player. I have loaned the disc to a friend to see if it plays ok on his machine, and haven't tried it since the "fix". I have asked Panasonic for information that may be helpful, but they just "play dumb" and tell me to get the unit repaired if I'm dissatisfied. They won't inform me one way or the other about firmware defects. I am suspicious that they know more than they are willing to say about the layer change and pixelization-lockup problems. If Thunderball turns out to be a good disc, and if it still won't play in my machine, and if I still have the layer change problem, then I will probably not buy more Panasonic products.

Good Price.

Freezes and Pixellates

This DVD player is a turkey. First, I thought disks were defective and returned them, only to find replacements also wouldn't work. My best guess is that when the datarate goes beyond a certain amount in the MPEG stream, the player locks up. But sometimes a disk will play and then othertimes it will choke.

I had to go out and buy another DVD player and eat the cost of this one.

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Philips DVD751 AT22

The picture is pretty decent when it actually works.

It does not play certain DVDs,such as Criterion's version of "High and Low."

After about a dozen phone calls and e-mails and two months, Panasonic finally fixed the total freezing problem that began on this unit after I had it about four months. That was back in August and it has been fine - so far. When it works, it's a very nice basic player with a great picture. But the amount of trouble it caused was very frustrating. I do not think units like this should fail in normal use in just a couple of months.

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Pioneer 414

Quiet, good price, great picture and sound, multiple outputs.

Evidently quite unreliable.

I've used this player for just over a year with no problems whatsoever. Then suddenly I start seeing the same sorts of problems other reviewers have. It gets most of the way through a movie, then I start seeing pixelation effects, sound cutting out, skipping, all getting worse and worse until the disc is unviewable. This appears to be a heat-related problem. I've noticed that the case seems warmer than it originally did. Also, turning the unit off and letting it cool for a few minutes will temporarily fix the problems. Seems like a poor design....

I have yet to attempt to contact Panasonic about out-of-warranty repairs, but I am not too hopeful. I'm thinking it's time to start looking at a non-Panasonic replacement. Too bad too, I've got a Panasonic TV, VCR, and a Technics CD player. Never had problems with the brand before.

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Other Panasonic models, Toshiba.

Easy to use, well-designed remote

pixellating, image defragmenting -- same stuff as everyone else

Apparently mine made it longer than most people's before crapping out on me. I bought mine on closeout when I was the electroncs department manager at Target. Worked fine, worked great, all was right with the world. Then roughly a year ago I noticed problems at the dual layer switch and with the video pixellating and the audio breaking up -- it happened mostly with rentals. Like most of the other reviewers here, I figured a dirty disk was the culprit. Then, after Christmas, I put in Rush Hour 2 to watch with my wife and got the "NO DISC" message of doom. Tried other dvds, audio cds, and a vcd with the same result.
I promptly e-mailed Panasonic customer service -- I'm still waiting for a response. Then I thought I'd do a bit of research and found this site. I now know I was luckier than most. One of my friends bought one the same time I did, but I don't know how his is holding up.

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my sole dvd player

none

freezes, image breaks up and pixelates, skips, very tempermental.......

I can't describe my excitement of loading up my new DVD player in the car 2 years ago. On my way home, I stopped and picked up 4 or 5 of my favorite movies. Life was good. 3 months later the player showed it's true colors. It started skipping and locking up. The images on the screen broke apart. At first I thought my disc was dirty, but every DVD I tried ended up with the same result. Life was over. The customer support line was a joke. The woman I spoke with seemed disinterested in helping me and quickly rattled off where I needed to MAIL the player for repairs! The repair center was in Maryland and since my wife and I had already planned a trip to D.C. for the weekend, we decided to hand-deliver that sucker. Even the thought of one day without this glorious machine made us uneasy! Well, a month later the UPS man left my "repaired" player on MY FRONT PORCH! Life was back to normal-until 2 days ago. The old problems have returned except now the player seems extra sensitive to a few discs. (it won't play to deleted scenes of Phantasm or any scene from Plague of the Zombies without breaking up.--It used to play these fine!) Yesterday I found this site and read all about the crappy player I own. On a brighter note, I began researching this site in order to purchase a new player. STAY AWAY FROM THIS MACHINE! It'll only bring you headaches.

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none

Works great now.

Started to go weird early on.

I think, as I read all of these other reviews, that Panasonic had issues with this player, or at least the drive that was used in this player. My DVD player went as all these others within 3 months, so I sent it back to Panasonic under warranty. They called me when it arrived, told me that the drive was defective, and said that instead of fixing it or replacing it with the same model drive, that they were going to install a newer drive that was dependable, and could deal better with the newer dual layer dvd's. I haven't had any problems since.

Great drive when made properly.

worked great for 10 months

freezes up, pauses for a while then shuts off, skip back and forth between tracks and frames, basically a piece of crap after 10 months, nothing more than a 200 dollar paper weight

Basically I will never buy another Panasonic anything, and will not recommend them to anyone. They have not been able to or willing to help me. If they have had thousands of complaints and are not willing to help anyone or change anything to better their product, than why would anyone in their right mind buy anything else from them. If they cannot make DVD players right, than maybe everything else they make sucks too. Two hundred dollars for 10 months, what a big waste of money and scam.

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First DVD player bought except for my DVD Rom drive for my computer made by Acer which I have not had any problems with. I now watch all of my dvd's on it, wish I had a 27" monitor.

I received this model as a gift from my family in December 1998. It worked fine until this May when it suddenly began developing weird pixiliation problems. Little boxes appear on screen at various times and the picture freezes or skips. Sometimes it will not even read a disc when inserted. Other times, it plays fine till nearly the end of the DVD and then begins acting strangely. I am speaking with Panasonic about this now. Hopefully they will help me. Initially they had told me I would be responsible for any repairs (which they do by having you ship the unit to PA, in my case from NYC), since I no longer had my receipt. I sent that in for a rebate movie in January at the same time I registered the player with Panasonic. Hopefully they are going to resolve this problem, but I am thoroughly frustrated at the moment. I initially thought it was the DVD, but several other DVDs I've had for months now skip also. When it worked, it worked fine and the picture seemed good.