An awesome player for its price. Plays great with cds too (but not CD-R). Get this machine while you still have a chance; before it becomes completely extinct. Happy viewing................

Well, as many of you reading this have probably found out by now the 110 has some MAJOR problems that Panasonic should address. This Firmware problem is just plain non-sense!!! How could they release this kind of problem on the public? I have seen many posts concerning this and I'm personally dealing with a player that went south on me 2 weeks ago. After 4 MONTHS of use the player starts giving me a "NO DISC" error even after I put in several NEW DVDS I just purchased!!! Basically my unit is an expensive paperweight at this point.
As a matter of fact, I will be taking it to the shop this morning. I hear the repair worrks but some quality is lost in the picture!! LUCKILY I bought an extended warranty from SEARS so Hopefully I won't have to pay anything. PLEASE, IF YOU BY THIS UNIT ANYWAY GET AN EXTENDED WARRANTY YOU'LL NEED IT!!!!!!!!
I have also read that like my player, the average time from setup to failure is about 3 to 4 months and guess what...the labor warranty ends at 3 months so you have to pay a couple hundred dollars to repair a problem that should be free.

I know many out there have had great luck with the 110...Good for you! I hope it remains that way.

For the rest, PERHAPS another brand of DVD player may better suit your needs.

This post is to help others who may also have had problems with their A110 or A310 giving a "No Disc" readout on the display. Panasonic told me to reinitialize (that is, reboot) the unit. To do so, press the following three buttons simultaneously on the player: Rewind, Pause, and Power. It worked on my unit and I haven't had the problem since (about one year ago). Hope it works for you, too.
Overall, considering the picture quality (5 stars) and audio quality (coaxial digital or analog outputs [typical mid-fi CD quality]--3 stars), I rate the unit 4 stars. I like my Sony DVP-S7000 (in another room) better, but the Panasonic offers impressive value for the money.

Come on folks... you know the DVD technology is rapidly changing and the next generation players are not very far away. Why would you want to spend more than $350 on a player that may very well be obsoleted in 2-3 years? Can you spend more money on a player? You bet!... but why would you? This player directly competes against the reference standard Sony 7000 series - not in opinion, but in lab testing with scopes and quantifying data. This plays DOES pass the pluge test on Video Essentials and is a phenomenal deal. Does it have all the neat little features of some of the competition? NO!... but are you interested in the highest quality video and audio at the lowest price OR interested in showing off some worthless zoom feature that nobody really uses anyway. Buy this player and sink the coin you save into the more "stable" technology like speakers, amplification, and pre-amping. I would be truly pissed if I dropped $1000 on some "state-of-the-art" reference standard DVD player, just to have the standard "UP'd" within 6-9 months. I'll admit the remote is not the best, but I'm using the SL-9000 universal, so the remote doesn't bother me much. If you are reading this A110 review, you are obviously not considering DIVX and for that, I truly THANK YOU.

I've owned this player for more than a year now. I wanted to buy a 1rst. generation machine but held off until my local video store began renting DVDs. At the time, I felt this was the best bang for the buck player available. Today I think the Pioneer 414 claims that title. It won't do revese slo-mo like the Panasonics (so what), but can pass a 96kHz/24bit signal at full resolution via its digital output. When shopping for a DVD player, I decided not to buy a "statement piece" since MLP and SACD was only a few years away. I plan to use this player in my "2nd. system" (made up almost entirely of components that have been upgraded) when I can buy a "universal" DVD player. The A110's lack of component video outputs didn't concern me since my current TV's best input is S-Video. As a CD player, this machine sounds great, though still not quite as good as the 20-bit Burr-Brown DACs in my pre/pro. It sounds a little less detailed and extended (especially in the treble), but much better than the 1-bit "pulse" DACs in my CD changer. And ofcourse it can play back 96/24 at full resolution (sounds awsome). It was one of the few DVD players that I tried that didn't cut into the 1rst. note of a CD. I have no hesitation in recommending it (or one of the Panasonic clones from Denon, Yamaha, ProScan, or RCA) to someone who wants a superb budget CD player. I also like that it has both an optical and coaxial digital outputs. I normally use coaxial when possible, but it is nice to know that if I run out of coax inputs on my processor, I can always switch to optical.On video it was clearly the best at anamorphic line deletion, nearly as artifact free as the Sonys but much sharper. I've never come across the layer change problem I've read about with Panasonic DVD players. The only time I've ever seen any pixelization is on scrated rental discs. One stange problem though, my Panasonic SuperFlat TV has a pre-programmed A/V remote that supossedly operates Panasonic DVD players but won't operate this one. This isn't a big deal because I have the Marantz RC2000 Mk.II and don't use any other remote anyway. A year ago I would have rated this DVD player at 5, but today you can buy more for less money. Still, I'm not looking to upgrade until there is some DVD-Audio software that I like. I don't think we'll see HD-DVD until HDTV takes off.

Current system:

Marantz PM-68 stereo integrated amp
Yamaha DSP-E492 3-channel integrated A/V amp/processor (analog surround sources)
Denon AVD-2000 (Dolby) digital pre/pro (digital sources)
Panasonic DVD-A110 DVD player (obviously)
Sony CDP-CE515 CD changer (used as transport only)
Denon DRM-650S (Dolby S) cassette deck
Hitachi FX623 Hi-Fi VCR
Panasonic 27SF14 TV
Infinity CC3, RS2000.6,RS2000.3 (2 pairs)
Marantz RC2000 Mk.II learning remote

In November '98 I purchased the A110. It seemed great at first. Then I started to notice that, at times, it did something funny on chapter changes. It was like a hard cut. It skipped some scenes. Then the other night, (after only 7 months) it totally freaked out. After a movie plays for a bit, I get blurred boxes and it freezes up. At first, I thought it was a bad movie, but I checked other disks and got the same results. Now it doesn't even recognize the disks. I just read that people have had the same type of problem with the Panasonic's A310. Needless to say, I don't intend to give anymore of my money to Panasonic.

I have used the Panasonic A110 for about 7 months without any of the firmware issues or "No Disc" problems others referred to. My player has worked very well and the video and audio performance are excellent. Being that this is a 2nd generation player (where are we now 4th gen?) you can get better features and quality. But for Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, excellent performance and a low price you can't beat the A110.

At first I was very satisfied with this unit. Pricewise, I thought that it couldn't be beat. After 7 months of moderate use however, the problems began. First there were subtle skips throughout various disks. Then came pixelation, freezing, and "NO DISC" errors. I called Panasonic and found out I had to ship the unit to PA (there are no authorized service centers in the New York City area). I will also have to pay for labor as the warantee on that runs out after 90 days. Needless to say, I am not a happy camper.

I purchased my A110 in January 1999 and have had absolutely no problems with it so far. I just bought a new HT set up and used it for the first time with its digital output (DD) and I'm awaiting my first DTS DVD to test its DTS output. Before then I only could use its analog outputs for CD and stereo DVD movie playback. I know the unit isn't top of the line but as of today it has worked perfectly.
After reading all the "horror" stories on this site I became curious (and concerned) and called Panasonic. They insisted that there were no known problems with the unit. I'm not saying that Panasonic wouldn't lie but if they do not want to forfeit thousands of dollars worth of future business, I would think, they would own up to the problem and execute a general re-call on the units to at least keep their customer base relatively content. Unfortunately in the past big business has been known not to do what is right! Let's see.

I just hope that this site is not a victim of "Internet Terrorism" by individuals who would post bogus reports on a product that they have never owned just to create angst within the masses. This is not meant for those individuals who honestly have had A110 problems but I just hope these subjective reports are honest.

As far as the A110 is concerned, as of today; 5 stars!

I have had this unit since february 99, and I have had no problems with it what so ever. I have it paired with a yamaha DSP-A1, and I use it every day. I am very pleased with its preformance, it sounds better than many high end CD players I have heard. The video to is also very good, better than some players costing twice as much. I have three kids and they also use this machine all the time, I think this says alot about the build quality. I must agree with the previous reviewer, I think that some of these negative reviews are alot of B-S! This is a very good product and I would highly recomend it to anyone.