GOOD PICTURE &SOUND WHEN IT WORKS

IT'S A PIECE OF JUNK

I'M ANOTHER UNHAPPY A310 OWNER. I'M TALKING TO CUSTOMER NO SERVICE AND THERE GOING TO REVIEW MY REQUEST FOR THEM TO PAY FOR THE REPAIR.(YEAH RIGHT)SENSE I'M HAD IT FOR OVER A YEAR NOW. I WILL HAVE IT FIXED FOR NOW. I HOPE THEY WILL BE ABLE TO FIX THIS THING. HOW ABOUT A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT? MAYBE THAT WILL WAKE THEM UP AT PANASONIC!

Excellent video quality and sound.

Somewhat cumbersome remote control

I purchased my Panasonic DVD A310 in December 1998. Since then, I've used it almost daily, with virtually no problems. I haven't experienced all of these major defects that the other reviewers have listed here, although I do have experienced some slight artifacting with one movie, The Saint (with Val Kilmer and Elizabeth Shue). Layer changes usually last under a second, which is not really a nuisance (for me at least). Overall, the video and audio are pretty good.

optical/s-video outputs, DTS

Major design flaw that leads to overheating. Chips become damaged and the machine is unusable

when i bought the panasonic a310 just over two years ago, i had no dvds and rentals were somewhat scarce. i slowly built a dvd collection and the player worked great. i noticed that the dvds would be quite warm when i removed them from the machine, but since i had nothing to compare it to, i thought all was ok. six months ago i joined netflix.com and started watching movies three, four, or five time a week... sometimes two in a row - back-to-back. this more than the a310 could bear.

initially the user may think that the dvd itself is dirty or damaged. the picture will pixilate more and more then grind to a halt. no amount of cleaning the disk will help. switching the unit off for a couple of hours will allow you to watch a few more minutes, but no more.

i noticed there are no vents in the cover of the a310, so i went to wal-mart and bought a $5 fan. i removed the cover, dropped the ac down to 75 degrees for two hours, aimed the fan at the chips inside the a310 and started "frequency". i made it for 75 minutes before the player shut down.

i reviewed this website and found many others with the same complaints. i've e-mailed panasonic, but haven't heard anything so far. i am interested in e-mailing sites that review products. if anyone has any ideas on how we can all contact panasonic or related parties with our complaints, i am all ears. others indicate that the service department at panasonic deny there is any design flaw and suggest you spend up to $150 to repair the unit. if this is done, i will only die again because the flaw is still there.

i have now purchased a pioneer dv-343. i won't write a review for at least a year to see how it holds out, but other reviews speak very highly of it.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV-343

My advice: Don't buy this piece of junk. I will never
buy Panasonic DVD again. I bought this DVD a year ago, and
rarely used it. Now, it got all kinds of problem like every here described: screen froze, will not forward, etc. Their customer service is really sucks, denying there is a problem with their DVD. They sent me to a service center 30 miles away and I will probably have to pay about $100 to get it fixed. I think I just trash this piece of junk and buy Sony or Toshiba

component video output

no cdr's

Never had a problem with it. Good video quality, good sound quality. Easy to use remote.

I'm very disappointed with this unit. The price was great $399 but the overall performance of this unit is not so great. Problems:
1) After about 2 months it stop playing DVD's. It would play about 5 minutes of the disc then lock up. It would still play CD's OK.
2) The remote has to be pointed right at the unit in order to operate it.
3) Will not pass 24bit/96khz
4) Very slow to load and play a disc, DVD or CD
5) Had to send it out for servicing because of #1. Still haven't received it back, 1 month now.
I've since replaced this unit with the new Sony DVP-7700S. The Sony unit, while it cost a lot more, is well worth it's cost. ***** 5 stars for Sony *****
The Sony unit has renewed my interest in DVD's as well as being an excellent source for music CD's.

The Panasonic A310 is a solid performer. Before I purchased the A310, I owned a Toshiba SD3107. The Panasonic unit is a much better player. The only drawback that I can bring up is that you can not access a DVD track directly using the remote. What I mean by this, is, for example, Fleetwood Mac - The Dance - you must first hit the display bar, then shift to track in order to access individual songs. You are unable to just hit the remote control track number, as you can in CD mode, to access a preferred track. Not a big problem, but a bit anoying. Audio playback in PCM is great and DVD video is clear.
One other concern is that the first player I purchased was defective. The second player has worked flawlessly since April 98.

24bit DAC, picture quality

No zoom, momentary freeze when laser changes direction

I am really suprized at the ammount of trouble people are having with their player. That is to say I believe them, but still find it hard to believe.

I have had some pixelation with a few DVD's but found it to be a DVD defect, or a dirty DVD.

I have to say that I must have been fortunate to get a model that works perfectly. CD quality is excelent. To get the full DAC capability, RCA jacks must be used. I found out that using coax or toslink reduces the bitrate to 16bit.

I have found that many DVD's momentarily "freeze" about halfway through the movie. I assume its when the laser has to adjust and change direction. On Apollo 13, the scene when the 2 space shuttles dock at the Mir sometimes skips to the next index.

Other than that, I have had nothing but good luck and wonderful sound and video for over a year.

I am sorry to hear of the troubles everyone has had. I sincerely hope this does not stear people from Panasonic. I have always believed that Panasonic is the cheaper/better version of Sony.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Denon, Toshiba

Features, picture and sound

Reliability

I am yet another disappointed DVD-A310U buyer. The pixelization and dropout started about 13 months after I received the unit. Unfortunately I had not researched the internet prior to my warranty expiring. I cannot believe Panasonic has not recalled these players. I haven't called them yet but I will only send them my DVD player if they agree to cover the whole repair. I hope value my loyalty as I really liked the player when it worked.

None.

Video Freezes. Bad product design.
Should have never been released.

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING MADE BY PANASONIC.

I bought my DVD player about 9 months ago and worked fine for about 6 months. After that after putting in the DVD the player would never finish reading the DVD player. Sometimes if it did succeed in the initial reading it would freeze after playing the movie. And then nothing I did could solve the problem. I tried the DVD head cleaners but that did not work. Anyway finally I called PANASONIC and they were real mean. Almost to the point of saying you deserve all the problems and "who told you to buy a Panasonic Product".
This is a terrible product. This is the last time I'll ever buy anything from Panasonic. They are new at making DVD players and hence all the Quality problems. Anyway this is the last time I buy anything made by Panasonic.