Boy did I luck out
I bought my Panasonic A-110 back in 1997. It's always worked like a charm for me. In light of the problem with other players it's looks like this ones a keeper.
As far as the type of MPEG decoder goes it would seem silly to buy from someone else if they own the company that makes them. I mean why would Panasonic buy decoders for company X if they make their own in house?
The only exception that I could imagine would be a situation where they had production problems and had to out source.
F