Panasonic A110 vs. A115 - Help!

My local Sam's Club is selling both of these players - the older A110 for $260, and the newer A115 for $350. I have read great reviews for the A110, but nothing on the A115.

Question: From what I can read, the A115 does not appear to be worth the extra money. The features seem to be practically identical. Any help would be appreciated, this will be my first step into this hobby.

Thank you for your time.

By all means, get the A-110. The A-110 looks much much better in appearance, and these two player have about the same qualities in performance. Some people think that the A-110 had better downcoversion. Use the extra 90 dollars on some new DVDs.

[This message has been edited by Jack Frost (edited 08-18-1999).]

I got the A110 Dec 1998 ($334 at the time, which was the cheapest I could find it), and have never had one single problem with it. Ever. Yup, I think the features are identical to the newer models, yet the A115 unit may look a bit more "boxy," but to my understanding, I beleive the upgraded versions of the A110 mostly increase DVD access speed.

Apparently from what I've read, when you put the disc in, the newer models (112, 115, 120s) load & play DVDs faster than the 110, chapter searching is faster, & menu selection is faster. The thing is, the A110's speed is fine, and not really a big deal. I virtually have never find myself frustrated at all.

But I will admit that when I rented "Lady in White" DVD (a 1987 movie), it took a long-ass time to choose between the menus options (yet that was a fantastic DVD - loaded with extras, remixed 5.1 sound, & beautiful transfer!). But that DVD was the only exception that comes to mind. All other DVD disc are fine.

Personally, I'd get the 110 again, and spend what you saved on DVDs! Also consider that the 110 has a great rep, and it's resale value is going to be one of the highest among it's class of competition. Again, I've been more than satisfied with mine, have no regrets, & don't plan on getting rid of it.

(One last thing to note, though it's really not a big deal. For whatever reason, the Panasonic 110 does not play CD-R for music CDs {CDs that you record/ burn yourself on a computer for just music}. Not sure if the later Panasonic models do. If you're interested in that sort of thing; if you're not, forget it. The newer models may, but probably not. Still, I'm extremely happy for the Panasonic's 110 DVD playability. It's fantastic. I think you'll have no regrets either way.)

skymalibu@excite.com

[Dominik Pfleghaar]

CD R's won't play on any DVD players, except they have a separate laser pickup for CD playback (I think only some Sony models have this).
The CD R's are "invisible" to the DVD laser due to the different wavelength compared to CD lasers.

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Unca Dom, DDS-088
dvdfile.com moderator
dominikpfleghaar@netscape.net