dleedlee

Looks like it's going after the Malata. Anyone know about it?


The fluff:
"One of the only players to outperform the infamous Malata N996 / DVP520, the Jaton PSD7611k Progressive Scan DVD player is, by far, one of the best all-region, NTSC/PAL, players around. It could do most of everything the Malata can, better. "


http://www.aznfilms.com/product_info...roducts_id=549

Now, who's got the facts?

joelgee

". . . There isn’t much of a difference between NTSC picture quality between the Jaton and the Malata . . ."

"Compatible with Jaton's SoundPlus 5.1 Speaker System Without a Receiver"

Well, you intrigued me and I read through the Jaton review. Of course, these guys sound enthused, but they're selling it. Statements like the above concern me, also that they can't mention any internal components for legality reasons. I'd like to know if this mediamatics chip is inside.
Also, does the above quote mean this thing is only going to provide 5.1 if you have the Jaton speaker system?
Also, I don't see anything about DVD-audio.

On the surface, it looks interesting but it doesn't smell quite right to me.
J

d2cheer

No X Y scaling that alone makes the Malata a better machine...

But it does sound pretty good.

But for $299, you can get the Malata with X Y scaling for only $279...

dleedlee

There's certainly a lot of fluff and a little mystery about the innards.

I think the business about the speakers system is that you can output directly to the sub woofer to power the other speakers.
The photo of the backside shows a coaxial and optical audio outs plus 6 channel RCA outs and a pair of downmixed audio outs.

http://aznfilms.com/images/jaton3.jpg

The lack of x-y scaling is probably the biggest drawback assuming the rest is accurate.

Who's gonna be brave enough to spring for one, Mikey?

p.s. Do the Malatas do DVD-Audio?

sexygal910

Now this is very interesting. I have the Malata and I would be very interested in this if this Jaton player does what they say it does. My DVD collection has quite a bit of PAL discs so this is very important. The X-Y scaling is nice to have, but it is a real pain to sit there and toggle the thing until it is perfect. I would rather get a player that just plays it seamlessly instead of having to tweak the darn thing each time I'm about to show a movie to my family and friends. If anyone gets one of these, can they please post a review?

joelgee

"Do the Malatas do DVD-Audio?"

I don't know whether the Malatas do DVD-Audio. I do know that there is a modified JVC 6XX series that does DVD-Audio.
Once again, no X-Y scaling, but as I understand it, the scaling feature may not be a necessary thing.
J

sexygal910

It looks like there will be a price-drop on the Jaton soon. If this is true, I'm picking one up just for the heck of it. Here is the news link:

http://www.aznfilms.com/news.php

Vanian

Before anybody purchases a Jaton, I would suggest asking the retailer what chip the player has. Ask them the name of it and post it here. Chances are it is the same exact one that is in the Malata and JVC models. If that is the case, than the Malata is better because of the scaling.

Vanian

Bilbo Baggins

Hmm...I am also very interested in this player. I have seen only one review for it and that was at the AZN site. I almost got one based on the review until I realized they actually sell them so that kinda turned me off.

BTW, according to the web site it says "The Jaton also runs on a similar chipset as the Malata so adding the X and Y scaling feature would be no problem at all."

I really would like some other sites to review this player but I have yet to see anyone else do so.

HKFLIXdotcom

The Jaton uses the same Mediamatics chip that the Malata uses. What this means is that it will also have the exact same problems as the Malata. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because the Malata is a very good player. The Mediamatics chipset is one of the few chips which does not have the Chroma bug. But DVDs that are problematic on the Malata will also be problematic on the Jaton. We are keeping a close eye on the Jaton. Right now it is basically an equivalent machine to the Malata sans X-Y scaling a few other features. It is obvious that Malata has an edge on Jaton. Malata will be releasing a new DVD-Audio compatible player sometime in late Q4 or early Q1, while Jaton is still playing catch up to the current Malata model.

Regards,
Jeff
HKFLIX.com

sexygal910

This is getting very, very interesting!

http://www.aznfilms.com/news.php

deelriious

Hmmm.... Aznfilms has no clue what they're talking about:

1. "Jaton runs on a chipset made from Mediamatics, the same maker of the chipset on the Malata, but NOT THE SAME CHIP as the Malata."

Mediamatics is not a company. It is the name of the chipset. National Semiconductor makes the Mediamatics chipset. Both of these machines use the same chipset. Enough said.

2. "Animorphic stretches on the Malatas"

What Animorphic stretches? With Malatas, JVCs and supposedly Jatons, there are no Animorphic stretches. Period. That's the beauty of the above mentioned "Mediamatics" chipset.

3. "With the Jaton player, you wouldn't need to use X-Y scaling."

Oh yeah? What are you going to do when you pop in a disc like the HKL Police Story which has a mastering flaw apparent even if you have a PAL native DVD player. X-Y scaling corrects this problem. The Jaton will not. Other uses for the Malata X-Y scaling:

a. When coverting Anamorphic PAL to 16:9 NTSC, you can use X-Y scaling to make removable subtitles viewable. You can't do this effectively with a zoom.
b. Remove overscan to 1-pixel accuracy. Try doing this with the zoom on a Jaton or JVC.
c. More efficiently and accurately convert a widescreen image to exactly full screen in both anamorphic and letterbox modes

X-Y scaling has its uses and nothing Aznfilms says will hide the fact that the Jaton doesn't have it.

4. "The Jaton 7611 plays DVD Audio. The Malata does not."

That's ridiculous. The Malata can play early versions of DVD Audio. However, both players clearly cannot decode the new official version of DVD-Audio (i.e. CPPM decryption algorithm). This is a terrible misleading statement by this company, telling people that they will be able to play 90% of DVD Audio discs. Any new releases, they most certainly not be able to play.

This "news" item on the AZN site seems to be a horribly misleading and badly written bit of fluff in response to the HKFLICKS post above. I don't know if Jeff is entirely accurate in saying that all problems with the Malata will be problems on the Jaton (or vice versa). Still, that doesn't excuse the blatent lies on the AZN site. They should be ashamed of themselves.

sexygal910

deelirious,

do you own the Jaton player? I've been interested in this player for some time - not because of what the Azn people wrote but because of other people's comments from the AVS forums. Also, it sounds like you know Jeff at HKFlix personally. If so, maybe you can get them to drop the price on the Malata a little more?

Nocturnaloner

Hey, can you post a link to any discussion of this player over at AVS forums? I did a search for jaton over there, and got not a single hit.

sexygal910

It wasn't through a separate forum. I remember that it's part of a bigger thread either through the Malata or a progressive scan. I'll look again later to see which one specifically, but I know it's not under its own thread.