YeeHaw..

now, how the smeg do the rest of us get our hands on it...

Pearl Harbor (2 disks edition) has audio drop out :(

Forget it, it's my copy. I'll replace it asap

PhatAlbert. whoa I didn't know that. Good thing I didn't ship it back yet, I can try to change that setting. Thanks alot for the info.

PhatAlbert, that worked! Thanks. I didnt realise there are so many settings to this player. I tried a bunch of DVD's from all regions last night and was very happy until I popped in the R0 version of Shiri. It just kept crashing and gave me some strange error telling me to replace media or something like that. It worked in my JVC player though. I'm going to test several more DVD's tonight.

PhatAlberts, do the automatic subtitles on PHANTOM MENACE work? (the alien language ones that fade in and out)

Thanks

John, Try SHIRI in another region free player, if you have one. if it crashes on that and the Malata, but not the JVC, then there is likely amastering error.

Matt, good idea. I still have my Apex so I'll try it out tonight. 3 HKL DVD's worked perfect in the Malata so It's wierd. I am loving that X-Y scaling :)

Oh yeah. Since I have a 16X9 HDTV, I love the XY scaling and panning. I can push 2.35:1 films up or down, so that the black bars are not always in the same position, which makes it near impossible for burn-in to ever set in on my TV. :)

XY scaling is great for films not fully widescreen. You can zoom out, elliminate overscan and get more picture.

No the subtitles still don't work. Sorry, maybe on the next firmware version...

By the way, I still have problems with pearl harbor. It's my 3rd copy now, and the sound drops out on my malata and playstation2 (only the DD track, english and french). DTS plays fine though...

Well, I messed with this player for hours last night and it is definitely defective. The problem is intermittent but seems to happen on every DVD. After a while, the picture will freeze. Then it goes to the Original screen when you turn the player on and says "Error: disk major -Replace Me." That doesn't sound good. Thanks for all of the suggestions you guys gave. I love this player (when it works) so I'll definitely have them exchange it.

BEWARE: Only Malata N996 does PAL to NTSC properly. Other Malatas do not.
 

Anyone thinking about the newer Malata models (non progressive scan 900R, etc.) should avoid them because, like the Sampo and Apex crap lines, they DO NOT properly convert PAL to NTSC.

The only player that can do that is the MALATA N996, which has the Mediamatics chipset. Yes, there are some JVC's as well, but the mods are not perfected yet.

Check out AVSforum for details.

Also, be advised that 220-electronics.com has been lying to people, saying these other players convert PAL to NTSC properly, when they do not. I have posted about 220's inability to be honest before and got attacked for it. So once again, consider yourself warned.

Best of luck.

When you say that the other models do not convert "properly", what do you mean. Does the picture end up looking bad? If so, how?

This answer is in many threads, so I will just cut & paste...

The Sampo and other players use a conversion that removes every 3rd scan line, which does not work and results in an aspect ratio that is either too tall (4:3 ltbx mode) or too thin (when in 16X9 mode).

The N996's mediamatics chip converts at the pixel level (from what I understand) and keeps the X & Y ratio the same, resulting in a 1.85:1 PAL transfer staying 1.85:1 when converted to NTSC.

The other players convert the 1.85:1 into a strange squished ratio of 1.6:1 or so, with everybody a bit too tall. (2.35:1 is 2:1).
This is for 4:3 ltbx mode. When in 16X9 mode, the image is distorted in the opposite direction, with 1.85:1 now squished to 2:1 and 2.35:1 squished to 2.5:1.

The new Malata 900R does not have the Mediamatics chip and therefore, cannot do X-Y scaling OR convert PAL to NTSC without distortion. So the N996 is the only ballgame in town.

Hope that answers your question. (I really need to finish my FAQ!)

AVdeals just posted a firmware upgrade for the N996. It does not fix DTS or Phantom Menace subtitle problems...

http://www.avdeals.com/malataUpgrade.htm

AVdeals just posted a firmware upgrade for the N996. It does not fix DTS or Phantom Menace subtitle problems...

http://www.avdeals.com/malataUpgrade.htm

I wonder if this will fix my issue because I get hanging during playback? I spoke with 220-electronics and they told me to try a master reset. I'll try that, but I wonder if I should give this upgrade a shot as well?

Ok, sorry to keep posting about this but I hope to help others if they receive the same errors I did. First of all, I looked at the firmware page AVDeals has and it looks like my Malata has the most recent November 9th firmware. I performed the hard reset that 220-electronics told me to do and popped Shiri back in. this DVD seemed to give me the most problems. So far, after the reset, the movie has been playing for 20 minutes without an issue. Strange that this reset would help but it's going pretty good so far. I'll report back with the results. I'm going to basically just run movies non-stop for the rest of the night.

What's this hard reset thing you're talking about. How does it work?

This hard reset seems to reset everyting back to factory settings. If you hold the "clear" button on the remote for 5 seconds, the screen will go black. When that happens, you hit "clear" and "program" keys at the same time. This basically shuts the machine off and all settings are back to factory. That didn't fix my issue though. Stupid me tested the thing on a different tv that doesn't support progressive scan. I played with this all night and the player works find until you chosse Progressive mode. That's when I get the errors. This will definitely be exchanged now.

On a different note, I did have the latest firmware release and can say that the Phantom Menace doesn't crash at the THX scene. AVDeals did mention that the subtitles still don't work with the aliens but that's supposedly an issue with the Mediamatics chip. The subtitles can be turned on and they work that way. Not a big deal at all.

Ref: "J.D." The problem you describe is exactly the same as my first machine. Was told by avdeals that it was a laser problem that had occurred during shipping...second machine was a.o.k.


Ref: upgrade attempt...1) after inserting upgrade disk, screen went blank after upgrade prompt (aprx. 60 sec.) 2) Mediamatics logo appeared on screen 3) got the following error message: "Error: could not erase flash." Am assuming this indicates I must do the soldering as required in section two of the upgrade...good luck all.

Malata N996 & 220-Electronics.Com
 

Hi All,
After doing a bit of research, I've decided to take the plunge on the Malata N996. The cheapest that I could find it is through 220-Electronics.Com for $329 (it's for the Gold finished model - the black is $30 more - is there any difference save for the colors that I should be aware of?) + S&H, A couple of questions though... Has anyone ever dealt with these people before? Also, any idea if these players are the ones with the new firmware (circa last month)? If not, how difficult is it to download the firmware & install it yourself (keep in mind, I'm not much of a techie). I plan to hook the unit up to my HDTV via component/progressive input & was wondering how the pcture will look especially when dealing with a Pal region 2 disc... Anyway, thanks in advance for all the help!
Regards,
John

<b>Janos</b>, doubtless Forum members will be happy to help with any new points but some aspects have already been covered in existing threads. I'm moving this so that the front page doesn't again get overrun with duplicates....

Thank you in advance for your understanding.


Benedict
[email protected]
Moderator, International DVD & Movie Forum

Janos, I jsut received a Malata N996 from 220-electronics last week and it did have the latest version of the firmware which is from November 9th. My player turned out to be defective and they were very helpful on the phone giving me suggestions to try and solve my problem. They are very familiar with the player so they had me try a few things before they decided to have me send the player back. I am waiting for my replacement now.

Malata and AVdeals policy
 

I bought my Malata from AVdeals.ca and paid more to have the option 0 that was supposed to be software upgradable. Because of a soldering problem, this was not true anymore. So Avdeals told me that if an upgrade was available, AVdeals will pay for the upgrade or send a new motherboard.

Does anyone knows about Avdeals policy now? I'm unable to contact them by telephone and I don't want to take the risk of upgrade it myself and damage the player.

Thanks!

I've been waiting for all problems to be fixed before ordering a Malata. Is it safe to order now or should I wait for a possible better replacement option (if there will be such a thing...) ?