Christian

but I'm having trouble with LIGHTNING FAST Subtitles on R2 PAL discs - I am just starting to collect PAL DVDs and only have a few with subtitles, but it seems that they all flash by at incredible speed - it's impossible to read them (main discs where this is a problem is CARTOUCHE - we're talking 1-2 sec. for some of the subtitles)
Has anyone else noticed this? Is this the discs or the PAL speed up when converted to NTSC?
I also have several discs from Germany with hearing impaired subtitles - same thing - they just flash by...even if you wanted to read them, you couldn't.
In some cases the subtitles flash on for a split second, then nothing, and then they appear again for 2 seconds. What's up with this? Is it my player? Is there something that can be done with the subtitle menu???
Anyone know anything about this problem?

Matt Stevens

It's a problem with lazy encoding by many foreign companies.

Christian

Aha....so I guess you win some you loose some? How to know which DVD are encoded properly in regards to the subtitles??? This is quite a nasty problem...but at least it's not the player then...

axolotls return

I thought it might have been the player when I was watching "Avenging Fist" the other day. The subs whizzed by so fast, I gave up on trying to read them. It was like absorbing subliminal messages.

About the "burning smell." Yes, I noticed it and still do; but nothing fatal has happened thus far. ***knock on wood***

Christian

I did a double check and the subtitles appear to be fine when the DVDs are played on the ORITRON player (horrible picture when forced through the PAL/NTSC converter though - it also "acts up" with strange green lines and glitches on a lot of the R2 DVDs). This makes me think that this is a problem with the MALATA itself then. It's pretty odd though. I guess I'll just have to live with this weird phenomenon...Either bad picture and legible subtitles with interruptions to fix the green glitches or great picture and no subtitles.

codefree

Just tried An American Werewolf 2 (R2-Germany) today and the forced German subtitles cannot be turned off.

Matt Stevens

It is possible that the Mediamatics chip has a hard time with badly encoded or certain types of subtitles. After all, the subtitles from Phantom Menace do not work on any Mediamatics chip based player.

Malata cannot turn off forced subs. Very few players can.

Christian

That's not the greatest news...I've got IL GATTOPARDO on order (should be arriving soon) Trouble is...if the subtitles don't work on that one...I'm out of luck...my Italian is non-existent!!! And there is no English dubbed track. Oh well...#$$##%%@*%$!!!!!! I guess no more subtitled flicks for me!!! But I'll keep you guys posted with GATTOPARDO...

Lint

Don't give up!!! I watch almost exclusively subtitled DVDs with my Malata and have only had one minor problem with subtitles going too fast and that was only through a small portion of the movie (I think it was Stephen Chow's God of Cookery). Other than that, most DVDs with subtitles (haven't played The Phantom Menace on it) have been perfect! It seems the Malata may have problems with some subtitles, but not nearly all of them.

Christian

It's tough (and expensive) to buy DVD from R2 though...and to then find out that the subtitles are not working is a REALL pain...
CARTOUCHE with Claudia Cardinale/Jean Paul Belmondo certainly does NOT work for nearly all the subtitles - they are pretty much all too fast. Same with DVDs from KINOWELT - though these are just German hearing impaired titles (they were supposed to help someone learn German - but you can forget them too) Keep your fingers crossed for me with IL GATTOPARDO!!!!

Matt Stevens

I have about 75 subtitled DVD's and only ran into trouble on one title. Relax.

TheBigDave

Those of you that are having problems with the US "Thesis" DVD might want to check out the UK "Tesis" DVD from Tartan Video (Region 0/PAL). I just watched it on my Malata, and it played fine. The UK DVD is a bit more expensive, but it's Widescreen with optional English Subtitles and has a 25-minute documentary plus a few other extras.

kesinger

Back when my Malata worked (the same thing happened to me as to Trinitron), I had this extra-quick subtitle problem with plenty of R1 discs, too.

==Jake

FedEX Fanboy

I was watching the CC edition of "And God Created Woman" and I noticed the SUBS were going way to fast on my new MALATA and appearing to late. I popped the DVD into my old trusty Sony DVD and it played just fine.

So I messed around with the Subpicture settings in the Expert Menu and turned the Subs to Never (#3), which doesn't resize them or something like that... Any way this solved the problem as the Subs timing were perfect after that change.

I've got a Sony Wega 32" with 16x9 squeeze... I'm nots sure if that has something to do with the settings or not.

Matt Stevens

Fanboy, you are correct. The default is #1. Set it to #3 (Never) and presto, the subs seem to be much better. I had always used #3 (Never) but forgot to change it back after I did a hard power down a month ago (that switches everything back to defaults).

I should report that many DVD's subtitles are fine on all 3 settings. The NEVER setting just seems to fix badly encoded or improperly encoded subs, of which there are plenty. The Mediamatics chip's weekest attribute is it subtitle displaying.

joelgee

Okay. let me see if I can get all this Malata stuff straight.

I was about to make the leap and purchase the 966 from AVDeals when I started seeing a thread in the Asian DVD forum that concerned problems with that particular e-tailer, but the posters suggested another place, nbtelectronics. So far, everybody seems to be happy with this place.

Then I started seeing a thread that implied there were all manner of subtitle problems with the Malata: fade subtitles like on Phantom Menace don't show up, poor timing, too fast, etc.

Then I see in this thread that a simple adjustment can fix the subtitle problem.

Are there any other existing issues of which I should be aware before I do this?

Merci.
Joel

benedict

joelgee, it is just a thought, but it might be more useful for the people providing most of the answers/insights on this topic if you could state which of the issues raised on this (and the previous two parts of the Malata Problem Busting) thread are causing you the most concern.

Rocky_Raccoon

I know the subtitle problem is worrying me as well. People are reporting more and more discs each day that are having subtitle problems.

I just read earlier today that Avenging Fist , Battle Royale ( HK ) and the 2nd disc of the new Red Wolf Platinum edition all had problems with subs. I think Avenging Fist and Battle Royale had subs that were going too fast or something like that. The Red Wolf HKL disc on the 2nd disc with extras had no subs at all on the documentaries. People were reporting that they tried the setting the subs to never and that didn't help with Red Wolf. Not sure about Avenging Fist or Battle Royale.

I am really wanting to purchase this player but the main reason I am getting the player is for foreign films. If I am going to have alot of trouble with the subtitles, then it really defeats the purpose.

Clint

Slumbering Fist

Played REG 3 Battle Royale on my player just fine. I did not notice the subtitles whizzing by at a faster pace than normal.

Edited to add: I also just watched Hong Kong Legends Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Police Story and noticed no subtitles that were too fast or badly out of synch.

no pants

my, in the mood, french 2 dvd set subs seem a little on the quick side, too. but aside from that i haven't noticed any sub problem, battle royal r3 plays just fine for me too.

pants

d2cheer

Same here,

BTW I have not noticed any significant sub problem with mine. I have over 30 + movies with subs and they all seem to play fine. No faster than on my DVD-Rom.

MrBooth

Just popped AVENGING FIST back in the player and tried it with all 3 "Subpicture Settings". In all 3, subtitles appeared about 1/2 second too late and disappeared too quickly. This problem does not occur on an older Sony player.

Battle Royale R3 was not bad for me but not great - they lagged a little, but only a couple of lines total disappeared too quickly to read. There have been quite a few other discs that have demonstrated the same problem to a greater or lesser extent - in fact, in the month or so that I've owned it I would estimate that 40-50% of the discs I've tried have been problematic. My HKL discs have all been fine though, thankfully.

MrBooth

::bump::

Has anybody found out any further information about the Malata synchronisation problem - specifically why some people seem not to have it?

Better yet, has anybody found a solution for those of us that do, and for whom changing the subpicture settings does not work?

Matt Stevens

As stated before, if the subtitles are not encoded to the DVD specs, they will have problems on some players. The Malata is one of them. I have yet to find any U.S. made DVD's that do not play subs correctly on the Malata and that is because all U.S. dvd subs are to the DVD specs.

Encoding in Hong Kong is lousy.

MrBooth

Not lousy enough that every other player I've heard of plays them fine, and seemingly not lousy enough that *some* Malata owners seem to have no problem.

It's mainly this latter point which interests me, as it suggests that there's hope for my own Malata.