Ok I got everything working now. Thanks everybody for all your help. I see what I did now. I was going from the yellow video jack that was under component instead of the video 2 yellow jack that was the composite. The sound was because my settings on the Malata were still the same even tho I turned it off from the player and unplugged it. It was still set for stereo. Sounds beautiful now.

Clint

Just remember that composite is the worst form of picture signal. You won't get pristine pictures that way. :( Make sure the sharpness on your TV is NO MORE than 10%. That will help clean up the picture.

What? you don't use the RF coax cable and Ch. 3?

DVD does not offer RF. Just Composite, S-Video and Component.

You are correct but..

Obviously you haven't seen mine garage set-up. You run composite out of the DVD to an RF Modulator to your antenna in of (my) ancient idiot box ala Channel 3-4 :D

Making a bad video signal worse. Bet we won't find that setup at your place.

yeah I guess the next thing to get on the list is a new TV. After buying the Malata and the Pioneer receiver, I am pretty broke. I have my sharpness pretty low already. Not sure if it's 10%. How do you figure that out? My tv just has white bars you move to the left and right. Right being the higher one.

Clint

Matt, or anyone else who can help:

My Malata does something weird with DVD menus. Whenever there is a portion of a menu that needs to be highlighted (like text or an icon), the highlight does not show up directly on top of the original. It shows up a few scan lines lower, so that you can still see the original below and the highlight looks seriously out of alignment.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a menu setting that will fix it?

For the record, I'm connected via S-video to an interlaced (non-progressive) display.

go to the expert menu and take the subtitles off of NEVER, that should do the trick

I have the same problem, I just assumed it was because I changed my zoom, pan, and x,y scaling.

go to the expert menu and take the subtitles off of NEVER, that should do the trick

That did the trick!!
Thanks!

Moving the XY axis around can do that on some discs.

Yup, that seemed to do it.

Question: Should it be set for Always or Highlight-Only? I've got it on Always now because Highlight-Only slows down the menu responses.

I thought in one of the previous Problem Busting threads it was recommended to set the subs for Never? Something about discs with subtitles flashing by too fast.

Speaking of subtitles, I've found that practically every dvd I play on my Malata displays subtitles about a 1/2 of a second to slow, which leads to some of the words to be barely readible. I've tried various region 1 and 2 titles and even some Criterions. All seem to do the same thing no matter which Sub Setting I use...
I use my SONY player to compare them, which displays the subs perfectly.

Can any body help me out with this? It's really annoying since I primarily bought it to be able to play non-region 1 titles which are mostly subtitled... I've tried resetting the Malata to factory settings, but still no luck. ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!

put the subtitles on NEVER, that helps, my player does it too

First:

And then:

This is what I'm talking about. Should the subtitles be on NEVER or not? Is there a setting that allows the menus to highlight properly AND displays subtitles at the correct speed?!

Yeah yeah I've tried Never, Always, all three of those settings an neither seems to help...

Malata Q's
 

Okay, I've had my Malata 996 (w/November 2001 firmware) for about two days now and I already have a couple of questions.

For the record, here's my equipment:

TV: Sony Wega XBR 250 (from 1999 w/16:9 squeeze, no 480p or 1080i)
DVD: Malata 996 & Sony 530D

Here are my questions...

1. When playing my R1 dvd of Raging Bull last night I noticed that for several frames (at different points during the film) the picture does a strange thing, it seems to digitize, for lack of a better word. It's almost like when you're qatching digital cable you're switching channels and it 'digitizes'. I even went back and played it on my Sony 530D and it plays just fine. So, what gives?

2. Does anyone else set their dvd player on 16:9 and do a 'simulated' anamorphic squeeze on non-anamorphic titles? For instance, when watching Raging Bull, I noticed that my tv was in 'squeeze' mode and it was almost as though it was anamorphic 1.78:1 with the non-anamorphic software. I did the same thing with my dvd of Vertigo, also non-anamorphic.

Man, it really looks amazing, even though the films come from non-anamorphic sources. Anyone else done this?

3. X-Y scaling. I didn't understand this until last night. It's the same theory that goes into the zoom on some 16:9 tv's. Do any of you use the X-Y scaling on some films that are wider than 1.85:1 so that it will fit the 1.85:1 framing of your tv (when my tv is squeezed, that's about what it's at, I guess...).

For instance, while watching the dvd of JFK last night I 'zoomed' in on the 2.40:1 frame and zoomed it so it almost fit the 'squeezed' frame from my tv...1.78:1 or 1.85:1, whatever it is.

I know I'm losing some on the sides, but I wanted to experiment with it. It's almost like when you go to the theater and you'll note they don't have the image matted properly and you're losing stuff on both sides.

So, can using the X-Y scaling harm my tv?

Thanks for any and all help,
newecho

Re: Malata Q's
 

Which video filter are you using in the Expert menu? NTSC discs should be set for the SMART setting, and PAL discs for the STILL setting. That may or may not be your problem. Check it out and get back to us.

You are not anamorphically squeezing anything. What the Malata is doing is scaling the non-anamorphic image to fit in the 16:9 frame. You are not gaining any extra resolution.

No, you're just harming the artistic integrity of the film.

Thank you! This set up worked like a charm for my HDTV. One thing that I noticed when using this player to view something in full frame (i.e. Buffy Season 3 - R4) that the bars on the side that used to be gray are now black. This makes the picture a lot easier to view in my opinion. Does this player do this automatically or is there something in the set up?

It's automatic. Anyone using a RPTV needs to make sure their contrast and brightness are not too high. Otherwise you risk burnin from the black bars.

Just a word of caution.

I changed it to SMART and played the parts of Raging Bull I was experiencing the problem with and it's still there.

I wonder what it is...

Jason

For properly flagged disc in a perfect world. Still would be used for PAL and movie for NTSC.

However, most of my PAL discs are an exception to the rules whereas I have to use SMART or MOVIE for them to stop the combing effect. Heck, I even had to use Camera 1 for a Music DVD.

And there are a few that won't play properly with any of the filters.

So scrap that Still-PAL , Movie-NTSC rule cuz it doesn't always work

I have a question about the karaoke features on the n996. AVDeals site says the player does not support CD-G karaoke discs. Isn't CD-G the usual format for a karaoke disc? What other kind of karaoke discs are there? If you got a CD-G disc would it not put the words up on the tv screen? It says in the manual it does karaoke and it's got two mic jacks. Very confusing. I hate to spend 20 bucks on a disc and it not work right. Anybody know a place online to get decent prices on english karaoke discs? Thanks.

Clint

Any PAL DVD's that feature video based material (not shot on film) will require using the Camera 1 or 2 Filter). I have yet to encounter any film based PAL titles that combed on the STILL setting, so I would love to hear specific titles that are causing anyone trouble.

I'll start with Tartan's Ring 1 and 2

Hey Matt,
I've got one title for you: " In The Mood For Love " region 2 from France. This is a real tough one. I only managed to watch it on the SMART filter but it's the best it can do even if the image is shaky. I can't stand the combing digital effects of the STILL filter with this flick.