DaveNinja

I bought a Daewoo 5700 back in april from Sam's Club. Most of my PAL stuff i figured would be TV shows (futurama) so i didnt care about the animorphic PAL problem. The Daewoo is a little slow though. I didnt really notice it til it got kind of falkey and i hooked up my old sony dvd player (model with the sync problem) and noticed how fast it was starting up and accessing stuff. I sold my Daewoo and ordered (and got) a JVC S 502 region free from hkflix.com. So far it seems like a nice player, nicely built. I've only really played mp3 discs on it and watched a svcd so far, but it seems faster. It has a zoom that goes up to 1024x, which means your screen only will display like 4 pixels.

conclusion: i like the JVC better than the Daewoo for an everyday player (which means 99% of the time, R1)

-daveninja.com

movielib

It's not a wrong choice.

You'll love it.

stingo

If it's anything like its predecessor, the N996 you will love it. Have never had a problem with it - including overheating. But if I did, I'd get the 520 without hesitation.

Giles

why does my Apex player squeeze the picture? Why does this occur? I've also noticed on some of my Region 2 music concert video's the audio is out of sync with the picture, why does this happen? I heard that PAL video is sligthly superior to NTSC, is this true? Are the video specs of PAL discs better for playback on PAL monitors, is there less resolution when playbacked on NTSC televisions? Besides time compression, is there any difference in how a non-Region 1 is mastered?

Are home theater DLP systems configured as such to playback unconverted PAL DVD presentations?

Josh Z

The majority of region free DVD players out there have a flaw where they drop too many scan lines in the conversion from PAL to NTSC. Hence the squashed picture. The Malata players convert the signal correctly.

PAL has higher resolution than NTSC, however it has a slower refresh rate and is prone to flickering. It also runs 4% faster and this causes a slight change in the audio's pitch.

When played back on an NTSC television, the PAL signal must be converted to NTSC. Its resolution will be exactly the same, but the speedup will remain.

Some of them, yes. It depends on the projector.

Nocturnaloner

There are techies here who can answer your questions in detail, but broadly:

The Apex does not correctly convert PAL to NTSC, which results in the squeezed image.

Un-synched sound could be a mastering issue with the dvd itself, or another sign or faulty conversion.

PAL does have more lines of resolution, and reportedly a better method of reproducing color.

Native PAL playback is generally superior in picture quality to NTSC.

I don't know the technical differences of PAL and NTSC mastering, but you should know that many (if not most) non-Region 1 discs are also NTSC. TV standards and region codes are two different things.

Giles

The out of synch problem occurs on at least three of my DVD's. It appears to be a conversion problem (I hope).

If PAL is superior in terms of lines of resolution, wouldn't PAL DVD's take advantage of this and boast an even better video quality than NTSC. To put it more distinctively, are Region 0 PAL discs better in terms of video versus Region 0 NTSC discs? How much video (resolution) loss (if any) happens when I watch PAL discs on a NTSC television?

Ted Todorov

PAL has 576 lines, NTSC has 480. When comparing good transfers, PAL looks noticably better. Region 0,1,2,3... has nothing to do with it.

You lose 20% of the resolution when converting from PAL to NTSC.

Ted

Giles

so... the PAL disc of "Monsters Inc" I just ordered could technically look better than the NTSC DVD? right, or will the fact that I am watching it on a NTSC television bring down the quality, I am still confused.

Ted Todorov

If your TV is NTSC it will look worse. When you watch something on an NTSC TV you can not get the PAL resolution.

Ted

digitalfreaknyc

Is there a malata that disables macrovision?

Prancetron2000

I'm seriously thinking about getting a Malata player since I'm fed up with waiting for a region-free device for my X-Box and I want the x y scaling feature for Police Story. I'd REALLY appreciate it if you guys would be so kind as to answer my questions:

1. The 552 or whatever is the best region-free player out there, right?

2. Does the Malata player display PAL movies as good or better than an X-Box? Because Purple Storm and Drive look just as good as any of my American DVDs on my X-Box, and I remember someone here saying that the X-Box actually displays PAL DVDs better than a Malata player. But for $275 shouldn't the Malata be much better??

3. I want to be able to play VCDs, so I was wondering how good the Malata plays VCDs.

4. Do you think that I should hold off buying the player just in case the price drops any time soon?

5. Are there any weird quirks or problems with the player that I should be aware of?

6. and finally, is HKFlix the cheapest place to buy the player?

Thanks for your time.

Seeker

What's changed? Do the older machines that removed macrovision no longer do it properly?

If they do, why can't the newer ones do it as well?

Andras

You can't remove because the Chinese who make this player started to obbey an international agreement which mandates Macrovision and build it into the machine, probably on chip level.

If having no Macrovision is important to you, I recommend you get a Daewoo 5700 or 5800 which can easily be hacked to be Region and Macrovision free, plus plays both NTSC and PAL DVDs on both NTSC and PAL TVs. It costs less than $90.00 at Sam's Club.

www.nerd-out.com has lots of info on this subject.

digitalfreaknyc

Prancetron raises some good questions...

I'm actually about ready to get one of these myself. Can anyone answer so I could make a decision?

movielib

I found this one:

http://www.220-electronics.com/dvd/malata900.htm

digitalfreaknyc

I would order that one but it doesn't have the built in DD/DTS decoder that I need for my stereo in my apt.

Back to the drawing board!

Andras

Many experts agree: Decoding is best left for the receiver.

digitalfreaknyc

yes...well...my neighbors in my apt complex surrounding me don't really care about what "the experts" say

Andras

When I was checking last about 3 months ago, there was a Canadian site selling them cheap. I forgot the name, but there price and shipping was very reasonable.

digitalfreaknyc

Does anyone have any information on what the best model and place to purchase is? I'm thinking of doing it this week and the link at the top of this page doesn't work.

Prancetron2000

Could somebody please answer the questions I listed above? I'd really appreciate it.

axolotls return

Originally posted by Prancetron2000
I'm seriously thinking about getting a Malata player since I'm fed up with waiting for a region-free device for my X-Box and I want the x y scaling feature for Police Story. I'd REALLY appreciate it if you guys would be so kind as to answer my questions:

1. The 552 or whatever is the best region-free player out there,
right?

The 520. Although I feel the 996 is still better if you can find it.

2. Does the Malata player display PAL movies as good or better than an X-Box? Because Purple Storm and Drive look just as good as any of my American DVDs on my X-Box, and I remember someone here saying that the X-Box actually displays PAL DVDs better than a Malata player. But for $275 shouldn't the Malata be much better??

I am sure it does. You can't scale with an X-Box and you know the Malata displays it properly

3. I want to be able to play VCDs, so I was wondering how good the Malata plays VCDs.

Fine. Plays NTSC VCDs, PAL VCDs, SVCDS (homemade)


4. Do you think that I should hold off buying the player just in case the price drops any time soon?

No.

5. Are there any weird quirks or problems with the player that I should be aware of?

Yes. A lot of PAL discs are flagged incorrectly (interlacing or something like that) so a lot of stuff especially animation and most Tartan discs will shimmer or streak (non technical terms) and it is annoying but the only drawback besides the quality of the machine itself which is **** poor.

6. and finally, is HKFlix the cheapest place to buy the player?

No. But at least if it messes up you can pitch a bitch here and Jeff will address your concerns pretty quickly. Although, I bought mine from NBT, their Customer Service was excellent and friendly. I recommended them over AVDeals back when everyone started buying them (THANKS TO MATT STEVENS, of course).

Thanks for your time. [/B]

digitalfreaknyc

Hold up....the quality of the machine is **** poor?

Am i reading this incorrectly???

axolotls return

No. Many people have had DOA machines arrive at their front door. Some people claim it overheats (well, there are no vents). Mine had a problem that if you turned off the master switch, you'd better pray that it turns back on. I am referring to the Malata N996. I don't know if any 520 owners had this problem or not (anyone?) I usually don't follow this thread.

I solved my problem, after playing electrician; but don't think most people would be able to do it on their own.

The Malata does have a one year warranty though.

And yes, the quality of the machines is (urine) poor.

The remote itself on the 996 is so bad (placement of buttons and workmanship), I immediately programmed my programmable remote with it and safely put the Malata remote away (since I don't think any codes exist for it).

But, I would like to emphasize, it still is the best thing out there and I am not unhappy with it's purchase. Just letting you all know the cons of the Malata since we here so many pro's about it. A balanced approach is always best.