adamblast

Trying to decide what DVD player to get now that my Toshiba 6109c DVD player/receiver has died.

I’ve only got a 29-inch standard TV for now, and have been using a 3-channel front mix (TV + stereo speakers) that I’m not unhappy with yet… I’ve already got my new receiver.

VCD is a must, as is progressive scan... I’m very excited by the multi-region, PAL to NTSC capabilities, and XY scaling of the Malata 520… Now, my only use for scaling at the moment would be to combat overscan – not a necessity, certainly… But as I get a few PAL discs under my belt, and eventually get a 16x9 set, I know I’d use it more… I have lots of non-amamorphic DVDs, and lots of 4x3 discs… I keep hearing how people love the scaling, and would never go back to a player without it… I love the idea of having all that flexibility, and it sounds fun to play with…

But I’m worried about that mediamatics chip – it’s got a bad reputation with interlaced video, supposedly quite bad with 408i in general and old video in particular… I watch a ton of those old A&E video DVDs…

I should note I don't actually have any non-R1 discs yet, but I'd love to buy lots of British discs... So many tradeoffs...

Is the 520 really that sucky with interlaced? What non-scaling player would be best for interlaced now/progressive later? Should I give up the scaling for better 408i results?

Is there any player that can give me both?

HKFLIXdotcom

The Mediamatics chipset is the only one capable of delivering pixel-level scaling capabilities. Jaton and Malata Mediamatics players are the only ones that have implemented it. Before I got my new progressive TV at home, I used a 520 as my primary machine. I never had any problems with it at all. That's just my personal experience. I would suggest you check out the following FAQ:

http://www.geocities.com/regioncodefree/mediamatics/

If you plan on upgrading your monitor in the future, you probably need a Mediamatics machine. Infinite zoom and XY scaling are incredibly useful for scaling non-animorphic letterboxed DVDs on a widescreen. Generally monitors that accept component input don't allow on board scaling. So XY scaling and infinite zoom allows you to blow the image up to fit the screen exactly with no overscan. Also, the Mediamatics chip was designed for progressive scan and I haven't seen a machine that has a better progressive picture.

If you don't plan on upgrading your monitor, you might consider one of the new ESS machines like the Malata 566 or Sampo 612N and they both correctly convert PAL, while at the same time doing interlace slightly better.

Regards,
Jeff
HKFLIX.com

adamblast

Thanks Jeff...

I'm definitely upgrading my monitor before too long... So I guess I'll be going with the 520...

It's a drag that video-PAL is so bad, though... Part of my all-region dream was for getting alot of older BBC stuff, like Dr. Who...

Question: Is the XY scaling reset (when player turned off) really a problem? Do people just leave the player on all the time? I'm wondering whether the VGA model with standby is worth the wait...

Is the new standby mode just a function of the new remote? Any chance I could purchase a black 520 and remote with standby?

Josh Z

I'm a huge fan of my old Malata 996, but as far as progressive scan performance goes any player with the Faroudja chipset will be vastly superior to the Mediamatics.

Unfortunately, at current there are no players that incorporate both Faroudja deinterlacing and scaling at the same time. This is expected to change in the near future.

Region-free players like the Malata are great, but I would personally not choose to use one as my primary DVD player. It is worth the money to keep two DVD players on hand, one for dedicated Region 1 playback and the other for multi-region titles.

peter07

Hey, www.michaeldvd.com.au always rates PAL DVDs as better than NTSC ones because of picture. Yet I keep reading about how bad the conversion can be yada yada.

So I'm also thinking of buying two DVD players but I figure I should buy a PAL player for the best performance.

Decisions, decisions!

Hendrik

...ahh... PAL players ... while most are indeed able to convert NTSC to PAL, they can not convert PAL to NTSC... which is what you need them to do if you live in an NTSC country, such as the USA, Canada, Korea, Japan...

. . . . . .

fnordboy

That is what I do. I use a Samsung DVD-M301 for my dedicated R1 playing and my JVC-SA602SL for all my PAL and other region needs.

cinemaman

this is a common comment I read a lot - only use the multi-region player for non-region 1 discs.

Why? i don't understand this logic.. My multi-region plays region 1 fine - why in the world would I want to juggle back and forth between 2 dvd players?

What am I missing here?

Raxel

I'm also using 2 players, the reason I'm doing that is because the region-free player is expensive and the video quality is not as good as my the other player.

Rockybalboa

JVC SA600, any thoughts on the pal to ntsc conversion on this player?
Thanks

mshields

I have the JVC 500 -- It does the PAL-NTSC just fine, in fact, I can't tell any difference in picture quality between the two...

Raxel

You think the video quality is same on every DVD player?

Josh Z

Even the best multi-region players tend to have picture quality and often build quality inferior to what you can get dedicated for Region 1.

I love my Malata for everything it can do, but its picture is flat and dull compared to my other Denon machine. Its progressive scan deinterlacing is also not nearly as good.