Ok, i've looked through the history with the search, i've tried to do my homework, but i'm still confused. I want a region free dvd player with PAL->NTSC.

My current setup is an old 27'' TV, my dad and I had been discussing picking up a HighDef WS TV, (i used the fact that ESPN is now broadcasting the Stanley Cup playoffs in HighDef to try and convince him, but once our wings got swept by the Ducks, that sorta went downt he drain), and now my mom's over ruled us both and wants a new deck for the backyard. The other thing is i'm transfering to a new college come next spring, so i'll probably end up taking the 27'' TV with me...

I have no sound setup yet, I'd like one, a nice.

I currently "work" at best buy...i put paranthesis around work because I'm on medical leave, I just had a major back operation a month ago and wont be able to work until mid August at the earliest...thus my income is halted...

I'm a HUGE foriegn film fanatic...i'm almost getting to where over 1/2 my collection has subtitles, so getting one is a no brainer for me.

Ok, so now that I've discussed my financial situation, my current video situation, and my sound setup, which is the best model to go with?

I've heard the arguement "the cyberhome is awesome and it's cheap!"

I've heard the arguement "the cyberhome will last 3 months tops"

I've heard them all! I think its time that us DVDTalkers try and actually put together some facts about what these 3 players (and the different versions) have and dont have against each other. As I'm not a videofile or audiofile, I dont really know, all I knowi s that I love films.

The last thing to keep in mind in recommending something, is that there is a chance that a video my best friend and I made 2 summers ago and the sequel last summer might be getting a small distribution, thus I'm buying myself a nice High Def and surround sound...

SO...

Besides just opinions, can anyone provide any definite information on which one of these to pickup based on what i currently have, and the prospect of upgrading my televsion system. What sort of specs do each model have/have not, etc.

Thanks.

P.S. my first 1 purchases are Le Samuari and La Dolce Vita

This actually might belnog in Hardware, but i posted it here because it's concerning R2,R3,R4, PAL titles...mods, feel free to move it if need be. Thanks

1) my cyber home has worked flawlessly for over 3 months
2) the ONLY reason I would think of getting a malata is for the zoom feature... I do lose approx. 10% of the picture on the sides due to PAL to NTSC conversion. Believe the malata is the only one that does this.. however, I have heard that the cyberhome converts PAL to NTSC better....so I am ok right now...

To watch non-anamorphic DVD's on a Widescreen TV the only way to go is Malata. The X & Y Scaling and the Zoom feature allow you to fill your screen with no picture quality loss. I have had mine (N996) for over 2 years and love it. As far as the Pal comparision goes I know first hand that the Malata is better than the Cyberhome. I have compared both players using the same Widescreen TV and DVD's and IMO the Malata is by far the better DVD player.

But opinions vary... if you are able to compare the 2 like I was I am pretty sure most will see a difference in quality.

My Jaton has the same feature. Works great!

But given your budget and the $150+ price difference between the Malata and the Cyberhome, you'll still be perfectly happy with latter. I've had a Cyberhome for 6 months or so with no problems at all. The Cyberhome features that most people feel are the big selling points (apart from the low price):

Correctly converts anamorphic PAL-to-NTSC discs.
DD/DTS with optical, analog and component outputs as well as direct 5.1 outputs (meaning you have the option of connecting your speakers directly into the machine without the use of an amplifier/receiver. I figure this might be an important detail for you if you plan on acquiring your audio set-up piece by piece).
Component, composite and S-VHS video outputs.
Disables Macrovision with remote hack.
Progressive scan with component video.
Plays VCD, SVCD, JPEG files, MP3s (with filename display). DVD-R playback is reported to be finicky, but I haven't used this format.
And obviously it can be region-hacked quite easily.

Another big selling point is Cyberhome's customer support. They respond very quickly to any e-mails and have been regularly releasing firmware updates to take care of reported problems.

I've had a Cyberhome for about 6 months or so, and I'm very happy with it.

IMO, I would recommend buying a Cyberhome now, since it is so cheap. Then, if you've got some extra money to spare, work on upgrading your old 27" TV first, since it will improve your picture quality for everything you watch (not just PAL anamorphic discs). After you've upgraded your TV (if you've still got some money to spare), then you can upgrade to the Malata if you're still not happy with the Cyberhome. If you do decide to upgrade to the Malata, you can always eBay your Cyberhome player and probably get most of your money back, since it was so cheap in the first place.

I heard that it was not wise to zoom in on non-anamorphic DVDs on a widescreen TV because it just adds grain to the picture.. May not be noticieable on a small widescreen TV (40") but on a large (> 50") I have heard horror stories about picture quality.

Cineman, it depends on the player and the capabilities of the Zoom. Zoom usually does make for a worse pic, but some newer players compensate for that and put out a pic that is almost as good as the original on just about any level of zoom.

Never used a Malata, so I won't make any comments about it.

I've had the CH 500 for 6 months. Going strong and doing fine. People who claim it won't last 3 months are talking about the cheap Chinese players in general, some have had very troubling track records. However, manufacturing has improved greatly in the last 2 years, and some of these people complaining about cheap Chinese players would be surprised to know that their own 'quality' player gets made right next to the player they're trashing.

For the budget minded, I think the CH 500 is definitely the best region free player on the market right now. You can't beat the features for the price. Sartana listed the features, so I won't double up on that. I will say that no other hackable player on the market comes close to its' ability to convert anamorphic PAL video. On the flipside though.....

It does have its' problems:

-On some discs it automatically defaults to subtitles and you have to turn them off manually.
-Only 1 level of zoom, and it inconveniently places a smaller 'picture in picture' type of pic of the full pic on the screen. You can't get rid of it.

-While it is a progressive scan player, in PS mode it causes the top corner of the screen to flicker and destabilize. Not fun at all, I'm told.

-My own tests with it have confirmed that it doesn't consistantly put out the same colors. I can put in Avia, check the bars and all is well, take the disc out, turn it off, on and put the disc back in, color is off. Repeat, and color will be correct again. Very annoying.

My advice if you have a standard 4:3 set, get a CH 500 for region free viewing, and a new Toshiba or JVC for everyday viewing. This can be done for well under $200 for both if you shop right, and you can get a good experience watching any disc you might want to. If you've got a new HDTV skip that, head to HK Flix and buy one of their modded JVC or Pioneers, you'll be happier with the pic and have a quality player.

For a running list of problems for both players, visit here: www.nerd-out.com/forum/

The grain on the zoom on my Malata is not a problem on a 42" Toshibia, so maybe that varies with each set...

i have 2 cyberhomes and 1 malata 996.
-cyberhomes worked awesome except for a glitch in one of the them (it was the flickering that was mentioned above). it was past warranty, but CH said to send it in anyways, and i got a different one about 2 weeks later. other than that, they have been flawless since october of last year.
-i use my malata now as a backup player. it gets used about once every 3 weeks. still works fine, but the CH gets used more.

How's the R1 playback on the CH500 on an interlaced TV?

looks fine to me, but i have only used it interlaced on a 18 or something inch tv. the other is on the 56" with component hookups.

Thanks for your replies, I've always been someone who tries to get "THE BEST" available, but it sounds like the cyberhome will do just find. Now, once my medical bills are paid off, I think I'm goign to start ordering from across the ocean

Just to chime in (and confuse things a bit ). I have a Malata and a 57 inch Toshiba and zooming on non-anamorphic widescreen can yeild very impressive results (particularily if it's a really good non-anamorphic picture like some of the new Shaw Brothers DVDs). I wouldn't say that zooming increases the grain, at least it's never looked that way to me, but it will make flaws in the encode more obvious and it can introduce artifacts. In general, I couldn't live without the zoom for non-anamorphic discs. My Toshiba TV has a zoom mode that works to "blow up" window-boxed widescreen material, but the quality isn't as good as letting the Malata do it (the TV zoom can look a bit more "grainy"). The zoom is also nice for "shrinking" to correct for my TV's overscan. The panning feature on the Malata is also great if you've zoomed non-anamorphic 2.35:1 material that has subtitles in the "letterbox" area.

So, the zoom feature is very nice, you just have to decide if it's nice enough to justify the higher price. Depends on your budget, I suppose.

Which model of the malata do you have?

I just bought a Malata 520 to replace my APEX 600A - the Cyberhome of its time The Apex is on its last breath. Certain features had stopped working properly one after another. I'm sure this will be the case with most CH or Malata units 3 years from now.

First of all, if you have a lot of anamorphic region 1 DVD and a big screen TV, you should try to have another player that can give you a better video than a Cyberhome or a Malata. I think this is where JVC comes in. I own a Panny RP-82 and a JVC as well. The picture quality goes from best to worst: Panny -> JVC -> Malata -> Apex. You can get a region-free RP-82, but it costs $300+.

I'm very pleased with Malata so far. The price difference is not $150 as someone has mentioned. I think it's more ~$80 now. I got mine from ebay for $150 plus shipping. The XY-scaling, configurable zoom and panning, and great Karaoke output (compared to the weak mic out from Apex) makes it the player of choice for anything that're non-R1 anamorphic discs.

The zooming function of Malata is obviously low-end since it just blows up the picture and try to use the ~300 lines to fill up 480 lines. I didn't notice any attempt to upconvert the zoomed picture.

The Malata remote feels very incomplete. I don't care about the looks of the remote since it'll be devoured by the universal remote anyway, but I wish they single out the buttons to do the Zooming, Scaling, etc. Also, why can't they add a power button there?

Malata is obviously a better region-free DVD player than CH. The only question is the price. For only $50-$80 difference though, it's a no-brainer for me.

Mine's a 520 as well.

I have both the Malata N996 and the 520 FYI

What about this Toshiba SD3900 i just heard about? Would that do? Best Buy carries them and since I work there, I can get a good discount on that...

man this is SO confusing

I also see the Malata with a full surround sound system on ebay for a buy it now of around $240...i was thinking about that possible, as it would be an immediate upgrade in my sound department?

Ahh...I just might have to wait for all of this until after summer

I am going with the Toshiba myself...$95 plus this weekend is a preferred customer thingy so take another $9.50 off for a total of $85.50 before tax...

Where can one buy a CyberHome 500 from these days? (on-line or NYC based B&M).

Thanks,
Ted

Ted, go to www.cyberhome.com .

I just sent mine back to get fixed (progressive scan issue that is not an issue with new players).

I recently read about how crappy the surround sound system is and the speakers break after one time usage. This is just what I read.. and can't back it up if it is actually true. But seems pretty flimsy. I would just get a straight up player.

Ted, Kim's Video on St. Mark's sells the Cyberhome for $109 I think, otherwise you can get it online from www.newegg.com