Is Malata any good? (1 Viewer)

[Nick Graham]

I am gonna need to pick up a new player pretty soon, and I was looking into one that could do flawless PAL->NTSC conversion, and also has the type of scaling feature
for non-anamorphic DVDs that the Panny RP91 offers. It looks Malata has a couple of players with these features, but how reliable are Malata machines? How is the PQ, the feature set, etc?

 

[Richard Gilmore]

Hope I can ask an additional question re: the Malata without hijacking this thread>

Can these machines also play PAL without conversion? My projector is PAL capable and it seems skipping the conversion would be better for image quality.

 

[James Nguyen]

I have a Malata N996 at home and amongst the options in its menu system is whether your video signal should be output in PAL or NTSC--so if you have equipment that can handle the native PAL signal, you should be good to go.

Quality wise, I am very satisfied with my Malata. It's been stable, never had it hang on a disc. Picture quality is excellent. Feature set is excellent as well--for my uses the Malata could have easily been my primary player (instead of my Panny RP91) since I have a good deal of non region 1 and PAL discs in my collection.

The only reason it's not my primary player is because of a slight incompatibility between it and my Yamaha receiver in which sounds stutter while moving between menus on a disc. Using the Malata with other receivers (loaners from shops, friends), the problem does not manifest itself--only w/ my Yammy receiver (which I hope to soon replace anyhow). Aside from that issue, the ability to scale non anamorphic video, the ability to do flawless PAL->NTSC conversion, and its region free status all make it an ideal player for those with similar needs.

The most frequent complaints, of which I agree, is that the on screen menus are a bit cryptic at best (fairly unintuitive English or poor translation) and the remote is pretty cheap--a moot point if you'll end up using a learning remote.

I don't have as much experience w/ the newer Malatas, as my 996 is one of their first models to hit it big. I believe their are some region free JVCs out there that also do the scaling features, but I don't recall off the top of my head if they do in fact perform scaling.

 

[Geoff L]

James or anyone else.

How is the Malata interlaced (non progressive) Picture Quailty.

How is the Sound Quailty also.

The 522 is what I am looking at right now and will be moving to HD tv soon but right now it would be feeding a standard 4.3 Sony 46" RPTV, hence my questions.
Any Malata progressive model information would be of much help....

Everything I've read about 522 is nothing but praise,,,,, BUT is always speaking to it's progressive output side, scaling ability, Pal to NTSC and vice versa conversion, PQ, other features.
All of which seem to be getting excellent marks.

Thats great when I move to a progressive capable set, right now I need some info on it's interlaced PQ & SQ and anything else dealing with that side of the player.

Regards
Geoff

 

[Pat Donoh]

Geoff,

The Malata 520 interlaced performance is sub-par.

In addition to a generally soft picture there is occasional combing on NTSC video. PAL video (converted to NTSC) suffers from major combing and shimmering problems, making it totally unwatchable.

I understand these problems are due to the Mediamatics decoder which de-interlaces and then "re-interlaces" to form an interlaced output.

 

[Geoff L]

Thank you Pat....

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I don't know about the 520, but the N996 has five different filters that allow you to get the best picture quality; Buffy R2 PAL is unwatchable in 4 of them, but looks terrific in the 5th one.

I'm very, very happy with the Malata N996, which has served well as a non-R1 machine. The PAL conversion is very nice indeed. The player has a reputation for overheating, so I try not to drive it too hard, but it hasn't given me a lick of trouble, knock on wood. The best part is the ability to scale in tiny increments--the perfect solution for nonanamorphic 1.66:1 discs, and it allows me to remove overscan completely. I wouldn't be without the player.

The remote control sucks, and the menus are indeed cryptic, but it's a terrific player for the price. If you can track down an N996, I have a large Word file of tips & tricks for dealing with it that I've culled from various online forums that I'm happy to send out to members of HTF. Not all of it applies to other Malatas, but some of it might. Those with upgradeable One-For-All remotes, the company now has the Malata N996 remote codes (I loaned them my remote) so you can get a better remote. Don't know about any other models though.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I have a N996 also and have been fairly happy with it. However I haven't used it much, mainly just for some R2 stuff I have. When I got an HDTV and switched to progressive mode I encountered the overheating problem. I ended up drilling some holes in the cover over the side which seemed hottest, that seemed to help.

The menus and remote are bad, and the manual is laughable, but it does a good job with PAL->NTSC and overall looks real good, so its definitely worth getting.

 

[Geoff L]

Keith
Pats post more or less has steared me away from the newer 520 with it's soft picture and now and then combing problem in interlaced. As he put it, less than sub par interlaced performance.

So I am now looking into the N996...!

Keith /// and others:
May I ask what size 4.3 set and type (CRT RPTV etc) were you using the N996 in (interlaced with)?
You seemed to be happy with it's performance but how is the PQ, SQ using interlaced with just NTSC R1 discs?

You didn't point anything negative about it in interlaced, but also didn't say much about it either...

Are the filters available for use in interlaced mode also?

Lastly, can you scale, step zoom, or just what can you do in interlaced?

I am looking at getting a HD set soon, but will be using a 4.3 46" Sony RPT till I get the HD set.

Might someone know where you can still find this model Malata?

Sorry for all the questions guys, but the N996 is spoken of and reviewed as a very nice to excellent progressive player with so many extras, but finding anything on it's interlaced NTSC, PQ, SQ, & features using just R1 discs for now has been tuff.
And this is kinda a whole new area for me. This type of player that is and progressive when we get the new set. :frowning:

Thank you for any N996 interlaced info....
Geoff

Edit: Seems I've got it threw my thick skull now what the issue is and aplogize for wasting everyones time..:b
Thanks very much for the link...:

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Geoff,

The Malata 966 will have the same PQ issue as the 520 since it also used the Mediamatics all-in-one chip.

In fact, the things pointed out by Pat were already pointed out a long time ago by the Secret's Shootout for the 996. Check it out here:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...MalataDVD-N996

_Man_

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Geoff,

The filters are available on the N996 in either interlaced or progressive mode (2 of them are I think--who can tell for sure from the manual--expressly intended for interlaced materials; see my comment re Buffy R2 above).

The 'Smart' filter generally does a pretty good job of picking out the right treatment, but there are numerous instances where the disc isn't flagged right (again, Buffy) and you need to set it manually.

Similarly, the scaling/zooming are all available regardless of whether progressive or interlaced source is used.

I'm using the Malata on a 65" widescreen Toshiba 65H80 and it doesn't seem unduly soft to me--though my other main player is a Sony which also gets criticized by some for softness. But things look plenty sharp and detailed to me, and I'm viewing from about 8' away.

 

[Dave Mack]

Hey,

I'm thinking of getting the JVC 600 modified which has the same Mediamatics chip as the Malata.
Mark, after conversion, if unit is outputting 480P, what mode would it use? SMART? FILM? Or VIDEO? For ex... if we got Buffy R2, which was shot on FILM, but edited on VIDEO, what mode would be best to avoid combing or shimmering?

How does the converted pic. look??

Thanx!! D

 

[Mark Zimmer]

The filters on my Malata N996 are Movie, Still, Smart, Camera1 and Camera2. Very descriptive, aren't they?

Movie works fine for progressive film-based materials NTSC.
Still works great for PAL film-based materials.
Smart generally works pretty well with any material, so long as it's flagged correctly. If it's not flagged right, you'll know immediately, and you need to try a different filter.
Camera1 works well for NTSC interlaced video, especially animation
Camera2 works well for PAL interlaced video. This is what I use for R2 Buffy.
(I think these are the equivalents of the video filters on the JVC machines)

But sometimes it just takes experimentation. My guidelines above are pretty much just derived from trial and error, and not necessarily the last word on the subject, since so much depends on how the material is flagged.