Recent content by Keith Smith

I have the two individual albums and recommend them both highly. I also have the American version of Umbrellas, and will never watch it again, because the video of the French version is so much better. Yes, both have English subtitles available. In Demoiselles, it's also fun to see...

On the two HD sets on which I viewed my CyberHome 500, I saw no evidence of the progressive scan problems reported by others. My observation was that on my large screen set, the Pioneer Elite 710HD, the video quality of the Cyberhome was not nearly as good as what I'm accustomed to seeing...

I've had the CyberHome 500 for a couple of weeks,now. I did the bios upgrade on my November build player. On my Pioneer Elite 710HD, the video quality was less than I'm accustomed to seeing with my Malata 996. Edges were not as smooth, and it just didn't look as good. Also, I found it most...

You might also consider the Italian version. I've had mine for about a year. The DTS audio is excellent. I do not watch my American version anymore. There are forced Italian subtitles, but I can pan the video upward on the screen while the subtitles stay towards the bottom, out of the video...

The JVC player has the same Panterra chip that I have in my two Malata N-996 players. Unfortunately, the x-y scaling feature was not implemented by JVC. For me, this is the most used feature in watching my 80+ PAL DVDs. I can get rid of the typical overscan, and size up the picture to my exact...

I have three Sampo 611 players and two Malata 996 players. The Malatas have excellent PAL to NTSC conversion and the great x-y scaling. After watching on a Malata, I frequently find it unpleasant to watch DVDs on my Sampos. I see a lot of conversion artifacts and video noise as well as a...

At Bensonworld you can get the Arthaus Musik DVD Video Sampler II delivered to your door for $10, or less. Not only will you have anamorphic video, on several chapters, but also DTS audio. Keith Smith

I'm using a Pioneer Elite 710HD in my home theater, and my 10' antenna and multiple receivers fed by it are at the heart of my system. The C Band antenna gives you access to lots and lots of video signals. Look at http://www.lyngsat.com/ to get an idea of what's on the many satellites. For...

Ron: Hold down the "Pause" (corrected) button on your remote control for five seconds and you will see the version number and date for the firmware. Do you also have the upgrade switch on the back of the player? This was added with the November '01 build. In getting started, a good first...

Ron: Australia is a good place to buy DVDs. The Australian dollar is only worth about 50 cents U.S. and there's a lot available there that's not available here. I have an account with http://www.ezydvd.com.au/ and have ordered from them numerous times. Start with http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/...

The x-y scaling that the Malata N996 does is continuous,as is the panning. Thus,it enables you to precisely adjust the picture and to position it on the screen as you choose. When I first play an anamorphic DVD, I will typically reverse zoom it so that the picture extends just to the sides of...

The new modded JVC players do use the same Mediamatics chip that is used in the Malata N996, and if you could just get the JVC picture to display on your screen properly, it should look just like the Malata picture. Unfortunately, however, the JVC lacks some of the most desirable features...

In my post above, I reported having perfect DTS audio from my Malata N996 via my Denon 5700 receiver. This is after the November firmware upgrade. Previously, I had occasional audio dropouts on a few DTS DVDs and had real problems getting DTS CDs to play without dropouts. Now everything plays...

Ron: The DTS dropout problem for the N996 was fixed by the November firmware upgrade that your new November built player will have. Now, the Malata is a robust DTS player, even handling DTS CDs flawlessly through my Denon 5700. I also have the RP-91 (unmodded) and bought the Malata to be...

I have the Pioneer Elite PRO-710HD and would say that the internal line doubler is so good that for anamorphic DVDs, the interlaced DVD video is hardly distinguishable from a progressive player output. My interlaced player is the Elite DVL-91, and if I were only watching anamorphic R1 DVDs, I...