Pixelization with Malata 520 (1 Viewer)

[Suibhne]

I swear I saw another post about this here, but a search under "Malata" failed to turn up anything....

I just put my Malata through its paces last night and was disappointed to encounter periodic bursts of pixelization, sometimes very small and sometimes much more noticeable. This occurred about every ten or fifteen minutes throughout the movies I watched (both R2 PAL). This pixelization is non-repeatable, so it's apparently due to the decoding/output rather than any problems with the sources (both of which were great HKL DVDs anyway).

I contacted the retailer (HKFlix) about an exchange, as other 520 owners haven't encountered this problem and I'm fairly certain it's not due to any of my other components. I'm wondering whether anyone here has experience with this, however, and whether you can provide any guidance.

 

[Eric Sevigny]

I had never heard of that problem with the Malata - but the Nintaus (china made) multizone player his known for that particular problem. It has been traced to a faulty/cheap DVD drive. Some have attempted to replace it (in the Nintaus) with some level of success. If the player pixelate on all your discs, that may be it - if not, I have no idea, but would blame the discs.

 

[Tulli]

I've heard a lot about it. See here:
http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21351
Eric:
Thanks for the tip.

 

[LennyP]

I've only had pixelization with certain low quality DVD-Rs, like Princos turned out to be. And only closer to the end of the disc, but never with official, "professional" discs. I don't own 520 though, but N996 and the only HKFlix R3 discs I bought were Taxi 1/2.
I checked that thread linked above, someone else said it doesn't happen with N996. This pixelization I'm talking about is rather very squarishly blocky, in huge lines across most of the picture, nothing minor, and happens with bad DVD-Rs on other DVD players, in a similar way.
So, it must be a 520 glitch. If it ain't broken, don't fix it, they did, and screwed up a good model, I suppose.

 

[Bob_Wilson]

I see that you bought your Malata from HKFlix. How was your buying experience? would you recommend them as a vendor?

 

[CraigL]

Has anyone returned theirs and had no problems? I noticed this when I put in my very first disc. Haven't been able to play with it much since then. Hoping it'll go away.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

While I haven't seen pixelation, I have noticed an excessive amount of banding that doesn't occur on my Toshiba. This is very annoying.