Malata/Region Free Players?

[Paul Arnette]

Hi all.

I am looking to get a region free player that will play PAL DVDs and convert the signal to NTSC, but I am quite a newbie in this particular area of home theater.

I know that the Malata is a well-known brand of region free DVD player, but is it widely considered the best brand?

I'm not looking to perform any hacks on my current player, or any others for that matter. Just looking for the best, out-of-the-box region free DVD player in terms of picture and sound quality that converts PAL to NTSC.

Any help would be greatly appreiciated.

Thanks.

[DCinDC]

Originally posted by Paul Arnette
Hi all.

I am looking to get a region free player that will play PAL DVDs and convert the signal to NTSC, but I am quite a newbie in this particular area of home theater.

I know that the Malata is a well-known brand of region free DVD player, but is it widely considered the best brand?

I'm not looking to perform any hacks on my current player, or any others for that matter. Just looking for the best, out-of-the-box region free DVD player in terms of picture and sound quality that converts PAL to NTSC.

Any help would be greatly appreiciated.

Thanks.

I'm a interested and new to this subject as well.

I've seen some Yamaha models that are supposed to be region free out of the box. Unfortunately, I can't find any listings for them at trusted dealers.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this?

Thanks.

[CJayB]

At the lower end you might want to look into the Yamakawa players (do a search on the forum for more info). I've tried both the DV-38 and DV-88 and they do an excellant job of converting PAL to NTSC and cost well under $100, and though they don't come out of the box region-free, there is a simple menu hack to do it.

These two players greatly exceed the video quality of my Malata N996.

At the higher end, for around $350, you might want to consider the Cambridge Audio 540D. I haven't tried one, but this player gets a lot of good reviews and supposedly has very good audio quality along with being region-free out of the box and converting PAL to NTSC. A Google search will lead you to the reviews and a lot more info.

If you want an upscaling player, the Momitsu V880D is a good bet at around $250. It also is made region-free with a simple menu hack. There is lots of information on these here in the forum if you do a search.

[Prelude2244]

The Malata 806 is currently $29 at Amazon. I have it connected to Olevia 27". The picture will surprise you, it did with me : )

[penticton102]

i had one(2003) and took it back because of drop outs in sound and picture stutter, but what does one exspect for 50 bucks?...........

[Franchot]

I own a couple of the older Malatas which were popular when they first started showing up in this country. Although the picture and sound from those players were pretty good, they were not very user friendly. (They had a lot of options you could tweak, but getting to those options was sometimes painful, especically using the remote. The manual was also quite hard to decipher.)

I have since moved on to the JVC all region players. They are very nice for the price and easy to operate with a good remote. They allow you to switch between film and video modes easily if you come across discs which aren't playing satisfactorily. Now, this was a couple of years back so I don't know if the quality of these players has gone down, but to this day they are performing wonderfully in my system. (I have two.)

[DCinDC]

Originally posted by Franchot
I own a couple of the older Malatas which were popular when they first started showing up in this country. Although the picture and sound from those players were pretty good, they were not very user friendly. (They had a lot of options you could tweak, but getting to those options was sometimes painful, especically using the remote. The manual was also quite hard to decipher.)

I have since moved on to the JVC all region players. They are very nice for the price and easy to operate with a good remote. They allow you to switch between film and video modes easily if you come across discs which aren't playing satisfactorily. Now, this was a couple of years back so I don't know if the quality of these players has gone down, but to this day they are performing wonderfully in my system. (I have two.)

I'm curious where folks are getting your region-free players from. Other than the Cambridge Audio Azur I can't fine most of these models from any retailers that I'm familiar with.

I also have another question. Do the region-free players handle the Enhance Region 1 DVDs? I noticed that my PS2 cannot play these enhanced R1 DVDs...lots of distortion.

Thanks for all your help on this.

[Franchot]

^^^^^^^
This is where I bought a couple of players: http://www.hkflix.com/hardware/

Service was good and prices were decent. I bought a couple of other players at another Internet place, but I think they went out of business. (And I can't recall their name.)

There are a few other places that sell region free, converting players on the Net. Try a search for region free DVD players.

I have a separate player for Region 1 discs so I don't know how these all-region players handle enchanced DVDs. If you gave me a title, I could try it out for you. Or e-mail HKflix with your questions. They're pretty forthcoming about the limitations of their region-free players.

[Bluesea]

I ordered a Malata 520 for a great price over a year ago off of eBay. The seller (can't remember name) was an authorized dealer in Canada. One of the great features of the Malata is its zoom function that adjusts in very fine increments, thus effectively and easily dealing with the overscan issues with many of my region 3 discs. OTH, its picture quality left a bit to be desired.

[DCinDC]

Originally posted by Franchot
^^^^^^^
This is where I bought a couple of players: http://www.hkflix.com/hardware/

Service was good and prices were decent. I bought a couple of other players at another Internet place, but I think they went out of business. (And I can't recall their name.)

There are a few other places that sell region free, converting players on the Net. Try a search for region free DVD players.

I have a separate player for Region 1 discs so I don't know how these all-region players handle enchanced DVDs. If you gave me a title, I could try it out for you. Or e-mail HKflix with your questions. They're pretty forthcoming about the limitations of their region-free players.

Thanks for the info and recommendation. I'll look for a couple of specific titles that have that Region 1 enchancement and perhaps you could try one for me. I'd like to avoid having 2 DVD players on 1 TV if possible.

Has any one heard of this place:

http://www.world-import.com/dvd.htm

Thanks again.

[Ja Phule]

The philips 642, philips 727, cyberhome 500, and cyberhome 402 can all be made region free with a few presses on the remote and they will playback pal to ntsc perfectly. I've seen these players available at compusa, walmart, best buy (online), and fry's. I used the cyberhome 500 for 2 years to play my all my non region 1 and pal discs. I'm currently using the philips 642.