[AndrewJohnston]

Has anyone else had persistent "Disc Error" problems with their Malata 996? It keeps happening at the worst possible times--the picture freezes, then I'm dropped back to the screensaver, with a message reading either "Disc Error Minor--Clean Me" or "Disc Error Major--Replace Me". Many discs play without incident, but quite a few--including pristine just-opened copies of SHREK and THE GODFATHER--generate these errors, which sometimes only appear an hour or more into the program.


I called AVdeals, and they said they no longer support the Malata player and fobbed me off to their Canadian wholesaler. I called them, and they gave me a whole song and dance about "your discs must be damaged or scratched" and any number of other potential excuses. Ultimately, I agreed to buy a lens cleaner disc and call them back if that didn't fix anything.


And it didn't! I popped in SHREK tonite, and it played fine thru the spots where it froze before, then started freezing on me in new places.


Has anyone else experienced these problems, and if so, has a solution been figured out? And has anyone had luck getting the Canadian wholesaler to do an RMA replacement? I'm really frustrated with this, because the Malata is an otherwise fine player, and seemed to offer an ideal solution to my region-free and PAL/NTSC playback needs.

 

[Tulli]

Yes, I suffered the same problems which I think are due to the extreme heating developed by the unit I had (right, it was enclosed within a shelf on top of a Sampo 620 which however works very fine).


If your Malata is new, you might want to return it and try another one.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Tell AVdeals you want a replacement. You bought it from them.


I have never had any such errors with mine and it does not run hot either.

 

[ROBERT BLACK]

I don't get it. I've had mine for over 6 weeks now. I've developed none of the DTS audio or disc error problems talked about here. Then again I haven't popped in a Phantom Menace disc.(hate the film) But the fact that people are complaining about such errors, doesn't sit well with me. Luckily the Canadian wholesaler is a few blocks away from me, so they won't pull any crap, if I actually show up at they're door. Hope it doesn't come to that, in the future.

 

[HTNooB]

It seems Avdeals has broke all contacts with Malata (No more Malata products), im kinda worried what they will do to my RMA I hope I dont get a worse unit as I am kinda fond of Malata

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Robert, what Sound receiver do you have? Make and model?


Some receivers work fine with the Malata and some do not. Many of us are trying to find out which ones are the problem so that we can provide that info to Malata.


You WILL have problems with the Phantom Menace subtitles. It's a Mediamatics Chip flaw from what I understand and the coming firmware upgrade will address the issue.

 

[Brajesh]

I have an Onkyo 595 & no DTS problems either. Haven't tried TPM DVD yet. I have a non-modified Malata.

 

[ROBERT BLACK]

I have an older(6 Yrs) Panasonic Technics model.I don't have the model Number on hand. I am in the process(next couple months) of upgrading to coincidentally an Onkyo THX model. So it's good to hear that someone hasn't been having audio problems with the Onkyo.

 

[Leon]

I have noticed the "minor error-clean me" message, but only on inferior bootleg discs. All my store-bought DVD work just fine.

 

[Lenny Nero]

I got this "disc error" a couple of times, but nothing permanent, nothing that a simple power off and on wouldn't fix.

I used to have freezes on some discs even on a pristine official Sony dvd player, so there is always a disc or two that screws up on ANY player.

Best thing is to have 2 multi-region pal/ntsc players and if it doesnt work in one it will in the other.

Keep a little portable R1 player as a 3rd backup and you're gona be fine and happy, I am.

 

[DiCecco]

I have a question for Malata owners. I was thinking of buying this player for non region one dvds. I will keep my region one player for those dvds. Has anyone had a problem with non region one dvds and this player or are all the problems with region one dvds?