DVD Player Review
Jaton PSD7611k

Jaton who? We’ve never heard of them and neither have you, but one of our customers told us about them after inquiring about the Jaton PSD7611k Progressive Scan DVD player. Jaton, most widely known as a PC/computer graphics card maker (who also published third-party Nvidia G-Force graphics cards), recently produced this 7611 player and after numerous testing by our staff members, we’ve found it to be one of the best players with built-in NTSC/PAL converters around. Maybe it’s their background in the PC market that helps, but Jaton’s 7611 is one of the few players on the market today that offer a near perfect PAL signal conversion. We tested almost two hundred different discs on this baby and it had absolutely no problems. Region codes, NTSC/PAL, RCE, stretched animorphic widescreen, sound delay, color bleeds, low sound output, progressive scan compression, CDRs, DVDRs, you name it . . . nothing seems to be a problem with this sucker. We even invited several different customers to bring their most problematic discs over to try it on the Jaton and, as expected, none of the problems appeared. Animorphic PAL discs like the Sonatine Region 2, Zatoichi series, and even the fullscreen Friends Season 8, were no problem. Problematic Region 1 discs like Star Wars EP I: The Phantom Menace did not lock up (like the Malata) when we played it and even Region 0 Universe Laser favorites like A Man Called Hero or Shaolin Soccer that would sometimes play or not were no problem either. Disney Region 1 discs are not even worth mentioning here.

We also went a step further and cracked the player open to look at the inside and believe us, it is beautiful. From the motherboard to the disc loader and even the main chipset (except for a few small components) are all quality US goods, not components from China or Taiwan (sorry, but we can't discuss the components in more detail due to legality issues). Those of you who are familiar with PC players and the XBox conversion rates know what we're talking about. For the average DVD enthusiast, this player is the motherload since you don't have to do anything except hit the “play” button. No need to play with the scaling features (which is pretty time consuming considering the fact that you’re trying to watch a movie). It will play any DVD perfectly. The menus are much more simplified and does not offer quite as many different tweaks and bits as the Malata, but for the average Joe who doesn’t want to fiddle with film ratios, hue and saturation, or upconverting or downconverting, the Jaton 7611 is the perfect solution. The bottom line? There isn’t much of a difference between NTSC picture quality between the Jaton and the Malata, but if you want a near perfect PAL, Jaton will kick Malata’s butt all over the place. Get it if you plan on watching a lot of Asian and European films or if you want a U.S. made player with all the functions of higher-end models like Sony or Panasonic players at nearly half the cost. Jaton is a U.S. company, based in the heart of Silicon Valley - not in China. The fact that their factory is two exits away from us means that we can hold them hostage on your behalf if the players decide to break down. Also, because they are local, we can simply pick up a boatload of their merchandise and ship them out the same day without “double-dipping” on shipping charges (we don’t incur shipping costs from them to us and then from us to our customers), so our prices are way lower than anything you’ll find on the Internet.

Jaton added new updates to their firmware and the player now includes many new features such as XY scaling, pan, and zoom in and out. They also promised that more new updated firmware patches will be available in the coming months to include hue and saturation, contrast and brightness, and many more new added features. If you purchase the player from us, your player will always come with the latest firmware. All the firmwares can be accessed from our site for downloading below and the latest and newest firmware is always on top. We will discuss some of the usage and benefits briefly and instructions on upgrading will follow below.

FIRMWARE 3
Jaton still has not produced our hue, saturation firmware, but they did offer something equally important - PAL filters for composite connections. If you're hooking up your player with progressive scan, you probably won't see much of a difference. But if you're hooking up the player with regular composite cables, then you might want to get the firmware. The new features are in the "Video" then "Video Setup" screen and Jaton has added vertical and horizontal interpolations as well as Y speed up and slow down for PAL conversion (which we thought were mighty impressive considering that some DVDs have problematic speed-up problems).

FIRMWARE 2
After our gripes about their first firmware, Jaton has cranked out another firmware update at our request. This time around, they added a few more features including zoom out, pan, and XY scaling via remote control. The previous firmware allowed you to access XY, but only through the setup menus and not through your remote. The two things about Jaton's XY feature that we really preferred over the Malatas: 1) XY scaling via remote is now in increments of 5 (whereas Malata is by 100), so the chances of you getting picky about your picture size is slim to none; 2) with the touch of the "ok" button, all your XY scaling screwups are resetted to default! The Malatas didn't have this feature and if you screwed up on your XY settings, you'll have to "hard" power off the player to have your settings back to default. You can do the same and set everything to default with all of the other new features Jaton added on to the machine, including zoom and pan. If you need the instruction sheet for using the new features, CLICK HERE to download and print the instruction sheet in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

FIRMWARE 1
Jaton's player is already great with the Mediamatics chipset, but XY Scaling is a necessity when it comes to overscan and to correct mastering flaws on certain DVDs. We hounded Jaton until they produced this first firmware and they probably rushed it so the firmware is not all that great. You can only access the XY scaling feature through the set-up menus on screen but not through the remote. But the good thing about this XY scaling firmware is that it allows you to mad customize the scaling down to the pixel! No other player on the market offers this. Though cool as heck, it's very hard to use so we don't recommend this firmware unless you really know what you're doing. Get the newest firmware is our suggestion.

Please note that if your player is working fine, you won't need to update your firmware unless you want the extra features. To avoid any possible damage to your player, firmware updates should only be done if it is an absolute necessity. You do not have to change your region settings to upload any firmware. Simply load the firmware disc in your player and hit the "up" arrow key on your remote once it is loaded and then wait for the onscreen messages.

The latest firmware update is dated February 17, 2003. If you're not sure if you have the firmware, simply press and hold the "CHP/Time" button on your remote control and the version number and date of production on the firmware will appear at the top-left of your screen.

Once you download the firmware to your PC, unzip the firmware file by highlighting the file, right-mouse-clicking it and then choose "unzip" or "extract." Once unzipped or extracted, MAKE SURE you rename the file to "BE_FIRM" regardless of the name we named it as. Then, simply record the entire "BE_FIRM" folder to a blank CDR, finalize it, and then pop it in your player. Remember, you are copying the "BE_FIRM" folder, not the zip file to a CDR!!! Contact us if you need any help. If you need the latest firmware, simply let us know when you place an order for DVDs by writing us in the "comment" box to let us know and we will include the latest firmware disc in your package. If you do not place an order and want a CDR, let us know and we'll send you a CDR, but you must pay for the postage cost, which is US$3.00. We don't charge for the disc - just the postage.