OPPO DV-980H 1080p Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI and 7.1CH Audio by OPPO Digital
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Our Price: $175.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of OPPO DV-980H 1080p Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI and 7.1CH Audio
Digital camera Review: Almost perfect ... but
Summary: 4 Stars
My DV-980H is hooked up via hdmi to a Panasonic TH-50PX75U plasma screen. Picture is outstanding, better than anything else I've seen with this panel.
My gripes: The hi-rez product photos on oppo's website indicate a graphical vfd display. What you really get is segmented LED's. I know this is petty, but I did want the display to match my Marantz style.
One other thing .. 96/24 Super Audio CD's from www.chesky.com play but are downsampled to 48khz. My old Marantz DVD player output the raw 96khz stream to my DAC. With the Oppo my DAC only is seeing a 48khz stream. I'm in email corresponence with Oppo on this, perhaps a firmware update will correct. It's not a real show stopper, as I have only a couple of these non-standard CD's, but it would be nice to have them play in their native format.
So unless you have a real concern around either of these two gripes, don't hesitate to get this player!
Digital camera Review: Almost perfect, but...
Summary: 4 Stars
This dvd-player has a superb sound system -sacd sounds way better here than in any Pioneer player you could buy for much more money. Picture quality is also great; actually, imho video looks better in this model than in the 981hd, which I also own. All and all, then, I am very happy with it except for one -and not little- problem: there is a restriction in the number of characters when playing divx subtitles. Most of the subtitles are cut at some capricious point. The problem is not a mere "character limitation" (since the number of characters varies between incomplete subtitles), but the interpolation of a dash that cuts off the lines. I gather that this dash was intended to make the subtitle division more elegant, but something went wrong and instead of that it almost always eliminates the last words of the subtitle line -or, when it is a very short line, the last letters of the last word. Thus, if the subtitle line is too long, instead of dividing it in two lines, the 980h adds a dash at some point of it and just erases the rest of the subtitle, which after a while makes the watching impossible; for instance, the sentence "He's a serial killer. He won't hesitate to kill." becomes "He's a serial killer. He won't hesitate to-", even using the smaller font. It is increasingly irritating, believe me, and after 5 or 6 of this kind of cuts you most probably won't get much of the plot. This is a big problem for those who, like me, use to watch world's cinema in several languages. Please, Oppo people, don't repeat this horrible flaw in your coming-soon -and much expected- blu-ray player!Digital camera Review: Amazing.
Summary: 5 Stars
Just like most other reviewers, we were blown away by this product. We set up a comparison with our old progressive DVD player. I can't say it's HD quality, but it was certainly a major improvement.Digital camera Review: An amazingly good HD picture
Summary: 5 Stars
I normally don't bother with writing reviews, but for this, I HAD to add my voice to the chorus of praise.
After getting this player, I bought the "Planet Earth" DVDs instead of waiting to buy a Blu-Ray player so I could watch the "HD" version of "Planet Earth," and I can't believe how good the Oppo's HD upscaling picture is on my 1080p LCD TV! I don't think I will buy a Blu-Ray player for some time, at least not until it comes down in price to about $100. Why should I? The Oppo turns all DVDs into HD-quality, or at least something good enough to fool me. Blu-Ray manufacturers must consider Oppo Enemy #1.
Digital camera Review: An excelent dvd at very low price
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, I feel bad for that other reviewer of this DVD player, because, at least based on my experience (and you always need to wonder whether a sample size of one is statistically significant enough to make any sort of judgment - I believe in logic, it's an ad hominem fallacy - other liberal arts folks, feel free to correct my terminology).
Anyhow, I also wanted to say that I'm not an Oppo schill (though, if they wanted to throw a little cash my way for this positive review, I wouldn't complain ;) ).
So it sounds like my experience with my Oppo 780H has been the polar opposite of the former reviewer. I love my skinny little Oppo 780. I'm using it to replace a Denon DVD-1920, which, though acceptable as a universal disc player, had some issues, among which were it being only an HDMI 1.1 interface (the Oppo is HDMI 1.2 compliant), problems I had with the Denon playing multi-channel SACD, and an annoing tendency of the Denon to pause for a couple of seconds when switching layers in the middle of a movie. So, when the Denon decided to quit working (it was only two years old), I decided it was time to seek out and explore strange new universal disc players.
When I started seeing rave reviews for this machine and its predecssors at Stereophile.com and Audioholics.com, two web sites that seem to have radically opposed philosophies, I thought, what the heck! It's fairly cheap for a universal disc player. Let's get one.
When the Oppo arrived (it's only available over the internet), I was pleased by it's packaging. It was in a sturdy box, with an instruction sheet being the first thing you see when you open the box. It contained very clearly explanations about the need to, once you physically connected the machine, to enter its setup menu and confiigure it before you ever attempted to play a disc.
Connecting the Oppo was simple as I only used the good-quality HDMI cable included with the player. Since the player was HDMI 1.2 compatible, it was supposed to be able to provide my receiver (a Pioneer Elite VSX-82TSX) with a complete, multi-channel signal from an SACD - something the Denon, again, because it applied an earlier version of HDMI, was unable to do; btw, I don't fault the Denon for this, it was the standard when the machine was manufactured - as now HDMI 1.3 is the standard, but the benefits that provides seem more relevant to BluRay).
Anyhow, hookup was a breeze, the setup menus were a breeze, and it's been nothing but a joy to listen to. All the rave reviews I've read about the Oppo are right on. DVD-Audio discs are rich and detailed. Listening to Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues (DVD-A) rocks. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (SACD) is as full and rich as my MoFi vinyl recording.
DVDs on the Oppo are awesome, too. I used the Oppo's internal scaler to bump up the signal to a 1080i signal, and, while it's obviously not BluRay, the picture on my 5-year old Sony 57-inch 1080i RPTV is spectacular. No pauses when the disc switches layers. Images are rich, colors are incredible, and definitely no jaggies (check out the flyover view of Rome in Gladiator).
Lots of slick little features. Especially that USB port on the front of the player. It recognizes a number of audio formats, but it's easiest if you just use MP3s. Check out the Oppo web site for all the supported formats. It doesn't support FLAC, though, so Hi-Res downloads won't work via this mode of delivery.
Still, if you have a universal disc player, why aren't you listening to your SACDs and DVD-As instead of crappy MP3s and other lossy codecs? And if you're just going to listen to MP3s, doesn't your receiver have a connector for your iPod?
You can also view movie files via the USB port, but you have to convert them, first, to DiVX files. That's kind of a time-consuming process, but it does work.
The USB will also play photos. They're kind of slow to load, but it is cool.
Overall, I'm incredibly impressed with my Oppo. Audio and video performance rivals that of players several times the cost. It has tons of cool features that I like. For instance, you can capture a frame from a movie and use it, instead of the Oppo flash screen, as your screen saver image when you pause a movie or fire up the Oppo without a disc in its tray.
If you're looking for a universal disc player in any price range, and don't want or need BluRay, definitely check this player out.