Would you have the inside scoop on when Oppo will supply to international distributors?

I don't even think any of the OPPO resellers have been able to place an order for a unit (if MikeSRC is around, he can confirm this).

In terms of Australia, OPPO deals direct with Merlin Audio Design. Likely when the second batch of DV-983H are made available, the retailers will be able to carry stock of this product.

:)Awesome stuff !!Just put my order in. From the few reviews & comments done already it sounds like this player is the shizzle!! Cant wait to get my mitts on it. Personally i still prefer the look of the 980 in comparison with the darker blacker finish, usb on the front & the round play/pause /stop button etc, to me it just looks more more stream-lined & modern, but you know what they say "its whats on the inside that counts!".
Just for a question out of left field : Who's the clever one that comes up with the names for these players? I mean 983? HM-31? Do these numbers actually have any important relevance to the player/device itself or are they just randomly drawn out of a hat? What ever happened to the 982?

Thanks Neuromancer,
I just recieved word from Merlin Audio that it will be early April till it ships from the US. Enjoy your 983's boys cause it will probably be early May before I see mine

Thanks Neuromancer,
I just recieved word from Merlin Audio that it will be early April till it ships from the US. Enjoy your 983's boys cause it will probably be early May before I see mine

How come you didnt order direct? Whenever I have ordered from Oppo it takes about 3-5 days.

Just received the following from Merlin

Oppo have just informed Merlin Audio that a limited number of DV983 players will be
available for shipment early April.

Assuming Oppo send us this number then everyone who has pre-paid/pre-ordered will
receive their allocation.

There are a small number of players not allocated in this first shipment.

cheers

Dennis

Have been perusing this forum for a few months re info for a DVD and CD replacement.

The information displayed here has been most constructive and informative for a relative newbie and is very much appreciated.

The manner and decorum on the forum is to be congratulated to all contributors.

The end result for me is I'm spending 4 times more on a CD/DVD player than originally contemplated but I'm positive I'm going to get great value for my money and not toss away an el-cheapo to upgrade a year down the track.

Thanks to all, particularly the beta testers who held the high standards of non-disclosure whilst releasing important info.

Thanks again,

Dennis

How come you didnt order direct? Whenever I have ordered from Oppo it takes about 3-5 days.

Merlin Audio is charging $450 AUD delivered.

Do your calcs, $399 USD plus $70US for shipping is a lot more when the currency conversion is 93 cents OZ to the US Dollar.

My calculator says $504 AUD.

I received my 983 today and was playing around with some test patterns. I noticed that on the THX Optimizer "brightness" pattern (showing the THX logo with a drop shadow), the 983 would not show BTB when its brightness setting was set to "0". I had to change the 983 brightness setting to "1" in order to see the THX shadow (no matter what the brightness setting was on my display). The 983 is set for 1080i output. Has anyone else verified that the 983 will display below black with 1080i output and the brightness set to the default "0"?

Thanks,
Brian

There is a mystery here. I have the same behavior, but people I trust with exactly the same gear say they do get BTB and WTW with the player settings at zero. I've been wondering if there is a fault in my display, but I really don't know.

I suspect my display because I have the same issue with the 980 and 981. But the 971 was ok.

-Bill

I received my 983 today and was playing around with some test patterns. I noticed that on the THX Optimizer "brightness" pattern (showing the THX logo with a drop shadow), the 983 would not show BTB when its brightness setting was set to "0". I had to change the 983 brightness setting to "1" in order to see the THX shadow (no matter what the brightness setting was on my display). The 983 is set for 1080i output. Has anyone else verified that the 983 will display below black with 1080i output and the brightness set to the default "0"?

Thanks,
BrianIf turning up brightness on the 983 let you see the BTB bar then for some reason your TV is clipping BTB or you have the 983 set to do PC RGB. When you raise the brightness on the player it will change (for example) digtal video level 15, first "click" into BTB, into 16 or 17 which is black or above black and it won't be "clipped".

larry

Non-anamorphic letterbox to widescreen conversion is as good as it gets.

Gary

thanks. good to know.

Merlin Audio is charging $450 AUD delivered.

Do your calcs, $399 USD plus $70US for shipping is a lot more when the currency conversion is 93 cents OZ to the US Dollar.

My calculator says $504 AUD.

Hey Dennis, your right but that confuses me as its visa versa for the 980h. ie cheaper to buy the 980 direct from Oppo rather than Merlin here in Aus.
I have also noticed that Oppo includes a gold plated HDMI cable (albeit a short one) where as Merlin does not. Is an extended warranty the same price? Did you bother? Does anyone?

Something else i noticed is that each of the 3 players (980/1/3) directly from Oppo have a different shipping cost to Aus??? ($50/60/70) Can i put this down to different package weights? Whatever the case your most likely to recieve it sooner from Oppo as Merlin sais mid April.

So you are getting a big improvement in sound just using the 983 as a transport!? I can't wait to hear the HDMI and analog outs if that's the case.

I was wondering about this too. I ordered a 980h thinking that there wouldn't be a discernible audio difference when hooked up to an external dac. I might have to think about sending it back...

When brightness is set correctly you shouldnt see the drop shadow and when brightness is raised slightly you should start to see it. Sounds like it is set correctly at the zero setting.

Bill,

Thanks, but I can raise the brightness level on my display and never see the drop shadow on the test pattern. The brightness setting on the 983 must be changed from "0" to "1" in order for the below black information to appear.

Brian

If turning up brightness on the 983 let you see the BTB bar then for some reason your TV is clipping BTB or you have the 983 set to do PC RGB. When you raise the brightness on the player it will change (for example) digtal video level 15, first "click" into BTB, into 16 or 17 which is black or above black and it won't be "clipped".

Larry,

Thanks. I have the "Color Space" set to "Auto", so I will try forcing it to "YCbCr 4:4:4" to make sure the player is not using PC RGB levels. My display has never clipped BTB with any other DVD source, so I don't think there is a problem there.

My display is actuallly a Mitsubishi WS-65905 (manufactured in 2000) which only accepts 1080i over component video (no HDMI input), so I am using the "Box1080" HDMI to component converter to transcode the signal. It has worked great with several other HDMI players I have tried.

Brian

Merlin Audio is charging $450 AUD delivered.

Do your calcs, $399 USD plus $70US for shipping is a lot more when the currency conversion is 93 cents OZ to the US Dollar.

My calculator says $504 AUD.

Yep.... I know that.

But that is the price you pay for slow delivery via Merlin. ie Its much like paying extra for expedited delivery when you order direct. If you happen to want a long cable and/or hdmi switch as well then the diff becomes not bad at all as the bundled freight is not much more than the player alone. (The cost of good quality long hdmi cables over here is ridiculous). Over the years I have found that if you ask Oppo to add things to your order then the change in freight cost is a lot less than ordering the same combo online.

Was still hoping a new 983H owner could answer my question below...

Also, I would be very thankful if a 983 owner could test the non-anamorphic DVD of Star Wars IV (i.e. A New Hope). You know the "untouched one" that was released a couple of years ago as a Bonus disc to the remastered one.

In addition to being non-anamorphic, this title has severe aliasing, especially in the first part of the movie. If the 983 can reduce or eliminate it, it would be amazing. I'm not sure if the problems I see are burned into the video encode, or can be corrected by a DVD player. So far, none of my decks can overcome these jaggies/aliasing. TIA.

So, any 983 owners dumping their 980H's for cheap?

I'm replacing a Denon DVD-1600 workhorse with the DV-983H, however I chose standard shipping for my pre-order. If no one else spins up the movie over the weekend, I'll be happy to look at the non-anamorphic release of Star Wars when my deck arrives.

Are there any specific scenes that you want me to use as a benchmark? I have to admit that I tend to watch the original cut with my very own rose-colored nostalgia filter, so I will benefit from a pointer or two.

- david

Also, I would be very thankful if a 983 owner could test the non-anamorphic DVD of Star Wars IV (i.e. A New Hope). You know the "untouched one" that was released a couple of years ago as a Bonus disc to the remastered one.

In addition to being non-anamorphic, this title has severe aliasing, especially in the first part of the movie. If the 983 can reduce or eliminate it, it would be amazing. I'm not sure if the problems I see are burned into the video encode, or can be corrected by a DVD player. So far, none of my decks can overcome these jaggies/aliasing. TIA.
I'll check it out when I get a chance in the next few days. Have you got any particular time stamps that I should focus on?

How is picture quality compare to the Realta powered Denon 3930 and Reon based Toshiba XA2????

There is a mystery here. I have the same behavior, but people I trust with exactly the same gear say they do get BTB and WTW with the player settings at zero. I've been wondering if there is a fault in my display, but I really don't know.

I suspect my display because I have the same issue with the 980 and 981. But the 971 was ok.

Bill,

Thanks, it is good to know that someone else has seen this problem. Strangely enough, my Panasonic DVD-S97 also exhibited this exact same problem, where the brightness on the DVD player had to be changed to "+1" to see BTB. However, this was a well known and recognized issue with the S97, and it seemd that most people had to use this setting to see BTB over HDMI at 1080i. Maybe Oppo can investigate a firmware fix for this.

Brian

Has this BTB issue only occured when people are using the 1080i (NOT 1080p) resolution? Just wondering if we can say for sure.

1080i, same issues with BTB on the 980H.

Bill,

Thanks, it is good to know that someone else has seen this problem. Strangely enough, my Panasonic DVD-S97 also exhibited this exact same problem, where the brightness on the DVD player had to be changed to "+1" to see BTB. However, this was a well known and recognized issue with the S97, and it seemd that most people had to use this setting to see BTB over HDMI at 1080i. Maybe Oppo can investigate a firmware fix for this.

BrianIf you get the GetGray test disc, it has multiple BTB bars. If the player is functioning correctly, you should be able to lower brightness on the player (eg 15 -> 14) and by adjusting brightness on the display you should still be able to see the bar(s). Converting to component does add some variables as does another "video processor". Try lowering brightness on your other player(s) and see if BTB still can be seen on the TV after compensating by raising brightness on the TV. Short of some sort of output analyzer, that's about the best way to make sure the player isn't clipping. With certain test patterns, even being "off by 1" can make a difference.

larry

I'm replacing a Denon DVD-1600 workhorse with the DV-983H, however I chose standard shipping for my pre-order. If no one else spins up the movie over the weekend, I'll be happy to look at the non-anamorphic release of Star Wars when my deck arrives.

Are there any specific scenes that you want me to use as a benchmark? I have to admit that I tend to watch the original cut with my very own rose-colored nostalgia filter, so I will benefit from a pointer or two.

- david

I'll check it out when I get a chance in the next few days. Have you got any particular time stamps that I should focus on?

Thank you both for offering to help. I'm not at home to check specific time-stamps, but if you pop in the disc with your current player, it will be easy to see the artifacting. Within the first few seconds of the film, you'll see the Star Destroyer coming in from the right, firing at the rebel ship (both in the same shot). There will be jaggies all over the diagonal edges of the Star Destoyer. Seconds later, the first appearance of C-3PO and R2D2 will show bad jaggies/aliasing all over C3PO's chest area and head. It happens throughout the movie, but it should be very noticable throughout the first 5 minutes. Check it out on your old player first, so you know what to look for on the 983. Thanks!

Ok, I have caught up on the other 983 thread, but not yet here. So pardon if this has been asked an answered already ...

For those of you with a 983, and who have played a bunch of CDs on it, does it have the same ~1/2s missing audio problem as the 980 on the very 1st track? (Not all CDs do this, btw. Just those that have audio immediately at the beg of the 1st track.) Thanks !

Bumping this because it got buried and also to chime in with my own attempt at answering...not sure if you already checked this, but is there any possibility that the 1/2 second audio delay is your receiver "locking on" to the "sound mode"- for lack of a better word- of the CD? I know my receiver does that occasionally, I will press play on the CD player and the receiver pauses for about a 1/2 second then flips over to the sound mode- Stereo- I use...sorry if you already checked this, just thought I'd give it a try...I don't own a 983, one of the masses that are out in the cold after missing the preorder :p

Thank you both for offering to help. I'm not at home to check specific time-stamps, but if you pop in the disc with your current player, it will be easy to see the artifacting. Within the first few seconds of the film, you'll see the Star Destroyer coming in from the right, firing at the rebel ship (both in the same shot). There will be jaggies all over the diagonal edges of the Star Destoyer. Seconds later, the first appearance of C-3PO and R2D2 will show bad jaggies/aliasing all over C3PO's chest area and head. It happens throughout the movie, but it should be very noticable throughout the first 5 minutes. Check it out on your old player first, so you know what to look for on the 983. Thanks!
I'll try it on the 983H and one of my other players (either the HD-A2 or the BD30) and let you know what I find. It'll likely be late tonight or in the morning, though.

I'll try it on the 983H and one of my other players (either the HD-A2 or the BD30) and let you know what I find. It'll likely be late tonight or in the morning, though.

Cool, I look forward to your findings. Remember, this would be "Star Wars" aka A New Hope, but the recent non-anamorphic "Bonus Disc" transfer.

If you get the GetGray test disc, it has multiple BTB bars. If the player is functioning correctly, you should be able to lower brightness on the player (eg 15 -> 14) and by adjusting brightness on the display you should still be able to see the bar(s). Converting to component does add some variables as does another "video processor". Try lowering brightness on your other player(s) and see if BTB still can be seen on the TV after compensating by raising brightness on the TV. Short of some sort of output analyzer, that's about the best way to make sure the player isn't clipping. With certain test patterns, even being "off by 1" can make a difference.

Larry,

I think there is a misunderstanding here. The below black information in the test pattern is just not being sent by the 983. In other words, I can crank the brightness on my display to a ridiculously high value, where I could easily see the BTB patterns if they were there. They are not. Under this condition, if I change the brightness setting on the 983 from "0" to "+1", the BTB elements just "pop" onto the screen, and are then clearly visible. I hope this is a better description of what I am seeing.

Thanks,
Brian

Bumping this because it got buried and also to chime in with my own attempt at answering...not sure if you already checked this, but is there any possibility that the 1/2 second audio delay is your receiver "locking on" to the "sound mode"- for lack of a better word- of the CD? I know my receiver does that occasionally, I will press play on the CD player and the receiver pauses for about a 1/2 second then flips over to the sound mode- Stereo- I use...sorry if you already checked this, just thought I'd give it a try...I don't own a 983, one of the masses that are out in the cold after missing the preorder :p

I have almost always had some delay in my system with Oppo and other players. In my case I'm running optical/coax digital to a Theta processor. It takes a bit of time (1/2 second is about right) for sound to start coming out of the speakers. What's more interesting to me is that some input devices, like satellite receivers, operate more smoothly in this respect, though even they can put out strange noises in the process of syncing up sound in one mode (HDMI video) than in another (component) despite being connected via digital for both. This may be due to the way audio and video are being "managed" (handshaking between various sources/processor/display).

Isn't technology fun ;)

Larry,

I think there is a misunderstanding here. The below black information in the test pattern is just not being sent by the 983. In other words, I can crank the brightness on my display to a ridiculously high value, where I could easily see the BTB patterns if they were there. They are not. Under this condition, if I change the brightness setting on the 983 from "0" to "+1", the BTB elements just "pop" onto the screen, and are then clearly visible. I hope this is a better description of what I am seeing.

Thanks,
Brian
Ok. That does sound like BTB being clipped and is what I thought you meant. In the previous post I also elaborated because there may be problems with some players that even though they are set to "neutral" for brightness, they may still modify the video data. That's why I gave the example of being "off by 1". So if other players seem to pass BTB, you can make sure they really do by lowering brightness on the player (if possible) and then see if BTB still shows up. It was for your benefit as well as others and somewhat as an aside. And in your case, if a player did secretly elevate luma a tick or two and the video converter had issues with clipping, you may not notice it with a BTB pattern that is just "black - 1". However, many players clip BTB and WTW by "pushing them out" when converting to PC RGB and this is usually noticeable by PQ just not looking "right", eg. too dark, etc. Without test patterns it's hard to tell when a player just "clips" BTB and WTW - like the PS3 used to do for BD discs.

larry

Ok. That does sound like BTB being clipped and is what I thought you meant. In the previous post I also elaborated because there may be problems with some players that even though they are set to "neutral" for brightness, they may still modify the video data. That's why I gave the example of being "off by 1". So if other players seem to pass BTB, you can make sure they really do by lowering brightness on the player (if possible) and then see if BTB still shows up. It was for your benefit as well as others and somewhat as an aside. And in your case, if a player did secretly elevate luma a tick or two and the video converter had issues with clipping, you may not notice it with a BTB pattern that is just "black - 1". However, many players clip BTB and WTW by "pushing them out" when converting to PC RGB and this is usually noticeable by PQ just not looking "right", eg. too dark, etc. Without test patterns it's hard to tell when a player just "clips" BTB and WTW - like the PS3 used to do for BD discs.

Thanks, I guess we are on the same page now. If I understand your post correctly, if I force the 983 to not use PC RGB colorspace by selecting "YCbCr 4:4:4" and I still see this problem, then the 983 is indeed clipping BTB (when it should not) and the correct brightness setting must therefore be "+1" in order to not crush the blacks. Is this correct?

When I tested the 983H against PS3 (see my previous posts), I had the 983H set at default brightness 0. There was no clipping of BTB. Both the VRS disc that came with the 983H (Brightness/Contrast pattern) and the HQV Benchmark disc (Color Bar pattern) passed BTB. I think it would be wise to verify your 983H with another disc, such as the VRS disc, or AVIA, or DVE. The THX Optimizer is not known for accuray, as each copy is customized for best visual result of the movie that carries it.

When I tested the 983H against PS3 (see my previous posts), I had the 983H set at default brightness 0. There was no clipping of BTB. Both the VRS disc that came with the 983H (Brightness/Contrast pattern) and the HQV Benchmark disc (Color Bar pattern) passed BTB. I think it would be wise to verify your 983H with another disc, such as the VRS disc, or AVIA, or DVE. The THX Optimizer is not known for accuray, as each copy is customized for best visual result of the movie that carries it.

Jeff,

What was your HDMI resolution setting? This may be a 1080i only problem.

Audio Calibration: I have heard both ways
1. Use the AVR(Denon3803) test tone to calibrate/RS SPL when using coaxial for Cable box and for the 983H DVD movie & CD.{speaker distance here for coaxial and use the 983 trim with Mch}
2. use AVIA's test tones for calibration for Mch output 6 analog cable(Denon doesn't process 5.1Mch settings > it directly pass through to Extend Out.
I am calibrating tomorrow night and just trying to save some time or at least concentrate on best way to process sound.
3. all AVIA ?
*HDMI for video only

Thanks, I guess we are on the same page now. If I understand your post correctly, if I force the 983 to not use PC RGB colorspace by selecting "YCbCr 4:4:4" and I still see this problem, then the 983 is indeed clipping BTB (when it should not) and the correct brightness setting must therefore be "+1" in order to not crush the blacks. Is this correct?

The 983 should be able to send YCbCr and RGB at video levels and RGB at PC levels (and maybe YCbCr at PC levels). I really doubt the 983 is clipping BTB and WTW unless you tell it to use PC levels. Having this bug is not Oppo-like, and it's one of the first things most people check during calibration. It would have been caught early in beta. Also realize that when PC levels are used, the whole grayscale is distorted. 15-235 is non-linearly mapped to 0-255. This is different than sending 16-235 intact and making everything below 16 to be 16 and everything above 235 to be 235. And, when things get converted to component, you have make sure that each end agrees on "black" (0 vs 7.5 IRE). This depends on what your "converter" is set to do and what your TV expects. TVs usually have a option setting to use either one and so do most players for analog component output.

larry

edit: I couldn't find any info on the Box1080. It looks like it's been superseded by the HDFury.

New to this Forum. . . looking to buy Oppo SD-DVD Player and need some advice. I have a Sony STR-DG1100 AV Receiver connected to Mitsubishi 73-inch Diamond DLP WD-73831 with 2 HDMI inputs. The AV Receiver has the Faroudja Chip and has the up-conversion / processing ability. I'm not keen on spending $399 for the new 983H. Would connecting the Oppo DV-980H to the AVR be a reasonable set-up? What would be the drawbacks? Still get the 983H?

Thanks.

Like Sam S, I am extremely interested in hearing how the 983 performs for the non-anamorphic original Star Wars dvd's. The anamorphic special editions have great picture quality (at least in terms of resolution--crushed blacks, over-saturated reds and heavy blue cast weigh strongly against them, without even mentioning the bad cgi and changes to the audio mix), but the original cuts are far more fun and interesting and important to me personally. It's a shame that their picture quality is so horrific on a large screen due to rampant jaggies and "noise reduction" artifacts from the laserdisc master, since the movies themselves are so much better. I'm not expecting any miracles, but if the 983 can sort out at least some of the mess, I'll be a very happy man indeed . . . :)

Bumping this because it got buried and also to chime in with my own attempt at answering...not sure if you already checked this, but is there any possibility that the 1/2 second audio delay is your receiver "locking on" to the "sound mode"- for lack of a better word- of the CD? I know my receiver does that occasionally, I will press play on the CD player and the receiver pauses for about a 1/2 second then flips over to the sound mode- Stereo- I use...sorry if you already checked this, just thought I'd give it a try...I don't own a 983, one of the masses that are out in the cold after missing the preorder :p

It's a known issue with the 980, covered in that thread. I didn't have this problem with the Pio 59AVi I had before the 980 with the same pre/pro. If this is gone in the 983, that'd be one more reason to switch (along with better processing for video sources).

OK, guys, I tossed the non-anamorphic, non-"Special" DVD of Star Wars: A New Hope in the 983H a little bit ago and checked out the opening scenes. I also ran the disc in my BD30. From what I can tell, the jaggies along some sharp edges (perimeter of Star Destroyer when seen from the bow after the initial fly-over, the seams along the top of Threepio's shoulders, and some of the edges near the base of Artoo's dome) are inherent in the old transfer, not the result of deinterlacing errors in anyone's players. They were more pronounced when viewed on the BD30, and the image in general seemed a bit less "stable" (for lack of a better word), but even on the 983H you could clearly see flaws in the transfer that not even the ABT chips could fix.

OK, guys, I tossed the non-anamorphic, non-"Special" DVD of Star Wars: A New Hope in the 983H a little bit ago and checked out the opening scenes. I also ran the disc in my BD30. From what I can tell, the jaggies along some sharp edges (perimeter of Star Destroyer when seen from the bow after the initial fly-over, the seams along the top of Threepio's shoulders, and some of the edges near the base of Artoo's dome) are inherent in the old transfer, not the result of deinterlacing errors in anyone's players. They were more pronounced when viewed on the BD30, and the image in general seemed a bit less "stable" (for lack of a better word), but even on the 983H you could clearly see flaws in the transfer that not even the ABT chips could fix.

Thanks for the report. Too bad :(

Jeff,

What was your HDMI resolution setting? This may be a 1080i only problem.

I was using 1080p. Just checked again at 1080i, and there was no problem sending BTB to my TV.

The below black information in the test pattern is just not being sent by the 983. In other words, I can crank the brightness on my display to a ridiculously high value, where I could easily see the BTB patterns if they were there. They are not. Under this condition, if I change the brightness setting on the 983 from "0" to "+1", the BTB elements just "pop" onto the screen, and are then clearly visible. I hope this is a better description of what I am seeing. BTB and WTW info is flawless when the player's Brightness and Contrast is set to "0". I checked this carefully with the DVE disc at ALL resolutions (including 1080i) and ALL "Color Space" options (including the expanded RGB range named "PC RGB") and I checked on 2 different displays - a Sony 1080p LCD, and a Samsung DLP. The BTB signal remains intact even when the player's Brightness is set to "-1" or below.

The 970, 971, 980 and 981 all pass BTB and WTW correctly too.

I think your "Box1080" HDMI-to-component converter may be clipping anything lower than black (digital 16). Perhaps the other players you tried, had their black level set a tad higher than the 983 (like close to OPPO's "1"), therefore below-black still showed up. If you turned down the brightness a little on those players, you might find the same disappearance of BTB.

Gary

Thanks for the report. Too bad :(

Hi just a short OT comment:

As you have a legally owned copy of the retail disc, you can always download the Star Wars Revisited, (yes it's legal to download it if you have a retail disc.) It's a revision of the original but with the video quality of the 2004 release. A fan spent 2 years (!...) fixing all the errors (flipping of surrounds, color correction etc, and yes Han shoots first now). It's created quite a buzz among the fans and has been hailed as "finally, it's done right".

However, in order to download it you must own a legally obtained retail disc!

More info can be had here (http://fanedit.org/wpTF/?p=495).

(Mods, I don't thinks this violates the forum rules as it is ok to download if you own a legally obtained retail disc, if it violates the rules, please delete.)

Back to 983...

Cheers

Hi everybody!
I live in Spain and I would like to buy a DV-983H, but I have a lot of doubts:
- I can buy the device in www.oppodigital.com, but I don't know if I will have to pay additional taxes once the package is in my country. Besides that, if I would have a problem with the device, I would have to send it back to USA, buf...
- I can buy the device in www.crtprojectors.co.uk, but these guys overprice Oppo products a lot. For instance, 980H is much more expensive in their page (188 euros plus shipping costs) than in www.oppodigital.com (148 euros, including 40 euros due to shipping costs)
- I can wait for an European model (with SCART) and buy it in www.opposhop.com, but this solution would be even more expensive (980H costs 198 euros plus shipping costs).

Does anybody know other online shop in Europe where I can buy a 983H?

Thanks for the report. Too bad :(

Folks, you have to realize that not only is the original Star Wars DVD non-amamorphic, but it's made from a laserdisc transfer that's many years old. There was no attempt made to enhance it to bring it into a time period anywhere near the 21st century. It was just thrown out there. Of course it's going to look bad. I'm not going to blame a player for not giving us something that is not there to begin with. As long as it handles non-anamorphic transfers of a fairly recent vintage and quality well, I'm happy.

I think your "Box1080" HDMI to component converter may be clipping anything lower than black (digital 16). Perhaps the other players you tried, had their black level set a tad higher than the 983 (like close to OPPO's "1"), therefore below-black still showed up. If you turned down the brightness a little on those players, you might find the same disappearance of BTB.

Thanks for your report and testing. Still not sure how a box could clip BTB with the Oppo set at 0 while passing it fine with the Oppo's brightness set to +1. At 0, it's just not there even with the display's brightness at max, but at +1, it appears clearly.

Any idea when it will be back in stock?

Any idea when it will be back in stock?

"April".

-Bill

Well despite what Fedex shows as the estimated delivery date it appears as if it is not going to happen today. It is still listed as on time but the location still says "Departed FedEx location SACRAMENTO, CA"

983 problem! Watched many movies yesterday. Rented No Country For Old Men and Beowulf. Also watched scenes form Saving Private Ryan and Kingdom of Heaven. About every 3-4 minutes have complete video dropout about as fast as you can blink you eyes. Screen goes completely blank and returns. Will try my old hdmi cable from my 970 today before I call Oppo. Sadly if it isn't resolved it will have to go back for a refund as Oppo has no replacements.:(

Thanks for your report and testing. Still not sure how a box could clip BTB with the Oppo set at 0 while passing it fine with the Oppo's brightness set to +1. At 0, it's just not there even with the display's brightness at max, but at +1, it appears clearly.Because when brightness is at +1 the BTB bar is no longer BTB when output. eg. 15 is sent as 16 so whatever is clipping downstream passes the 16 (black). Increasing brightness +1 on the player (or TV) just adds 1 or 2 to the luma values when using digital video. It's all just "simple math".

larry

Well despite what Fedex shows as the estimated delivery date it appears as if it is not going to happen today. It is still listed as on time but the location still says "Departed FedEx location SACRAMENTO, CA"
FedEx's tracking system is often a bit sluggish, so there's always a chance that it'll still arrive today...

Because when brightness is at +1 the BTB bar is no longer BTB when output. eg. 15 is sent as 16 so whatever is clipping downstream passes the 16 (black). Increasing brightness +1 on the player (or TV) just adds 1 or 2 to the luma values when using digital video. It's all just "simple math".

I get what you're saying about the level and the "simple math." What has me confused is that every player I've tested (at least 12 in the past 4 years) has either passed BTB or not passed it based on my expectations with my system. This is the only one that has exhibited this behavior.

In order for what you're saying to be accurate, that would mean that every player that I've hooked up that was reported to pass BTB and did on my system did so because its BTB was actually not true below black. Is this what you believe to be true?

Hi just a short OT comment:

As you have a legally owned copy of the retail disc, you can always download the Star Wars Revisited, (yes it's legal to download it if you have a retail disc.) It's a revision of the original but with the video quality of the 2004 release. A fan spent 2 years (!...) fixing all the errors (flipping of surrounds, color correction etc, and yes Han shoots first now). It's created quite a buzz among the fans and has been hailed as "finally, it's done right".

However, in order to download it you must own a legally obtained retail disc!

More info can be had here (http://fanedit.org/wpTF/?p=495).

(Mods, I don't thinks this violates the forum rules as it is ok to download if you own a legally obtained retail disc, if it violates the rules, please delete.)

Back to 983...

Cheers


Thank you!

Folks, you have to realize that not only is the original Star Wars DVD non-amamorphic, but it's made from a laserdisc transfer that's many years old. There was no attempt made to enhance it to bring it into a time period anywhere near the 21st century. It was just thrown out there. Of course it's going to look bad. I'm not going to blame a player for not giving us something that is not there to begin with. As long as it handles non-anamorphic transfers of a fairly recent vintage and quality well, I'm happy.

Right, I just could never figure out if these artifacts were "embedded" in the transfer itself, or just some deinterlacing torture-test. Now that it has been tested with the 983, we can conclude it is source related and will cannot be fixed in the traditional sense.

Well despite what Fedex shows as the estimated delivery date it appears as if it is not going to happen today. It is still listed as on time but the location still says "Departed FedEx location SACRAMENTO, CA"

For some reason, the FEDEX system isn't showing all the scans. Try this package tracking site. http://www.iship.com/trackit/track.asp Hope it gives you better results.

Dana

Well it's been five days since the 983 release and OPPO is still sold out,how many did they make...200?

Well it's been five days since the 983 release and OPPO is still sold out,how many did they make...200?

from the sound of it... maybe just 2 :D

BTB and WTW info is all there when the player's Brightness and Contrast is set to "0". I checked this carefully with the DVE disc at ALL resolutions (including 1080i) and ALL "Color Space" options (including the expanded RGB range named "PC RGB") and I checked on 2 different displays - a Sony 1080p LCD, and a Samsung DLP. The BTB signal is even there when the Brightness is set to "-1" or below.

The 970, 971, 980 and 981 all pass BTB and WTW correctly too.

I think your "Box1080" HDMI to component converter may be clipping anything lower than black (digital 16). Perhaps the other players you tried, had their black level set a tad higher than the 983 (like close to OPPO's "1"), therefore below-black still showed up. If you turned down the brightness a little on those players, you might find the same disappearance of BTB.


Gary,

Thanks for your input. This could be a possibility, but unfortunately it is now a moot point. I cycled through the resolutions on my 983 last night to look at some test patterns at 480p, and when I returned to 1080i I got nothing but a blank screen. My 983 appears to no longer output a signal at 1080i, but still works at 480p. I tried all the standard debugging procedures (power cycling, cable swap, factory reset, etc.), but I still get nothing. I have verified that the Box1080 still operates perfectly with my other HDMI 1080i sources. Needless to say I am disappointed that I was able to "break" my 983 by simply cycling through the output resolutions.

Brian

Well it's been five days since the 983 release and OPPO is still sold out,how many did they make...200?

I agree. It looks like the 983 is a "special limited collector's edition" dvd player... ;)

I agree. It looks like the 983 is a "special limited collector's edition" dvd player... ;)

Still not showing up on ebay either.:) I was one of the lucky ones to get mine shipped on the 10th, but I cheaped out for the standard FEDEX delivery. I live in NY, so it is not scheduled for delivery until Monday the 17th. I wish I realized just how long it would have taken, one more weekend without the 983 :(.

Well it's been five days since the 983 release and OPPO is still sold out,how many did they make...200?

from the sound of it... maybe just 2 :D

I agree. It looks like the 983 is a "special limited collector's edition" dvd player... ;)

I heard "through the grapevine", that demand is much higher than anticipated. Oppo is doing their best to try and fill all orders and get more product as fast as possible. So, I guess the 983 is not just for the elite... ;):D.

I agree. It looks like the 983 is a "special limited collector's edition" dvd player... ;)


Do you get a certificate of authenticity signed by Mr.OPPO himself?:D

Perhaps the first "100 rating" from Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity had something to do with the demand when Oppo was offering it for sale before the official release date this week. Glad I ordered mine last Tuesday - should be arriving today, if FedEx does their thing!

Well despite what Fedex shows as the estimated delivery date it appears as if it is not going to happen today. It is still listed as on time but the location still says "Departed FedEx location SACRAMENTO, CA"

FedEx, unlike other couriers, do not do phantom scans of their packages. For this reason, if the package has not been scanned again at another distribution center, there is no additional tracking information.

If it not uncommon to see several days of no updates as the package travels cross country to an East Coast address from the West Coast.

What is important is the Estimated Delivery date. If this goes blank, then you may have a lost package on your hand.

Well it's been five days since the 983 release and OPPO is still sold out,how many did they make...200?

Unknown what their original stock allotment was.

My 983 appears to no longer output a signal at 1080i, but still works at 480p.
Needless to say I am disappointed that I was able to "break" my 983 by simply cycling through the output resolutions.

I highly doubt you broke the system. HDMI should either be working or not working. In my 3 years of owning OPPO products I have never ran across a situation of selective failure.

Does the higher output resolution, 1080p, work?

If you replace the HDMI cable, does 1080i work properly again?

If you bypass your switch/receiver, does 1080i appear on your display?

Do you have another television to diagnose the player on?

I have had mine since Tuesday morning and has been playing most of the time( AVR & TV-not always on). It has played everything very well and it's not even calibrated and both SQ & PQ are excellent. and the inventory issue- there were 239K views for a DVD player that wasn't even out-yet. This has to be a PR dream- they didn't have to pay much for Advertising and they sold out..

...and the inventory issue- there were 239K views for a DVD player that wasn't even out-yet. This has to be a PR dream- they didn't have to pay much for Advertising and they sold out..

This is the mark of a great company that does honest business. Great products for reasonable costs. Impeccable customer service, relations and repore. A company that does business like Oppo Digital does, will never have to spend large amonts of money on advertising.

My 983 appears to no longer output a signal at 1080i, but still works at 480p.
Does the higher output resolution, 1080p, work?

If you replace the HDMI cable, does 1080i work properly again?

If you bypass your switch/receiver, does 1080i appear on your display?

Do you have another television to diagnose the player on? Brian A does not have an HDMI connection on his TV. He uses a "Box1080" HDMI-to-component converter. This complicates matters considerably. As you've suggested, connecting to another HDMI TV would better isolate the problem.

Gary

I have had mine since Tuesday morning and has been playing most of the time( AVR & TV-not always on). It has played everything very well and it's not even calibrated and both SQ & PQ are excellent. and the inventory issue- there were 239K views for a DVD player that wasn't even out-yet. This has to be a PR dream- they didn't have to pay much for Advertising and they sold out..Very true, now the only thing Oppo has to contend with is educating people why spending $399 on a reference quality universal SD Player is a good investment versus a typical Blu-Ray player.

Very true, now the only thing Oppo has to contend with is educating people why spending $399 on a reference quality universal SD Player is a good investment versus a typical Blu-Ray player.

I don't they have to, the 983 is already in "high demand", so "people" already know. If you are referring to J6P and the like, most of those people would never spend $400 on a dvd player... or even a BR player, which is why BR sales are way down over the last month since they jacked all the prices up.

I'll answer that for myself.
1. I only have space for one unit- WAF she is very reasonable-however.
2. KISS
3. The PQ of the 983H is great. I only have a 50" plasma.
I want better content in my movies vs. just a pretty picture.
4. More SD movie than BR . The 983 will send better PQ than with the BR. also ~$15 vs. $30
5. Better music from this player than a BR. Music is as important as video.
6. can veiw other formates.
7. BR players are not that feature rich yet & i think i understand the BR profiles are not completly worked out yet. Still has some buggs.
8. i plan to sell my 970 for ~$100 so i get a good up grade for $340.
*note, as more household get more 5.1 system for movies, i think they will start up-grading to better sound quality as well.
* when i up-grade to a OLED 60" unit. i'll then get a BR....


Very true, now the only thing Oppo has to contend with is educating people why spending $399 on a reference quality universal SD Player is a good investment versus a typical Blu-Ray player.

I highly doubt you broke the system. HDMI should either be working or not working. In my 3 years of owning OPPO products I have never ran across a situation of selective failure.

Does the higher output resolution, 1080p, work?

If you replace the HDMI cable, does 1080i work properly again?

If you bypass your switch/receiver, does 1080i appear on your display?

Do you have another television to diagnose the player on?

Thanks. Here are my answers to your questions:
1. My display (Mitsubishi WS-65905) only supports 480p and 1080i resolutions.
2. I tried a different cable with the same result.
3. I am running the 983 HDMI output through a Box1080 HDMI to component converter because my home theater display only supports component video. The Box1080 still works fine with all of my other HDMI 1080i sources (PS3, Xbox 360 Elite, Panasonic DVD-S97, LG LDA-531, and Motorola DCH6416 PVR).
4. I connected the 983 to a native HDMI display (Sony KDF-E42A10) and was able to get a picture at 480p, 720p, and 1080i (all supported resolutions on the display), so now it looks like the 983 does not want to interface with the Box1080 anymore.

This does not make any sense because the 983 and Box1080 were working perfectly together on Wednesday when I received the player. I have absolutely no idea why this setup would stop working after simply cycling through the display resolutions just once. If my Box1080 still works perfectly with five other sources, I certainly cannot blame it for being "incompatible" with HDMI 1080i signals. Regardless, if I cannot get the 983 to work with the Box1080 then it is useless to me. I have no intention of replacing my pristine ISF calibrated CRT RPTV anytime soon, as I have not yet found any digital display that can surpass its picture quality.

The 983 is on my hit list because, but I am also looking for a high-end blu-ray player that supports HDMI 1.3a, blu-ray 2.0 and DTS-MA. Needless to say, I'm not having any luck.

This is definitely a transition year.

If my Box1080 still works perfectly with five other sources, I certainly cannot blame it for being "incompatible" with HDMI 1080i signals.

And at the same time you can't say that the DV-983H is no longer producing a 1080i/60Hz signal over HDMI, as a native digital display has no issues with the 1080i output resolution.

How exactly is your system arranged? That is, what is the flow diagram of the connections from your source media all the way to the display?

What is the order in which you are turning on your equipment and/or switching sources?

Sorry if this may be redundant...

I've had the 983 for a couple of days now and after calibration, etc., a direct comparison to the 981 showed me:

1) The 983 layer change has been imperceptible on every DVD I've tried; don't let fears of problems with this keep you from this player.

2) IMO, when viewed in pass through mode through an Integra 9.8 to a Sharp Z20000 pj @ 1080p/60, the image is very, very slightly more soft than with the 981, though it is still very detailed. Overall, the image from the 983 shows the best DVD image I have seen on my setup, and I've owned and auditioned many players.

3) The colors seem slightly less saturated than on the 981, but more natural. The 981's green push is clearly evident in comparison to the 983. Colors really seem right on the 983; vibrant with out seeming exaggerated.

4) No macro blocking. It's really nice to go through my DVD collection with discs where this was a problem and feel like I'm seeing them correctly for the first time!

5) I can't explain why, but DSD transcoded to PCM sounds better from the 983 than the 981. Slightly warmer mids with a more full low end.

All in all, a very nice player!

And at the same time you can't say that the DV-983H is no longer producing a 1080i/60Hz signal over HDMI, as a native digital display has not issues with the 1080i output resolution.

How exactly is your system arranged? That is, what is the flow diagram of the connections from your source media all the way to the display?

What is the order in which you are turning on your equipment and/or switching sources?

Right now, I have the HDMI output of the 983 connected directly into the Box1080, and the component video output of the Box1080 going into an Inday RGB4X-R component video switch (http://www.inday.com/), as my display only has a single HD component video input. The Box1080 is always powered on, so as far as the 983 is concerned there is always an active HDMI receiver on its output. Here is a link that describes the HDMI converter I am using:

http://www.curtpalme.com/boxHD.shtm

The Box1080 is identical to the BoxHD, except that it is HDCP compliant. The Box1080 was only available for a short time, as HDGlobal must have gotten into some sort of legal trouble for essentially producing an analog HDCP stripper. Their response was to change the name to BoxHD and remove the HDCP compliance, unfortunately making it useless. The Box1080 is actually superior to the HDFury (which I also tried) because it does not produce any image shift on Mitsubishi displays. The HDFury shifted the image so far on my display that I could not correct it in the service menu without distorting the geometry.

You are correct, I am no longer saying that the 983 does not produce a 1080i signal over HDMI. I am just at a loss to explain why it no longer works with the Box1080 after it initially worked perfectly.

My new OPPO 983 arrived this afternoon. Here's some comments.

• Last week I happened to play my High Society DVD on my OPPO 981. It was reissued a few years ago, widescreen, remastered Dolby 5.1, etc. The opening scene is the Overture and that word stays on the screen in gold leaf capital letters on a blue background throughout the orchestra's performance of the overture. On the 981 there was some macroblocking "noise" on the letter R that I'd never noticed before. I decided to see if it persisted with the 983 with all settings identical. It does not. We have a winnah - the 983. That concludes my comparison of the 981 vs. the 983. ;) I loved the 981 and am happy to pass it along to another family member. BTW. The overture sounded super duper, a term I learned from an audiophile friend of mine. ;)

• Now, a suggestion for improvement. Much has been made about this player offering 7.1 audio. I quote from the DV-983H Data Sheet:

Its 7.1 channel audio with Dolby Digital Surround EX decoding offers more depth, spacious ambience, and sound localization.

It isn't until one gets to the Speaker Setup Page (page 48 in the 983 Manual) that we find out "7.1CH output is available only through the analog audio output jacks." That's disappointing to me in particular since I have a Panasonic XR700 digital AVR that is compatible with 7.1 LPCM over HDMI (an output provided by the Panasonic BD10 Blu-ray player). I was looking forward to getting 7.1 channel LPCM over the OPPO 983, too. I would like to think that this might be corrected in a future 983 firmware update but I am resigned to the possibility that it may be a hardware limitation.

It's not a deal-breaker. But, it doesn't meet my expectations. And I think there should be a more prominent footnote on OPPO's promotional materials to indicate that 7.1 audio is limited to the analog connections.

Dana

2) IMO, when viewed in pass through mode through an Integra 9.8 to a Sharp Z20000 pj @ 1080p/60, the image is very, very slightly more soft than with the 981, though it is still very detailed. Overall, the image from the 983 shows the best DVD image I have seen on my setup, and I've owned and auditioned many players...

All in all, a very nice player! Good to read your perspectives, but I'm curious why you think the 983 is softer than the 981? What sharpness settings are you using in the two players, and what are you using to judge "softness"? I would not be too surprised if you had used the "-2" setting on the 983, but "-1" and "0" should look sharper than the 981.

Gary

I get what you're saying about the level and the "simple math." What has me confused is that every player I've tested (at least 12 in the past 4 years) has either passed BTB or not passed it based on my expectations with my system. This is the only one that has exhibited this behavior.

In order for what you're saying to be accurate, that would mean that every player that I've hooked up that was reported to pass BTB and did on my system did so because its BTB was actually not true below black. Is this what you believe to be true?

The only true way to tell is with a HDMI analyzer. However, if the player has brightness controls you can make a good guess. Like I said earlier, if you lower the brightness on a player you should still be able to see a BTB bar on your display. Off course the BTB bar has to be BTB. DVE, GetGray, and Avia Pro discs are guaranteed to have BTB bars. I don't trust THX optimizers and "regular" Avia does not contain BTB. So, if you can still see BTB when lowering brightness on the player and compensating on the display, then it's pretty well certain the player passes BTB. So then you calibrate on the display by making BTB bar just blend into the background and fine tune with gray ramps. Even if the player does "bump by 1" when set to "neutral" while passing 0-255 intact (or 1-255 in this case or wherever the brightness stops changing the luma value) you are "subtracting 1" in the display when you make the BTB bar blend in (the "-1" BTB bar) into the background. So the "simple math" evens things out and even though the player output is not "perfect" the minor differences probably won't be noticed. Fine tuning is done with the gray ramps that have the ticks for "black" and "reference white" and then go "deeper" off either end. Having to raise brightness on a player to see BTB is not a good sign.

larry

Any idea when it will be back in stock?

I had put my name in Mar 9 to be notified by email when it was available again.

I got an email at 4:10 Boston time that it is available again.

They sent me a special link to order.

My card was charged and I hope it will ship today.

When it arrives, I will be able to compare it to the Denon 2930CI using a Pio 6010.
:)

Jason, I did the exact same thing you did. I received an e-mail from Oppo at the same time you did, and I ordered at 5pm EST, and it's now sold out again. Wow...the demand for this thing must be just overwhelming. I'm just glad I decided not to shower immediately after working out and instead placed my order for my 983,haha...the sacrifices we make!

I put my name on the list on Monday, got an email this afternoon and picked up my 983 locally about 20 minutes ago. Unfortunately, a have another hour or so at the office before I head home.

Jason, I did the exact same thing you did. I received an e-mail from Oppo at the same time you did, and I ordered at 5pm EST, and it's now sold out again. Wow...the demand for this thing must be just overwhelming. I'm just glad I decided not to shower immediately after working out and instead placed my order for my 983,haha...the sacrifices we make!

That sucks for me. I signed up several days ago and haven't received anything.

I have to interject with two comments:

1) I love my 983, and am thoroughly enjoying my DVD-A and SACD discs, few as they may be.

2) The packaging created a momentary mancrush when I opened the box and saw the neat black accessory box and the sexy black fabric (or whatever material) bag the player itself sat in.

I also received my email at 2:10pm Colorado time that it was back in stock in limited quantities.

I placed my order at 5:50pm MST, and my card was charged and order approved.

Looking forward to my new Oppo.

Has somebody put it in their constant height system yet? How's it going??

Hi guys

Ha anyone tried playing stuff off a drive connected to the USB port?

If so, how does it work? I gather it will read any of the supported codecs (DivX, Xvid). Is there any particular drive size that is too big (ie will a 1TB drive kill it?)

Thanks.

No e-mail here, and I gave them my home and work addresses. Is there something more to do other than click "Notify me when In Stock?"

Got my email at 4:10 PM EDT but didn't check until 8:00 PM. Just ordered and got my order confirmation. Chose Fedex 3-day so should have it middle of next week!

No e-mail here, and I gave them my home and work addresses. Is there something more to do other than click "Notify me when In Stock?"

Hopefully its not being intercepted by your spamfilters!

Mine shipped already.

Received the email at 4:10pm eastern time. FedEx tracking number was received at 8:28pm. I don't know if it matters, but I ordered direct from them before when I got my 971H.

Let me be clear: they were displayed correctly when the setup was WIDE, but were detected as 4:3 and were therefore improperly pillarboxed when the setup was WIDE/AUTO.
-Bill


I've experienced the same issue. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Ed

I've experienced the same issue. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Ed

It's a bug. Keep track of the titles where it happens.

-Bill

It's a bug. Keep track of the titles where it happens.

-Bill

Thanks Bill. I'm having one issue that may be related or may be a display issue. My 983 is connected to a Sony KDL-46W3000 via HDMI. The image only displays as 16:9 when I select the "Full" wide mode setting, which is designed to stretch 4:3 signals.

Also, am I correct that all signals from the 983 are being sent as 16:9, even the 4:3 material? If this is the case, then the monitor shouldn't ever see a 4:3 signal.

Ed

Thanks Bill. I'm having one issue that may be related or may be a display issue. My 983 is connected to a Sony KDL-46W3000 via HDMI. The image only displays as 16:9 when I select the "Full" wide mode setting, which is designed to stretch 4:3 signals.

Also, am I correct that all signals from the 983 are being sent as 16:9, even the 4:3 material? If this is the case, then the monitor shouldn't ever see a 4:3 signal.

Ed

You may want to check what is the output resolution (the resolution lights near the power button). If it is 480p, Sony TV usually displays it as 4:3. Set to 720p or above and Sony TV usually displays as 16:9.

I just received my OPPO 983 and was able to do some quick comparisons with some other players on my Pioneer 6010 Kuro plasma. I did not spend any time on the standard benchmark tests as many others better than me have already proven the 983 to be near perfect with that material. My focus was on my personal benchmark -- Star Wars II. If you prefer analytical, scientific tests you might want to skip this quick review entirely. I'm just not a torture test kinda guy.

The short summary is that the OPPO just blew me away. I thought I was already close to perfection with my current set-up and figured it would be easy to return the 983 after proving it wasn't a big enough improvement. Was I ever wrong. The player is just phenomenal. It provides a very natural film-like image with as little artifacting and as much detail as technically possible for DVD.

Out-of-box

The OPPO 983 is very nice looking with a nice brush metal face plate. The OPPO packaging retains the usual attention to detail with nice cloth-like bag and nice cardboard spec sheet sitting on top of the player. It has a nice weight to it compared to my previous OPPO and just about all other volume DVD players. I do wish it had a little more bulk like the Denon DVD-2930CI that I had for a short period. I use a universal remote, so no need to comment on that. The player is very responsive and I definitely like the more secure feeling disc tray. The settings panes are also well laid out.

Set-up

Display is the Pioneer PDP-1060 Kuro 60" plasma - ISF calibrated a couple of months back. First thing I did was calibrated the display which only needed a one notch drop in brightness from settings for my 980. On the 983 side the only change was to drop the sharpness down to -1. All video connections were HDMI.

Comparisons

* Versus OPPO 980 @ 480i with PureCinema advanced mode

Since this was my standard DVD set-up I did this comparison first -- again using the SW2 DVD. Display was set to full mode. I have two discs so I can quickly go back and forth for A/B comparisons. The 983 produced a more detailed image with less artifacts, noise and jaggles than the 980. One clear example to show this is in the "Return to Coruscant" scene where the yellow ships are spinning heading towards the planet. There were jaggles all over the ships watching with the 980. People always notice these jaggles in moving edges, but I also noticed that moving patterns also had this same kind of artifacting. I never relized how much of this artifacting there is until I did an A/B comparison with the 983. I was very impressed.

* Versus HD-XA2 (FW2.7) @ 1080p/60 with PureCinema off

From previous comparisons I knew that the XA2 was going to be very similar to the 980. Display was set to dot-by-dot mode. Well, the results were almost identical to the 980 with the 983 producing a more detailed image with less artifacts, noise and jaggles than the XA2. I'm sure that many people are wondering how the HD-XA2 can be so close to the OPPO 980. Well, the 980 produces a very good 480i signal and the Pioneer plasmas was excellent at de-interlacing and scaling DVD material. There are many others on AVS with Kuro plasmas who swear the the 980 @ 480i actually produces a better image than the HD-XA2. For me, the difference is just too close to call. I basically replaced the HD-XA2 with the 980 for DVD duty based on convenience factors -- region-free playback and infinitely better responsiveness. It also turns out that my older 38" CRT in the bedroom was begging to have a reunion with the HD-XA2.

* Versus PS3 @ 1080p with PureCinema off

By the time I introduced a PS3 into AV rack for dedicated Blu-ray duty I was already spoiled by the HD-XA2. The PS3 is not bad, but it is not in the same league as the HD-XA2. I really wanted to bring the PS3 into my comparisons for the sake of completeness. The PS3 wasn't able to produce the same level of detail and image clarity as either the 980 or the HD-XA2. There is no comparison to the 983.

Conclusion

$400 is quite a bit of money for a DVD player in this day and age. All of the systems I compared the 983 to are quite respectable in most peoples' book. The thing is -- if you are a true videophile that doesn't own a dedicated video processor you are going to want the upgrade possible with this 983. I just don't know how many people are critical enough and have the disposable income to warrant an upgrade for what might be a subtle difference.

I do not want to end this without a bit of a reality check. A neighbor of mine dropped by when I was going through the evaluation this evening. At the time, SW2 was spinning away in the 983. This guy has a PS3 and an JVC HD RP display that gets frequent Blu-ray screening. Anyway, we are standing about 4-5 feet from the 60" display. The guy says. "this looks like HD. Who is going to buy HD if you can get this with DVD?" I said, "OK, let's try the new iRobot Blu-ray disc for a fair comparison." When he watched iRobot in HD the guys eyes just about pop out. Finally, we switched back to SW2 on the 983. This time his comment was, "looks fuzzy." Again, we were close enough to the display to be super critical, but still...

miata, so glad to see and hear that you found a new love in the 983 as most of us have. I remember your comments here and there in the other thread, and we we're wondering just how much better, if any, the 983 would look on your Kuro. That's a nice "real world" review there, especially the last paragraph, very entertaining. This is why we keep saying that SD CAN look ALMOST HD... not quite, but almost. The 983 gets us that much closer. ENJOY... :).

Miata, I enjoyed your review, particularly your different (real world) approach and the specifics you mentioned.

Gary

Thanks Miata. That was a great review. Just the sort of comparison that I was looking for!!!!

Understand the 983, 981 and 980 all use the same IR code thus power up one you power up all, is there a work around thisl. Thanks. Jerry

Hey Dennis, your right but that confuses me as its visa versa for the 980h. ie cheaper to buy the 980 direct from Oppo rather than Merlin here in Aus.
I have also noticed that Oppo includes a gold plated HDMI cable (albeit a short one) where as Merlin does not. Is an extended warranty the same price? Did you bother? Does anyone?

Something else i noticed is that each of the 3 players (980/1/3) directly from Oppo have a different shipping cost to Aus??? ($50/60/70) Can i put this down to different package weights? Whatever the case your most likely to recieve it sooner from Oppo as Merlin sais mid April.
Yep, I noticed the overall pricing/freight disparity in models from Merlin Audio compared to Oppo direct, and after reading reviews from the forum regarding PAL and improvement in 983 I quickly formed the view (assuming I can afford it) 983 was the way to go irrsepective if I bought from Merlin or Oppo.

Reading the comments here in recent days after people have received their "toys" I'd be snaky if I had settled on the 980 for $150 or so less.

The buying decision was made easy thanks to all the forum contributors and particularly the beta testers over the past months. A big thank you

I hate tossing away perfectly good hardware just because something newer is "better".

It's rare to get a clear cut opinion on a consumer product. Sure it's top shelf, but from the opinions here it will be a fair time before the 983 gets tossed out.

Re the HDMI cable, I'm under the impression it's included but have not checked that out.

Sorry to say my 983 is defective. Tried 3 different hdmi cables and still can't solve the video dropout issue. I'm returning it for immediate replacement or refund. :(

Also, am I correct that all signals from the 983 are being sent as 16:9, even the 4:3 material? If this is the case, then the monitor shouldn't ever see a 4:3 signal.

I believe so, if you have the aspect ratio set to Wide or Wide/Auto and are using an upconverted resolution. If you use 480p (or 480i on other players) the display is responsible for adjusting the aspect ratio.

I think this is common behavior on upconverting players, but I don't know if it is a universal rule.

-Bill

Just received my 983 yesterday... I threw every format I could think of at it... DVD-Audio, SACD, Video & Audio CD, DVD, and DIVX/XVID/VOB.

I have noticed a problem with Divx/Xvid playback. When playing files with an aspect ratio higer than 1.85:1 (i.e. 2.35:1) the files are always vertically stretched in "1.1" zoom mode. In fact, the "stretch" option when toggling through the zoom options is no longer available as it is when playing DVDs. Unfortunately, none of the zoom options or TV type settings in the Oppo can correct this.

After fiddling around with some more, I think I know why this is happening. When .vob files are encoded into Divx/Xvid, most encoder applications either crop the vertical bars or offer an option to do so. I normally select this option as it prevents encoding artifacts from showing up in this area and doesn't waste bits encoding useless black bars. VOB files always have a framerate of 720 X 480 regardless of aspect ratio. VOB files play properly on the Oppo.

When Divx/Xvid files are encoded without the black bars, their resolution may differ somewhat (i.e. 720 x 384 or 720 x 288). I think the Oppo is choking on these inputs.

I hope it is possible for Oppo to correct this issue... the only thing my Marantz does better than the Oppo is play Divx/Xvid files with the proper aspect ratio (it is a Divx certified deck), but I am never going back to the Marantz after seeing the Oppo in action, the picture quality is just so much better!

If Oppo can correct this issue, my HTPC will see a greatly reduced role in my home as I will play all of my Divx/Xvid/Vob files with the 983...

So nobody else has experienced video dropout issues? Everyone is using the hdmi cable supplied with the 983?:confused:

No dropouts here but just swapped players and used my existing monoprice cable.

No dropouts here but just swapped players and used my existing monoprice cable.

Same here but the HDMI cable that shipped with my 983 looks like a monoprice cable, too. That's the only outfit I've ever seen that packages their HDMI cables with a white foam wrap on the ends. ;)

Dana

Crud. I'm not even running audio thru the cable. Hdmi audio is turned off. Oppo e-mailed me back and said most video dropouts are related to cables but after trying 2 Oppo cables and a monoprice cable the problem remain. Now they don't even have a replacement 983 for me and the shipping costs are going to add up. Feel a little burned but what can you do? Refund? Wait until they have more in stock and hope the next one works? I reinstalled my Oppo 970 running at 1080i and it works flawlessly. Frustrated....:(

Pretty sure that Oppo will pay for the shipping if you exchange it or for warranty service. At least that's what the warranty says and that's what I remember when I had to get my 970 repaired.

Hopefully that should reduce the frustration a little, not a lot. I do understand your frustration with not being able to use it now. I was again WOW'ed with the 983H and it replaced a 970 which also wow'ed me when I first pluged it in.

Same here but the HDMI cable that shipped with my 983 looks like a monoprice cable, too. That's the only outfit I've ever seen that packages their HDMI cables with a white foam wrap on the ends. ;)

Dana

Didn't notice the white styrofoam but the ferrite cores and thickness of the cable made me think monoprice also.

OK I've been over the setup 10 times now before posting...

Anyone finding the audio setup to be squirly? My right front channel seems to be about 4db hot and I can't figure out why. I think the sub is hot too but the RF is so out of whack that I haven't even tackled the sub yet.

I'm running 3.1 with an Arcam and my intention was to use the analog audio out of the 983 to the pure analog input.

I couldn't get it to balance so to eliminate variables, I'm now running the digital audio to the Arcam and it is still out of balance measuring exactly the same as the analog.

I've been over and over settings, am I missing something dumb? Is anyone else finding anything similar?

FYI I had a 970 running this configuration and everything seemed to balance out well.

EDIT
Oops, should have noted that tones generated by the receiver are balanced perfectly. As soon as I switch to the DVD input everything goes out of whack. And digital and analog are out of whack the same amount using tones off Avia.

I just received my OPPO 983 and was able to do some quick comparisons with some other players on my Pioneer 6010 Kuro plasma. I did not spend any time on the standard benchmark tests as many others better than me have already proven the 983 to be near perfect with that material. My focus was on my personal benchmark -- Star Wars II. If you prefer analytical, scientific tests you might want to skip this quick review entirely. I'm just not a torture test kinda guy.

The short summary is that the OPPO just blew me away. I thought I was already close to perfection with my current set-up and figured it would be easy to return the 983 after proving it wasn't a big enough improvement. Was I ever wrong. The player is just phenomenal. It provides a very natural film-like image with as little artifacting and as much detail as technically possible for DVD.

Out-of-box

The OPPO 983 is very nice looking with a nice brush metal face plate. The OPPO packaging retains the usual attention to detail with nice cloth-like bag and nice cardboard spec sheet sitting on top of the player. It has a nice weight to it compared to my previous OPPO and just about all other volume DVD players. I do wish it had a little more bulk like the Denon DVD-2930CI that I had for a short period. I use a universal remote, so no need to comment on that. The player is very responsive and I definitely like the more secure feeling disc tray. The settings panes are also well laid out.

Set-up

Display is the Pioneer PDP-1060 Kuro 60" plasma - ISF calibrated a couple of months back. First thing I did was calibrated the display which only needed a one notch drop in brightness from settings for my 980. On the 983 side the only change was to drop the sharpness down to -1. All video connections were HDMI.

Comparisons

* Versus OPPO 980 @ 480i with PureCinema advanced mode

Since this was my standard DVD set-up I did this comparison first -- again using the SW2 DVD. Display was set to full mode. I have two discs so I can quickly go back and forth for A/B comparisons. The 983 produced a more detailed image with less artifacts, noise and jaggles than the 980. One clear example to show this is in the "Return to Coruscant" scene where the yellow ships are spinning heading towards the planet. There were jaggles all over the ships watching with the 980. People always notice these jaggles in moving edges, but I also noticed that moving patterns also had this same kind of artifacting. I never relized how much of this artifacting there is until I did an A/B comparison with the 983. I was very impressed.

* Versus HD-XA2 (FW2.7) @ 1080p/60 with PureCinema off

From previous comparisons I knew that the XA2 was going to be very similar to the 980. Display was set to dot-by-dot mode. Well, the results were almost identical to the 980 with the 983 producing a more detailed image with less artifacts, noise and jaggles than the XA2. I'm sure that many people are wondering how the HD-XA2 can be so close to the OPPO 980. Well, the 980 produces a very good 480i signal and the Pioneer plasmas was excellent at de-interlacing and scaling DVD material. There are many others on AVS with Kuro plasmas who swear the the 980 @ 480i actually produces a better image than the HD-XA2. For me, the difference is just too close to call. I basically replaced the HD-XA2 with the 980 for DVD duty based on convenience factors -- region-free playback and infinitely better responsiveness. It also turns out that my older 38" CRT in the bedroom was begging to have a reunion with the HD-XA2.

* Versus PS3 @ 1080p with PureCinema off

By the time I introduced a PS3 into AV rack for dedicated Blu-ray duty I was already spoiled by the HD-XA2. The PS3 is not bad, but it is not in the same league as the HD-XA2. I really wanted to bring the PS3 into my comparisons for the sake of completeness. The PS3 wasn't able to produce the same level of detail and image clarity as either the 980 or the HD-XA2. There is no comparison to the 983.

Conclusion

$400 is quite a bit of money for a DVD player in this day and age. All of the systems I compared the 983 to are quite respectable in most peoples' book. The thing is -- if you are a true videophile that doesn't own a dedicated video processor you are going to want the upgrade possible with this 983. I just don't know how many people are critical enough and have the disposable income to warrant an upgrade for what might be a subtle difference.

I do not want to end this without a bit of a reality check. A neighbor of mine dropped by when I was going through the evaluation this evening. At the time, SW2 was spinning away in the 983. This guy has a PS3 and an JVC HD RP display that gets frequent Blu-ray screening. Anyway, we are standing about 4-5 feet from the 60" display. The guy says. "this looks like HD. Who is going to buy HD if you can get this with DVD?" I said, "OK, let's try the new iRobot Blu-ray disc for a fair comparison." When he watched iRobot in HD the guys eyes just about pop out. Finally, we switched back to SW2 on the 983. This time his comment was, "looks fuzzy." Again, we were close enough to the display to be super critical, but still...

Thanks Miata! That's the review I was looking for. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Crud. I'm not even running audio thru the cable. Hdmi audio is turned off. Oppo e-mailed me back and said most video dropouts are related to cables but after trying 2 Oppo cables and a monoprice cable the problem remain. Now they don't even have a replacement 983 for me and the shipping costs are going to add up. Feel a little burned but what can you do? Refund? Wait until they have more in stock and hope the next one works? I reinstalled my Oppo 970 running at 1080i and it works flawlessly. Frustrated....:(

Does it work over component?

Does the item come double boxed? Or is there one with markings indicating what it is? Trying to fly under my wife's radar on this one.

It's a bug. Keep track of the titles where it happens.

-Bill

Just noticed this with "In the Shadow of the Moon". This one's 16:9 but is apparently being detected as 4:3 and squashed/pillarboxed. However, this is an inconsistent occurrence. By that I mean, I returned to this disc again and attempted to replicate the problem. This time switching back to Wide/Auto and playing the disc it properly displayed it in 16:9. Now I'm not clear on what's happening. No other changes to the setup (connections or projector; I cannot alter the aspect on the projector since it's 1080p native receiving a 1080p signal over HDMI-HDMI). Maybe the Oppo saved this info from the last time (I'd doubt it).

I'm assuming that Oppo techs already are aware of this issue. Do they need any specific feedback on titles at this point, or do they have a handle on the source of the problem?

Does it work over component?

Didn't try component cables. I figured the thing should work as advertised with hdmi. Seems like it might be a cable issue but nobody else is having the same problem so my unit must have something wrong. So I'll just have to watch the 970 until Oppo fixes or replaces it.

Same here but the HDMI cable that shipped with my 983 looks like a monoprice cable, too. That's the only outfit I've ever seen that packages their HDMI cables with a white foam wrap on the ends. ;)

Dana
just a note, my pan. s77 came w foam wrapped hdmi cable ends.

Does the item come double boxed? Or is there one with markings indicating what it is? Trying to fly under my wife's radar on this one.Single box with markings, have it delivered to work perhaps. :rolleyes:

Good luck with your relationship! :D

I'm assuming that Oppo techs already are aware of this issue. Do they need any specific feedback on titles at this point, or do they have a handle on the source of the problem?

I provided some sample discs which they forwarded to Mediatek. I'll ask my contact if they need more info and what's happening.

-Bill

Got an email last night that there were units available... Went ahead and ordered one.
Recently sold my Yamaha DVD-S2500 (for which I paid about $550) on ebay for $200, so this is an upgrade, but not too expensive...
Looking forward to the new one...
Also have a PS3 for blu-ray

Damn this player rocks. I put the test disc in my Panasonic BD30 to compare the deinterlacing of the two. The Panny fails a bunch of the tests and there is really no contest.

Add to that the boot time between the two is no contest as well. Instant on with the Oppo, 20 seconds with the Panny.

Good to read your perspectives, but I'm curious why you think the 983 is softer than the 981? What sharpness settings are you using in the two players, and what are you using to judge "softness"? I would not be too surprised if you had used the "-2" setting on the 983, but "-1" and "0" should look sharper than the 981.

Gary

Sharpness was set to "0" on both. IMO the 981 has a more "etched" appearance than the 983, which seems to give it slightly more apparent detail. The 983's picture appears slightly softer in direct comparison, to my eyes. The difference is a bit like the difference between having TruLife switched on or off on the 981, but less obvious than that. The 983's picture is very detailed, and I am not trying to slight it in comparison to the 981; it has a better overall picture. But, that is what I see... I think some folks would consider a more "etched" looking picture subjectively worse.

[sorry this is a brain dump of a few threads (if a bit incoherent) I have posted elsewhere at Canadian forum but thought I'd come to the AVS experts for input, advice, comments]



This Oppo DV-983H player's early reviews look really good as it has passed ALL of the Home Theatre HiFi Secrets benchmarks for video (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-dvd-player-product-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player---a-secrets-dvd-benchmark-review.html) and audio (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/dvd-player-and-cd-player-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player---the-rest-of-the-story.html). This is the only player to date that has passed all of the benchmarks with 100% passed.

This player looks sweet, but for $397 it comes with a bit of a hefty price tag. :( Considering I have quite a big SD-DVD library, I may have to look at this seriously considering it looks like my Panny RP-56 appears to have kicked the bucket (and not worth fixing. damn you electronic industry!) and most BluRay players upconversion isn't as good as it could be. $397 for a DVD player though? hefty.

The player features the Anchor Bay Technology chipsets for upconversion and it looks like it has HDMI, component video (upconversion only on HDMI), coax/optical, svideo/composite (who uses these now?), and support for just about every format out there except BluRay/HD-DVD including DVD-Audio, SACD, CD-ROM, DVD incarnations, DiVX, etc What else could you ask for beside BD (and HD) support?



I understand that the ABT is slightly below Reon and Realta processors, and above the Faroudja but nothing to sneeze at. (i.e. Realta (Denon/Marantz) -> Reon (some Samsungs, others use Sigma Design chipsets) -> ABT (Yamaha receivers, Oppo DV-983H) -> Faroudja (Oppo, some older Panasonic players) -> Unipher (Panasonic) -> everything else) but I haven't seen anything definitive about this.

Perhaps the ABT is above the REON in some implementations such as the Oppo? I understand that the Yamaha receivers have ABT chipsets as well so I guess you could send the component video at 480i from this player to the video processor in the receiver (or via HDMI at 480p?)

Is there a ranking of the Realta, REON, ABT, Unipher, etc chipsets out there and would feeding the signal to a receiver like the Yamaha with a ABT chipset produce as good of a picture (as it would be transmitted digitally on the DV-980H (or another upconverting player that sends 480i) or over component - short distance for the DV-983HD)




How does the PS3 upconversion compare to the Oppos, Panasonic DMP-BD30/50 and the Samsung BD-UP5000/BD-P1200, Toshiba A3/A30?XA2 (or Venturer SHD7000)?
I see that those two Samsung players have the REON chipset which is supposed to be one of the best but unfortunately the Samsung BD players are riddled with problems right now from a Blu point of view.
The Samsung BD-P1200 is something NOT to be picked up even with the REON processor since it is a BD1.0 player and has lots of disc compatibility issues.
The Samsung BD-P1400 (current top BD only player) doesn't have REON processor but rather SigmaDesigns and isn't as good and the BD-P1500 is rumoured to just be a BD1.1 version of the BD-P1400 with no REON processor, etc
The Samsung duo player (BD-UP5000) would be an alright player at the price point it is now in the last couple of weeks if it wasn't riddled with firmware issues (disc compatibility and HD audio codec support).
My research on the Panasonic DMP-BD30 indicates that the Panasonic Unipher processor is sub-average chipset for SD-DVD upconversion but is an excellent BD player and can bitstream all of the HD audio codecs. The DMP-BD50 just adds decoding off all of the HD audio codecs.
The PS3 seems to be a pretty good bang for the buck BD/SD player along with a game console (doesn't interest me) and I read something about the firmware upgrade bringing DVD upconversion up to be pretty good (close to a Toshiba XA2). I'm not too keen on a game console player and having to use a BlueTooth remote or one of the USB hacks for limited IR support with my Harmony.
Would I get just as good of a picture if I picked up a Toshiba A3/A30 (or the Venturer SHD7000 - a Toshiba A3 clone in disguise) at Walmart??? How would the Toshiba gear (A3, A30, XA2, etc) rank in these upconversion chip qualities?
I'm not really interested in Sony standalone players that are coming out that will be feature wise about the same as the Panasonic DMP-BD50 BD Live player. Never really been a fan of Sony home electronic gadgets such as their TVs, DVD, receivers - the game console/station might be different so I don't think I would jump at the Sony BD-Live (S550 I believe) players (to come after the Panasonic anyway - I suspect an agreement between the two to have Panasonic be the first BD Live player). I always found Sony products to be average and not spectacular for the brand name every one associates (they are famous for walkman and trinitron (someone-else's idea)), over priced (read: high margin compared to comparable competitors) and they have constantly changing standards (read: BluRay for example), come out with these proprietary format that don't get mass adoption (Memory Stick, PSP UMD, Beta, etc - hope BD isn't down that path) and dump technology too quickly




Well I would think that Oppo will include this DV-983H player in their BluRay player that they come out and then charge a bit of a premium for BluRay - perhaps $600US.

However, BluRay players are expected to drop in the next year so maybe by then their BluRay & Upconverting DVD player will be about the same price as this one that just came out.


I don't mind investing in a good SD-DVD upconverting player (e.g. Oppo DV-981HD or DV-983H) along with an excellent BluRay Disc Player (Panny DMP-BD50) but that would mean having to upgrade my receiver too. :D

For the interim I was going to use HDMI-DVI and Optical audio until I upgrade to say a Yamaha HTR6190B/RX-V1800 or Denon 988 receiver and then output from the receiver HDMI-DVI until I get a projector (and a a basement - moving this year! :))


What would be good is to have a combo BD/SD DVD upconverting player and wondering how these models mentioned compare for SD and if I should go with an interim solution and then buy the Oppo BD/SD player when it comes out



I'm wondering about reluctantly considering the PS3 as my interim BD/SD player based on this feedback since the XA2 is supposed to be one of the best upconverting SD-DVD players (along with HD-DVD which I don't need). I haven't seen an XA2 anywhere, and I am still dumbfounded as to why Toshiba.CA (http://www.toshiba.ca/web/products.grp?lg=en&section=2&group=505&category=) still has this player listed at $799. I'm sure it must be way cheaper elsewhere but haven't seen it at any local B&M stores.


If the SD upconversion on the PS3 is comparable to an XA2 which I've heard good things about in reviews and these forums... along with it being one of the best BD players out there then I guess I'm going to have to heavily consider it - for the interim at least.

My SD-DVD Panny RP-56 is dying and I need a player (SD/BD) and don't want to buy just a SD player if I can (but if I do it will be the Oppo).

The Panasonic DMP-BD30 upconversion is sup-par from what I understand, and the DMP-BD50 (same Panasonic Unipher chip as well) may take a while to come to Canada.


While the Oppo DV-981H or Oppo DV-983HD is mighty nice it is a bit expensive right now and will likely come down in price (is there a track record of Oppo dropping the Minimum Suggested Retail Price (not Manufacturers SRP)???)


Perhaps Oppo's BD player will be out by years end or this time next year and will be a super-duper BD/SD player with the features of the DV-983HD with BD playback as well.... and I'll will be first in line for this.

I may still order the DV-983HD by the end of the month... still debating and researching.



While I didn't have a problem with playing back some of my SD-DVDs and the BluRays that I played (which were older releases) on the Samsung BD-UP5000 that I had in mid January to early February... the lack of communication from Samsung as to what they were doing with respect to firmware upgrades about disc compatibility issues (Sunshine, 3:10 to Yuma, etc), lack of promised HD audio codec support, etc left a sour taste in my mouth.

I had picked up the Samsung BD-P1400 openbox (resealed) but ended up taking it back (left resealed) after reading more and more about Samsung firmware issues with the BD-P1200, BD-P1400 and of course the BD-UP5000 and then the impending cancellation of the BD-UP5500, BD-P2400, etc I just decided to shelve the BD player thing for a while.




I've had no problems with my Panasonic DVD player up to now, but the player is now 5-6+ years old now and it doesn't really owe me anything. It served its purpose and now it's time to upgrade. :)



Well if what people are saying, the PS3 upconversion is comparable to the XA2 it may push me over the edge if I wasn't there already. :D

The whole game-console as a BD player and lack of built in IR remote support is the main thing holding me back. I can live with it not being power controllable - just leave it on all the time or flip on when I watch stuff (just have to put it up higher/more accessible).

I'll have to investigate this Nyko BlueWave USB dongle/remote (at TheSource in Canada) or this $7 USB C2-Tech infra-remote people are picking up at Real Canadian Superstore (grocery store - aka Loblaws) and return the Sony PS3 BlueTooth remote to FutureShop ($40) and Walmart (then I saw it for $25 and bought since there was no advertisement to price match - just easier to return it)

I'll have to buy a new receiver for the advanced audio codecs anyway unless I hook up the analog audio to my existing receiver but only get 5.1




Decisions, decisions, decisions.


Input? Comments? Thoughts?

(is there a track record of Oppo dropping the Minimum Suggested Retail Price (not Manufacturers SRP)???)


No. And I've never heard of two SRP.

-Bill

No. And I've never heard of two SRP.

I just meant as time goes on, has Oppo dropped the minimum price of the player as new technology has been introduced such as the DV-983HD or do they let the resellers decide that?

not sure what you mean by "two SRP". I understand that Oppo sets a Minimum SRP (price can be higher at resellers but usually not) and not a Manufacturer SRP where the street price is generally lower.

I understand that the ABT is slightly below Reon and Realta processors, and above the Faroudja but nothing to sneeze at. (i.e. Realta (Denon/Marantz) -> Reon (some Samsungs, others use Sigma Design chipsets) -> ABT (Yamaha receivers, Oppo DV-983H) -> Faroudja (Oppo, some older Panasonic players) -> Unipher (Panasonic) -> everything else) but I haven't seen anything definitive about this.

Perhaps the ABT is above the REON in some implementations such as the Oppo? I understand that the Yamaha receivers have ABT chipsets as well so I guess you could send the component video at 480i from this player to the video processor in the receiver (or via HDMI at 480p?)

Is there a ranking of the Realta, REON, ABT, Unipher, etc chipsets out there and would feeding the signal to a receiver like the Yamaha with a ABT chipset produce as good of a picture (as it would be transmitted digitally on the DV-980H (or another upconverting player that sends 480i) or over component - short distance for the DV-983HD)




The ABT is above the REON and Realta. Faroudja is last. Their tech was good 5 years ago but is the bottom of the barrel now.

I just meant as time goes on, has Oppo dropped the minimum price of the player as new technology has been introduced such as the DV-983HD or do they let the resellers decide that?

not sure what you mean by "two SRP". I understand that Oppo sets a Minimum SRP (price can be higher at resellers but usually not) and not a Manufacturer SRP where the street price is generally lower.

I've seen very little variability in dealer pricing. Free shipping is about all you can get. Refurbished players from Oppo are also a good deal; same 30-day return and 1-year warranty as new.

The prices of new players never come down.

-Bill

I provided some sample discs which they forwarded to Mediatek. I'll ask my contact if they need more info and what's happening.

Good news from Oppo (working on Saturday!) The bug has been identified and they are going to develop some test firmware. When that is shown to work, the fix will appear in a firmware update.

Until then, the workaround is easy. Use WIDE instead of WIDE/AUTO if you encounter a 16:9 title that is being pillarboxed. The Info button will show these titles as 4:3 instead of 16:9.

-Bill

The Oppo arrived today. I have it all set up and dialed in.... now for the sun to go down and the true fun to begin.

Let me take a stab at a few of the portions of your post...
My research on the Panasonic DMP-BD30 indicates that the Panasonic Unipher processor is sub-average chipset for SD-DVD upconversion but is an excellent BD player and can bitstream all of the HD audio codecs. The DMP-BD50 just adds decoding off all of the HD audio codecs.
Would I get just as good of a picture if I picked up a Toshiba A3/A30 (or the Venturer SHD7000 - a Toshiba A3 clone in disguise) at Walmart??? How would the Toshiba gear (A3, A30, XA2, etc) rank in these upconversion chip qualities?
I've used both the BD30 and the A2 alongside the 980H and 983H. I'd consider the SD performance of both the BD30 and A2 to be more-or-less comparable to the 980H - the 983H is a definite step up from them. I finished this summary (http://www.prillaman.net/oppodvd_review.html) of my experience with the 980H, 981HD, and 983H[/url] the other day - perhaps it may be of some use to you.
I don't mind investing in a good SD-DVD upconverting player (e.g. Oppo DV-981HD or DV-983H) along with an excellent BluRay Disc Player (Panny DMP-BD50) but that would mean having to upgrade my receiver too. :D

For the interim I was going to use HDMI-DVI and Optical audio until I upgrade to say a Yamaha HTR6190B/RX-V1800 or Denon 988 receiver and then output from the receiver HDMI-DVI until I get a projector (and a a basement - moving this year! :))
You don't mention using DVD-Audio, and your old Panasonic doesn't support SACD, so it would seem that an OPPO player would not necessarily need to use your existing receiver's multichannel analog inputs. As a result, a BD50 could provide you full support for BD (including TrueHD and DTS-HD MA) while still operating alongside an OPPO player. Why would you need to upgrade your receiver? At most, you might need an HDMI switch...
While the Oppo DV-981H or Oppo DV-983HD is mighty nice it is a bit expensive right now and will likely come down in price (is there a track record of Oppo dropping the Minimum Suggested Retail Price (not Manufacturers SRP)???)
OPPO has historically not lowered their prices on their players. The 971H and 970HD both stayed at their original price for the duration of their production lives, and the 981HD and 980H have both stayed put so far. Also, the 983H offers a lot of hardware for the price - I doubt that they'll be dropping the price any time soon.

Perhaps Oppo's BD player will be out by years end or this time next year and will be a super-duper BD/SD player with the features of the DV-983HD with BD playback as well.... and I'll will be first in line for this.

I may still order the DV-983HD by the end of the month... still debating and researching.
I'd love to see an OPPO Blu-ray player in 2008, but I don't actually expect it until at least this time next year.

Channel Delay- mch 6 analog
I tried to set the speaker distance for my system. using the player. my LCR speakers are 10ft. from my PLP. So i set the speaker icons to 10'. But my sub is 17' from the PLP. But i can only set it to 10'.
So I'm doing something wrong. but what.

I have noticed a problem with Divx/Xvid playback. When playing files with an aspect ratio higer than 1.85:1 (i.e. 2.35:1) the files are always vertically stretched in "1.1" zoom mode.

Try changing your TV type to 4:3/LB or 4:3/PS through the General Setup of the player.

Some odd resolutions will always have problems with correct aspect ratios. This has been true since the OPDV971H.

Now they don't even have a replacement 983 for me and the shipping costs are going to add up. (

How do you know they do not have any replacement units? Did you ask them, or are you making the assumption based off of them being out of stock on their website?

I reinstalled my Oppo 970 running at 1080i and it works flawlessly. Frustrated.

If you lower the resolution of the DV-983H do the video dropouts disappear? If yes, then I bet you dollar to donuts that your cables are at fault, or you are going through a switch or receiving device which is causing the dropout errors.

Oops, should have noted that tones generated by the receiver are balanced perfectly. As soon as I switch to the DVD input everything goes out of whack. And digital and analog are out of whack the same amount using tones off Avia.

This should be impossible for such a variance to occur if switching to a digital raw signal causes the same error.

Do you have another DVD player to send a signal to your receiver?

Have you tried a factory default on your DV-983H?

I just meant as time goes on, has Oppo dropped the minimum price of the player as new technology has been introduced such as the DV-983HD or do they let the resellers decide that?

MSRP (Minimum Suggested Retail Price) is set. Some retailers have dropped the price slightly (SolutionsAV.ca and OnlyBestRated.com usually have the player listed 3 dollars below the MSRP) or have inflated the MSRP to make it look cheaper (see: Amazon.com), but OPPO themselves have never changed the MSRP of any of their DVD players, even ones which get discontinued and replaced.

This is a very strict MSRP. Much like you will not see Apple iPod products on sale, you should expect the same of OPPO DVD players.

Channel Delay- mch 6 analog
I tried to set the speaker distance for my system. using the player. my FCL speakers are 10ft. from my PLP. So i set the speaker icons to 10'. But my sub is 17' from the PLP. But i can only set it to 10'.
So I'm doing something wrong. but what.

The Delay is designed to compensate for the difference between the Listener Position and the Front Left/Right speakers and the other speakers, where the other speakers are closer than the Front speakers. For instance, if your Front Left and Right speakers are 10' from the listening position, and the Surrounds are 6' from the listening position, then you will set a Delay of 4' (48") to the Surrounds.

See Page 49 and 50 in the User's Manual.

This should be impossible for such a variance to occur if switching to a digital raw signal causes the same error.

Do you have another DVD player to send a signal to your receiver?

Have you tried a factory default on your DV-983H?

Agreed, this is strange... and I'm getting frustrated. I've gone through settings 10 times making sure all processing is off, setttings are correct, etc.

Is there a way to force factory defaults?

I gave my 970 to a cousin but will grab it back tomorrow for some testing.

Can I safely assume many others have run Avia tones on their 983's and all is right in their world?

I think most are using the HDMI output.

New to this Forum. . . looking to buy Oppo SD-DVD Player and need some advice. I have a Sony STR-DG1100 AV Receiver connected to Mitsubishi 73-inch Diamond DLP WD-73831 with 2 HDMI inputs. The AV Receiver has the Faroudja Chip and has the up-conversion / processing ability. I'm not keen on spending $399 for the new 983H. Would connecting the Oppo DV-980H to the AVR be a reasonable set-up? What would be the drawbacks? Still get the 983H?

Thanks.
I know this is not as technically detailed a question as what's been discussed here to date, but anyone out there willing to put in their two cents worth on my original questions?

I've played 7 DVD's so far and they all played perfectly. I just popped in Mallrats and I'm getting audio dropouts every few minutes. I tried swapping HDMI cables and it has made no difference. This is set to 1080i HDMI out to a Pioneer 94TXH to a Panny 50" plasma.

I put the DVD in the Panny BD30 and it has zero dropouts so it's not the disc. I think we need a firmware update to fix this.

The player is just phenomenal. It provides a very natural film-like image with as little artifacting and as much detail as technically possible for DVD.

I totally agree. I popped in LOTR EE: ROTK and sat myself down 6-7' from my 52" set and, well, forgot all about PQ. There was nothing bothersome or truly distracting. I could enjoy the movie in a way I never have been able to at home, with some peripheral vision coverage, as close as I can get to a theatrical experience. Sounds good, looks good - what's not to love? :D

Pretty amazing a DVD can look so good. Not the ultimate in detail, but almost entirely free of macroblocking, moire, weird chroma effects, jaggies, any flicker whatsoever, and so forth. The player simply lets me forget how the picture got up there.

It also managed to play my ultimate torture test: the box set Team of the Century - a collection of all games of the 1972 hockey series between Canada and the USSR. Game 5, from Moscow - captured in Secam, transmitted by satellite, somewhere along the way converted to NTSC, broadcast OTA, and recorded as it went on the air for archiving. Heavily compressed to mpeg-2. This thing is atrociously ugly, has multiple bizarre cadences, and I swear every edit must be bad. Some players completely lose it on this, starting to randomly flicker frames out of order, or show serious deinterlacing problems. Macroblocking is a potential problem. After a few minutes I was ready to toss the 983 out the window since it couldn't make it look like a good blu-ray transfer! OK, jokes aside, it played it and probably brought it as close to the original experience with an OTA receiver watching the CBC broadcast as is technically feasible. That, by itself, earns it a big thumbs up technically. It has some seriously good artifact post processing/filtering, and locks onto cadences like Oprah going after the last cream puff. :D

See those big grins? They're genuine!

I've played 7 DVD's so far and they all played perfectly. I just popped in Mallrats and I'm getting audio dropouts every few minutes. I tried swapping HDMI cables and it has made no difference.

I put the DVD in the Panny BD30 and it has zero dropouts so it's not the disc. I think we need a firmware update to fix this.

If you 'rewind', do the dropouts always occur at the same time/scene?

Nope. And I took it out and put it back in. The dropouts get worse as the film goes on. A few every couple of seconds.

I've played 7 DVD's so far and they all played perfectly. I just popped in Mallrats and I'm getting audio dropouts every few minutes. I tried swapping HDMI cables and it has made no difference. This is set to 1080i HDMI out to a Pioneer 94TXH to a Panny 50" plasma.

I put the DVD in the Panny BD30 and it has zero dropouts so it's not the disc. I think we need a firmware update to fix this. Try bypassing the Pioneer 94TXH and connecting the 983 directly to the plasma. That will help isolate the problem to the player, or the receiver, or the specific combination you have. In today's world of HDMI and HDCP, it is not uncommon for equipment to refuse to play nicely together, but hang in there, if the player has a problem, OPPO will fix it.

Gary

New to this Forum. . . looking to buy Oppo SD-DVD Player and need some advice. I have a Sony STR-DG1100 AV Receiver connected to Mitsubishi 73-inch Diamond DLP WD-73831 with 2 HDMI inputs. The AV Receiver has the Faroudja Chip and has the up-conversion / processing ability. I'm not keen on spending $399 for the new 983H. Would connecting the Oppo DV-980H to the AVR be a reasonable set-up? What would be the drawbacks? Still get the 983H? The Faroudja chip is excellent at upconversion, but it may enhance MPEG compression macroblocking, particularly with your DLP display. The 980's upconversion is pretty impressive too, but may not look as good on your 73" display. The 983 solves both of those issues. Your choice!

Gary

Try bypassing the Pioneer 94TXH and connecting the 983 directly to the plasma. That will help isolate the problem to the player, or the receiver, or the specific combination you have. In today's world of HDMI and HDCP, it is not uncommon for equipment to refuse to play nicely together, but hang in there, if the player has a problem, OPPO will fix it.

Gary

Why would I do that? It is the Oppo player. I've played this disc in a few different players and this is the first to give me audio dropouts. I have confidence that Oppo will fix it. It's not an HDCP problem, HDCP issues blank out the display until it can resync.

I did the rewind thing that was suggested above and it gave me a few audio dropouts in the first minute afterward but nothing since.

When Divx/Xvid files are encoded without the black bars, their resolution may differ somewhat (i.e. 720 x 384 or 720 x 288). I think the Oppo is choking on these inputs. I'm glad you've had a good experience, but as far as Divx/Xvid files are concerned, it may not be possible for OPPO to cater to every possible odd resolution. Nevertheless, as Neuromancer said (and if you haven't already done this)... try various combinations of "Zoom" and "TV Display" settings. I have found that these work well in the majority of cases.

Gary

Why would I do that?

To see whether its the 983 having a problem with that disk or the 983 having a problem with that particular receiver. Which in turn will help Oppo to diagnose the issue.

Why would I do that? It is the Oppo player. I've played this disc in a few different players and this is the first to give me audio dropouts. I have confidence that Oppo will fix it. It's not an HDCP problem, HDCP issues blank out the display until it can resync.

I did the rewind thing that was suggested above and it gave me a few audio dropouts in the first minute afterward but nothing since. Are the audio drop-outs unique to the HDMI port, or do they occur on the analog/optical/coaxial ports too?

Gary

No idea. I dont want to use anything other than HDMI. Like I said above, I put the disc in my BD30 just to see if it was the disc and it played it perfectly.

From what I can tell it only happens when I initially put the disc in and play it straight through. If I rewind it, it will have dropouts in the first minute then (so far) play fine. The disc isn't ripped, it is the retail NTSC copy.

I'll try a few more discs this weekend and see how they work.

*edit* Still dropouts with Mallrats even after rewinding and letting the disc play. They just took 30 minutes to come back.

[sorry this is a brain dump of a few threads (if a bit incoherent) I have posted elsewhere at Canadian forum but thought I'd come to the AVS experts for input, advice, comments]



This Oppo DV-983H player's early reviews look really good as it has passed ALL of the Home Theatre HiFi Secrets benchmarks for video (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-dvd-player-product-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player---a-secrets-dvd-benchmark-review.html) and audio (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/dvd-player-and-cd-player-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player---the-rest-of-the-story.html). This is the only player to date that has passed all of the benchmarks with 100% passed.

This player looks sweet, but for $397 it comes with a bit of a hefty price tag. :( Considering I have quite a big SD-DVD library, I may have to look at this seriously considering it looks like my Panny RP-56 appears to have kicked the bucket (and not worth fixing. damn you electronic industry!) and most BluRay players upconversion isn't as good as it could be. $397 for a DVD player though? hefty.

The player features the Anchor Bay Technology chipsets for upconversion and it looks like it has HDMI, component video (upconversion only on HDMI), coax/optical, svideo/composite (who uses these now?), and support for just about every format out there except BluRay/HD-DVD including DVD-Audio, SACD, CD-ROM, DVD incarnations, DiVX, etc What else could you ask for beside BD (and HD) support?



I understand that the ABT is slightly below Reon and Realta processors, and above the Faroudja but nothing to sneeze at. (i.e. Realta (Denon/Marantz) -> Reon (some Samsungs, others use Sigma Design chipsets) -> ABT (Yamaha receivers, Oppo DV-983H) -> Faroudja (Oppo, some older Panasonic players) -> Unipher (Panasonic) -> everything else) but I haven't seen anything definitive about this.

Perhaps the ABT is above the REON in some implementations such as the Oppo? I understand that the Yamaha receivers have ABT chipsets as well so I guess you could send the component video at 480i from this player to the video processor in the receiver (or via HDMI at 480p?)

Is there a ranking of the Realta, REON, ABT, Unipher, etc chipsets out there and would feeding the signal to a receiver like the Yamaha with a ABT chipset produce as good of a picture (as it would be transmitted digitally on the DV-980H (or another upconverting player that sends 480i) or over component - short distance for the DV-983HD)




How does the PS3 upconversion compare to the Oppos, Panasonic DMP-BD30/50 and the Samsung BD-UP5000/BD-P1200, Toshiba A3/A30?XA2 (or Venturer SHD7000)?
I see that those two Samsung players have the REON chipset which is supposed to be one of the best but unfortunately the Samsung BD players are riddled with problems right now from a Blu point of view.
The Samsung BD-P1200 is something NOT to be picked up even with the REON processor since it is a BD1.0 player and has lots of disc compatibility issues.
The Samsung BD-P1400 (current top BD only player) doesn't have REON processor but rather SigmaDesigns and isn't as good and the BD-P1500 is rumoured to just be a BD1.1 version of the BD-P1400 with no REON processor, etc
The Samsung duo player (BD-UP5000) would be an alright player at the price point it is now in the last couple of weeks if it wasn't riddled with firmware issues (disc compatibility and HD audio codec support).
My research on the Panasonic DMP-BD30 indicates that the Panasonic Unipher processor is sub-average chipset for SD-DVD upconversion but is an excellent BD player and can bitstream all of the HD audio codecs. The DMP-BD50 just adds decoding off all of the HD audio codecs.
The PS3 seems to be a pretty good bang for the buck BD/SD player along with a game console (doesn't interest me) and I read something about the firmware upgrade bringing DVD upconversion up to be pretty good (close to a Toshiba XA2). I'm not too keen on a game console player and having to use a BlueTooth remote or one of the USB hacks for limited IR support with my Harmony.
Would I get just as good of a picture if I picked up a Toshiba A3/A30 (or the Venturer SHD7000 - a Toshiba A3 clone in disguise) at Walmart??? How would the Toshiba gear (A3, A30, XA2, etc) rank in these upconversion chip qualities?
I'm not really interested in Sony standalone players that are coming out that will be feature wise about the same as the Panasonic DMP-BD50 BD Live player. Never really been a fan of Sony home electronic gadgets such as their TVs, DVD, receivers - the game console/station might be different so I don't think I would jump at the Sony BD-Live (S550 I believe) players (to come after the Panasonic anyway - I suspect an agreement between the two to have Panasonic be the first BD Live player). I always found Sony products to be average and not spectacular for the brand name every one associates (they are famous for walkman and trinitron (someone-else's idea)), over priced (read: high margin compared to comparable competitors) and they have constantly changing standards (read: BluRay for example), come out with these proprietary format that don't get mass adoption (Memory Stick, PSP UMD, Beta, etc - hope BD isn't down that path) and dump technology too quickly




Well I would think that Oppo will include this DV-983H player in their BluRay player that they come out and then charge a bit of a premium for BluRay - perhaps $600US.

However, BluRay players are expected to drop in the next year so maybe by then their BluRay & Upconverting DVD player will be about the same price as this one that just came out.


I don't mind investing in a good SD-DVD upconverting player (e.g. Oppo DV-981HD or DV-983H) along with an excellent BluRay Disc Player (Panny DMP-BD50) but that would mean having to upgrade my receiver too. :D

For the interim I was going to use HDMI-DVI and Optical audio until I upgrade to say a Yamaha HTR6190B/RX-V1800 or Denon 988 receiver and then output from the receiver HDMI-DVI until I get a projector (and a a basement - moving this year! :))


What would be good is to have a combo BD/SD DVD upconverting player and wondering how these models mentioned compare for SD and if I should go with an interim solution and then buy the Oppo BD/SD player when it comes out



I'm wondering about reluctantly considering the PS3 as my interim BD/SD player based on this feedback since the XA2 is supposed to be one of the best upconverting SD-DVD players (along with HD-DVD which I don't need). I haven't seen an XA2 anywhere, and I am still dumbfounded as to why Toshiba.CA (http://www.toshiba.ca/web/products.grp?lg=en&section=2&group=505&category=) still has this player listed at $799. I'm sure it must be way cheaper elsewhere but haven't seen it at any local B&M stores.


If the SD upconversion on the PS3 is comparable to an XA2 which I've heard good things about in reviews and these forums... along with it being one of the best BD players out there then I guess I'm going to have to heavily consider it - for the interim at least.

My SD-DVD Panny RP-56 is dying and I need a player (SD/BD) and don't want to buy just a SD player if I can (but if I do it will be the Oppo).

The Panasonic DMP-BD30 upconversion is sup-par from what I understand, and the DMP-BD50 (same Panasonic Unipher chip as well) may take a while to come to Canada.


While the Oppo DV-981H or Oppo DV-983HD is mighty nice it is a bit expensive right now and will likely come down in price (is there a track record of Oppo dropping the Minimum Suggested Retail Price (not Manufacturers SRP)???)


Perhaps Oppo's BD player will be out by years end or this time next year and will be a super-duper BD/SD player with the features of the DV-983HD with BD playback as well.... and I'll will be first in line for this.

I may still order the DV-983HD by the end of the month... still debating and researching.



While I didn't have a problem with playing back some of my SD-DVDs and the BluRays that I played (which were older releases) on the Samsung BD-UP5000 that I had in mid January to early February... the lack of communication from Samsung as to what they were doing with respect to firmware upgrades about disc compatibility issues (Sunshine, 3:10 to Yuma, etc), lack of promised HD audio codec support, etc left a sour taste in my mouth.

I had picked up the Samsung BD-P1400 openbox (resealed) but ended up taking it back (left resealed) after reading more and more about Samsung firmware issues with the BD-P1200, BD-P1400 and of course the BD-UP5000 and then the impending cancellation of the BD-UP5500, BD-P2400, etc I just decided to shelve the BD player thing for a while.




I've had no problems with my Panasonic DVD player up to now, but the player is now 5-6+ years old now and it doesn't really owe me anything. It served its purpose and now it's time to upgrade. :)



Well if what people are saying, the PS3 upconversion is comparable to the XA2 it may push me over the edge if I wasn't there already. :D

The whole game-console as a BD player and lack of built in IR remote support is the main thing holding me back. I can live with it not being power controllable - just leave it on all the time or flip on when I watch stuff (just have to put it up higher/more accessible).

I'll have to investigate this Nyko BlueWave USB dongle/remote (at TheSource in Canada) or this $7 USB C2-Tech infra-remote people are picking up at Real Canadian Superstore (grocery store - aka Loblaws) and return the Sony PS3 BlueTooth remote to FutureShop ($40) and Walmart (then I saw it for $25 and bought since there was no advertisement to price match - just easier to return it)

I'll have to buy a new receiver for the advanced audio codecs anyway unless I hook up the analog audio to my existing receiver but only get 5.1




Decisions, decisions, decisions.


Input? Comments? Thoughts?

Why is ABT considered below Reon, apparently this player aced all possible tests so wouldn't that make the ABT the best? Also, why is $397 alot of money for a player that performs perfectly, it is actually is pretty cheap considering that the Arcam DV139 cost $3,000 and has the same or similar ABT chip.

I just don't get anyone who complains about the price, Oppo's thing was that there DVD players could always pass more tests than a player that costs more money, now you get a player that takes it up a notch and you don't want to pay for it. The thing is that I think people just think it is expensive compared to previous Oppos but it is cheap in comparison to others, I mean people are still willing to pay several hundred dollars for a stinkin' XA2 which is very unrefined compared to the Oppo and doesn't score as well.

I don't get it either. The ABT is the best their is. Look at how much the competing players are. The Denon and Arcam are both over 1K. The only thing close is the other Oppo players and the discontinued Toshiba XA2.

Can I safely assume many others have run Avia tones on their 983's and all is right in their world? Yes, I've just tested the Avia tones again. All channels are pefectly balanced through the analog and optical/coax connections. I used a C-weighted sound intensity level meter.

Is the SPDIF output set to "Raw". Have you checked the "Channel Trim" settings?

Gary

Well I was thinking that the Oppo was a Kevin Smith hater but it has played Dogma and Clerks just fine. It's only Mallrats that I've had a problem.

The prices of new players never come down.


What about the existing players like the DV-981H or DV-980HD? :)

What about the existing players like the DV-981H or DV-980HD? :) Their prices have never come down.

Gary

Good news from Oppo (working on Saturday!) The bug has been identified and they are going to develop some test firmware. When that is shown to work, the fix will appear in a firmware update.

Until then, the workaround is easy. Use WIDE instead of WIDE/AUTO if you encounter a 16:9 title that is being pillarboxed. The Info button will show these titles as 4:3 instead of 16:9.

-Bill

Bill,

I ran across the opposite tonight. I had selected Wide/Auto and started to play a PAL Region 2 4:3 DVD on my 16:9 NTSC TV. The OPPO 983 wanted to stretch the video. I was able to fix it by selecting 4:3 Letterbox, then reselecting Wide/Auto. But, when I paused the DVD at one point, it reverted to stretch again. Reselecting Wide/Auto fixed it and the video played 4:3 Pillarboxed for the remainder of the movie.

Do you suppose that OPPO already knows this or should I send them an email?

Dana

I'm glad you've had a good experience, but as far as Divx/Xvid files are concerned, it may not be possible for OPPO to cater to every possible odd resolution. Nevertheless, as Neuromancer said (and if you haven't already done this)... try various combinations of "Zoom" and "TV Display" settings. I have found that these work well in the majority of cases.

Gary
I have tried all combinations of TV type settings as well as all of the zoom modes available on the 983... none of them help. I believe the problem has more to do with the missing zoom option. With DVD/VOB playback, there is a "stretch" option available. When playing Xvid/Divx files, there is no "stretch" option, but the "1:1" option appears to operate like the "stretch" mode does (i.e. the video is vertically stretched).

The resolution of these files conform to the standard aspect ratios (1.85:1, 2.35:1, etc), the only difference between one of these files and the a DVD video or Vob file is that the frame resolution includes the black bars to fill out the 480 lines of resolution on a DVD.

I hope this can be fixed... like I said, other DVD players that play Divx/Xvid files can handle my files correctly, even sub-$100 players. With the playback quality offered by the 983, I would love to play my files on it instead of my HTPC... the 983 is also much easier for the wife to use as well.

I have tried all combinations of TV type settings as well as all of the zoom modes available on the 983... none of them help. I believe the problem has more to do with the missing zoom option. With DVD/VOB playback, there is a "stretch" option available. When playing Xvid/Divx files, there is no "stretch" option, but the "1:1" option appears to operate like the "stretch" mode does (i.e. the video is vertically stretched).

The resolution of these files conform to the standard aspect ratios (1.85:1, 2.35:1, etc), the only difference between one of these files and the a DVD video or Vob file is that the frame resolution includes the black bars to fill out the 480 lines of resolution on a DVD.

I hope this can be fixed... like I said, other DVD players that play Divx/Xvid files can handle my files correctly, even sub-$100 players. With the playback quality offered by the 983, I would love to play my files on it instead of my HTPC... the 983 is also much easier for the wife to use as well. Send a clear statement of the problem to OPPO with this detail. They may be able to help.

Gary

Yes, Neur- we discussed this issue years ago with the 970 & I am familiar with this set up concept. However, unless I am missing the wording here, on pages 49 &50. The manual talks about distance, but not clearly about subtracting the Center speaker distance from the distance of the other surround speakers. To get the correction adjustment configuration correct. It may confuse non-readers of this thread.
So, my LCR speakers are 10’ from PLP.
SR is 8’ so set it 2’
SL left is 7’ so set 3’
SW is 17’ so set 10’


The Delay is designed to compensate for the difference between the Listener Position and the Front Left/Right speakers and the other speakers, where the other speakers are closer than the Front speakers. For instance, if your Front Left and Right speakers are 10' from the listening position, and the Surrounds are 6' from the listening position, then you will set a Delay of 4' (48") to the Surrounds.

See Page 49 and 50 in the User's Manual.

I finished this summary of my experience with the 980H, 981HD, and 983H the other day - perhaps it may be of some use to you.


Thanks I'll take a look!!!



You don't mention using DVD-Audio, and your old Panasonic doesn't support SACD,

I don't use either format as i was happy with CD and these never really caught on... just like BD 3.0 audio probably won't either.


so it would seem that an OPPO player would not necessarily need to use your existing receiver's multichannel analog inputs. As a result, a BD50 could provide you full support for BD (including TrueHD and DTS-HD MA) while still operating alongside an OPPO player. Why would you need to upgrade your receiver? At most, you might need an HDMI switch...


My receiver is a Denon AVR-1602... it decodes DD and DTS and I believe it has analog 5.1 input but if I want 7.1 I need to upgrade. It doesn't have component or HDMI switching... approx 6 years old I guess. Was a bang and dent at the time I believe. I'm not sure if that receiver can do base management and all that sort of stuff. Also, the new Yamahas (HTR-6190B or RX-V1800/RX-V3800) and Denons (988) support the room sound equalization with the microphone to give better balanced sound.



OPPO has historically not lowered their prices on their players. The 971H and 970HD both stayed at their original price for the duration of their production lives, and the 981HD and 980H have both stayed put so far. Also, the 983H offers a lot of hardware for the price - I doubt that they'll be dropping the price any time soon.


I'm beginning to see this... seems I under-estimated the value proposed for the player and may in fact order this one. I know these players have a good rep in the home theatre crowd (but few outside know about them since the players are not in retail chains). I guess if the price is $399 now, it is likely to be that price next year too then.



I'd love to see an OPPO Blu-ray player in 2008, but I don't actually expect it until at least this time next year.

Me too, but as you say may have to wait until next year for a BD/SD player.

I've seen very little variability in dealer pricing. Free shipping is about all you can get.

Yes the Canadian reseller SolutionsAV has free shipping on pre-orders of the DV-983HD and $2 for all Oppo players after that time period.

Refurbished players from Oppo are also a good deal; same 30-day return and 1-year warranty as new. The prices of new players never come down.


Good to know. yes, the common theme seems to be that Oppo doesn't lower the prices - I guess they need to recover their (very good) R&D somehow.

The ABT is above the REON and Realta. Faroudja is last. Their tech was good 5 years ago but is the bottom of the barrel now.

Good to know. I got the impression that the Realta was the top processor our there as the Denon players had it and then the ABT or REON processor would be at comparable levels.

Yes, my Panny RP-56 has the Faroudja DCDi chipset in it at the time and was highly regarded player at the time as it passed most of the benchmarks on the Secrets test but as you said that was 5 years ago and a lot has changed.


I see that the Yamaha HTR-6190B / RX-V1800/RX-V3800 series AV Receivers have the Anchor Bay Technology video processors in them as well so they must be pretty damn good.

The Denon 988 model (also a 1080p / DTS-HDMA/TruHD receiver) has the Faroudja DCDi chipset which you guys are saying isn't as good.

I guess that helps narrow down my receiver choices as I was leaning towards the Yamaha receivers. :)

I think those Yamaha Receivers use the ABT chip as scalers and not deinterlacers.

MSRP (Minimum Suggested Retail Price) is set. Some retailers have dropped the price slightly (SolutionsAV.ca and OnlyBestRated.com usually have the player listed 3 dollars below the MSRP) or have inflated the MSRP to make it look cheaper (see: Amazon.com), but OPPO themselves have never changed the MSRP of any of their DVD players, even ones which get discontinued and replaced. This is a very strict MSRP.

Yes I noticed that with SolutiosnsAV.ca is that their price is a couple bucks cheaper and their S&H is only $2 in the Toronto area (I believe Canada Post charges like $5-6 for the basic 2 day delivery) or free if you pre-order the DV-983H.

I wouldn't want to order this player from the US from Oppo or Amazaon.com (if I could - they won't ship I believe) since the S&H and possible duties would be outrageous.

Yes, others have indicated that the price stays the same even after they are discountinued/replaced - I guess this must be in order to recover the costs of their R&D since they don't have a big distribution chain. But as others have indicated you seem to get a lot of value for the money.

Why is ABT considered below Reon, apparently this player aced all possible tests so wouldn't that make the ABT the best?

I got the impression from reading all of the reviews, forums and seeing that the Denon players use the Realta chipset that it must be the best one out there and that the ABT would be at the same level as the REON.

My current DVD player (Panny RP-56) has the Faroudja chipset but as one poster indicated they are the bottom of the barrel now.

How would the Panasonic Unipher in the DMP-BD30/DMP-BD50 rank in this category or the Sony Playstation 3 software upconversion using the Cell Processor?

I've heard a lot of people talking about how great the Toshiba XA2 did DVD upconversion but I don't need a HD-DVD player and the Oppo would be much cheaper than the MSRP price I see.




Also, why is $397 alot of money for a player that performs perfectly, it is actually is pretty cheap considering that the Arcam DV139 cost $3,000 and has the same or similar ABT chip.


As I said, I was under the impression that the Realta/REON were better chips ever if the player performs better than all others (since it passed the "secrets" benchmark 100%). I guess people oversell the REON based processors in these forums. :rolleyes:

As I indicated in another post, the Yamaha AV Receivers available here in Canada have the Anchor Bay Technologies chipsets in them as well, meanwhile the Denon 988 model has the Faroudja DCDi chipset in it - so I guess the Yamaha is looking more and more like a good value proposition AV Receiver. :)

I guess I'm starting to see the value of this all in one box player so $397 doesn't seem that much for what you get - especially if you plan on using it with a projector (which i do eventually).

I guess the sticker shock is just the fact that it is a DVD player and not a BD player. I wonder how much their BD player will go for eventually.

I'm heavily considering this player now and may need to use in conjunction with the new Panasonic DMP-BD50 but will need to get a new AV Receiver to truly enjoy everything... video switching and 7.1 sound... and then it will be the projector like the Epson PowerLite ProCinema 1080UB or Panasonic PT-AE2000U ... it never ends. :D

I think those Yamaha Receivers use the ABT chip as scalers and not deinterlacers.

Correct. The Yamaha only has the scaler chip. The Oppo uses the same scaler plus adds the deinterlacer chip.

Correct. The Yamaha only has the scaler chip. The Oppo uses the same scaler plus adds the deinterlacer chip.

So this scaler would be good for other sources like TV and so forth to bring the picture from 480p (SD broadcasts) to 720p/1080i/1080p by just line doubling but it won't interpolate and put in extra information and take out noise, etc (if I'm understanding deinterlacing properly)?

So this scaler would be good for other sources like TV and so forth to bring the picture from 480p (SD broadcasts) to 720p/1080i/1080p by just line doubling but it won't interpolate and put in extra information and take out noise, etc (if I'm understanding deinterlacing properly)?
SD broadcasts are not in 480p - they are 480i. The reason that very few manufacturers use the ABT deinterlacer that the 983H has is cost.

Does anybody know if I can use the 983 to daisy chain IR signals? I think I remember reading that the OPPO HDMI switch works with the Xantech IR distribution system that I have. I am wondering if I can just take a 3.5mm pug from the distribution hub and plug it into the OPPO and also get IR blasters from the output connection to control other components.

Correct. The Yamaha only has the scaler chip. The Oppo uses the same scaler plus adds the deinterlacer chip.

The Yamaha uses the ABT1010. The Oppo 983 uses an ABT102 deinterlacer and ABT1018 scaler. The 1018 is more versatile than the 1010; the latter will only scale 480p/576p to 480-576-720-1080. It can't scale 720 to 1080 for instance - it's clearly designed to be a low-cost part for an upscaling DVD player and not a general-purpose VP. The spec also says the Yamaha RX-V3800 also only scales to 1080i, not sure if that's a limitation of their implementation or the ABT1010 chip itself (the spec seems to suggest it can output 1080p).

The 1018 supports 50/60Hz frame conversion, more color spaces, external PLL sync, etc. The 1010 is a 100pin package, the 1018 a 256 pin. Clearly the 1010 is a simpler budget oriented product, trimmed and simplified to keep cost and packaging/complexity (mfg cost) down.

SD broadcasts are not in 480p - they are 480i. The reason that very few manufacturers use the ABT deinterlacer that the 983H has is cost.

Digital cable? I thought it was 480p since they digitizing and then sending to your TV at either 480i, or upscaling to 480p/720p/1080i. I'm not talking OTA as that's not plentiful up here

The Yamaha uses the ABT1010. The Oppo 983 uses an ABT102 deinterlacer and ABT1018 scaler. The 1018 is more versatile than the 1010; the latter will only scale 480p/576p to 480-576-720-1080. It can't scale 720 to 1080 for instance - it's clearly designed to be a low-cost part for an upscaling DVD player and not a general-purpose VP.


So are you saying this picture (http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/hdmi_connectivity/upconversion_1080p.jsp) is wrong on the Yamaha website and that it isn't doing 480i/480p to 720p/1080i/1080p?

I wouldn't need it to do 720p to 1080i/1080p since I don't have any - it's either SD DVD (480i/480p or 1080i/1080p upconversion) or HD (TV - coming from cable box at either 420p or 1080i) or BD (@ 1080p)

I would be using this ABT in the Yamaha for SD broadcasts and other non DVD based SD material... like the gawd awful VCR (yes i still have one). :)

I've played 7 DVD's so far and they all played perfectly. I just popped in Mallrats and I'm getting audio dropouts every few minutes. I tried swapping HDMI cables and it has made no difference. This is set to 1080i HDMI out to a Pioneer 94TXH to a Panny 50" plasma.

This is something that could exist as a compatibility error. As a diagnostic lower your resolution to 720p and try playing back an audio source and see if the dropouts decrease. Also trying it at 1080p and see if the drop outs increase (you do not actually need to see any video, so a CD would work perfectly for testing this resolution)

I have heard reports of the Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi and Onkyo 805 having dropout errors at 1080p/60Hz (but not other resolutions or in PAL). I have not heard of this error with 1080i.

Also, as GSB recommended, try connecting the player direct to your display to ensure that the error does not occur through it as well.

Does anybody know if I can use the 983 to daisy chain IR signals? I think I remember reading that the OPPO HDMI switch works with the Xantech IR distribution system that I have. I am wondering if I can just take a 3.5mm pug from the distribution hub and plug it into the OPPO and also get IR blasters from the output connection to control other components.

I remember that the IR input on the OPPO HDMI switch requires a 3-pin to 2-pin adapter wire in order to work with an IR distribution block. You may want to check with OPPO about this.

Yes, Neur- we discussed this issue years ago with the 970 & I am familiar with this set up concept. However, unless I am missing the wording here, on pages 49 &50. The manual talks about distance, but not clearly about subtracting the Center speaker distance from the distance of the other surround speakers. To get the correction adjustment configuration correct. It may confuse non-readers of this thread.
So, my LCR speakers are 10’ from PLP.
SR is 8’ so set it 2’
SL left is 7’ so set 3’
SW is 17’ so set 10’

Starting with 980H, Oppo changed the speaker distance setup. 971, 970 and 981 use the difference from front L/R speakers. 980 and 983 use the actual distance of each speaker.

I have not touched the Speaker Distances on the DV-980H or the DV-983H, so if they differ from the previous models, then sorry for the confusion. I just leave them at "0" and let my receiver do all the channel calculations for me.

So is this the best upconverter player for standard dvds? I'm looking for a good player for my 42 inch 720p Sammy plasma. I was actually waiting for the price of a Toshiba X-A2 to go down.

Also I live near Mountain View. You think I can just call and pick it up?

I remember that the IR input on the OPPO HDMI switch requires a 3-pin to 2-pin adapter wire in order to work with an IR distribution block. You may want to check with OPPO about this.
Thanks Jeffhdz. In the HDMI switch FAQ OPPO specifically mentions people having success with Xantech systems, but it sounds like the smart thing to do is call OPPO support before trying anything.

Bill,

I ran across the opposite tonight. I had selected Wide/Auto and started to play a PAL Region 2 4:3 DVD on my 16:9 NTSC TV. The OPPO 983 wanted to stretch the video. I was able to fix it by selecting 4:3 Letterbox, then reselecting Wide/Auto. But, when I paused the DVD at one point, it reverted to stretch again. Reselecting Wide/Auto fixed it and the video played 4:3 Pillarboxed for the remainder of the movie.

Do you suppose that OPPO already knows this or should I send them an email?

Dana

I think you should email them. It may be the same bug, but I don't remember seeing it.

-Bill

Digital cable? I thought it was 480p since they digitizing and then sending to your TV at either 480i, or upscaling to 480p/720p/1080i. I'm not talking OTA as that's not plentiful up here
Technically, it is still 480i coming to the cable box for SD channels and either 720p or 1080i for HD channels. You are likely seeing 480p for SD channels because you have it set up that way - in fact, many boxes require you to set it up that way with HDMI because they can't do a true pass-through via HDMI. They deinterlace internally (something that none of the ones I've seen are terribly good at) for SD stations and scale all HD content to a single resolution. With component, they usually offer a true pass-through mode that will output 480i from SD channels and whatever resolution (720p or 1080i) each HD broadcast comes in at.
So are you saying this picture (http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/hdmi_connectivity/upconversion_1080p.jsp) is wrong on the Yamaha website and that it isn't doing 480i/480p to 720p/1080i/1080p?
No, the picture there matches what YellowLight is saying: the scaling will accept a 480 input and output higher resolutions, but it won't accept something higher (like 720p via component) and output a different resolution (like 1080i or 1080p).

So is this the best upconverter player for standard dvds? I'm looking for a good player for my 42 inch 720p Sammy plasma. I was actually waiting for the price of a Toshiba X-A2 to go down.

Also I live near Mountain View. You think I can just call and pick it up?

The 983 is the best. You may do slightly better by buying a more expensive player and having it modified, but that would more than likely cost at least $2000. The XA2 provides a pretty good pic with SD, but the 983 is better. It will be hard to see the difference on your TV, compared to the difference on a large pj screen, but there are differences. XA2s are becoming more rare and IMO, will not be coming down in price.
If you decide to give the 983 a go, then yes, you can pick up the player at the Moutain View office and save on shipping.

How do you know they do not have any replacement units? Did you ask them, or are you making the assumption based off of them being out of stock on their website?



If you lower the resolution of the DV-983H do the video dropouts disappear? If yes, then I bet you dollar to donuts that your cables are at fault, or you are going through a switch or receiving device which is causing the dropout errors.

Ok watched an entire movie at 480P with no dropouts. Watched again at 1080P and dropouts return on all 3 of my hdmi cables. Cables are hooked directly from the 983 to my Sony sxrd so it must be a cable problem but it seems odd that none of the cables work. What to do now? Buy an expensive HDMI 1.3 rated cable?:confused:

Ok watched an entire movie at 480P with no dropouts. Watched again at 1080P and dropouts return on all 3 of my hdmi cables. Cables are hooked directly from the 983 to my Sony sxrd so it must be a cable problem but it seems odd that none of the cables work. What to do now? Buy an expensive HDMI 1.3 rated cable?:confused:

1.3 rated cable isnt expensive... monoprice.com. How long is your cable? I dont think you have enough evidence to declare it a cable problem... You might try 720p or 1080i which drop the 'demands' on the cable and see what happens.

I sent an e-mail to them the same time I made my 1st post here... I heard back from them today and they want me to send sample files to them for testing...

Knowing Oppo, I am sure they will do their best to address this issue. I know Xvid playback is an afterthought in many DVD players, but after seeing the 983 in action, I want to play as much of my media as possible on it...

BTW... another cool thing I noticed with USB playback... you can connect a hub and attach multiple drives to the unit.. pretty cool! Now if we can only get NTFS support!

I ordered a hdmi 1.3 category 2 certified cable from monoprice. If that doesn't fix the 1080P video dropouts the 983 will be returned.

I'm sure this question has been asked somewhere in this thread. I have a 46" Samsung LCD 1080p TV and am interested in the Oppo upscaling DVDs. Can anyone tell me if the 983 will be noticeably better than the 981 for my application? Also does anyone have any recent information about when the 983s will begin shipping again?

I have now played seven 4:3 PAL Region 2 DVDs, all of which displayed properly with black pillar side borders on my OPPO 981 consistent with the Wide/Auto setting. None have played properly at outset with the OPPO 983 meaning they all have initially displayed in 16:9 format with the Wide/Auto setting. However, when I press the INFO button on the 983 remote with the disc playing, the 983 immediately switches to 4:3 format and retains that position for the remainder of the DVD.

The OPPO 983 is set up identically to the 981 for playing PAL movies. Video 2 with the TV type set to NTSC and the TV Display set to 16:9 Wide/Auto.

I have advised OPPO of the issue along with an offer to send all seven titles to them if it would be helpful in their review and development of corrective firmware. Since the OPPO 981 played these same PAL Region 2 4:3 DVDs correctly at the outset, obviously OPPO knows how to make the 983 do so, too. I offered to test any firmware they come up with if that would be constructive.

This is a minor issue IMHO, since there is a simple one button fix now available. (Press the INFO button on the remote.) I'm sure OPPO will fix this problem in due course.

Dana

PS. I should add for clarity that the 983 has played 4:3 NTSC Region 1 DVDs with side pillar bars, consistent with the Wide/Auto setting.

I'm sure this question has been asked somewhere in this thread. I have a 46" Samsung LCD 1080p TV and am interested in the Oppo upscaling DVDs. Can anyone tell me if the 983 will be noticeably better than the 981 for my application? Also does anyone have any recent information about when the 983s will begin shipping again?

You won't get any macroblocking with the 983, so yes, it will be an improvement.

The XA2 provides a pretty good pic with SD, but the 983 is better. XA2s are becoming more rare and IMO, will not be coming down in price.
.

Plus, the XA2 is one seriously slow machine in all respects. Anyone used to responsive and quick players will be driven up a wall by this.

The 983 is the best. You may do slightly better by buying a more expensive player and having it modified, but that would more than likely cost at least $2000. The XA2 provides a pretty good pic with SD, but the 983 is better. It will be hard to see the difference on your TV, compared to the difference on a large pj screen, but there are differences. XA2s are becoming more rare and IMO, will not be coming down in price.
If you decide to give the 983 a go, then yes, you can pick up the player at the Moutain View office and save on shipping.

Thanks Smarty. I'm planning to eventually get a 60 inch tv. Maybe those new lazer tv's that are coming out soon and I'll be using this Oppo player for my dvd viewing. I own lots of standard dvds and I'm not ready for bluray. Thanks a bunch.

I wouldn't need it to do 720p to 1080i/1080p since I don't have any - it's either SD DVD (480i/480p or 1080i/1080p upconversion) or HD (TV - coming from cable box at either 420p or 1080i) or BD (@ 1080p)

You can probably set the box to output the native broadcast. That will give you 480i/480p, 720p, or 1080i out. If you have a good external VP it will do a better job deinterlacing and upscaling than what's inside the box. This won't work with an ABT1010 equipped AVR. (Edit: or rather, it will probably pass through 720/1080i unconverted.)

Hello to all. I'm new to the forum though not new to the fascination with high end audio and video. I have a Sony STR-DA5300ES receiver (which comes with a built in Faroudja chip), and a 40 inch Sony Bravia XBR5 HDTV. What I'm wondering is whether the 983 with ABT circuitry will offer me any substantial visible improvement on the upconversion that I'm currently experiencing by running my non-upconverting Panasonic progressive scan DVD player through my receiver. I should also point out that I have several AIX DVD's that I would love to experience in DVD-Audio format, plus I have a handful of other DVD-Audio and SACD discs in mind that I would likely invest in as well if I had an Oppo player. I almost pulled the trigger on purchasing a Pioneer Elite DV-58AV but decided against it when I took in consideration (1)the Pioneer's use of the Mediatek chip vs. the 983's ABT chips and implementation, (2)the dearth of thorough reviews of the Pioneer here on this forum and elsewhere, and (3)the price of the Oppo being comparable to or possibly lower than what the Pioneer would sell for on the street. While many folks have pointed out the high price of the 983 as an upconverting DVD player, I think the inclusion of DVD-Audio, SACD and HDCD compatibility definitely tips the equation in the 983's favor. Also, while a dollar is a dollar, the added cost of the 983 over other upconverting DVD players seems not to loom as large to me when I factor how much has been spent already on a high def TV, high end receiver, speakers, cabinetry, installation, etc.


The last point I'd like to throw in is that I have a DVD loving 10 year old at home, and the notion of having a seemingly less sturdy Oppo 980 or 981 tray in my living room is a bit scary to me. I understand that the 983 tray is a much more rugged design. Thanks in advance for your opinions.

- Esau

P.S.

- I also thought about the upcoming Gefen Scaler Pro, reportedly due out in july, which would allow me to run all of my video(TV, SD DVD, digital home videos) through the Realta chip. Of course, there's no word yet as to how well the Gefen will perform, plus it doesn't do the other music formats like DVD-Audio, etc. I suspect that someday there will be a BR player with the best available upconversion circuitry and for sale at a reasonable price. Until that day comes...

I have a Sony STR-DA5300ES receiver (which comes with a built in Faroudja chip), and a 40 inch Sony Bravia XBR5 HDTV. What I'm wondering is whether the 983 with ABT circuitry will offer me any substantial visible improvement on the upconversion that I'm currently experiencing by running my non-upconverting Panasonic progressive scan DVD player through my receiver. No contest! If the Panasonic is outputting 480p, it is also doing the de-interlacing. The 983 will beat it hands down. The Faroudja chip does a good job with the de-interlacing, but you need to feed it with HDMI 480i for best results. Very few players do that. Also, a lot depends upon the implementation of the Faroudja chip, and I have no idea how well the Sony STR-DA5300ES receiver implements it. Another drawback of the Faroudja chip is the macroblock-enhance.

Incidentally, if you go for the Gefen scaler, you will also need to feed it with HDMI 480i for the Realta chip to do its de-interlacing magic.
...I have a DVD loving 10 year old at home, and the notion of having a seemingly less sturdy Oppo 980 or 981 tray in my living room is a bit scary to me. I understand that the 983 tray is a much more rugged design. It depends what you call "rugged"! The loading tray on the 970/971/980/981 is certainly not "less sturdy" by any means. My 3-yr old decided it was time for a smackdown when he saw the tray eject on my 971... He hit it so hard that the tray smashed into the deck below it. The tray flexed effortlessly and sent the DVD soaring into the air. No damage was done to the tray or its rails. I'd be more worried about a ridgid tray, and what might happen to the player, tray, or rails in such an event. Nevertheless, the 983's tray seems pretty tough too.

Gary

The Yamaha uses the ABT1010. The Oppo 983 uses an ABT102 deinterlacer and ABT1018 scaler. The 1018 is more versatile than the 1010; the latter will only scale 480p/576p to 480-576-720-1080. It can't scale 720 to 1080 for instance - it's clearly designed to be a low-cost part for an upscaling DVD player and not a general-purpose VP. The spec also says the Yamaha RX-V3800 also only scales to 1080i, not sure if that's a limitation of their implementation or the ABT1010 chip itself (the spec seems to suggest it can output 1080p).




Does anyone know which chips Pioneer uses in their plasma televisions? Do they compare to the 983?

Does anyone know which chips Pioneer uses in their plasma televisions? Do they compare to the 983?
I believe that Pioneer has some proprietary solution. In my comparisons the 983 @1080p clearly beat my Pioneer 6010 1080p set being feed 480i from an OPPO 980.

Plus, the XA2 is one seriously slow machine in all respects. Anyone used to responsive and quick players will be driven up a wall by this.
My Panny S77 player is not as bad as DVD/BD players, but it has a sluggish response to remote-control commands.
Could somebody please comment on responsiveness of Oppo DVD players?
Thanks!

My Panny S77 player is not as bad as DVD/BD players, but it has a sluggish response to remote-control commands.
Could somebody please comment on responsiveness of Oppo DVD players?
Thanks!

None of the Oppo players are sluggish in that regard. Very good response times.

My Panny S77 player is not as bad as DVD/BD players, but it has a sluggish response to remote-control commands.
Could somebody please comment on responsiveness of Oppo DVD players?
Thanks!The execution time of various remote-control commands using a Oppo 983H is quite fast. Same for the Oppo 980H I also have. System start up time for Oppo's is also a lot faster then most players.

I believe that Pioneer has some proprietary solution. In my comparisons the 983 @1080p clearly beat my Pioneer 6010 1080p set being feed 480i from an OPPO 980.

Thanks; I have the Pioneer 6070. What do you think about using the 983 with a 768p set? Will it be worth it?

Looks like the remote control is not backlit.
Am I right?
If not, it is unfortunate.

Looks like the remote control is not backlit.
Am I right?
If not, it is unfortunate.

You are correct. I thought that they should have upgraded the remote as well. I think most use a universal remote now anyway, especially most of Oppo's customers.
Things that I can't live without...
pizza, sex, Monoprice, Oppo, my Harmony remotes, my family, cheesebugers... :D
Oh yah, movies and HD :D.

My Denon 3803 doesn't handle Mch- it by passes to Ext.-in.
So, I'm thinking that i need to Cal> both delay&trim in the player for Mch and then use the AVR delay & trim setting for Cable and DVD coaxial.
Which I've done, this player really does create a beautiful PQ & SQ stage...
* however, the orginal Q? was why can't i sent the SW distance correctly. It only lets me set the distance = to the Front speakers. FL-C-FR are 10' the sub 17'


I have not touched the Speaker Distances on the DV-980H or the DV-983H, so if they differ from the previous models, then sorry for the confusion. I just leave them at "0" and let my receiver do all the channel calculations for me.

You are correct. I thought that they should have upgraded the remote as well. I think most use a universal remote now anyway, especially most of Oppo's customers.

Their manufacturing just can't do a new remote control design. When I had talked about a new remote they said it would have been too costly to implement a change in the remote (you would have to retool their production) and there were no OEM remotes which had enough functionality as the current OPPO remote.

Nice tread and Oppo seems to be a great player for regular upscaling DVD to 1080p, but how about to use it also a some kind of media player.

Did anyone try this out or is it just stupid?

Did anyone try out to play DVD's through the USB port?

How is the navigation if you for instance have an external USB Hard Drive?

Does DV-983H also upscale Divx files and does it do that better than other players?

Let me just say I made a big setting mistake, didn't realize it for 1 day and still loved the PQ. Watched an entire movie and excerpts of 5thElement (SB) with the player in 480p mode! Even at that I thought it was worth the money (although just barely). BTW This is with a Sony 52" XBR4 1080p LCD TV.

That night (resting in bed), it hit me like a ton of bricks.... next morning.... 5th Elemtn (SB) with player in 1080p.... OH my GOD. Scaling DOES make a difference, forget those nay sayers because with the ABT scaler, it does some seriously good work with the 480p (from it's brother ABT de-interlacer)!

That was it. The Wow factor that I wanted. I'm still tossing various sences at the player for fun. But I got myself "caught" with Finding Nemo. Damn movie... picked an early sence and well had to watch it all the way through. NOT for the story, but to stare and enjoy the picture. I felt like I was seeing it for the first time again, marveling at the detailed sometime realistic (the night to day Sydney skyline/bay and boats) scenes. Didn't notice a layerchange on Nemo.

I had 2 spots on Diehard 4 go wierd but 100% due to buying used rental disks (can see some scratches). Other than that it was totally engrossing movie watching experience, even with the fact you can tell it wasn't up to 5th Element SB transfer PQ and did have those scratches/PQ issues.

Can anyone verify that the opening credits sence on "Sound of Music" where the camera work flys into Maria spining on the hill top has studder looks like camera bounce likely. (I'm thinking it's in the footage, due to old camera work/limitations)

Shrek2 looked unbelieveble but only watched a few sences (didnt' have time to be sucked in).

Unfortunately the new JL:New Frontier was a casualtiy of being watched in 480p the first night. Although it too was good enough to make me not want to return the player.

I hope to be watching more DVDs in the upcoming months... Tons of movies to catchup with now that my DVD watching ban / fast (till getting 983) is over.

BTW This players PQ definately passes the WAF which was a tough one due to months of hearing about this and the fact she's more picky with PQ than I am.

PS - It's not just the PQ aspect either. DTS (using Digital coax) for movies out with THX or just DTS EX audio tracks are noticably more detailed than pervious (with very familiar sences). Am I nuts or is this real? BTW SACD via multichannel analog outputs is pretty sweet too.

Let me just say I made a big setting mistake, didn't realize it for 1 day and still loved the PQ. Watched an entire movie and excerpts of 5thElement (SB) with the player in 480p mode! Even at that I thought it was worth the money (although just barely). BTW This is with a Sony 52" XBR4 1080p LCD TV.

That night (resting in bed), it hit me like a ton of bricks.... next morning.... 5th Elemtn (SB) with player in 1080p.... OH my GOD. Scaling DOES make a difference, forget those nay sayers because with the ABT scaler, it does some seriously good work with the 480p (from it's brother ABT de-interlacer)!

That was it. The Wow factor that I wanted. I'm still tossing various sences at the player for fun. But I got myself "caught" with Finding Nemo. Damn movie... picked an early sence and well had to watch it all the way through. NOT for the story, but to stare and enjoy the picture. I felt like I was seeing it for the first time again, marveling at the detailed sometime realistic (the night to day Sydney skyline/bay and boats) scenes. Didn't notice a layerchange on Nemo.

I had 2 spots on Diehard 4 go wierd but 100% due to buying used rental disks (can see some scratches). Other than that it was totally engrossing movie watching experience, even with the fact you can tell it wasn't up to 5th Element SB transfer PQ and did have those scratches/PQ issues.

Can anyone verify that the opening credits sence on "Sound of Music" where the camera work flys into Maria spining on the hill top has studder looks like camera bounce likely. (I'm thinking it's in the footage, due to old camera work/limitations)

Shrek2 looked unbelieveble but only watched a few sences (didnt' have time to be sucked in).

Unfortunately the new JL:New Frontier was a casualtiy of being watched in 480p the first night. Although it too was good enough to make me not want to return the player.

I hope to be watching more DVDs in the upcoming months... Tons of movies to catchup with now that my DVD watching ban / fast (till getting 983) is over.

BTW This players PQ definately passes the WAF which was a tough one due to months of hearing about this and the fact she's more picky with PQ than I am.

PS - It's not just the PQ aspect either. DTS (using Digital coax) for movies out with THX or just DTS EX audio tracks are noticably more detailed than pervious (with very familiar sences). Am I nuts or is this real? BTW SACD via multichannel analog outputs is pretty sweet too.

So are you saying that you like the 983?... :D;)

You are correct. I thought that they should have upgraded the remote as well. I think most use a universal remote now anyway, especially most of Oppo's customers.
Things that I can't live without...
pizza, sex, Monoprice, Oppo, my Harmony remotes, my family, cheesebugers... :D
Oh yah, movies and HD :D.

Have you requested this of Oppo yet? If not, it would seem something they can work on, after the fact. On the other hand, if many people use a Harmony or other "universal" remote, that would mitigate things, and make an upgrade offering an expensive, and not terribly lucrative, proposition for Oppo.:rolleyes:

Have you requested this of Oppo yet? If not, it would seem something they can work on, after the fact. On the other hand, if many people use a Harmony or other "universal" remote, that would mitigate things, and make an upgrade offering an expensive, and not terribly lucrative, proposition for Oppo.:rolleyes:

see post #455

I have now played seven 4:3 PAL Region 2 DVDs, all of which displayed properly with black pillar side borders on my OPPO 981 consistent with the Wide/Auto setting. None have played properly at outset with the OPPO 983 meaning they all have initially displayed in 16:9 format with the Wide/Auto setting. However, when I press the INFO button on the 983 remote with the disc playing, the 983 immediately switches to 4:3 format and retains that position for the remainder of the DVD.

The OPPO 983 is set up identically to the 981 for playing PAL movies. Video 2 with the TV type set to NTSC and the TV Display set to 16:9 Wide/Auto.

I have advised OPPO of the issue along with an offer to send all seven titles to them if it would be helpful in their review and development of corrective firmware. Since the OPPO 981 played these same PAL Region 2 4:3 DVDs correctly at the outset, obviously OPPO knows how to make the 983 do so, too. I offered to test any firmware they come up with if that would be constructive.

This is a minor issue IMHO, since there is a simple one button fix now available. (Press the INFO button on the remote.) I'm sure OPPO will fix this problem in due course.

Dana

PS. I should add for clarity that the 983 has played 4:3 NTSC Region 1 DVDs with side pillar bars, consistent with the Wide/Auto setting.

Thanks for the tip on using the info button. I've had, as have others, issues with 16:9 Wide/Auto using all NTSC widescreen discs being displayed initially as a subset of the screen image (16:9 format but pillarboxed side and top black bars). If I use the HDMI button to move to any other aspect the image correctly displays. And finally arriving at 1080p, the image is now correctly set to my full 16:9 screen size (no pillarboxing). Also, if I don't shut down the Oppo, I can swap discs and not "fall back" to the original problem, as it were, to an incorrect screen display size.

So, I guess it all must have something to do with initial internal settings, since it doesn't appear as though the unit is properly reading the disc for flags, or whatever it does to establish correct settings/options. :rolleyes:

Update: just checked Casablanca and Double Indemnity. Both are handled correctly under 16:9 Wide/Auto, properly pillarboxing for my screen.

I tried a widescreen Divx file (on USB stick but shouldn't matter) and it squeezed the image horizontally (added left/right pillar black bars) with the "16:9 Wide/Auto" setting. I didn't know about using the Info button or such so I went into setup and changed to 16:9 Wide (no auto) and it displayed fine.

The remote ARC setting is kind of funny. Tried a preset Toshiba on my receivers remote (used as universal) and the power command was eject.... my universal didn't have other presets taht worked so I just learned all the stuff I needed. Guess I can go back and turn ARC setting to off now.

Did anyone try this out or is it just stupid?
Does DV-983H also upscale Divx files and does it do that better than other players?
If you just want to playback DivX and XviD media over USB, then the DV-980H is a better solution. I could not see any difference in performance of highly compressed media (DivX/XviD) between the DV-980H and the DV-983H.

How is the navigation if you for instance have an external USB Hard Drive?

Like the previous players you are shown a navigation window with 8 files listed on the left hand side. 700 files/objects can be contained on an external device.

The remote ARC setting is kind of funny. Tried a preset Toshiba on my receivers remote (used as universal) and the power command was eject.... my universal didn't have other presets taht worked so I just learned all the stuff I needed. Guess I can go back and turn ARC setting to off now.

I used the Toshiba "1525" remote command with my Pioneer Elite receiver and Integra 9.8.

I tried a widescreen Divx file (on USB stick but shouldn't matter) and it squeezed the image horizontally (added left/right pillar black bars) with the "16:9 Wide/Auto" setting. I didn't know about using the Info button or such so I went into setup and changed to 16:9 Wide (no auto) and it displayed fine.


What was the resolution of the file you tried to play? I am having a similar issue with Widescreen Divx files except that my files are being stretched vertically to a 4:3 ratio... changing the TV Type settings didn't seem to help. My experience:

1.85:1 (720X384) plays OK on "Full screen" setting.
2.35:1 (720x304) plays vertically stretched under 1:1 zoom mode. In fact, the "Stretch" zoom option is not available as with 2.35:1 DVDs...

I opened and issue with Oppo and I am sending them some sample files so hopefully this can be fixed somehow...

Thanks for the remote command info. I have a PioElite 45tx and the remote (which I truly love; they should model universals from this remote!) has a database of presets. I tried all the brands listed in the Oppo manual. The only one that affected the 983 was the Toshiba and is did eject for the power button.

Not a biggy just did the old learning mode and got it all setup. Thanks again though.

BTW I couldn't decide on a button on my elite remote to make the "off" button so I didn't get to learn/map that and do the cool thing of adding Oppo983 Off command to the "Off" button command list. Ahh well I know when it's on or off anyways.

I just received my OPPO 983 and was able to do some quick comparisons with some other players on my Pioneer 6010 Kuro plasma. I did not spend any time on the standard benchmark tests as many others better than me have already proven the 983 to be near perfect with that material. My focus was on my personal benchmark -- Star Wars II. If you prefer analytical, scientific tests you might want to skip this quick review entirely. I'm just not a torture test kinda guy.

The short summary is that the OPPO just blew me away. I thought I was already close to perfection with my current set-up and figured it would be easy to return the 983 after proving it wasn't a big enough improvement. Was I ever wrong. The player is just phenomenal. It provides a very natural film-like image with as little artifacting and as much detail as technically possible for DVD.

Out-of-box

The OPPO 983 is very nice looking with a nice brush metal face plate. The OPPO packaging retains the usual attention to detail with nice cloth-like bag and nice cardboard spec sheet sitting on top of the player. It has a nice weight to it compared to my previous OPPO and just about all other volume DVD players. I do wish it had a little more bulk like the Denon DVD-2930CI that I had for a short period. I use a universal remote, so no need to comment on that. The player is very responsive and I definitely like the more secure feeling disc tray. The settings panes are also well laid out.

Set-up

Display is the Pioneer PDP-1060 Kuro 60" plasma - ISF calibrated a couple of months back. First thing I did was calibrated the display which only needed a one notch drop in brightness from settings for my 980. On the 983 side the only change was to drop the sharpness down to -1. All video connections were HDMI.

Comparisons

* Versus OPPO 980 @ 480i with PureCinema advanced mode

Since this was my standard DVD set-up I did this comparison first -- again using the SW2 DVD. Display was set to full mode. I have two discs so I can quickly go back and forth for A/B comparisons. The 983 produced a more detailed image with less artifacts, noise and jaggles than the 980. One clear example to show this is in the "Return to Coruscant" scene where the yellow ships are spinning heading towards the planet. There were jaggles all over the ships watching with the 980. People always notice these jaggles in moving edges, but I also noticed that moving patterns also had this same kind of artifacting. I never relized how much of this artifacting there is until I did an A/B comparison with the 983. I was very impressed.

* Versus HD-XA2 (FW2.7) @ 1080p/60 with PureCinema off

From previous comparisons I knew that the XA2 was going to be very similar to the 980. Display was set to dot-by-dot mode. Well, the results were almost identical to the 980 with the 983 producing a more detailed image with less artifacts, noise and jaggles than the XA2. I'm sure that many people are wondering how the HD-XA2 can be so close to the OPPO 980. Well, the 980 produces a very good 480i signal and the Pioneer plasmas was excellent at de-interlacing and scaling DVD material. There are many others on AVS with Kuro plasmas who swear the the 980 @ 480i actually produces a better image than the HD-XA2. For me, the difference is just too close to call. I basically replaced the HD-XA2 with the 980 for DVD duty based on convenience factors -- region-free playback and infinitely better responsiveness. It also turns out that my older 38" CRT in the bedroom was begging to have a reunion with the HD-XA2.

* Versus PS3 @ 1080p with PureCinema off

By the time I introduced a PS3 into AV rack for dedicated Blu-ray duty I was already spoiled by the HD-XA2. The PS3 is not bad, but it is not in the same league as the HD-XA2. I really wanted to bring the PS3 into my comparisons for the sake of completeness. The PS3 wasn't able to produce the same level of detail and image clarity as either the 980 or the HD-XA2. There is no comparison to the 983.

Conclusion

$400 is quite a bit of money for a DVD player in this day and age. All of the systems I compared the 983 to are quite respectable in most peoples' book. The thing is -- if you are a true videophile that doesn't own a dedicated video processor you are going to want the upgrade possible with this 983. I just don't know how many people are critical enough and have the disposable income to warrant an upgrade for what might be a subtle difference.

I do not want to end this without a bit of a reality check. A neighbor of mine dropped by when I was going through the evaluation this evening. At the time, SW2 was spinning away in the 983. This guy has a PS3 and an JVC HD RP display that gets frequent Blu-ray screening. Anyway, we are standing about 4-5 feet from the 60" display. The guy says. "this looks like HD. Who is going to buy HD if you can get this with DVD?" I said, "OK, let's try the new iRobot Blu-ray disc for a fair comparison." When he watched iRobot in HD the guys eyes just about pop out. Finally, we switched back to SW2 on the 983. This time his comment was, "looks fuzzy." Again, we were close enough to the display to be super critical, but still...

Thanks Miata ! Exactly what I needed to know. Did you happen to compare 480p to the Kuro vs 1080p to the Kuro?

What was the resolution of the file you tried to play? I am having a similar issue with Widescreen Divx files except that my files are being stretched vertically to a 4:3 ratio... changing the TV Type settings didn't seem to help. My experience:

1.85:1 (720X384) plays OK on "Full screen" setting.
2.35:1 (720x304) plays vertically stretched under 1:1 zoom mode. In fact, the "Stretch" zoom option is not available as with 2.35:1 DVDs...

I opened and issue with Oppo and I am sending them some sample files so hopefully this can be fixed somehow...

I'm pretty sure I used using a 1.85:1 dvix file. In 16:9 Wide/Auto I got black bars on both sides, it thought it was a 4:3 file, but it wasn't. In 16:9 (or just because I changed a setting) Wide it filled the screen perfectly as I expected.

That's all I know about my experience I hope it helps and that you can provide enough info for Oppo to get some kind of firmware fix figured out. Thanks for taking this up with them.

If you just want to playback DivX and XviD media over USB, then the DV-980H is a better solution. I could not see any difference in performance of highly compressed media (DivX/XviD) between the DV-980H and the DV-983H.


The upscaling qualities of the 983 can make a difference with Divx files if they are of good quality. As always, garbage in=garbage out!

The only issue I have noticed is that some files with a widescreen aspect ratio do not playback properly (they are vertically stretched)... hopefully we can work with Oppo to fix this as it has been an issue with virtually all of their models.



Like the previous players you are shown a navigation window with 8 files listed on the left hand side. 700 files/objects can be contained on an external device.


Regarding files and folders: the Oppo supports more than 700 total files on the USB drive, right? If I read the documentation properly, it should support up to 700 folders with up to 700 files in each folder. That may sound like a ludicrous amount of files, but a 750GB drive can hold a lot of Divx files!

I also noticed that the USB port on the 983 can handle multiple USB drives... that could be a useful feature for those with multiple drives.

I'm pretty sure I used using a 1.85:1 dvix file. In 16:9 Wide/Auto I got black bars on both sides, it thought it was a 4:3 file, but it wasn't. In 16:9 (or just because I changed a setting) Wide it filled the screen perfectly as I expected.

That's all I know about my experience I hope it helps and that you can provide enough info for Oppo to get some kind of firmware fix figured out. Thanks for taking this up with them.

My 1.85:1 files seem to play back fine at 16:9 as well... I set my player to that setting so I never noticed the 16:9 Wide/Auto distortion.

I hope this issue may be related to the issue some folks are having with the improper detection of some Widescreen DVDs as 4:3 frames... the 983 seems to be doing exactly the same thing with the Divx files as well (I can't confirm this b/c the "info button does not work in USB mode). The only downside for 2.35:1 Divx files is that none of the zoom modes seem to help.

I have played my Divx files on a number of devices, from DVD players to Network streamers to HTPCs, and for those that play properly on the 983, I must say that I am very impressed with the playback quality... if Oppo can fix the stretching issue, my HTPC will never touch these files again!!

The likely error is the resolution of the file. There has always been issues with DivX/XviD files which are at odd resolutions. The previous DVD players could handle these better due to the decoder chips handling the cropping, zooming, and AR controls.

With the DV-983H, all of this is supposed to happen through the ABT solution, which is probably exasperating the inherent AR errors with DivX/XviD files.

Which Mediatek MPEG decoder chip is used in the 983H?

All these posts about video, any further insights on audio quality? I'm specifically interested in analog output quality...any general observations and maybe comparisons to previous Oppo models would be welcome. I'm using this as a CD player in addition to DVD playback...your thoughts are appreciated!

...
Can anyone verify that the opening credits sence on "Sound of Music" where the camera work flys into Maria spining on the hill top has studder looks like camera bounce likely. (I'm thinking it's in the footage, due to old camera work/limitations)
...

I played the opening of my 2002 remastered Sound of Music DVD with the commentary track by the director, the late Robert Wise. He talked about this helicopter camera trip through the mountains and jagged peaks surrounding Salsburg, and then swooping down on Julie Andrews. Quite a feat of cinematography at the time, especially as filmed in 2:20:1 in Todd AO 70mm. Without a doubt what we see in the shot is helicopter judder. I recall seeing somewhere a black and white photo of the equipment used and the helicopter in the picture may have been a Bell-47, the military version of which is familiar to viewers of the M*A*S*H TV series with two outboard stretchers strapped one to each side. I rode in a US Army version in the early '60s - in the cockpit, not the stretcher - and my recollection is that there was plenty of vibration - and noise. I was glad to get out of it after my joy ride. (Especially after the pilot told me that the idea that the rotor could be feathered to land gently if the engine failed was a lie. It dropped like a rock.)

I noticed some camera bounce on the scenery shots running behind the opening credits as well. As you suggest, probably par for the time and equipment available. More on the technical aspects of the film can be found here http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2982/The+Sound+Of+Music+-+40th+Anniversary+Edition

BTW. When I started to play the DVD - and before selecting what track to play - the OPPO 983 squeezed it. Pressing the INFO button indicated that the 983 was incorrectly identifying the DVD as 4:3. Pressing the button again after selecting the track caused it to play as 16:9.

Dana

Which Mediatek MPEG decoder chip is used in the 983H?
The same as the DV-983H: MT1389OP2.

All these posts about video, any further insights on audio quality? I'm specifically interested in analog output quality...any general observations and maybe comparisons to previous Oppo models would be welcome. I'm using this as a CD player in addition to DVD playback...your thoughts are appreciated!

You may want to check out Gonk's Review (http://www.prillaman.net/oppo983_review.html)

I played the opening of my 2002 remastered Sound of Music DVD with the commentary track by the director, the late Robert Wise. He talked about this helicopter camera trip through the mountains and jagged peaks surrounding Salsburg, and then swooping down on Julie Andrews. Quite a feat of cinematography at the time, especially as filmed in 2:20:1 in Todd AO 70mm. Without a doubt what we see in the shot is helicopter judder.
....
More on the technical aspects of the film can be found here http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2982/The+Sound+Of+Music+-+40th+Anniversary+Edition

BTW. When I started to play the DVD - and before selecting what track to play - the OPPO 983 squeezed it. Pressing the INFO button indicated that the 983 was incorrectly identifying the DVD as 4:3. Pressing the button again after selecting the track caused it to play as 16:9.

Thanks for the response, I didn't actually think that someone would respond to that but wanted to get it off my chest because it seemed more noticable on the 983 mostly due to the fact you grow to expect everything to be smooth and perfect. (man that's too long of a sentence) Plus I think I might have the same 2002 edition (I know it's not the "newest" DVD version of the movie).

I also noticed on several of the DVD's I tossed in (all "widescreen" versions) that the DVD menu section would sometimes be squeezed to 4:3 (which in all rights it might actually be) but all the scences (either skipping along or menu scene selection usage) were displayed in proper widescreen.

DVD menus are not always widescreen. For example the menus on the Fifth Elements are 4:3, but the movie itself is Anamorphic Widescreen.

All these posts about video, any further insights on audio quality? I'm specifically interested in analog output quality...any general observations and maybe comparisons to previous Oppo models would be welcome. I'm using this as a CD player in addition to DVD playback...your thoughts are appreciated!

I can't comment on the analog side as I am running everything to my Denon thru HDMI, so any sound quality comment would reflect on my Denon not the 983.

I can say that all disc types play fine. With some of the older Oppo models, there were issues with SACD (proper track number display) and DVD-Audio (gaps in "gapless" discs like live titles, etc). These issues were fixed in the older units and do not appear in the 983.

I do like that SACDs are converted to PCM by the 983 as my receiver is only HDMI 1.1 compatible...

DVD menus are not always widescreen. For example the menus on the Fifth Elements are 4:3, but the movie itself is Anamorphic Widescreen.

Exactly! That's one of the places I saw this. And as I said, for menus and things it's most likely the way the DVD was mastered. One other thing that I believe I noticed "new" with the 983 verse my older player (non-Oppo). When you stop the disk you get the box cover art! Weird and neat.... then after a while it goes to the Oppo (or captured, another neat feature) background. Man I love how there's all these "little things" this (or all Oppo) players do over other brands (that I have tried).

DVD menus are not always widescreen. For example the menus on the Fifth Elements are 4:3, but the movie itself is Anamorphic Widescreen.

To be sure of what I saw, I went back and played the Sound of Music DVD again. The Menu itself is 4:3 so Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment added its own side bars in sky blue, with clouds no less. The OPPO 983 set to 16:9 Wide/Auto is squeezing the entire picture including blue side bars into 4:3 and adding black side bars. So the Menu itself is compressed to about 3:3. When I change the OPPO 983 to 16:9 Wide, bingo! The Menu with blue side bars fills my 16:9 screen.

Dana

PS. I think this is the problem Bill has already reported to OPPO Digital and on which they are working on a fix.

This is something that could exist as a compatibility error. As a diagnostic lower your resolution to 720p and try playing back an audio source and see if the dropouts decrease. Also trying it at 1080p and see if the drop outs increase (you do not actually need to see any video, so a CD would work perfectly for testing this resolution)

I have heard reports of the Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi and Onkyo 805 having dropout errors at 1080p/60Hz (but not other resolutions or in PAL). I have not heard of this error with 1080i.

Also, as GSB recommended, try connecting the player direct to your display to ensure that the error does not occur through it as well.

Hi -

I'm afraid there may be a real compatibility issue here. I also have a Pio 94txh receiver and am having roughly the same issue.

I just received the 983 today and hooked it up to a Monoprice HDMI 1.3a certified cable that I had been using without any previous issue with my last DVD player (Pioneer 59AVi). Regardless of what DVD I play, and only in 1080p mode, I have random audio dropouts occuring every few seconds. When I decrease bandwidth down to 1080i or below, the dropout goes away. When I switched out cables to the Oppo provided 6 ft HDMI, I had the same issue. To be fair, I haven't hooked the Oppo directly to my HDMI on my Samsung 5089 DLP as it's a bit of a chore to get to the connections, but I will give it a shot over the next day or so to confirm that the problem disappears. I'll update this thread or reply to it once that test is complete.

This problem is not exclusive to NTSC playback. When testing Lost Highway in PAL as well as State of Play (great BBC miniseries FWIW), there are the same dropouts in 1080p mode. Direct NTSC playback vs. PAL conversion to NTSC doesn't appear to make a difference.

Problem was reported to a super nice Oppo rep today and apparently, he had also received a second Pio 94 incompatibility audio dropout issue today so this is now being forwarded to the engineers.

Also, I don't know if it's related but as a side note, in Raw mode, I'm also finding that the audio is just ever so slightly ahead of the video. I could correct on my Pio but it would screw up my other HDMI applications that are working properly such as my PS3 and my Dish 622 DVR.

I hope this is fixable as I was truly looking forward to what otherwise appeared to be a fantastic DVD player.

Best,

RobbW

This problem is not exclusive to NTSC playback. When testing Lost Highway in PAL as well as State of Play (great BBC miniseries FWIW), there are the same dropouts in 1080p mode. Direct NTSC playback vs. PAL conversion to NTSC doesn't appear to make a difference.

The Onlyo 803 has very aggressive dropouts to the degree that the audio signal never locks; the receiver is in a perpetual Signal/No Signal state. With the Onkyo 803 changing to PAL (50Hz) resolved the issues at 1080p. No other resolutions were effected. Only 1080p/60Hz showcased this error.

I do not have access to a Pioneer Elite receiver anymore, but from what I hear the VSX-84TXSi had errors at 1080p only, in both NTSC and PAL modes. Dropouts on this receiver are less frequenct (anywhere between 30 seconds to several minutes).

So the 983 can NOT play iso files via usb? It would be so cool if it could.

If they've gone to the expense of implementing the fancy ABT deinterlacing/scaling solution, why not put an HDMI input on the thing so that we could use it as a video processor for cable TV? As it is, I foresee spending at least as much again for the Gefen when it comes out, and perhaps the ABT chipset would be a better solution. Plus, would save an HDMI port on the receiver.

The Onlyo 805 has very aggressive dropouts to the degree that the audio signal never locks; the receiver is in a perpetual Signal/No Signal state. With the Onkyo 805 changing to PAL (50Hz) resolved the issues at 1080p. No other resolutions were effected. Only 1080p/60Hz showcased this error.

I do not have access to a Pioneer Elite receiver anymore, but from what I hear the VSX-84TXSi had errors at 1080p only, in both NTSC and PAL modes. Dropouts on this receiver are less frequenct (anywhere between 30 seconds to several minutes).

Are you saying that the 983 and the Onkyo 805 will not communicate with each other via HDMI?

I finally received my 983 today and took the rest of the afternoon off to set up and play with it (its good to be the boss sometimes). My first few hours with the 983, all I can say is AMAZING. First let me begin with my setup. My connection is one simple HDMI wire connected into my NAD T785 then a single HDMI cable from my NAD to my Pioneer Elite Plasma.

I left many of the standard settings alone for now, some of the HDMI settings I have are TV Display: 16.9 Wide, Down mix: 5.1 CH, Speakers all set to large, Bass: on (my NAD has bass management), HDMI Audio: Auto, Digital Output: Raw and my HDMI resolution is set to 720p since my tv resolution is 768.

My first test was the movie LOR: Return of the King. The detail was unbelievable. For example in the opening scene when Smeagol is holding a worm in is fingers, you can see every detail of his thumb (fingerprint lines) and the worm squirming in his hand. The sound too was fantastic. I have a 5.1 system (all Monitor Audio Gold Speakers) that may play a large part, but the oppo does not skip a beat when it comes to transmitting both video and audio to my AVR.

My next test was to listen to a SACD. I had a player that was connected to my AVR via analog cables so I was curious to see if the oppo (with its single HDMI connection) would match up to the sound I had with the 6 analog cables. I inserted what I consider one of the best SACD's that shows off why SACD can sound so good, that is Pink Floyds The Dark Side of the Moon. Again all I can say is UINBELIEVABLE. The seperation of the various instuments and sounds was fantastic. Anyone worried about PCM conversion should not even think twice about it. I can't imagine the sound being any better via DSD. In my case, my NAD does not support DSD, but SACD with the PCM conversion done by Oppo is just as good IMO.

My last test was to see how a 2 channel CD would sound. Again all I can say is UNBELIEVABLE. My GS60's sounded better then I have ever heard them. I have to admit, I do prefer 5.1 sound over 2 channel, but for those that do not like to convert 2 channel music to 5.1 then oppo does a great job at playing 2 channel music.

I have only had about 4 hours to play, but I wanted to get on line to let anyone know if you are on the fence about this player, you should get off and make the purchase. The picture and sound is amazing! I have a very large collection of SD DVD's and I dont plan on upgrading to BR for a while. I most likely will wait to see if Oppo decides to release a BR player before purchasing one. With the 983, its like watching movies and listening to music for the first time again.

Scott

Are you saying that the 983 and the Onkyo 805 will not communicate with each other via HDMI?

Sorry, meant to say 803. Been a long day.

If they've gone to the expense of implementing the fancy ABT deinterlacing/scaling solution, why not put an HDMI input on the thing so that we could use it as a video processor for cable TV?

OPPO has enough problems getting a closed system to work well, let alone opening up the player to billions of combinations of external media support.

I have just connected my 983 and started a love affair. I played action scenes from King Kong and my wife asked if this was Blue ray (translates to high WAF). Now the screen looks three dimensional with the Mits 3100 projector and 120 inch Stewart screen. The audio is very nice out of the analog channels. Does this player require any burn-in? I will play it awhile longer before critical assessment if it does.

Sorry, meant to say 803. Been a long day.

LOL, I was getting ready to say "HUGH?!!? I've had the 805 since Janruary and haven't had that problem". Thanks for the correction :D.

yeah.. sorry, but this plane only can land 99% of the time and crash 1% of the time because not all airports are build the same.... sorry for the inconvenience....

Don't mean't to be rude, but this is what you are saying... this is not a cheap DVD player.

I think his point is, as you said, its a DVD player..... not a video processor. Im assuming that you are responding to Neuromancer... if not... disreguard. :)

Yeah.. I miss understud.. my bad... sorry

Yeah.. I miss understud.. my bad... sorry

Nothing to be sorry about :D

The Onlyo 803 has very aggressive dropouts to the degree that the audio signal never locks; the receiver is in a perpetual Signal/No Signal state. With the Onkyo 803 changing to PAL (50Hz) resolved the issues at 1080p. No other resolutions were effected. Only 1080p/60Hz showcased this error.

I do not have access to a Pioneer Elite receiver anymore, but from what I hear the VSX-84TXSi had errors at 1080p only, in both NTSC and PAL modes. Dropouts on this receiver are less frequenct (anywhere between 30 seconds to several minutes).

I just moved the HDMI cable from my Pio VSX-94txh directly over to my Samsung 5089 DLP and all errors have vanished. Running 1080p mode has not reproduced a single error thus far. Obviously, I'll leave this connected now for a few days and see if I can identify any dropouts over a longer period of time but it looks like (at first blush) we have a verified incompatibility issue for the moment between the Pioneer VSX-94txh receiver and the 983.

Only choices are to run DVD-Video at 1080i through my receiver, or run it straight to my Sammy at 1080p but lose home theatre sound...
(Although, I guess as a compromise, I can break out The General and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari hehehehe)

Best,

RobbW

P.S. Upon further review, additional slight audio/video sync (video trails audio by a few milliseconds) issue is only with multichannel sound. Stereo sound plays without sync problem.

No contest! If the Panasonic is outputting 480p, it is also doing the de-interlacing. The 983 will beat it hands down. The Faroudja chip does a good job with the de-interlacing, but you need to feed it with HDMI 480i for best results. Very few players do that. Also, a lot depends upon the implementation of the Faroudja chip, and I have no idea how well the Sony STR-DA5300ES receiver implements it. Another drawback of the Faroudja chip is the macroblock-enhance.

Incidentally, if you go for the Gefen scaler, you will also need to feed it with HDMI 480i for the Realta chip to do its de-interlacing magic.
It depends what you call "rugged"! The loading tray on the 970/971/980/981 is certainly not "less sturdy" by any means. My 3-yr old decided it was time for a smackdown when he saw the tray eject on my 971... He hit it so hard that the tray smashed into the deck below it. The tray flexed effortlessly and sent the DVD soaring into the air. No damage was done to the tray or its rails. I'd be more worried about a ridgid tray, and what might happen to the player, tray, or rails in such an event. Nevertheless, the 983's tray seems pretty tough too.

Gary

Thanks for the information Gary. Sounds like the 983 is for me. Now I just have to wait to find one in stock!
- Esau

Thanks Miata ! Exactly what I needed to know. Did you happen to compare 480p to the Kuro vs 1080p to the Kuro?
OK. Spent a little time this evening going through the resolution patterns, moving plates, jaggle tests and the image is almost identical in 480p or 1080p. I put in Star Wars II to see if that would be a tie breaker. No way. The results were simply too close to call. I guess that must mean that both the Kuro and the 983 are both first class video scalers.:)

Now I have a question for the experts out there. Given that the images are identical is there any reason to use over the other? From one I read you get the same features for zooming , etc whether you are outputting 480p or 1080p.

Only choices are to run DVD-Video at 1080i through my receiver, or run it straight to my Sammy at 1080p but lose home theatre sound...
(Although, I guess as a compromise, I can break out The General and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari hehehehe)
Sorry to hear about the compatibility problem (the "joys" of HDMI...) - but why not just run an optical or coax cable to the Pioneer for audio and just use the HDMI cable for video? This is similar to what I'm doing now, and aside from needing to hook up multichannel analog for DVD-A and SACD it's all you need.

Agreed - coax and analog multichannel would be workable and I might go that route in the interim until I hear from Oppo whether it's fixable but it's far from ideal. Basically, I was excited about reducing my cable clutter and keeping a single cable feed. Additionally, I have a ton of SACDs and DVD-As and the idea of doing a 7 channel analog PCM feed in absence of a true DSD transport just isn't something I want to deal with long term. I guess I just feel strongly that I shouldn't have to.

It's a tough call because I love this player otherwise, but it needs (and should) be compatible with something as mainstream as Pio Elite. Having said that, I totally get that HDMI is tricky business and so if they think they can fix it, I'm happy to wait a reasonable time for a firmware upgrade. If they can't, then I might call it a day and wait for the next best thing.

I believe in Oppo though. I waited for this to be released from last Thanksgiving and I'm not giving up on them unless they give up on me. ;)

Best,

RobbW