Where have all the SD upconverters gone at retail stores? Was at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, Costco this weekend and it seemed everyone was cleared out and only had the dual VHS/DVD players. I'm looking to replace my Sony DVP-NS75H and was considering either a Toshiba or Sony replacement. Nobody seems to sell these anymore. Are retailers ditching standard players for Blu Ray? Even online the Pioneer DV-400/400 and Sony DVP-NS700/710 models are sporadically stocked.

Have Oppo stopped making the Oppo DV-981 and DV-983 dvd players?

I think it's probably the end of the '08 product cycles and '09's should be coming in soon; there's plenty online. Just a guess...

Best Buy here has lots of choices, but I agree the biggest selection is always online.

Target and Walmart and all them have slim pickings of everything. I've only seen two Blu-Ray players there, usually the cheapest Sony and a budget brand like Olevia. They're certainly not going to sell anything top of the line.

I'll probably purchase online, but 3-4 months ago every retail store seemed to stock the XD-E500, Pioneer DV-400/410 series, The Sony DVP-NS700 series, other misc upconverters. There was a lot of choice at the brick and mortar store. Now DVD players seem to be relegated to the clearence section and no more stock aside from a few open boxes. I think retail stores are switching to blu ray with only a couple cheapo DVD players available, probably more of a profit margin.

Not unless Blu-Ray players start dipping below $100, which they won't for at least a couple more years. The mass market that frequents WalMart and such aren't going to pay $200-$300 or more for a player.

More likely new DVD models are on their way, which for electronics happens every spring.

Have Oppo stopped making the Oppo DV-981 and DV-983 dvd players?


981 is still in production.....983 has been dropped and replaced by OPPO's new BD player the BD83...both have the same chips and the upconverting is
fantastic...

Not unless Blu-Ray players start dipping below $100, which they won't for at least a couple more years. The mass market that frequents WalMart and such aren't going to pay $200-$300 or more for a player.

More likely new DVD models are on their way, which for electronics happens every spring.

I also noticed a dearth of SD DVD players at Best Buy and Fredy Meyers. The BB section was almost completely empty except for a few open boxes and a couple Pioneer upscalers. I'm just a customer with no inside info, but my guess is simple stock outs during a model refresh.

I believe that the major vendors carried by these retailers are going through their normal model cycle, as Samsung just released the DVD-P1080P9 and the DVD-H1080. So the P1080P8 and F1080s are disappearing. I had to look at the Australian Samsung website to get info about the new models.

Sony is replacing the NS700H so it no longer can be found on store shelves at those two retailers in my area. I suspect other retailers such as Sears probably have the NS700H on some shelves.

So I think this is just the supply channel hiccup showing up as empty shelves....

Lots of people don't give a darn about Blu-Ray and are perfectly happy with SD. I think that the retailers are selling more SD upscalers than they bought stock for.

By the way, I also noticed the Toshiba XDE-500 was out of stock at Best Buy. I haven't heard anything about a new model yet, but Toshiba still hasn't put much support info on their website for current model yet either.

Personally, I think these stock outs are really bad. There are people who walk into a store on pay day with $100.00 in their hands and they walk out again if they don't see the model they were thinking of "just picking one up".

I got a $40 Philips from Walmart to use just for dubbing and I tried watching a few movies with it.Looked a whole lot better than I thought it would. Not as good as the E500 but about as good as my old LG db318s that cost about $250 before they made Zenith stop selling them in the U.S.. They upscaled over component and that was not allowed.

The Sony DVP-NS700H has been out of stock at my local stores (and at Amazon) for at least a couple of months. The "replacement" DVP-NS710H is just now starting to arrive: I saw a stack at Best Buy the other day.

I put "replacement" in quotes because the geniuses at Sony have removed the optical digital audio output. It appears that Samsung has also done the same with their new P9. It appears they are fighting to out nickel-and-dime each other. Suffice it to say that I am scrounging for a NS700H, which I would have purchased many weeks ago if Sony hadn't bled the channel dry for months.

I suspect the coax digital audio will be the next to go, plus probably replacing with full-size remotes with credit card remotes.

BTW my local Targets seem to have recently cut their shelf space for video player/recorders of all types by half or two-thirds.

I put "replacement" in quotes because the geniuses at Sony have removed the optical digital audio output. It appears that Samsung has also done the same with their new P9.


You're correct on that Gantt. I too noticed that the P9 doesn't have the optical digital out either. Kind of annoying, as the previous model does have it, but that same model has absolutely horrible reviews.

I've pretty much decided to defer my decision of "upscaler only" versus "BR with upscaler" for a while.

I took my BD-P1500 back and was thinking of buying a BD-P2500 (with Reon), but I also just fine tuned the picture quality on my old Panasonic progressive DVD player (outputing through component) and the picture looks pretty good with my SD DVDs on my Samsung A630. How much better will an HDMI-connected P9 be? I don't know if I care to spend the $70.00 to find out.

Messing around with the Samsung A630, I found a setting in there that does "edge enhance"! So, maybe I don't need a Sony 700 either (it has edge control whereas I don't thing the Samsung P8 and P9s have that control at all).

It's back to "does HDMI really make a diff" studies for me!

Happy upscaler hunting to you!

Really......how many more DVD players are needed??

I did just buy one.....for a particular reason. It had features that I wanted. Had I just wanted to play a DVD......well let's see, I already have 8 other players.......not counting gaming systems......

How much market is left for commodity players??

There's quite a bit, seeing as not everyone wants a gaming system and Blu-Ray is not exactly burning up the retail scene yet.

Plus, now that practically all you can buy are HDTVs, there's a perceived notion that you "need" an upconverter (even though a regular progressive scan job would probably work just as well.)

Really......how many more DVD players are needed??



How much market is left for commodity players??

By the number of posts here..

Maybe a dozen ;)

[QUOTE=Euroamerican;16227098] How much better will an HDMI-connected P9 be? I don't know if I care to spend the $70.00 to find out.

Messing around with the Samsung A630, I found a setting in there that does "edge enhance"! So, maybe I don't need a Sony 700 either (it has edge control whereas I don't thing the Samsung P8 and P9s have that control at all).

It's back to "does HDMI really make a diff" studies for me!
QUOTE]

OK. I went ahead and bought a Samsung DVD-P1080P9 last night at Fred Meyer's for US$69.00 plus tax. Brought it home, hooked it up the HDMI port 1on my LN40A630 with a Philips HDMI cable and started watching some SD DVDs. DVD player seems to be completely functional and not too noisy. It is not silent though, while operating. I can hear both it and the fan in the TV running.

So far, I'd says the blacks are a bit blacker than they were going through the component cable from my old Panasonic progressive player. I'd also say that the details are a bit crisper. I'm liking the blacks that I've seen so far in the LOTR Fellowship SD DVD (16:9) and the Buffy Series 6 Episode 1 (4:3).

My initial "take" is that this player is worth buying if you don't have a DVD player yet or if your old player dies and you don't want to go the way of an expensive upscaler or all the way to Blu-Ray. For me this purchase boils down to a test of component versus hdmi, Anynet, and TV-verus-player upscaling. I also have a Mac Mini hooked up to this TV via the VGA port, so I'll be comparing all three connection types and upscaling capabilities.

I thought it curious that HH Gregg had NO Panasonic players, SD or BD in their store, and few SD players. Same at Sears. I think what we are seeing is phase two of the Hollywood supported BD Forum plan to replace SD with BD - get retailers to stop selling SD players and they have no choice but to buy BD!

I think what we are seeing is phase two of the Hollywood supported BD Forum plan to replace SD with BD - get retailers to stop selling SD players and they have no choice but to buy BD!

That won't happen unless the BD players drop to SD player prices. American mass consumers won't pay the several hundred dollars for a BD player now that sub-$100 SD players are out and have been for years.

And if the prices do plunge, at that point who cares if you must buy a BD player? They play both types of discs, and SD DVDs will be around for a long time (there aren't enough BD disc titles, and the premium prices won't be tolerated.)

I thought it curious that HH Gregg had NO Panasonic players, SD or BD in their store, and few SD players. Same at Sears. I think what we are seeing is phase two of the Hollywood supported BD Forum plan to replace SD with BD - get retailers to stop selling SD players and they have no choice but to buy BD!

This thread is about *upconverting* players disappearing in stores. I've seen no shortage of non-upconverting DVD players. And now that the new upconverting models are out (Sony NS710, Samsung P9) I'm starting to see these in stock in quantity. I don't discount your theory entirely, but I think the shortage of upconverters noted over the last few months was mainly due to very conservative planning (very bad planning, IMO) by the manufacturers.

Have Oppo stopped making the Oppo DV-981 and DV-983 dvd players?

981 is still in production.....983 has been dropped and replaced by OPPO's new BD player the BD83...both have the same chips and the upconverting is
fantastic...

This is an e-mail from Oppo dated 3-29-09:

The DV-983H is being replaced by the BDP-83 in mid-April.

The DV-981HD is no longer in production as well. The DV-980H is still being manufactured and supported as our legacy DVD player.

I don't discount your theory entirely, but I think the shortage of upconverters noted over the last few months was mainly due to very conservative planning (very bad planning, IMO) by the manufacturers.

It is possible that they overestimated Blu-Ray sales for the past few quarters and cut back on upconverter production a bit, and then found that the public didn't go bananas over the new format and so demand temporarily outstripped supply. It's not like these things get built yesterday and then appear on the shelf this morning.

I think the manufacturers would like to phase out DVD players (slowly) for BD players, but they're not going to just up and kill off players that sell at pricepoints below BD players. That would be like Toyota killing off their bread-n-butter sedans and only selling expensive Lexus cars. I can see them phasing out the more expensive players for similar priced BD players. After all, if the BD player upscales and plays BD, why keep a confusing, bloated model line that competes against your own brand? I think Oppo has the right idea, sell a flagship BD player and keep a cheaper legacy player around.

Best Buy is now fully stocked again with upconverting DVD players in my town:

They have both the new Samsung DVD-H1080 and the DVD-1080P9 in stock, as well as the new Sony NS-710 and have more XDE-500s and some other brands (Pioneers?) in stock. I think the industry's refresh of new models and the unexpected demand just caught the retailers with insufficient stock.