I've done a ton of searching and reading, but many of the threads are circa 2007. Wondering if there's anything happening recently in the DVD area that challenges the great things I've read about OPPO.

I've got a large collection of DVDs and don't plan on upgrading to Blu-Ray soon (unless players come down in price and provide top notch DVD upconversion). I'll be watching on a 120" 2.40:1 screen using a 720p projector, very likely the Epson HC 720.

Seems like it's going to be a coin flip between the Oppo 980 and 981, and both are right around $169 at Amazon.

Is there anything new in the upconverting DVD area that offers better PQ than the 980/981 for the money? Or anything that offers similar PQ for less? I'm not concerned with SACD or any of the other formats, just watching DVDs.

Thanks for any thoughts! These forums are always enlightening.

I've done a ton of searching and reading, but many of the threads are circa 2007. Wondering if there's anything happening recently in the DVD area that challenges the great things I've read about OPPO.

I've got a large collection of DVDs and don't plan on upgrading to Blu-Ray soon (unless players come down in price and provide top notch DVD upconversion). I'll be watching on a 120" 2.40:1 screen using a 720p projector, very likely the Epson HC 720.

Seems like it's going to be a coin flip between the Oppo 980 and 981, and both are right around $169 at Amazon.

Is there anything new in the upconverting DVD area that offers better PQ than the 980/981 for the money? Or anything that offers similar PQ for less? I'm not concerned with SACD or any of the other formats, just watching DVDs.

Thanks for any thoughts! These forums are always enlightening.

At the same price? Probably not, although some people like the Toshiba super-resolution player. Others don't; I've never seen it.

The OPPO 983 is a better player, but is $399. Like the 981 it is discontinued; will be replaced by the Blu-ray BDP-83.

-Bill

One more question about the Oppo... specifically when combined with a Pioneer Elite VSX01 receiver.

The receiver has "HDMI® Video Up-Scaling: Faroudja DCDi" and if I recall, Faroudja is one of the differences between the 980 and 981 (ie, 981 has it, 980 has a different chip for upscaling.)

From what I've read, most receivers do not touch or upscale HDMI but will upscale from other analog inputs to HDMI.

If I get the Oppo 980, does this give me the choice between the two upscalers? I could upscale in the 980 and if I like the image stick with that, or if I don't, use it's component out into the Pioneer Elite receiver and use it's Faroudja upscaler?

One more question about the Oppo... specifically when combined with a Pioneer Elite VSX01 receiver.

The receiver has "HDMI® Video Up-Scaling: Faroudja DCDi" and if I recall, Faroudja is one of the differences between the 980 and 981 (ie, 981 has it, 980 has a different chip for upscaling.)

From what I've read, most receivers do not touch or upscale HDMI but will upscale from other analog inputs to HDMI.

If I get the Oppo 980, does this give me the choice between the two upscalers? I could upscale in the 980 and if I like the image stick with that, or if I don't, use it's component out into the Pioneer Elite receiver and use it's Faroudja upscaler?

You have several options with HDMI and the 980:


480i from the 980: the receiver does the deinterlacing and scaling
480p from the 980: the player deinterlaces, the receiver scales
other resolutions: the player deinterlaces and scales. Check the receiver docs to make sure it is passing this signal through to the display; you probably don't want to do any further processing on it.


If you have HDMI there is probably not much need for component output.

-Bill

I know you are going to think this is absolute lunacy but check out the Pioneer DV610. You can pick them up for just over 100 on Amazon. I have several comments about it in another thread. Will do 480i over hdmi just fine. SACD, DVDA, etc. It may be all you are looking for. Multi regional on top of it.....

I can assure you it will do 480i over hdmi. I'm doing it and using my Denon 3808 AVR to upscale.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1132462

Thanks for listing those options wmcclain!

@jsmiddleton4 ... since I have a receiver which can upconvert 480i over HDMI, it's possible the upconversion of the oppo 980 might not buy me much compared to another player. But, other than the price difference, what do you see as the benefits of the DV610 over the Oppo 980? I did look at the specs but these days, my eyes start to glaze over at huge format and buzz word lists ;-)

I guess I should add that a player that is more resistant to scratches or smudges on disks is a real plus. I've got a toddler, and we're working on that issue... :) but I think my Sony DVD player is much more smudge intolerant than my original Sony DVD (sorry, model numbers not at the top of my head.)

Does the Oppo 980 have good pickup or are all the players fairly similar in this area?

bm.....

I do not own an OPPO so I can not give you a side by side kinda of opinion. My brother has an OPPO 980 however. He's seen the output on mine. He can't tell a difference. I have a 65 inch hd rptv. Maybe a difference with a 110 inch screen and projector. But on my system, the Pioneer DV610 to him looks as good as his OPPO.

If you are going to use your receiver to up-convert than I would say, yes, the value of having a higher end up-converting dvd player is suspect.

The only benefit would be to give yourself options. By having the DVD player's capability you can test all the pieces of your equipment chain and see what looks best. It may look better to have the OPPO doing the upconversion. You won't know until you test it.

The DV610 has the higher end Meditek Pro chipset. So DIVX Pro, etc., works. When testing my setup, letting the Pioneer to do the upconversion, my Denon, my display, the difference between letting the Pioneer do it and the Denon do it was minor. Both looked good. The Denon was just a bit sharper, colors like for a face were a bit smoother. Had to look hard to see it though. The Denon AVR-3808CI uses Faroudja DCDi (FLI-2310) video processing for upscaling-upconverting. Letting my Samsung 6189S do the upconverting was the least favorable. But it didn't look bad.

To be clear I am not saying the OPPO and the Pioneer are equal. Just that the Pioneer might be what you are looking for at a cheaper price. I am also using HKan's custom firmware. Did on my 410's as well.