Well I guess I spoke too soon. I can now see macroblocking very easily with the oppo. It is kind of weird. I don't really see it with live action movies or CG movies but with anime that have a lot of dark scenes I see it very clearly. I tested some anime discs yesterday and didn't see any macroblocking but they were brighter in tone than the one I tried tonight. I am kind of torn on if I should return it or not. I guess I'll play around with the settings some more tomorrow but I tried various settings of noise reduction and truelife and playing around with the saturation but I can't get rid of it. I compared the same disc in my Yamaha S2300 and it showed a few spots that have macroblocking on it that is a little bit visible but on the oppo it stands out a lot. In other scenes the dark areas look perfectly smooth on the S2300 but on the oppo the macroblock pattern is easily visible. It is kind of upsetting it would be a great player for anime especially with the easy to change/turn off region code. :(

There's been a lot of discussion on here recently about the audio quality of the Oppo- here's an interesting review I found- covers both audio/video quality of the Oppo...
http://ultimateavmag.com/dvdplayers/1105oppo/

There's been a lot of discussion on here recently about the audio quality of the Oppo- here's an interesting review I found- covers both audio/video quality of the Oppo...
http://ultimateavmag.com/dvdplayers/1105oppo/

and here's another....

http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review3132.html

and here's another....

http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review3132.html

and finally, a 3 way DVD player comparison- Oppo v LG v NeuNeo 1080p capable player (HP is only HDTV that will accept pure 1080p signal I believe)....

http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review3327_intro16642.html

anybody got any more links to reviews or articles on the Oppo??.....

anybody got any more links to reviews or articles on the Oppo? There are quite a few more links to reviews or articles buried here and there in the 2 OPPO threads.

Gary

I can't use the remote since it's a european remote so the "2" work as power on this one.

Does anyone have the code in hex/Pronto format?

I can't use the remote since it's a european remote so the "2" work as power on this one.

Does anyone have the code in hex/Pronto format?

HEX Remote Codes (http://www.oppodigital.com/Download/remote%20code.txt)

Can't remember if this is for the Silver or Black remote.

Thanks, I'll try these tonight...

There are quite a few more links to reviews or articles buried here and there in the 2 OPPO threads.

Gary

How do I get to the other Oppo Thread?

I watched that same version last night and it looked sick.

Well, it is a movie about vampires....

..here's an interesting review I found- covers both audio/video quality of the Oppo...http://ultimateavmag.com/dvdplayers/1105oppo/In reading that review I have a question that I've searched on but is still unclear to me:

The Oppo is cited as being "non-HDCP compliant" and my Sony GWII's DVI input IS HDCP-compliant. Does this mean the Oppo is not compatible w/my TV, or maybe this is only an issue if the source is HDCP-protected?

I hope the answer is that DVDs are not HDCP-protected and therefore this is a non-issue? Looking to buy one of these puppies.

In reading that review I have a question that I've searched on but is still unclear to me:

The Oppo is cited as being "non-HDCP compliant" and my Sony GWII's DVI input IS HDCP-compliant. Does this mean the Oppo is not compatible w/my TV, or maybe this is only an issue if the source is HDCP-protected?

I hope the answer is that DVDs are not HDCP-protected and therefore this is a non-issue? Looking to buy one of these puppies.

The purpose of HDCP is supposedly to protect the source material from piracy by encrypting it on its way to the display. So a HDCP-compliant display is good, because it will work with both HDCP and non-HDCP sources. A HDCP-compliant source is bad, or at least inconvenient, because it requires you to have a HDCP-compliant display to use it properly. The source cares about HDCP-compliance, the display doesn't (because it's the source's responsibility to encrypt anything that should be encrypted).

So the Oppo's lack of HDCP is good, because it means it will work equally well with HDCP and non-HDCP displays.

As far as HDCP goes, I believe it only applies to the DVI/HDMI link between sources and displays; as I understand it, DVDs are not themselves HDCP-protected, but if you put an encrypted DVD (as most commercial releases are) in a HDCP-compliant player, the player will interpret this as a situation where it should enforce HDCP on its link to the display.

How do I get to the other Oppo Thread? Oppo DV971H Faroudja DCDi (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6962385#post6962385)

In reading that review I have a question that I've searched on but is still unclear to me:

The Oppo is cited as being "non-HDCP compliant" and my Sony GWII's DVI input IS HDCP-compliant. Does this mean the Oppo is not compatible w/my TV, or maybe this is only an issue if the source is HDCP-protected?

I hope the answer is that DVDs are not HDCP-protected and therefore this is a non-issue? Looking to buy one of these puppies.

---In 2 months HD-DVD will be here which will work with your Sony and the PQuality will blow away DVD. Just wait....

Oppo DV971H Faroudja DCDi (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6962385#post6962385)

sweet- thanks

---In 2 months HD-DVD will be here which will work with your Sony and the PQuality will blow away DVD. Just wait....

How does that, in any way, answer the original question?

The Oppo works fine on all of my HDCP compliant displays.

Mark

---In 2 months HD-DVD will be here which will work with your Sony and the PQuality will blow away DVD. Just wait....

In only 2 months? They should be reasonably priced and bug-free too.... :rolleyes:

Just got my oppo yesterday and am loving it! I have an infocus 4805 so I'm not using the upscaling features. I mostly wanted it for excellent 480p through DVI, region free, and a decent remote control (compared to my old skyworth where I had to push buttons over and over again to get it to respond). All in all it seems like an excellent investment! It will keep playing all of my non-R1 discs for many, many years even after I move to BR (though it will be backwards compatible, I'm doubting a U.S. sold model will play non-R1 DVDs).

The purpose of HDCP is supposedly to protect the source material from piracy...Thanks for your thorough reply--it is appreciated!

In 2 months HD-DVD will be here which will work with your Sony and the PQuality will blow away DVD. Just wait....Well, maybe, but I already find my own Home Theater w/SD DVDs to be equal-to or better-than the local cinema. I like HD just fine, but will also be happy to wait until the dust settles on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray or whatever the heck that vaporware is called. Normally an "early adopter", but I'm determined not to get sucked-in this time. Gonna play it :cool:. Hey, I'll give you $5 bucks for your Oppo, hsinnott!!

In only 2 months? They should be reasonably priced and bug-free too.... :rolleyes:

LOL!

---In 2 months HD-DVD will be here which will work with your Sony and the PQuality will blow away DVD. Just wait....

I have D-theater tapes and a couple of the same films on DVD made from basically the same hi-def masters. The D-VHS tapes are true hi-def, essentially the equivalent of HD DVD quality, and though without question the D-theater tapes are better than the DVDs, when comparting D-theater to the Oppo using 720p on my Sony RPTV, there is not a huge difference - not even close to blowing away the Oppo. I don't need to wait to see this.

Videoaddikt says it best.

And even if the HD DVD players are released with minimal bugs and without neglecting standard DVD playback, the cost will not make it worthwhile to pick up the first gen units (not counting a probable host of features missing from first gen units that everyone will have to have by the time the third or fourth gen units roll out).

I don't think HD-DVD will hold any appeal for me before 2007, probably late 2007, and certainly not until the competing formats situation is resolved.

I say long live the Oppo!

In only 2 months? They should be reasonably priced and bug-free too.... :rolleyes:

HD-DVD comes out in March I believe, followed by BluRay DVD later in the year...hopefully yes they'll be bug free- less problems with compression on the discs since they have a much larger capacity than regular DVD.

I have D-theater tapes and a couple of the same films on DVD made from basically the same hi-def masters. The D-VHS tapes are true hi-def, essentially the equivalent of HD DVD quality, and though without question the D-theater tapes are better than the DVDs, when comparting D-theater to the Oppo using 720p on my Sony RPTV, there is not a huge difference - not even close to blowing away the Oppo. I don't need to wait to see this.

Videoaddikt says it best.

And even if the HD DVD players are released with minimal bugs and without neglecting standard DVD playback, the cost will not make it worthwhile to pick up the first gen units (not counting a probable host of features missing from first gen units that everyone will have to have by the time the third or fourth gen units roll out).

I don't think HD-DVD will hold any appeal for me before 2007, probably late 2007, and certainly not until the competing formats situation is resolved.

I say long live the Oppo!

Thanks for the input- yeah- I'm waiting for BluRay which will suppossedly be the superior format...and of course the big question is how will these Bluray and HD-DVD players handle good ole regular DVD discs? So, you're right, we all better hang on to our Oppos so we can be sure of quality playback of all our current DVD's in case BluRay/ HD-DVD players suck at regular DVD playback....

By the way, just watched Lord of War on the Oppo - looked fantastic. Really good movie. And the audio and video were both excellent.

How does that, in any way, answer the original question?

The Oppo works fine on all of my HDCP compliant displays.

Mark

I didn't know you'd already purchased an Oppo- if so, I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am. All I was suggesting is that if you are thinking of getting a DVD player now, at this point it may be worth waiting 2 months for HD-DVD.

Thanks for your thorough reply--it is appreciated!

Well, maybe, but I already find my own Home Theater w/SD DVDs to be equal-to or better-than the local cinema. I like HD just fine, but will also be happy to wait until the dust settles on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray or whatever the heck that vaporware is called. Normally an "early adopter", but I'm determined not to get sucked-in this time. Gonna play it :cool:. Hey, I'll give you $5 bucks for your Oppo, hsinnott!!

lol, yeah I'm like you, an 'early adopter'...but I'm gonna wait for what everyone is saying is the superior format- BluRay....I'll probably get a PS3 which will have a BluRay player built in.
The big question I'd like to know is how these HD-DVD or BluRay players are going to handle standard DVD's- probably not as well as the slick little Oppo...so I imagine this thread will still be valid a year from now as most people will end up having the Oppo AND their shiny new BluRay players connected to the same tv- one for their old collection of DVD's, and the other for their new HiDef movies.

I have D-theater tapes and a couple of the same films on DVD made from basically the same hi-def masters. The D-VHS tapes are true hi-def, essentially the equivalent of HD DVD quality, and though without question the D-theater tapes are better than the DVDs, when comparting D-theater to the Oppo using 720p on my Sony RPTV, there is not a huge difference - not even close to blowing away the Oppo. I don't need to wait to see this.

Videoaddikt says it best.

And even if the HD DVD players are released with minimal bugs and without neglecting standard DVD playback, the cost will not make it worthwhile to pick up the first gen units (not counting a probable host of features missing from first gen units that everyone will have to have by the time the third or fourth gen units roll out).

I don't think HD-DVD will hold any appeal for me before 2007, probably late 2007, and certainly not until the competing formats situation is resolved.

I say long live the Oppo!

I think the difference in picture quality will be more noticable on larger displays- say 60" or above- especially on projectors. Another factor will be how well the HD-DVD or BluRay disc is mastered/transferred to the disc.....I've seen some hi def movies on Comcast and I agree with you, they do not look a lot better than their DVD counterparts- but thats on my 50" screen- on a large 100" projection system the diffference could be extremely noticable, or again, maybe not.
4 movies that were clearly superior in High Definition on my small 50" DLP which I watched recently were Anger Management, The Fifth Element, Monster's Inc., SWAT....the regular DVD's are excellent-- but the HiDef images were out of this world!!
As far as pricing goes....I've already read BestBuy are taking pre-orders on the first Toshiba HD-DVD player....and its only around $340...not much more than a regular DVD player.
I'm sure the features will be comparable, if not better, to a standard DVD player....but like several people are saying here, we'll all still need out sweet little Oppos coz its unlikely the new HiDef players will be as good as the Oppo at playing back our regular DVD collections.

As far as pricing goes....I've already read BestBuy are taking pre-orders on the first Toshiba HD-DVD player....and its only around $340...not much more than a regular DVD player.


That BB price seems to have been an error on their part. True price is around $500. There's a whole thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=629952&page=1&pp=60) about it.

Steve.

I am not going to early adopt unless the price/performance is worth it. I have compared this oppo player to hd HBO movies and have seen no difference. With that in mind i do believe that 1 of these new formats will eventually overtake dvd players in performance. If you remember, dvd took a long time to get to where the performance is now......I think it will be the same for hd /bd dvd...at first it will be good but i think it will be awhile before these new formats mature like dvd is now....I mean how old is the dvd format and how many years did it take to have the first 480p players??and then the upscaling and so on..etc.

My dream player would be the oppo as it performs now with networking and combo hd/bd drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine that??

...I'm gonna wait for what everyone is saying is the superior format- BluRayAs I understand it, the BluRay is Sony and it has greater storage capacity--if yes it's interesting to me to see Sony on the "right" side of the issue for a change. Beta was beaten by VHS not on quality, but on storage!

The big question I'd like to know is how these HD-DVD or BluRay players are going to handle standard DVD's- probably not as well as the slick little Oppo...I agree, it seems likely that at least the first players out of the chute will focus on HD playback, and not "the old stuff".

I am not going to early adopt unless the price/performance is worth it. I have compared this oppo player to hd HBO movies and have seen no difference. With that in mind i do believe that 1 of these new formats will eventually overtake dvd players in performance. If you remember, dvd took a long time to get to where the performance is now......I think it will be the same for hd /bd dvd...at first it will be good but i think it will be awhile before these new formats mature like dvd is now....I mean how old is the dvd format and how many years did it take to have the first 480p players??and then the upscaling and so on..etc.

My dream player would be the oppo as it performs now with networking and combo hd/bd drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine that??

Yes, I've heard some of the movies on HBO HiDef don't look that great- INHD channel also shows a lot of very 'average' looking movies- I think the broadcasters can 'dumb down' the resolution somehow while broadcasting so you're not actually seeing all HiDef is capable of....ABC usually shows a HiDef movie on a Sat night which is normally of very high quality. Also, Comcast On Demand is currently showing "The Fifth Element" in HD this month and I compared it to the Superbit version played on the Oppo- even though the aspect ratio was screwed up on Comcast- the HD signal clearly had more detail....
I don't think it will take the newer HiDef technology on disc to mature like it did for DVD...technology in this field has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 4-5 yrs...I believe when BluRay comes on the scene, it will blow people away with its features and quality...

I am not going to early adopt unless the price/performance is worth it. I have compared this oppo player to hd HBO movies and have seen no difference. With that in mind i do believe that 1 of these new formats will eventually overtake dvd players in performance. If you remember, dvd took a long time to get to where the performance is now......I think it will be the same for hd /bd dvd...at first it will be good but i think it will be awhile before these new formats mature like dvd is now....I mean how old is the dvd format and how many years did it take to have the first 480p players??and then the upscaling and so on..etc.

My dream player would be the oppo as it performs now with networking and combo hd/bd drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine that??

>>> Hi Def has double the horizontal resolution of DVD--- to fully appreciate the huge leap in picture quality you'll need a really nice HDTV....the difference should be clearly visible on anything over a 50inch screen....I love my Oppo...and I love my 1100+ collection of DVD's but, honestly, going from DVD to BluRay DVD will be like going from VHS to DVD!
The King Is Dead, Long Live The King!!

As I understand it, the BluRay is Sony and it has greater storage capacity--if yes it's interesting to me to see Sony on the "right" side of the issue for a change. Beta was beaten by VHS not on quality, but on storage!

I agree, it seems likely that at least the first players out of the chute will focus on HD playback, and not "the old stuff".

I have long forgiven Sony for that little misjudgement over videotape- they have more than made up for it in my book with the technologies since- Trinitron, some of the finest DVD players...and now Blu Ray....

Just got the Panny 900- do NOT have cable and not intending to at this point so base it on that- purely HT room for only DVD's and videos...would you suggest the Oppo since it is known about the component feature, macroblocking issues, lip synch issues...Please give some input as I need to get the player now. Thx!!!

I love my Oppo...and I love my 1100+ collection of DVD's but, honestly, going from DVD to BluRay DVD will be like going from VHS to DVD!
The King Is Dead, Long Live The King!!

We'll see. Personally I think the difference will be more like going from laserdisc to DVD, based on what I've seen so far, at least in the beginning. Of course, you're right -- given enough time, there will be improvements, including 1080p and greatly improved displays. But this will all take awhile, probably until prices become affordable to attract a mass audience to HD DVD. And eventually displays will go above 1080p and then HD DVD (I include Bluray here) will need to be scaled to even higher levels.

What I've seen using a scaler with standard DVD is that blacks and color is improved to near HD quality, only the detail is lacking. I also should note that I run the Oppo through a DVDO VP30 video processor, whereas my D-VHS tapes are not. The VP30/Oppo combination does help to level the playing field somewhat above what the Oppo can do on its own.

I have to wonder how they are going to price the HD DVDs. Will they be priced close to standard DVD, or will they price them closer to laserdiscs. That will have a lot to do with how quickly HD DVD spreads to the masses, and how quickly improvements in technology will be implemented. Anyone heard anything about price for the HD DVD media? I think this will have a lot to do with the acceptance of HD DVD, and determe whether HD DVD follows standard DVD to success, or falls flat for several years (no pun intended) like DVD-audio and SACD. HD DVD will however certainly be much more successful than laserdisc or D-VHS right out of the gate.

What I've seen using a scaler with standard DVD is that blacks and color is improved to near HD quality, only the detail is lacking. I also should note that I run the Oppo through a DVDO VP30 video processor, whereas my D-VHS tapes are not. The VP30/Oppo combination does help to level the playing field somewhat above what the Oppo can do on its own.
OK, I'll bite - why would you buy an Oppo - or any upscaling DVD player - when you already have a $2000 high-resolution video scaler?!? :confused:

I would've just bought a high-end Denon or something with that kind of firepower on the back end ...

Does the Oppo have a "Last Memory" feature? Everytime I turn mine off, I have to search for the last scene I was watching.

Does the Oppo have a "Last Memory" feature? Everytime I turn mine off, I have to search for the last scene I was watching.

The latest firmware update (1111B) added a 'last disk' memory function which I believe retains the last place stopped.

Does the Oppo have a "Last Memory" feature? Everytime I turn mine off, I have to search for the last scene I was watching.
See item 9 in the firmware release notes (http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h_firmware_1022_release_note.html). Essentially, when you want to stop watching and turn off the player:

1) While the movie's playing, hit Eject. The player will flash a message "Setting breakpoint..." (or something like that).

2) When the tray ejects, hit the power button to turn off the player. The tray will retract automatically.

3) When you power the player on again, it will show a message: "SELECT Key: Jump to the breakpoint; other key: Play from beginning". Hit SELECT to go back to where you were.

It's a little awkward, but it's impressive that the Oppo firmware engineers managed to work around the limitations of the player hardware to implement this in the first place.

Incidentally, I believe this only works with the version 2 (black w/shiny buttons) and version 3 (black/silver w/glow-in-the-dark buttons) remotes. The original silver remote sends the same signal for "Select" and "Play", but if you got your Oppo anytime recently, it shouldn't be a problem.

Question #1 on using DVE (Digital Video Estentials) to tweak my RPTV HDTV Wide Screen with DVI.

I think on the DVD it said you cant use DVE to tune on a HDMI connection. Is this true or did I miss something. If it is, how do you tweak brightness?

Question #2
Also, (Im a newbie) what does the OPPO do with DVD (most of them) that are in Wide Screen, does it have a Zoom to fill the screen to take away the black bars, do you loose some of the content when you do this? Or does is somehow stretch it all making it still look good?

OK, I'll bite - why would you buy an Oppo - or any upscaling DVD player - when you already have a $2000 high-resolution video scaler?!? :confused:

I would've just bought a high-end Denon or something with that kind of firepower on the back end ...

First of all, I paid substantially less than $2k for the VP30, in fact I paid about $1k for both the VP30 and the Oppo combined when getting the preorder discounts for the VP30 and $1k trade-in for an HD+.

And the Oppo and VP30 just get along very nicely, the VP30 helping take the Oppo to another level. Also, the Oppo wouldn't even work (with DVI) in my system without the VP30 because I only have a component connection going into my RPTV, and the VP30 converts 720p DVI from the Oppo into 1080i component. The VP30 also is used for laserdisc player, HD tuner (DVI), non-scaling DVD recorder, and for a SDI DVD player, and acts as a switcher for all the toys.

As to a high-end Denon, the only one that would have any interest for me is the 5910, and I don't know what the street price is, but retail is $3,500. And by the way, the 5910 uses the DVDO scaler, and isn't region-free, needed to play about 10% of my discs. All the upscaling Denons use HDCP, the Oppo doesn't, making it one of the few upscaling players compatible with my display. I just today pre-ordered "The Incredible Shrinking Man" '57 PAL region 2 DVD from Amazon.co.uk. The Oppo will play it, the Denons won't.

And now having said all that, even if I had the 5910 and a display that would work with it, I'll still get the VP30 for everything it brings to the table.

What exactly does the Wide/SQZ mode do, will it chop off some of the picture?

What exactly does the Wide/SQZ mode do, will it chop off some of the picture?Wide/SQZ mode does not chop off anything, it automatically squeezes a 4:3 image horizontally (pillar-boxes it) for a widescreen TV.

We'll see. Personally I think the difference will be more like going from laserdisc to DVD, based on what I've seen so far, at least in the beginning. Of course, you're right -- given enough time, there will be improvements, including 1080p and greatly improved displays. But this will all take awhile, probably until prices become affordable to attract a mass audience to HD DVD. And eventually displays will go above 1080p and then HD DVD (I include Bluray here) will need to be scaled to even higher levels.

What I've seen using a scaler with standard DVD is that blacks and color is improved to near HD quality, only the detail is lacking. I also should note that I run the Oppo through a DVDO VP30 video processor, whereas my D-VHS tapes are not. The VP30/Oppo combination does help to level the playing field somewhat above what the Oppo can do on its own.

I have to wonder how they are going to price the HD DVDs. Will they be priced close to standard DVD, or will they price them closer to laserdiscs. That will have a lot to do with how quickly HD DVD spreads to the masses, and how quickly improvements in technology will be implemented. Anyone heard anything about price for the HD DVD media? I think this will have a lot to do with the acceptance of HD DVD, and determe whether HD DVD follows standard DVD to success, or falls flat for several years (no pun intended) like DVD-audio and SACD. HD DVD will however certainly be much more successful than laserdisc or D-VHS right out of the gate.

I do wonder how quickly HD will take hold. DVD took quite a while and that worked on the TVs everybody already had. HD might be something like satellite television (in the UK) where there is a maximum level of interest that is reached fairly quickly; after all , to go the whole HD hog is very expensive and for most people--non cinephiles--entirely unnessary. They'd still be happy with VHS. If this is the case then the amount of movies available on HD will take maybe 15 years to reach the near saturation levels of those available on SD DVD, where even very obscure old movies and arthouse features are widely available: in which case the oppo and its sucessors are going to be necessary for a very long time indeed.

That's my fear, anyway.

Dave

[QUOTE=ScottChez]Question #1 on using DVE (Digital Video Estentials) to tweak my RPTV HDTV Wide Screen with DVI.

I think on the DVD it said you cant use DVE to tune on a HDMI connection. Is this true or did I miss something. If it is, how do you tweak brightness?

...Really? must have missed that disclaimer! Can anyone verify this?

[QUOTE=ScottChez]Question #1 on using DVE (Digital Video Estentials) to tweak my RPTV HDTV Wide Screen with DVI.

I think on the DVD it said you cant use DVE to tune on a HDMI connection. Is this true or did I miss something. If it is, how do you tweak brightness?

...Really? must have missed that disclaimer! Can anyone verify this?

It's obviously a mistake--I've used it successfully DVI-HDMI.

Dave

Could "Turn off front Display while playing a DVD or CD" be added to the Wishlist.

Just like the Denon recievers have?

Be nice not to have the display on when watching movies.

Could "Turn off front Display while playing a DVD or CD" be added to the Wishlist.

Just like the Denon recievers have?

Be nice not to have the display on when watching movies.


See page 22 of the manual for light control under the General Setup.
http://www.oppodigital.com/Download/OPDV-971H_Manual.pdf

See page 22 of the manual for light control under the General Setup.
http://www.oppodigital.com/Download/OPDV-971H_Manual.pdf

I mean the display not the LED lights :)

We have a new Firmware in Europe.
It`s the 1226 made for the european model.
livingcinema.nl/public/bbk/12262005/OPDV971H-E-1226_4.iso
This on is working on my US OPPO OPDV971H with the old black and the 3rd style remote.

What is new with the 1226

1. Added ID3 tags for MP3 files.
2. Improved explorer support: 20 supported characters.
3. Added text scrolling (14 shown; 6 scroll)
4. Audio Delay up to 120ms.
4. DVI syncronization error fixed. Image no longer shifts at 720p/1080i.
5. PAL settings are now remembered.

For more information
livingcinema.nl - klick "LivingCinema Forum" - "BBK Upgrades" - "BBK OPDV-971H-E remote specific firmwares 12-26-2005"

[QUOTE=CJayB]We'll see. Personally I think the difference will be more like going from laserdisc to DVD,QUOTE]
I would tend to disagree. On paper I think you're right, but just like the varying quality of DVD's it's always going to depend on the transfer. After studios get done tweaking their transfers with edge enhancement etc. we'll probably wind up with something closer to cable HDTV in a lot of cases. I find presentations on my Oppo to be superior in many cases. Yes, occasionally I'll find programming that is superior picture wise, however this is usually on stations like INHD where programming is tweaked specifically to show off HDTV. Kind of like the Demo records that used to be offered with Stereo Hifi's back in the 1960's. These really showed off the sonic potential of stereo sound however many real world situations, even today, often lack in sound quality. I also don't think the jump from laserdisc to DVD is going to be quite that much of a leap for DVD to HD DVD/BR DVD.

[QUOTE=CJayB]First of all, I paid substantially less than $2k for the VP30, in fact I paid about $1k for both the VP30 and the Oppo combined when getting the preorder discounts for the VP30 and $1k trade-in for an HD+.

And the Oppo and VP30 just get along very nicely, the VP30 helping take the Oppo to another level. Also, the Oppo wouldn't even work (with DVI) in my system without the VP30 because I only have a component connection going into my RPTV, and the VP30 converts 720p DVI from the Oppo into 1080i component. The VP30 also is used for laserdisc player, HD tuner (DVI), non-scaling DVD recorder, and for a SDI DVD player, and acts as a switcher for all the toys....

So how does the VP30/Oppo combination compare with the VP30/SDI DVD player combination?

I also have a VP30 and was considering an SDI mod down the road, but just adding an Oppo would be a lot easier. I don't have an Oppo yet (although I am thinking about getting one for the bedroom TV).

[QUOTE=CJayB]First of all, I paid substantially less than $2k for the VP30, in fact I paid about $1k for both the VP30 and the Oppo combined when getting the preorder discounts for the VP30 and $1k trade-in for an HD+.

And the Oppo and VP30 just get along very nicely, the VP30 helping take the Oppo to another level. Also, the Oppo wouldn't even work (with DVI) in my system without the VP30 because I only have a component connection going into my RPTV, and the VP30 converts 720p DVI from the Oppo into 1080i component. The VP30 also is used for laserdisc player, HD tuner (DVI), non-scaling DVD recorder, and for a SDI DVD player, and acts as a switcher for all the toys....

So how does the VP30/Oppo combination compare with the VP30/SDI DVD player combination?

I also have a VP30 and was considering an SDI mod down the road, but just adding an Oppo would be a lot easier. I don't have an Oppo yet (although I am thinking about getting one for the bedroom TV).

I've reported on this earlier in either this thread or the other large thread (I never remember which thread I'm in), but in summary, I use the SDI Panasonic RP-91 for about 30% of my viewing and the Oppo for the other 70%.

SDI is slightly more filmlike than the Oppo, but the Oppo produces a sharper and slightly more detailed image that I like; many, I'm sure, would prefer SDI most of the time because it is slightly more filmlike. Also I have to have SDI converted to component for my display, so if you have a DVI/HDMI path to your display, the SDI would likely be better; but then again, so would the Oppo.

It's really a close call. Originally I only got the Oppo to use with non-critical viewing to save wear and tear on the more expensive SDI equipment, but since the 10/22 firmware, the Oppo has become my first choice for viewing.

I can say this, I never would have gotten the Panasonic upgraded and the SDI module for the HD (which I had before the VP30) if I'd had the Oppo. Oppo = $200 (or less). SDI upgrade to Oppo or some other player and SDI module for the VP30 = about $700, cheaper if you can solder well and do the SDI upgrade to the DVD player yourself. Whatever small benefits might be found with SDI are not worth the cost in my opinion. I wish the Oppo had come out about a year sooner.

A few last notes: Originally with the iScan HD I could only use 480p DVI from the Oppo, now with the VP30 I can also use higher quality 1080i or 720p from the Oppo, and I find that the better the image is going into the VP30, the better the image going out (even when converting 720p to 1080i for my display). And with SDI you only get 480i input. With SDI you also use the Silicon Image deinterlacing in the VP30 instead of the DCDI deinterlacing with the Oppo. On occasion for film sources, I prefer the VP30, but most of the time I think the DCDI deinterlacing is slightly better. Having both SDI and the Oppo, I can pick and choose which deinterlacing method is best for whatever I'm watching.

Sorry, I've probably rambled on to the point where I'm making the SDI decision harder instead of easier.

We have a new Firmware in Europe.
It`s the 1226 made for the european model.
livingcinema.nl/public/bbk/12262005/OPDV971H-E-1226_4.iso
This on is working on my US OPPO OPDV971H with the old black and the 3rd style remote.

What is new with the 1226

1. Added ID3 tags for MP3 files.
2. Improved explorer support: 20 supported characters.
3. Added text scrolling (14 shown; 6 scroll)
4. Audio Delay up to 120ms.
4. DVI syncronization error fixed. Image no longer shifts at 720p/1080i.
5. PAL settings are now remembered.

For more information
livingcinema.nl - klick "LivingCinema Forum" - "BBK Upgrades" - "BBK OPDV-971H-E remote specific firmwares 12-26-2005"

Is this one of the beta firmware?... or was this firmware specifically released for BBK/OPPO customers?

[QUOTE=CJayB]We'll see. Personally I think the difference will be more like going from laserdisc to DVD,QUOTE]


I have thought about this quite a bit. Before DVD's we had Laserdisc's. The laserdisc owners were all videophiles at some level. I believe for HD-DVD to have the marketing penetration DVD has the software will need to be price competitive with regular dvd's. In other words a standard dvd @ $15 the HD version @ $18 or less. I you must remember there is a huge experience difference from vhs to 480p dvd. That difference from 480p to 720p or 1080i (the highest most displays will go for the next few years) is not as noticeable. Also there was a huge difference between vhs audio and dvd audio, not to mention the size of the media. For the average viewer, it is all about experience. I don't think HD-DVD will achieve mass market acceptance all that quickly. Just look at SACD and DVD-Audio. My concern is a real lack of good software even for our crowd.

Is there a Universal Remote that works especially well with the Oppo DVD? And are there any that should be avoided?

Thanks,

Larry

Is there a Universal Remote that works especially well with the Oppo DVD? And are there any that should be avoided?

Thanks,

Larry

I bought the Harmony 676 the other day and did not have to tweak things (location of Chapter advances and rewind) too much. I am sure that any Harmony will work well with the Oppo.

We have a new Firmware in Europe.
It`s the 1226 made for the european model.
livingcinema.nl/public/bbk/12262005/OPDV971H-E-1226_4.iso
This on is working on my US OPPO OPDV971H with the old black and the 3rd style remote.

What is new with the 1226

1. Added ID3 tags for MP3 files.
2. Improved explorer support: 20 supported characters.
3. Added text scrolling (14 shown; 6 scroll)
4. Audio Delay up to 120ms.
4. DVI syncronization error fixed. Image no longer shifts at 720p/1080i.
5. PAL settings are now remembered.

For more information
livingcinema.nl - klick "LivingCinema Forum" - "BBK Upgrades" - "BBK OPDV-971H-E remote specific firmwares 12-26-2005"


I checked this out on my US spec'd oppo and it appears to work fine--I've only had a brief look, though. It does turn back time with the fonts, but it also improves PAL support. Initial report: I watched fight club last night on the old firmware (1022b) and the scene where the IKEA words float accross the screen was badly torn. Played it again this morning after the update and it's much smoother. Haven't checked out the new audio delay, yet, but 120ms is certainly on the menu; nor have I checked whether it synchs 50hz with my ae700. I'll do some more testing this afternoon and get back to you all.

Dave

I am using the Harmony 520 only sold by Walmart, Target, and a few others it MSP is $99.
It works great with the Oppo and its lits price is have that of other Harmony remotes. I like it better than some of the more expensive remotes.

I am using the Harmony 520 only sold by Walmart, Target, and a few others it MSP is $99.
It works great with the Oppo and its lits price is have that of other Harmony remotes. I like it better than some of the more expensive remotes.

Which OEM remote do you have? I have a new Oppo DVD player, with the black remote, and the Harmony 520 does not operate the "skip" commands, as programmed from the Logitech database. I am pretty sure I can fix it by learning the command from the OEM remote, but I was wondering what your experience has been with the accuracy of the database for the 520.

...Also, the Oppo wouldn't even work (with DVI) in my system without the VP30 because I only have a component connection going into my RPTV, and the VP30 converts 720p DVI from the Oppo into 1080i component. ...

Woa, isn't that in violation of the HDCP standard? The VP30 has provided an "analog hole" for a HD signal. The VP30 is apparently old enough to do this, but is there a risk of the Oppo stopping its upconversion if the encryption code for the VP30 gets on a "compromise" list?

Woa, isn't that in violation of the HDCP standard? The VP30 has provided an "analog hole" for a HD signal. The VP30 is apparently old enough to do this, but is there a risk of the Oppo stopping its upconversion if the encryption code for the VP30 gets on a "compromise" list?

No, because the Oppo does not implement HDCP.

In reading that review I have a question that I've searched on but is still unclear to me:

The Oppo is cited as being "non-HDCP compliant" and my Sony GWII's DVI input IS HDCP-compliant. Does this mean the Oppo is not compatible w/my TV, or maybe this is only an issue if the source is HDCP-protected?

I hope the answer is that DVDs are not HDCP-protected and therefore this is a non-issue? Looking to buy one of these puppies.

The HDCP issue has gotten pretty murky, at least to me. I know that most DVDs (I have played) are not HDCP, but some act like they are. This I have determined by noting which ones up-convert to 720p/1080i on a Zenith player over component outputs. For instance, "Castaway" will NOT up-convert over component. It WILL upconvert over DVI using the Oppo. I assumed that meant that the player was HDCP compliant. (My display claims HDCP compliance over DVI.) Now I see this non-compliance remark in that review, so I searched the Oppo website for any claim of HDCP compliance, and all I found was a weasal-worded claim that it supported HDCP-compliant displays. Well, of course an HDCP-compliant display accepts un-encrypted signals! Is that "support"? Not that I am campaigning for Oppo to encrypt its outputs, but I am wondering what the current state of affairs actually IS with all this HDCP business.

The argument in the DVD lawsuit was that up-scaling above 480p over component provided an "analog hole" for the safety of digitally encrypted signals. Now I am seeing that the Oppo is providing un-encrypted signals over a digital link. I fail to see that is any safer than an analog link; an un-encrypted signal is in the clear, be it analog or digital.

The Harmony data base was very good for me. You can teach the skip comands to the 520 remote. It is not hard to do. You can set any button you want there is information on the Harmony web for advanced settings. I like the size of the 520 and the battery life has been very good so far. I have had it for about two months and I am on the original batteries. I had to change the batteries very often with my earlier Harmony remote.

Which OEM remote do you have? I have a new Oppo DVD player, with the black remote, and the Harmony 520 does not operate the "skip" commands, as programmed from the Logitech database. I am pretty sure I can fix it by learning the command from the OEM remote, but I was wondering what your experience has been with the accuracy of the database for the 520.

> I also have the 520 from Logitech. I already owned another Logitech remote- but fell for the cool looks of the 520. Now, unfortunetly, I wish I'd kept my old remote. The 520 is very un-ergonomic. You have to press some of the buttons so hard to activate them you'll start getting sore fingers- the metals bottons have a horrible "clicking" noise to them- and sometimes get stuck ( I pressed Vol.Up several times and the volume kept going up and up....) while the rubber buttons in the middle of the remote are almost impossible to press because they are so tightly spaced together- as well as requiring a very strong pressing action.
Don't do what I did and fall for this remotes cools looks and reasonable price- there are other far better Harmony remotes available- theres actually a seperate thread on AVS for the 520 and a lot of users say the same thing I do.
I'd definetely recommend a Harmony- just not this one- they all work the same- u just have to decide which is the best one from an ergonomic point of view. I've got sore fingers from the 520!

The HDCP issue has gotten pretty murky, at least to me. I know that most DVDs (I have played) are not HDCP, but some act like they are. This I have determined by noting which ones up-convert to 720p/1080i on a Zenith player over component outputs. For instance, "Castaway" will NOT up-convert over component. It WILL upconvert over DVI using the Oppo. I assumed that meant that the player was HDCP compliant. (My display claims HDCP compliance over DVI.) Now I see this non-compliance remark in that review, so I searched the Oppo website for any claim of HDCP compliance, and all I found was a weasal-worded claim that it supported HDCP-compliant displays. Well, of course an HDCP-compliant display accepts un-encrypted signals! Is that "support"? Not that I am campaigning for Oppo to encrypt its outputs, but I am wondering what the current state of affairs actually IS with all this HDCP business.

The argument in the DVD lawsuit was that up-scaling above 480p over component provided an "analog hole" for the safety of digitally encrypted signals. Now I am seeing that the Oppo is providing un-encrypted signals over a digital link. I fail to see that is any safer than an analog link; an un-encrypted signal is in the clear, be it analog or digital.

HDCP is a device-to-device protocol to encrypt digital connections over DVI and HDMI. It is not tied to media, like individual DVD discs, and it applies only to digital (HDMI or DVI) connections. The rules are actually pretty simple: HDCP-compliant display devices (TVs) will accept input from any playback device (DVD player), whether the playback device is HDCP compliant or not. HDCP-compliant playback devices will only send output to HDCP compliant displays.

The Oppo does not implement HDCP. It will display its full range of resolutions to any DVI or HDCP TV set, whether or not that set is itself HDCP compliant, and regardless of any copyright flags in the DVD media. The Oppo is compatible with any TV that accepts DVI or HDMI.

Note that the Oppo's DVI output is digital only, so you cannot use a DVI to VGA adapter to connect it to a TV's VGA port. You have to use DVI or a DVI to HDMI cable.

There is no such thing as an "HDCP DVD", and HDCP has nothing to do with component video outputs. The reason that many DVDs will not upconvert over component on your Zenith player is because upconverting players are required to limit output of copyrighted DVDs to 480p over analog connections.

Component outputs are not an issue with the Oppo, because the Oppo can only display 480i over component. This is not for copyright reasons, this is simply because signals sent to the component outputs do not go through the Faroudja scaler chip. It is not physically possible for the Oppo to upconvert over component.

Which OEM remote do you have? I have a new Oppo DVD player, with the black remote, and the Harmony 520 does not operate the "skip" commands, as programmed from the Logitech database. I am pretty sure I can fix it by learning the command from the OEM remote, but I was wondering what your experience has been with the accuracy of the database for the 520.


The skip commands on the 676 were originally in the customized button area for me. I just reprogrammed to be on the skip keys with the other DVD control keys. I will always keep my original remote handy for any high end tweaks that I would like to perform on any of my electronic devices, but for day to day control, I am extremely satisfied with my Harmony 676.

Besides, there is also a $50 mail in rebate for it right now, bringing it a little closer to the cost of the 520. See the following link: Harmony Rebate and Sweepstakes (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=633299)

I checked this out on my US spec'd oppo and it appears to work fine--I've only had a brief look, though. It does turn back time with the fonts, but it also improves PAL support. Initial report: I watched fight club last night on the old firmware (1022b) and the scene where the IKEA words float accross the screen was badly torn. Played it again this morning after the update and it's much smoother. Haven't checked out the new audio delay, yet, but 120ms is certainly on the menu; nor have I checked whether it synchs 50hz with my ae700. I'll do some more testing this afternoon and get back to you all.

Dave


Well, I've done a bit more testing with the 1226 firmware, and there is some good news. The 120ms audio delay is very useful. My bogey disc for lip-synch is the R2 Ben-Hur, and with the 120ms now supplied by the oppo and the 70ms I can get out of my receiver that's finally in synch; other discs that were tolerable now look spot on. Also the oppo bri, con, sat settings are now remembered when playing PAL discs. Lastly, on the plus side, there is no shifting issue on my display (ae700) as there was with 1111b and the brightness is also fixed (my oppo settings are now bri -4, con +2). On the minus side, the oppo still doesn't properly synch with the ae700, which still gives 750/60p (i.e., 720p @ 60hz) for PAL discs. Hopefully when oppo do their major update this will be sorted. This means that the bit about Fightclub on the above post must have been a trick of the early morning light. It's still tearing.

The upgrade is worth it, but there's room for improvement.

Dave

Is there a Universal Remote that works especially well with the Oppo DVD? And are there any that should be avoided?

Thanks,

Larry

My MX-700 works well with the Oppo. Don't know if the database has the Oppo, as I always use learn mode to populate my MX-700, but my remote has a wide range angle-wise, as my Oppo is on my side wall making almost a 90° angle with me and the screen, and when I point the remote at the screen, the Oppo responds without problem.

Doug

If this is the case then the amount of movies available on HD will take maybe 15 years to reach the near saturation levels of those available on SD DVD, where even very obscure old movies and arthouse features are widely available: in which case the oppo and its sucessors are going to be necessary for a very long time indeed.

At which time how many competitors will HDDVD have? I'm talking HD-VOD and DVRs with massive hard disks; there's a technology that will be able to keep up with resolution and bandwith advances in real-time. With recent revelations into how long data can last on a burned DVD/CD I don't know that HDDVDs will have a huge long term advantage over magnetic tapes insofar as storage lifetime is concerned.

My concern is that the technology itself will ultimately be a flash in the pan, regardless of who wins the was to choose the format.

...There is no such thing as an "HDCP DVD", and HDCP has nothing to do with component video outputs. The reason that many DVDs will not upconvert over component on your Zenith player is because upconverting players are required to limit output of copyrighted DVDs to 480p over analog connections...


All DVDs are copyrighted, and all the major releases use the DVD encryption that was crypto-analyzed some time ago. But some DVDs up-convert over component, and some don't, so there is another difference. There may not be such a thing as HDCP DVD, especially since DVDs are not HD, but there is certainly something that causes one DVD to up-convert over component, and another won't.

All DVDs are copyrighted, and all the major releases use the DVD encryption that was crypto-analyzed some time ago. But some DVDs up-convert over component, and some don't, so there is another difference. There may not be such a thing as HDCP DVD, especially since DVDs are not HD, but there is certainly something that causes one DVD to up-convert over component, and another won't.


The DVDs that can be upconverted over component are ones that are not encoded with CSS encryption. CSS, Content Scrambling System, is the encryption that was broken some time ago as you say. That is what I meant (and what I should have said) by "copyrighted dvds". Not all major releases are encoded with CSS, for whatever reason. Here is an old list (http://www.videolan.org/removed/freedvd.html) of movies that were released without CSS.

There is nothing in CSS which physically prevents DVD players from upconverting over component. However, any manufacturer who wants to produce a DVD player that can play CSS-encoded material has to obtain a CSS licence from the DVD Consortium, and part of the CSS licence forbids the upconversion of CSS-encoded material over analog connections. So while it isn't really illegal to manufacture a player that can do that, it is a violation of the CSS licence agreement. This licence also requires that players enforce region code restrictions. And just as there are players which can be hacked or which entirely ignore region code restrictions, there are some players which will upconvert anything over component. Most players adhere to the licence, however.

Again, though, this is totally different from HDCP.

Got my Oppo and new TV (Samsung HLR 5067) in the past few weeks. I love this DVD player! The picture is stunning.

I am, however, confused by some of the settings. I guess I just don't understand what some of them mean. Could I get some clarification on the following?

My setup is: Video connected to TV via DVI-HDMI. Audio connected to receiver via Optical Digital. I have a 5.1 surround setup.


(General Setup Page)

DVD-Audio mode:
DVD-Audio or DVD-Video
I don't understand what this setting will change

Video Mode:
Video 1 or Video 2
What is 3:2 or 2:2 cadence?

(Speaker Setup Page)

Downmix
Do I need to change anything here, if I'm just passing audio to the receiver and have it decoded there?

Front/Center/Rear/Sub
Same question here


(Audio Seup Page)
Do I need to change any of these settings for SPDIF, LPCM, Prologic II, Dolby Digital, if I'm having the receiver handle the audio?


(Preferences Page)

TV Type
Auto, PAL, NTSC
How do I know which to choose?


And one more: Since the native resolution on my TV is 720p, I assume that will probably be the best DVI output setting for this player?


I also saw the thread above commenting on the new firmware release for Europe. Based on the notes, I couldn't discern whether the audio/video sync problem was fixed. Can anyone translate?

thanks for the great thread!

Chris

DVD-Audio mode:
DVD-Audio or DVD-Video
I don't understand what this setting will change Many DVD-Audio disks have a DVD-Video soundtrack as well (DD/DTS). If you want the full DVD-A capability, you set this to "DVD-Audio", and use the 6 analog outputs.
Video Mode:
Video 1 or Video 2
What is 3:2 or 2:2 cadence? If you intend to use the DVI output exclusively, use "Video 2".
3:2 cadence is the sequence used to transfer film-based content (24 frames per second), to DVD (60 fps). 2:2 cadence is the sequence typically found on video-based PAL DVD's. For more detail, read this article (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html) at the "SECRETS of Home Theater & Hifi" website.
Downmix
Do I need to change anything here, if I'm just passing audio to the receiver and have it decoded there?

Front/Center/Rear/Sub
Same question here No to both.
Do I need to change any of these settings for SPDIF, LPCM, Prologic II, Dolby Digital, if I'm having the receiver handle the audio? SPDIF must be set to "raw". LPCM does not matter in your case.
TV Type
Auto, PAL, NTSC
How do I know which to choose? Auto, unless you specifically need to force PAL or NTSC output for your TV. I don't know what country you live in, but in the USA, for example, if you load a PAL DVD and get no signal on your TV, you should try the "NTSC" setting to force PAL to NTSC conversion.
And one more: Since the native resolution on my TV is 720p, I assume that will probably be the best DVI output setting for this player? Yes.
I also saw the thread above commenting on the new firmware release for Europe. Based on the notes, I couldn't discern whether the audio/video sync problem was fixed. Can anyone translate? OPPO is still working on sync, but in the mean time, the 120ms audio delay will help in some cases.

Gary

Well, I've done a bit more testing with the 1226 firmware, and there is some good news. The 120ms audio delay is very useful. My bogey disc for lip-synch is the R2 Ben-Hur, and with the 120ms now supplied by the oppo and the 70ms I can get out of my receiver that's finally in synch; other discs that were tolerable now look spot on. Also the oppo bri, con, sat settings are now remembered when playing PAL discs. Lastly, on the plus side, there is no shifting issue on my display (ae700) as there was with 1111b and the brightness is also fixed (my oppo settings are now bri -4, con +2). On the minus side, the oppo still doesn't properly synch with the ae700, which still gives 750/60p (i.e., 720p @ 60hz) for PAL discs. Hopefully when oppo do their major update this will be sorted. This means that the bit about Fightclub on the above post must have been a trick of the early morning light. It's still tearing.

The upgrade is worth it, but there's room for improvement.

Dave

I just checked with oppo regarding 1226 firmware and only concern they have is the 120ms delay due to added noise in the video out. Any other delay settings are supposed to be good. This firmware was supposed to be a x-mas present, but since they found some unexpected bugs, they decided to not release it. This firmware was supposed to fix the screen shifting along with other added PAL features, so I'll give it a try on the Westy 37" LCD. The next major firmware release is expected within a month or two, so this beta firmware is something to play around for those impatient ones. Just make sure to download the right version that matches your remote if you're planing to give it a try.

Since NTSC and PAL video settings are different, is there a correct brightness/contrast level that people recommend (I know 0/0 for NTSC). I don't have the PAL versions of AVIA/DVE to test this out (I'm not sure using the NTSC versions converted to PAL would be right either).

I tried the Beta firmware.

It put PAL on default I think, cause After the Upgrade I didnt have any picture from the OPPO.

I had to reinstall the 1111B firmware.

The other people must have a PAL display, since mine is NTSC I couldn't get into the setup to change my display to NTSC or Auto.

Yup, 1226 sets PAL as the default. My oppo logo background menu gets vertically squeezed when set to auto at 1080i, but changing to NTSC unsqueeze it. The 720p settings seems to work fine in both PAL and NTSC. The firmware did fix the screen shifting on the Westy 37" LCD, though. I'll play with this firmware for little bit, but I think I'm going back to1022 unless it improves other things.

Edited: Well, I've gave feedback to oppo and asked if I can get the NTSC default version of 1226 firmware. It seems that 1080i on 1226 firmware seems to have improved PQ over 720p. Maybe some of the settings have changed, but I'll report back after I play with this firmware some more.

It seems that 1080i on 1226 firmware seems to have improved PQ over 720p. Maybe some of the settings have changed, but I'll report back after I play with this firmware some more.
I agree. Though the 1226 firmware did not resolve the downward vertical shift I'd been experiencing on my Panny 50U-series plasma, it does appear to have a significantly improved 1080i PQ(with PAL discs, at least). I've also noticed a marked improvement in the quality of the Zoom function, though the zoom icon now fails to fade after a few seconds(as mentioned on the Dutch board).
Is it possible that this firmware now appropriates the Faroudja chip for the zoom function instead of the Mediatek chip?
The difference does appear to be quite dramatic...
(or is it, perhaps, simply a result of the 1080i PQ improvements?)
Lastly, the additional delay options will be welcome, as a 60ms delay(as opposed to 50ms) seems to do a better job with the audio synch on my PAL discs.

(please bear in mind that these are (late night)"naked eye" evaluations, only)
hmmm.... kind of whets one appetite for an official, de-bugged US firmware release...

Peter

Greetings,

Just ordered the OPPO to replace my Panny S-97. I need to get a DVI to HDMI (female) adapter for the OPPO's DVI- to HDMI ( already have HDMI cable wired in wall to projector )

Is the DVI- jack on the OPPO male or female?

Thanks,
-Alex

Greetings,

Just ordered the OPPO to replace my Panny S-97. I need to get a DVI to HDMI (female) adapter for the OPPO's DVI- to HDMI ( already have HDMI cable wired in wall to projector )

Is the DVI- jack on the OPPO male or female?

Thanks,
-Alex

Alex,
The Oppo employs a female DVI jack.
It currently ships with a male DVI => female HDMI cable of reasonable quality in addition to a DVI => DVI cable.
(This assumes the male as the connection with exposed pins/blades ;) )
Hope this helps.

Peter

Thanks Much Peter!

Currently have a 50' HDMI run (in-wall) and needed to go from the oppo's DVI- to the male hdmi cable run.

THANKS AGAIN!!!

Cheers,
-Alex

Thanks Much Peter!

Currently have a 50' HDMI run (in-wall) and needed to go from the oppo's DVI- to the male hdmi cable run.

THANKS AGAIN!!!

Cheers,
-Alex
Most welcome, Alex.
You may want to visit the Oppo web page and scrutinize the image of the Oppo's rear panel, just to verify...

http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h_images.html

Peter

I just checked with oppo regarding 1226 firmware and only concern they have is the 120ms delay due to added noise in the video out. Any other delay settings are supposed to be good.

Anybody know what this means? Is it the case that 100ms is fine and 120ms causes a problem? If so, what is the 'noise in the video out'?

Thanks.

Dave

Anybody know what this means? Is it the case that 100ms is fine and 120ms causes a problem? If so, what is the 'noise in the video out'?

Thanks.

Dave

Yes, according to oppo tech support, 120ms audio delay setting intoduces added video artifacts. Well, this delay setting is only availabe with the beta firmware, so unless you're playing with the beta firmware, it's nothing to be concerned about.

BTW, oppo just emailed the NTSC version of the beta 1224b firmware, so I'll play with it once I get home.

Is it possible that this firmware now appropriates the Faroudja chip for the zoom function instead of the Mediatek chip?
The difference does appear to be quite dramatic...
(or is it, perhaps, simply a result of the 1080i PQ improvements?)
Peter

Connect the Oppo analog outputs to a display. Set "Video 2" mode.

If zoom is being done by the Faroudja, zoom should not affect the analog outputs.

If it doesn't, another interesting test would be to see if Wide/SQZ affects the analog outputs with 4:3 material...

Is it possible that this firmware now appropriates the Faroudja chip for the zoom function instead of the Mediatek chip?
The difference does appear to be quite dramatic...


I tested the zoom on 1226 fw at 720p and 1080i--on the ae700 it still looked a awful as ever. The fw is worth it for the extra 50ms delay and the PAL memory fix.

Dave

I tested the zoom on 1226 fw at 720p and 1080i--on the ae700 it still looked a awful as ever. The fw is worth it for the extra 50ms delay and the PAL memory fix.

Dave

The Zoom is still the MTK chipset. OPPO has not made any changes to this feature yet (or to Pillarboxing for that matter).

I tested the zoom on 1226 fw at 720p and 1080i--on the ae700 it still looked a awful as ever

Regrettably, I will have to agree.
As soon as I encountered any scenes with subject motion or significant camera panning, the image quality soon deteriorated.

I do remain excited by the 1080i PQ, however.
Perhaps it is something as simple as a few baseline setting mods in the firmware,
but the image at 1080i in both PAL and NTSC seems noticeably sharper and a bit more stable. The color palette appears much more vivid, as well.

All in all, some positive evidence indicating continued improvement in a player that is already an exceptional value!

Peter

QUESTION

I have my new OPPO connected to my Sony sxrd by component cables to VIDEO 4 (works great).

Comcast cable connected to VIDEO 5 (works great)

When I connect DVI/HDMI from OPPO to VIDEO 6 on the tv I get no picture.

What am I doing wrong?

THANKS

I imagine the 1224 USA beta is the same as the 1226 Europe firmware?

I installed the 1224 beta and I have audio delay option.

Also in the 1111B and 1224B firmware's it shows Macrovision and SACD references?

Could it be we could have an option to disable Macrovision and Have SACD support "Unofficially"?

Regrettably, I will have to agree.
As soon as I encountered any scenes with subject motion or significant camera panning, the image quality soon deteriorated.

I do remain excited by the 1080i PQ, however.
Perhaps it is something as simple as a few baseline setting mods in the firmware,
but the image at 1080i in both PAL and NTSC seems noticeably sharper and a bit more stable. The color palette appears much more vivid, as well.

All in all, some positive evidence indicating continued improvement in a player that is already an exceptional value!

Peter

list of changes noted on the 1226 from livingcinema site:

1. Added ID3 tags for MP3 files.
2. Improved explorer support: 20 supported characters.
3. Added text scrolling (14 shown; 6 scroll)
4. Audio Delay up to 120ms.
4. DVI syncronization error fixed. Image no longer shifts at 720p/1080i.
5. PAL settings are now remembered.


Maybe all it took was DVI sync fix on 1080i. Anyway, 1224b is supposed be the USA version of 1226b so I'll give it a try once I get home. I'll probably recalibrate the screen with oppo again at 1080i to draw any conclusion, but 1080i looked promising on 1226b when I was playing with it last night.

I´ve just installed the 1226 firmware .. I using a z3 projector and have set the output on the bbk/oppo to 720p .. I find that the colors are abit off, even dull and can´t get them quite right .. I´ve had 3 diffrent dvdplayers before which all looked great with the same setting on the z3, so i´m guessing the oppo is the cause of this "problem" .. Do I need to input any special settings on the bri/con/sat on the bbk/oppo? I am mainly using PAL based dvds ..

QUESTION

I have my new OPPO connected to my Sony sxrd by component cables to VIDEO 4 (works great).

Comcast cable connected to VIDEO 5 (works great)

When I connect DVI/HDMI from OPPO to VIDEO 6 on the tv I get no picture.

What am I doing wrong?

THANKS

You may be in a DVI resolution which is not supported by your Sony SXRD. Stop all disc playback then press DVI (lower left hand corner of your remote). If you still can't get an image, switch to the component inputs, change the DVI mode to 720p, then switch back the DVI input.

Also you need to remember that the Sony does not directly synch with the OPDV971H all the time. As such, there are instances where you will need to switch inputs back and forth to synch the image again.

Hi, I'm new to the forum and having an issue with my Oppo DV91H. I just got it today, and hooked it up to my Sony KV-34HS420 tv set. As was mentioned in earlier posts, 480p jitters, 720p looks great, and 1080i flickers just a tiny bit.

Anyway, I tried the service menu fix for the 480p jitter (MID3 - VSTT - change from 0 to 1), and it doesn't seem to make any difference at all. Jitter is still there. The guys at Oppo said this was the only fix they knew of for this problem, so I am at a loss. Am I maybe missing something here? I checked to make sure the service menu changes were saved into memory, etc. I guess I should say that I had a Toshiba SD-4980 upconverting player for awhile which did not have any problems at 480p, 720p, or 1080i. The player was crappy, but at least it had a stable picture. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd really like to be able to use 480p to take advantage of the Sony's stretch modes.

You may be in a DVI resolution which is not supported by your Sony SXRD. Stop all disc playback then press DVI (lower left hand corner of your remote). If you still can't get an image, switch to the component inputs, change the DVI mode to 720p, then switch back the DVI input.

Also you need to remember that the Sony does not directly synch with the OPDV971H all the time. As such, there are instances where you will need to switch inputs back and forth to synch the image again.


Heh, that's exactly what i went through and ended up doing.

Another question, does anyone use truelife and ccs with their projector or should I leave them off?

Hi, I'm new to the forum and having an issue with my Oppo DV91H. I just got it today, and hooked it up to my Sony KV-34HS420 tv set. As was mentioned in earlier posts, 480p jitters, 720p looks great, and 1080i flickers just a tiny bit.

Anyway, I tried the service menu fix for the 480p jitter (MID3 - VSTT - change from 0 to 1), and it doesn't seem to make any difference at all. Jitter is still there. The guys at Oppo said this was the only fix they knew of for this problem, so I am at a loss. Am I maybe missing something here? I checked to make sure the service menu changes were saved into memory, etc. I guess I should say that I had a Toshiba SD-4980 upconverting player for awhile which did not have any problems at 480p, 720p, or 1080i. The player was crappy, but at least it had a stable picture. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd really like to be able to use 480p to take advantage of the Sony's stretch modes.

The Oppo is best outputting via DVI to a tv with a native rez of 720p...this is its key strength....unfortunetly its not very good at 1080i or 480....as far as stretching or zooming using the Oppo (for example, if you want to stretch a non-anamorphic DVD to its correct aspect ratio) forget it- its terrible- theres been a lot of discussion on here about this subject....
What I have done is hook up a Zenith DVB318 via component upscaling to 1080i whenever I want to watch a non-anamorphic disc- when I need to zoom- the Zenith is perfect for this....and for Anamorphic discs, I use the Oppo outputting via DVI at 720p.....I have a Samsung HLP5063W native rez 720.

Another question, does anyone use truelife and ccs with their projector or should I leave them off?

See the first post on this thread. It's updated as to current info and opinion. I'd try it both ways and see which you prefer.

Can I just check

This player does not output 480i on DVI?

Another question, does anyone use truelife and ccs with their projector or should I leave them off?

Generally, these should be off. But every system is different, so you will want to play with the settings using several different discs to test. I personally with my RPTV and the 1022 firmware have all the settings either at 0 or Off, except for brightness which is at -3 (firmwares newer than 1022 probably should have brightness set at 0).

Can I just check

This player does not output 480i on DVI?

The Oppo will not do 480i with DVI.

You may be in a DVI resolution which is not supported by your Sony SXRD. Stop all disc playback then press DVI (lower left hand corner of your remote). If you still can't get an image, switch to the component inputs, change the DVI mode to 720p, then switch back the DVI input.

Also you need to remember that the Sony does not directly synch with the OPDV971H all the time. As such, there are instances where you will need to switch inputs back and forth to synch the image again.
Bingo. Based on my own SXRD experience:

1) The TV will not sync to 540p properly. The screen goes black and the display info shows it as 1080i. 480p, 720p, and 1080i all work great, and I keep mine on 1080i.

2) If the Oppo is off when you're already viewing the HDMI input on the TV, the TV will fail to sync when you turn the Oppo on. Same thing if you've got sync, but then turn the Oppo off and on again. The fix in either case is to switch the TV to a different input and then back to Video 6, at which point it will sync. The only time this does problem does not occur is for about 2-3 minutes after the TV is first turned on. As a general rule, just be sure to turn the Oppo on before you switch the TV input. (Or if you have a universal remote, like the Harmony, program it to jump to an unused input and back to Video 6 whenever you're going to watch a DVD.)

Just received my oppo, and I have to say, thus far I am simply annoyed. It took me far too long to GET a picture, weird bug where you can't hit the DVI button to change modes while a disc is in (strange).

When I finally DO get it "working," I find that there is a nice 1 inch bar on the image on my SXRD, which of course, won't do. The oppo service guy said to revert to the 1022 firmware, so I do, only to find out that the "new" remote does not work with this firmware.

So, long story short, it would seem I have a new DVD player that I can't use until they update the firmware again to include a centered image and "new" remote capability.

Is anyone else a little annoyed with oppo? Am I missing something?

The oppo service guy said to revert to the 1022 firmware, so I do, only to find out that the "new" remote does not work with this firmware.

After completing the firmware upgrade...
Turn on Oppo & TV/Monitor.
Eject & remove any disc, then close the tray.
Wait for message "No Disc" to appear in the upper left corner of your monitor.
Press & Hold the "Stop" button on the front of the player (NOT on the remote) for 5 seconds & release.
Message "New RC" should appear briefly in the upper left corner of the monitor.

Your remote should now function properly. :)

Just received my oppo, and I have to say, thus far I am simply annoyed. It took me far too long to GET a picture, weird bug where you can't hit the DVI button to change modes while a disc is in (strange).

When I finally DO get it "working," I find that there is a nice 1 inch bar on the image on my SXRD, which of course, won't do. The oppo service guy said to revert to the 1022 firmware, so I do, only to find out that the "new" remote does not work with this firmware.

So, long story short, it would seem I have a new DVD player that I can't use until they update the firmware again to include a centered image and "new" remote capability.

Is anyone else a little annoyed with oppo? Am I missing something?

I reflashed my Oppo from 1111B to 1022 also. When you do this, you need to tell the player that you have the newer style remote.

You can make the Oppo change which remote configuration it uses:

* Turn on your DVD player and display device.
* Eject any disc that may be inside of the DVD player. Remove the disc and close the tray.
* Wait for the display message "No Disc" to appear in the upper left corner of your display device.
* Press and hold (hard) the Stop button on the front panel of the DVD unit (NOT THE REMOTE) for 5 seconds. Release.


The new message "New RC" will appear briefly in the upper left hand corner of your display unit.

After that, the remote should work normally again.

Just received my oppo, and I have to say, thus far I am simply annoyed. It took me far too long to GET a picture, weird bug where you can't hit the DVI button to change modes while a disc is in (strange).

When I finally DO get it "working," I find that there is a nice 1 inch bar on the image on my SXRD, which of course, won't do. The oppo service guy said to revert to the 1022 firmware, so I do, only to find out that the "new" remote does not work with this firmware.

So, long story short, it would seem I have a new DVD player that I can't use until they update the firmware again to include a centered image and "new" remote capability.

Is anyone else a little annoyed with oppo? Am I missing something?

Life is Zen, if you just breathe deeply and go to the first page of this thread, where most problems are addressed.

There is nothing strange or buggy about having to remove a disc before changing some DVD player settings; many players operate this way.

list of changes noted on the 1226 from livingcinema site:

1. Added ID3 tags for MP3 files.
2. Improved explorer support: 20 supported characters.
3. Added text scrolling (14 shown; 6 scroll)
4. Audio Delay up to 120ms.
4. DVI syncronization error fixed. Image no longer shifts at 720p/1080i.
5. PAL settings are now remembered.


Maybe all it took was DVI sync fix on 1080i. Anyway, 1224b is supposed be the USA version of 1226b so I'll give it a try once I get home. I'll probably recalibrate the screen with oppo again at 1080i to draw any conclusion, but 1080i looked promising on 1226b when I was playing with it last night.

Could you post a link to download the 1224B firmware? I can find the 1226 but not 1224B anywhere.

I didn't know about the holding stop button. I did search the first page, but did not find mention of my problems? I must have missed it.

I downloaded firmware 1226 before I read about holding hard stop to change remotes. 1226 appears to work, in that the new remote works and I have no side bar.

Now my biggest problem (and this is a huge problem) is that the player seemingly forgets its settings when it is powered down. I have to stop play of the disc, and flick through the DVI and P/N settings every time I want to start up a disc. Also, loading a disc after power off seems to take forever. Hopefully these are firmware 1226 bugs. I'll have to check out 1022 with the new remote tomorrow.

Man, I've never had to do so much for a player to work right, heh. I do like the PQ so far from what I've seen, though!

Luckily I do have a harmony remote, because I seriously doubt my girlfriend will be able to set this thing up to watch a DVD. Hopefully I can program a good macro that can stop play, swap the inputs to sync it, press the DVI key a few times, the P/N key a few times, and get it set up for her to watch.

I'm done for the night, this was exhausting, lol. Back at it tomorrow when I'll hopefully figure out what I've done wrong, to make it so hard.

Is anyone familiar enough with the s97 to know if it has similar troubles getting it set up, syncing, forgetting settings?

I had the S97 for a while, sold it, and now have the oppo. I've only had the oppo a few days but video quality wise I feel it is easily the better player. I found the S97 to have a very noisey picture on my CRT based HDTV, and the macroblocking was very apparent. The Oppo is far less noisey and so far the macroblocking has not been an issue. I still have more testing to do but so far I think the Oppo is better. Mine has the 1117 firmware and doesn't lose settings. I've had no issues with it thus far.

What are some good DVDs to rent from NetFlix to show off the OPPO (due to arrive Thursday).

My set is native 1080i

Need to justify to the Wife that the high quality is worth the price, c ompared to what we got now (a normal progrsive scan player).

Could you post a link to download the 1224B firmware? I can find the 1226 but not 1224B anywhere.

Email OPPO if you want a Copy I DID and they emailed the firmware directly to me.

But beware its beta

Could you post a link to download the 1224B firmware? I can find the 1226 but not 1224B anywhere.

Sorry, Oppo sent me the file as an email attachment. You can email Oppo and request for 1224b.

Well, I just finish evaluating 1224b firmware and it's a keeper for me. The screen shifting issue is fixed and more importantly, 1080i actually looks better than 720p on the Westy 37" 1080p LCD display. I've set the audio delay to 80ms and that seems to work best at the moment. I went through few of DVD's.... Fifth Element superbit, and couple of Pixar amination, incredibles and nemo. At 1080i, it seems like my LCD is displaying true 1:1 pixel mapping. All the skin texture details and wrinkles during facial expressions just comes to life.... Everything on the display looks sharper with every detail at 1080i.

I went through the calibration using AVIA and THX optimizer on the Incredible disk. It's just easier for me to set the brightness and contrast using THX which isn't too off from AVIA. Only thing I had to adjust was the contrast by +3 ticks on my display with 1224b firmware from 1022b.

I'm not sure what was the known issue with 1224b other that added video noise at 120ms audio delay setting, but it definately is worth comsuming extra CD-R disk for the benefits gained on the 1080i output. I'm not sure if this firmware will improve anything for those with 720p or 1080i only displays, but for those with 1080p displays, it's definately worth a try.

I think the Subtitle problem is also fixed, I watched Flightplan on 1224 and It displayed the subtitles just fine when the movie required them.

I think the Subtitle problem is also fixed, I watched Flightplan on 1224 and It displayed the subtitles just fine when the movie required them.

Actually....I have mine off, but while I was watching incredibles, when the screen subtitle showed at the principle's office....it gave me a spanish sub.... ("Director") I thought that was funny. Also, some other screen lines were in spanish, when the screen subtitle says "10 years later" it also showed spanish translation. Maybe I should just turn it on...or auto.

I have an copy of The Usual Suspects that is pretty old. It is non-anamorphic widescreen.........so obviously it's small as crap on my 32'' Westinghouse ltv-32w1. Using the zoom on the oppo makes the image look horrible, which I now realize is because it is done with the mediatek chip and not the faroudja. My tv has a built in faroudja chip. If I input a 480i signal from the Usual Suspects disk, will my tv do nice upscaling? Can I hook up the component inputs on the oppo while simultaneously the dvi inputs are hooked up and switch between dvi / component with the remote? If so, how?

Thanks.

I have an copy of The Usual Suspects that is pretty old. It is non-anamorphic widescreen.........so obviously it's small as crap on my 32'' Westinghouse ltv-32w1. Using the zoom on the oppo makes the image look horrible, which I now realize is because it is done with the mediatek chip and not the faroudja. My tv has a built in faroudja chip. If I input a 480i signal from the Usual Suspects disk, will my tv do nice upscaling? Can I hook up the component inputs on the oppo while simultaneously the dvi inputs are hooked up and switch between dvi / component with the remote? If so, how?

Thanks.

Compenent and DVI work simultaneously in Video 1 mode. You'll switch between the two on your TV--using the AV switch.

Dave

Now my biggest problem (and this is a huge problem) is that the player seemingly forgets its settings when it is powered down. I have to stop play of the disc, and flick through the DVI and P/N settings every time I want to start up a disc. Also, loading a disc after power off seems to take forever. Hopefully these are firmware 1226 bugs. I'll have to check out 1022 with the new remote tomorrow.



Try reflashing the 1226 fw as well. This is the first fw that has remembered everything (e.g., Pal settings) that I have used. You problem seems like an anomaly.

Dave

My tv has a built in faroudja chip. If I input a 480i signal from the Usual Suspects disk, will my tv do nice upscaling? Can I hook up the component inputs on the oppo while simultaneously the dvi inputs are hooked up and switch between dvi / component with the remote? If so, how? Your TV may upscale 480i as well as the OPPO, but you will find that the image is noisier due to the analog connection. You can connect both the component and DVI outputs simultaneously, they are live at the same time. You will need to switch between them using the TV's remote. If you do not get a component signal, you may need to set the OPPO to "Video 1" mode.

Oh, Dave just beat me to the answer!

Gary

What are some good DVDs to rent from NetFlix to show off the OPPO (due to arrive Thursday).

Need to justify to the Wife that the high quality is worth the price, compared to what we got now (a normal progrsive scan player). Some movies with excellent PQ:
A Bugs Life: 2-disc Collector's Edition
Toy Story: 10th Anniversary Edition
Ice Age
The Incredibles
I-Robot
LOTR series (Special/Extended Editions)
The Fifth Element (Superbit)
Most of the Superbit titles

If you already have a DVI/HDMI progressive scan player, the improvements may be rather more subtle, taking a more discerning eye to spot them. So judge beforehand whether you should do a comparison for the wife... mine would roll her eyes and get bored and annoyed with the demo! I would rather just pick an awesome movie and let her see that on the OPPO alone.

Gary

Some movies with excellent PQ:
A Bugs Life: 2-disc Collector's Edition
Toy Story: 10th Anniversary Edition
Ice Age
The Incredibles
I-Robot
LOTR series (Special/Extended Editions)
The Fifth Element (Superbit)
Most of the Superbit titles

If you already have a DVI/HDMI progressive scan player, the improvements may be rather more subtle, taking a more discerning eye to spot them. So judge beforehand whether you should do a comparison for the wife... mine would roll her eyes and get bored and annoyed with the demo! I would rather just pick an awesome movie and let her see that on the OPPO alone.

Gary

....if u really want to see a difference better to save money for a HiDef DVD player coming in a few months- difference in picture quality will be very noticable....as long as you have HDMI inputs- it was announced Tuesday Hi Def movies will only be viewable in their full rez via HDMI- via component they will be be dumbed down to a lower resolution....just slightly higher than current DVD is capable of.

Some movies with excellent PQ:
A Bugs Life: 2-disc Collector's Edition
Toy Story: 10th Anniversary Edition
Ice Age
The Incredibles
I-Robot
LOTR series (Special/Extended Editions)
The Fifth Element (Superbit)
Most of the Superbit titles

If you already have a DVI/HDMI progressive scan player, the improvements may be rather more subtle, taking a more discerning eye to spot them. So judge beforehand whether you should do a comparison for the wife... mine would roll her eyes and get bored and annoyed with the demo! I would rather just pick an awesome movie and let her see that on the OPPO alone.

Gary

"Seabiscuit" has an incredible looking image played back on the Oppo- I have over 1100 DVD's and that's one that really stands out for me for picture quality.

Sorry, Oppo sent me the file as an email attachment. You can email Oppo and request for 1224b.

I emailed them last night before going to bed, and this morning I have their reply with the 1224B firmware attached. Color me impressed...

Thanks for previewing the firmware. I'll give it a try this evening.

I noticed on the back there are separate Audio jacks for left right front back and sub

My Receiver will support that, but is it better to use the Fiber Optic for sound or should I used the separate connectors,

Does one method produce better sound or separation than the other?

Picture of back:

http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h_images.html

I noticed on the back there are separate Audio jacks for left right front back and sub

My Receiver will support that, but is it better to use the Fiber Optic for sound or should I used the separate connectors,

Does one method produce better sound or separation than the other?

With the digital connection you're using the DACs in your receiver. With the 6-channel analog connection you're using the DACs in the DVD player. Which is better depends on which unit has the better DACs. If you've got a nice receiver that you're happy with, I'd personally just stick with the digital connection.

DVD-Audio discs require the 6-channel analog connections, however.

The Oppo is best outputting via DVI to a tv with a native rez of 720p...this is its key strength....unfortunetly its not very good at 1080i or 480....as far as stretching or zooming using the Oppo (for example, if you want to stretch a non-anamorphic DVD to its correct aspect ratio) forget it- its terrible- theres been a lot of discussion on here about this subject....
What I have done is hook up a Zenith DVB318 via component upscaling to 1080i whenever I want to watch a non-anamorphic disc- when I need to zoom- the Zenith is perfect for this....and for Anamorphic discs, I use the Oppo outputting via DVI at 720p.....I have a Samsung HLP5063W native rez 720.

Does this sound right to some of you other folks? If the 480p output is this bad on the player (and I mean unwatchable), why even make it an option? 1080i I can understand, because it really looks fine when watching anything that is not stationary. I'm starting to wonder whether or not I got a bum unit (especially after implementing the VSTT fix with no results). Any other comments?

Does this sound right to some of you other folks? If the 480p output is this bad on the player (and I mean unwatchable), why even make it an option? 1080i I can understand, because it really looks fine when watching anything that is not stationary. I'm starting to wonder whether or not I got a bum unit (especially after implementing the VSTT fix with no results). Any other comments?

No, it doesn't sound right. I don't really agree with hsinnott either. 480p and 1080i look just fine with my 971H on my plasma. Either there is a problem between your display and your player, or there is something wrong with your player.

Does this sound right to some of you other folks? If the 480p output is this bad on the player (and I mean unwatchable), why even make it an option? 1080i I can understand, because it really looks fine when watching anything that is not stationary. I'm starting to wonder whether or not I got a bum unit (especially after implementing the VSTT fix with no results). Any other comments?

It certainly isn't my experience with my 34 " Sony XBR 910 1080i direct view CRT. 480p looks fine for what it is. 720p and 1080i look even better here. As has been said many times in this thread, much of the viewing experience is display-dependent.

Dana

It certainly isn't my experience with my 34 " Sony XBR 910 1080i direct view CRT. 480p looks fine for what it is. 720p and 1080i look even better here. As has been said many times in this thread, much of the viewing experience is display-dependent.

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought. Especially considering my $80 Toshiba upconverting player from Costco didn't have any of these problems with my Sony at 480p (although I do understand the guts are much different on the Oppo). I've contacted Oppo again, and from what I've read on this forum and elsewhere, they will in all likelihood do their best to get me going.

I had the S97 for a while, sold it, and now have the oppo. I've only had the oppo a few days but video quality wise I feel it is easily the better player. I found the S97 to have a very noisey picture on my CRT based HDTV, and the macroblocking was very apparent. The Oppo is far less noisey and so far the macroblocking has not been an issue. I still have more testing to do but so far I think the Oppo is better. Mine has the 1117 firmware and doesn't lose settings. I've had no issues with it thus far.

Completely agree. S97 was very noisy. Oppo looks much better on my Samsung HLP5063. Only thing I miss on the S97 are some of the convenience features like 5 disc position memory. But overall, navigation is way better (smoother) on the Oppo too.

I installed the beta firmware, and the added delay seems to get it pretty close, however, I noticed that if I use a delay setting of over 80ms, the L+R stereo downmix that I send to my TV is nothing but static. I went through every audio option and only reducing the delay to 80ms had any affect.


SV

Dear All,
First of all I would like to say Hello!
We are living in Germany and I'm the proud owner of a brand new Oppo 971H since two weeks, which I bought in the USA. It looks really great, even better than my Denon 2910.
We use it in our home theatre with a Sanyo Z3 connected via DVI/HDMI.
I have one question: Does any body have any experience what is a recommended value for the new audio delay parameter? My Oppo has the new firmware 1229 which offers this useful feature. Faroudja's video processing causes a delay (lip-sync) problem of the audio.
The configuration menu offers values from: No, 20 up to 120 ms audio delay.
It would be great if some one could give me a hint.
I never saw such a great forum, it’s really great !!!
Best regards,
Appex

Ok, the Oppo guys just sent me an e-mail saying that, as they have never seen the jitter problem I have continue after the VSTT fix, they are going to send me a new unit. This is some of the best customer service I have ever run across in my years of shopping for consumer electronics, both online and off. The only place I can think of that has ever come close was Crutchfield. We'll see what happens with the new player once I get it here at home and hooked up. Thanks for the help all!

I have another question about connecting the component and dvi simultaneously, concerning audio.

My DVI and my component inputs on my tv each have corresponding L/R RCA analog inputs, which I use. The Oppo has many analog ouputs, 2 L/R fronts and 2 L/R surrounds, among other things. I currently use the 2 L/R fronts for my dvi input to get sound. What will the sound be like if I use the 2 L/R surrounds for my component input to get sound? Pretty much every movie I own has 5.1 sound. I really don't want to have to get up and plug different audio connections in and out of my tv when I occasionally want to use my component inputs over my dvi for old, non-anamorphic dvds...which sadly are some of my favorite movies e.g. tombstone, usual suspects, et als.

No, it doesn't sound right. I don't really agree with hsinnott either. 480p and 1080i look just fine with my 971H on my plasma. Either there is a problem between your display and your player, or there is something wrong with your player.

maybe 480 and 1080 look "fine"....but why waste $200 on a DVD player that looks only "fine" when u can get a $50 player that will look fine too at 480 and maybe 1080i?.....the whole point of he Oppo is to use its DVI output at 720p with a display with a native resolution of 720.

My display is 1080p and I let the Oppo output at 720p and the TV does the second upscaling. Looks better than 1080i->1080p for me.

I give up, there are thousands of posts on this. I have searched and read many.

I can not find that post on the initial setup guide for the Oppo, it had step by step for the settings on the TV and the oppo, What to turn on and off.

Anyone got the post number or link?

My display is 1080p and I let the Oppo output at 720p and the TV does the second upscaling. Looks better than 1080i->1080p for me.

Good point- if it looks good to your eyes then great- regardless of whether its 480/720/1080....

I was wondering what DVD's have readers noticed look the absolute best when played back on their Oppos....?.....Here's 5 that immediately come to mind....

-Seabiscuit
-Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith
-Toy Story2 (re-issue)
-Vertical Limit (Superbit)
-Titanic (3-disc reissue)

...this is viewed on a Samsung 50" DLP via DVI @720p

maybe 480 and 1080 look "fine"....but why waste $200 on a DVD player that looks only "fine" when u can get a $50 player that will look fine too at 480 and maybe 1080i?.....the whole point of he Oppo is to use its DVI output at 720p with a display with a native resolution of 720.

My whole issue was not whether or not 480p or 1080i looked "fine", it was that the 480p output jittered badly, even after implementing the service menu fix mentioned on the board. All I was hoping for was a stable image at 480p, it didn't have to look phenomenal. I just want to take advantage of my tv's stretch modes, which I cannot do at 720p or 1080i.

I was wondering if the type of receiver you are using may be a factor in the audio/video delay people are experiencing...and also maybe perhaps if they are routing the video signal thru their receivers...
I have a Pioneer Elite VSX45TX and have only experienced the much talked about delay twice---and I've watched over 400 movies on the Oppo...when the sync problem happened I turned off and turned back on my DVD player and the problem disappeared.
I send the video signal straight to the tv- not thru the receiver.

My whole issue was not whether or not 480p or 1080i looked "fine", it was that the 480p output jittered badly, even after implementing the service menu fix mentioned on the board. All I was hoping for was a stable image at 480p, it didn't have to look phenomenal. I just want to take advantage of my tv's stretch modes, which I cannot do at 720p or 1080i.

I noticed the jittering too at 480p when I was just dispalying the static blue Oppo logo ....and even at 720p I had a few instances where there was a 'shimmering' effect on the screen- the image seemes to move- not sure if this is jittering but its really annoying---- It was very noticeable watching the movie "The Hours"....
I'd recommend you get a Zenith DVB318 if your budget allows for stretching non-anamorphic dvd's...its also unique as it upconverts over Component video cables to 1080i...from what I've read and from my own experiments, its not possible to get a good picture stretching a non-anamorphic dvd played back on the Oppo- either by using the DVD's Zoom modes, or the stretch modes on my Samsung DLP.

I noticed the jittering too at 480p when I was just dispalying the static blue Oppo logo ....and even at 720p I had a few instances where there was a 'shimmering' effect on the screen- the image seemes to move- not sure if this is jittering but its really annoying---- It was very noticeable watching the movie "The Hours"....
I'd recommend you get a Zenith DVB318 if your budget allows for stretching non-anamorphic dvd's...its also unique as it upconverts over Component video cables to 1080i...from what I've read and from my own experiments, its not possible to get a good picture stretching a non-anamorphic dvd played back on the Oppo- either by using the DVD's Zoom modes, or the stretch modes on my Samsung DLP.

If it only did this during the logo screen, that would be fine. But 480p is all over the place, whether watching a movie or if the player is at the Oppo logo. If my replacement unit is the same (please no), what I will end up doing is using the component out on the Oppo when I want to watch material I want to stretch. I know it's 480i, but I'll get over it. I'm hoping, however, that I just have a problem with my current player and the new one will remedy that.

I've mentioned this before, but all of the OPPO's output resolutions are rock-solid on my Samsung DLP.

Gary

I give up, there are thousands of posts on this. I have searched and read many.

I can not find that post on the initial setup guide for the Oppo, it had step by step for the settings on the TV and the oppo, What to turn on and off.

Anyone got the post number or link? Try this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6722751&&#post6722751), and the first post in this thread. Paul wrote a setup guide as an attachment.

Gary

Just logged on tonight. Why didn't anybody welcome the new forum member Appex? It was his first post and no one responded.

I have another question about connecting the component and dvi simultaneously, concerning audio.

My DVI and my component inputs on my tv each have corresponding L/R RCA analog inputs, which I use. The Oppo has many analog ouputs, 2 L/R fronts and 2 L/R surrounds, among other things. I currently use the 2 L/R fronts for my dvi input to get sound. What will the sound be like if I use the 2 L/R surrounds for my component input to get sound? Pretty much every movie I own has 5.1 sound. I really don't want to have to get up and plug different audio connections in and out of my tv when I occasionally want to use my component inputs over my dvi for old, non-anamorphic dvds...which sadly are some of my favorite movies e.g. tombstone, usual suspects, et als.

The Oppo has 8 analog audio output jacks but only 6 audio DACs.

The "Mixed" output jacks always carry the same signal as the "Front" output jacks, regardless of what your Oppo's audio settings are.

If all you want is downmixed stereo signals for both inputs on your TV, set the Oppo for Downmix=Stereo, use the "Front" jacks for one input and the "Mixed" jacks for the other input.

Or just get a Y adapter cable...

Dear All,
First of all I would like to say Hello!
We are living in Germany and I'm the proud owner of a brand new Oppo 971H since two weeks, which I bought in the USA. It looks really great, even better than my Denon 2910.
We use it in our home theatre with a Sanyo Z3 connected via DVI/HDMI.
I have one question: Does any body have any experience what is a commended value for the new audio delay parameter? My Oppo has the new firmware 1229 which offers this useful feature. Faroudja's video processing causes a delay (lip-sync) problem of the audio.
The configuration menu offers values from: No, 20 up to 120 ms audio delay.
It would be great if some one could give me a hint.
I never saw such a great forum, it’s really great !!!
Best regards,
Appex

I would recommend waiting for the official release. The official release has a bar scale (like the one used for Brightness) for setting the delay. The delay is once again in 10ms incriments, and goes all the way to 100 (it had 120 briefly, but it had issues, and the engineers thought the "Mine goes to 11" joke would be thrown around too much, so they have it to only 100 ms). The default now is 5 (50ms). Dont know if this is recommended, or just what OPPO thought would be a good base for people to start with.

Just logged on tonight. Why didn't anybody welcome the new forum member Appex? It was his first post and no one responded.

Why didn't you, then?

Why didn't you, then?

Didn't know the answer? :p

If it only did this during the logo screen, that would be fine. But 480p is all over the place, whether watching a movie or if the player is at the Oppo logo. If my replacement unit is the same (please no), what I will end up doing is using the component out on the Oppo when I want to watch material I want to stretch. I know it's 480i, but I'll get over it. I'm hoping, however, that I just have a problem with my current player and the new one will remedy that.


I have a KV32HS420 and the jitter on 480p (severe) and 1080i (moderate) are pretty bad... I have been told by others that the player does not seem to sync correctly with the Sony CRT displays. I currently have it is 720p but I also wish I could use the other two modes... Let me know how your replacement works and then I may contact Oppo also. I also have no trouble with my HD DVR in 480p or 1080i no does my philips DVD player in 480P so I am at a loss.

Dear All,
First of all I would like to say Hello!
We are living in Germany and I'm the proud owner of a brand new Oppo 971H since two weeks, which I bought in the USA. It looks really great, even better than my Denon 2910.
We use it in our home theatre with a Sanyo Z3 connected via DVI/HDMI.
I have one question: Does any body have any experience what is a commended value for the new audio delay parameter? My Oppo has the new firmware 1229 which offers this useful feature. Faroudja's video processing causes a delay (lip-sync) problem of the audio.
The configuration menu offers values from: No, 20 up to 120 ms audio delay.
It would be great if some one could give me a hint.
I never saw such a great forum, it’s really great !!!
Best regards,
Appex

Appex, belated welcome to the forum! You might want to try 80 and 100ms at first. 120ms can introduce other problems so is best avoided. Also, make sure that you stop the DVD before you change the delay as changing the deaaly while playing can also introduce new problems.

Lastly, if your receiver has any delay capability you might want to try that too.

Dave

I have a KV32HS420 and the jitter on 480p (severe) and 1080i (moderate) are pretty bad... I have been told by others that the player does not seem to sync correctly with the Sony CRT displays. I currently have it is 720p but I also wish I could use the other two modes... Let me know how your replacement works and then I may contact Oppo also. I also have no trouble with my HD DVR in 480p or 1080i no does my philips DVD player in 480P so I am at a loss.

Have you tried the fix mentioned on this page?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6479534&highlight=Service+Menu+Sony#post6479524

Maybe give it a shot and let us know what your results are.

So I installed 1224B last night.

I'm not sure if the PQ in 1080i is really better than 1022 or 1111B, but it sure is excellent. I set the audio delay to 100ms and it seems perfect. My biggest complaint about the Oppo was the lip sync, and that seems to make it completely unnoticeable. I guess it's one of those things where the audio is always slightly out of sync, but not enough to notice, but when it increases by say 50ms it jumps out at you. The 100ms seems to hide it completely, at least so far.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't get rid of the 1/4" image shift issue in 1080i. The image is still shifted about 1/4" to the left in 1080i compared to 480p. [edit: to clarify, I still don't know for sure if the 1/4" shift is caused by processing in the plasma, or by the Oppo itself]

But I'm not even certain any more that the shift is really a "problem". I used the grid from one of the screens in the THX Optimizer on Empire Strikes Back to try and determine how much over/underscan my plasma has. I put the grid up on the screen in 1080i, and used the zoom out feature on the player, and compared the edges of the grid when zoomed out to what is on the screen normally. What I see is that there is no underscan on my plasma even with the Oppo in 1080i. There is a very slight overscan, and it it more pronounced on the left side of the image, so basically it's a combination of slight overscan and slight image shifting. But with a normal DVD, the right edge of the image is flush with the right edge of the screen. I think the 1/4" black bar down the right side which happens on this plasma with some Superbit DVDs is due to the way the discs are mastered, because it isn't visible on most DVDs regardless of what I set DVI to.

In short, 1224B works for me, and I'm going to stay with that until the next (hopefully production) firmware release.

Why is everyone going 1224 instead of 1226? I have 1226.. should I go to 1224?

Why is everyone going 1224 instead of 1226? I have 1226.. should I go to 1224?

1226 is the version of 1224 for European players. They have the same list of changes relative to earlier versions, but 1226 defaults to PAL while 1224 defaults to NTSC, and I imagine 1226 probably has features like SCART support that are not in the US version.

If 1226 works for you there is no reason to change though.

Does the 1224 have mp4/nero digital support in it?

Does the 1224 have mp4/nero digital support in it?

No.

Nero Digital at the present moment is supported only by those hacked fw on russian site.

Wow, I emailed them and within a couple of minutes got a reply with the 1224 firmware. Will have to burn it and upgrade tonight!

I haven't been keeping a very close eye on this thread but just tried to search and determine when the 1224 hit the thread but I can't seem to find the definitive post, albeit I have never mastered searching on AVSForum. :)

I'm glad I checked in as some of the new features are things I have been hoping for... Go Oppo!

I set up an Oppo a couple of days ago to compare to my Denon 2900. I wanted to see how this miracle player compared to the 2900, and I wanted to try using the DVI connection to my Sharp Z10000 projector. My first impression was that the 2900 is an awfully good player. There was a definite pick up in image sharpness and stability with the Oppo, but the image appeared a bit flat in comparison. There is something about the 2900's color saturation and grading that makes the image appear a bit richer and more 3D, without exagerating colors. (Both players were calibrated the same way using the Avia & DVE disks.) According to the calibration disks, the Oppo's adjustments were set up properly, and even the color decoder check showed less that 5% deviation for any color. (Actually, it appeared spot on!) Anyway, after calibrating the Oppo, there remained (to the eye) a very slight greenish cast to the image. It is subtle, but definitely there. Unfortunately, the Oppo doesn't have hue adjustment (I'm not even sure a hue adjustment would properly correct this), and as picture adjustments are disabled on the Sharp when using DVI, I don't believe I have any to deal with the problem. I believe that Stacy Spears once explained that this phenomenon could be caused by incompatible voltage levels between some DVI equipped DVD players and display devices that were incorrectly set up for "PC" vs. "Video" connections, but switching from PC to Video on the Sharp shows no effect at all. I'd like to keep the Oppo as a second player, but will return it unless I can fix this issue. I've tried a search, and while the "green" issue has been discussed, I haven't seen any thoughts that would fix the problem. Can anyone offer some suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

I think you alluded to the fact there is some player/display compatibility issue. Well, not necessarily an issue, but differences. Some more subtle than others.
Also, 'tuning' your specific DVD input to compensate might help. (Adjust tint?) But then it will likely not be optimized for the 2900.
I don't think any setting on the user's menu is off limits, even with a fully calibrated display.
Obviously, when you connect a true HD DVD player in the future, it is likely not to be optmized without some slight adjustments, in comparison with any upconverting DVD player you are using today. These are just thoughts. I don't have a 'cure' for the slight greenish bias on the Oppo, sorry.

I think you alluded to the fact there is some player/display compatibility issue. Well, not necessarily an issue, but differences. Some more subtle than others.
Also, 'tuning' your specific DVD input to compensate might help. (Adjust tint?) But then it will likely not be optimized for the 2900.
I don't think any setting on the user's menu is off limits, even with a fully calibrated display.
Obviously, when you connect a true HD DVD player in the future, it is likely not to be optmized without some slight adjustments, in comparison with any upconverting DVD player you are using today. These are just thoughts. I don't have a 'cure' for the slight greenish bias on the Oppo, sorry.

The Sharp pj has ALL picture adjustments (including tint) disabled when using DVI. Other than going into the Sharp's CMS (color temp adjustments), which is way more brain damage than I can handle, I need to make adjustments on the DVD player. I may just need to wait for an Oppo that includes hue adjustment...

Thanks for your thoughts.

Oppo sent me the 1224b firmware (I mentioned this above, but maybe not enough people had installed that update).

I was watching the Pulp Fiction SE. I have my Oppo connected to my receiver via optical, and the downmix connected to my Samsung DLP's HDMI L/R inputs. Normally I just use the downmix to watch DVDs because my wife sleeps during the day and I can't use the hometheater (no lip sync probs this way). The Samsung is then connected to my receiver via optical.

Anyway, the new firmware has the delay up to 120ms. I put in the Pulp Fiction SE and was able to get it in sync at 120ms using the optical signal (DVD on my receiver)
Just to see what would happen I switched it over to TV on my receiver to see if the delay affected the analog downmix. All I got was really loud static!

If I changed the delay on the Oppo to 80ms, the static stopped and I got a signal just fine. I emailed Oppo and they said they hadn't heard of this problem.

I put in another DVD, this time Return of the Sith. In this case, 100ms was enough to get it in sync perfectly. I switched it over to TV just to see what the downmix was doing and it worked this time! But when I switched the delay to 120ms, I got the static again!

Any ideas?

SV

120ms will always be static, no matter what display device you are using. 110 is the maximum you can actually use, which means you can only use 100ms (as the beta is in 20ms incriments).

The Sharp pj has ALL picture adjustments (including tint) disabled when using DVI. Other than going into the Sharp's CMS (color temp adjustments), which is way more brain damage than I can handle, I need to make adjustments on the DVD player. I may just need to wait for an Oppo that includes hue adjustment...

Thanks for your thoughts.

I see...well, I guess that only further emphasizes player/display or projector compatibility concerns.

The Sharp pj has ALL picture adjustments (including tint) disabled when using DVI. Other than going into the Sharp's CMS (color temp adjustments), which is way more brain damage than I can handle, I need to make adjustments on the DVD player. I may just need to wait for an Oppo that includes hue adjustment...

Thanks for your thoughts.

I see...well, I guess that only further emphasizes the importance of player/display or projector compatibility.

Question on Using the ZOOM button.

I just got my Oppo delivered (Im a Newbie, and I read all the guides and tips before posting) , I setup it up exactly as the you all said here.

I have a 16x9 HDTV 65" Sony RPTV. I am using the TVs DVI.

If I want to get rid of the black Bars on Star Wars III can I use the Zoom Button with out loosing any Picture quality? Or does using the Zoom cause the player to loose some of its native perfect picture as it translates the 1.5 zoom? The Star Wars DVD is the Wide Screen edition.


Also, am I correct in using Video Mode 2? I live in the USA.

Question on Using the ZOOM button.

I just got my Oppo delivered (Im a Newbie, and I read all the guides and tips before posting) , I setup it up exactly as the you all said here.

I have a 16x9 HDTV 65" Sony RPTV. I am using the TVs DVI.

If I want to get rid of the black Bars on Star Wars III can I use the Zoom Button with out loosing any Picture quality? Or does using the Zoom cause the player to loose some of its native perfect picture as it translates the 1.5 zoom? The Star Wars DVD is the Wide Screen edition.


Also, am I correct in using Video Mode 2? I live in the USA.

The Zoom feature on the OPDV971H will (in its current form) greatly diminish the video quality of the image, as the MTK chipset is doing the Zooming. Additionally, the Zoom icon never disappears.

There is no real benefit to using Video 2 in the US, but there is also no negative as long as you only use the DVI output.

120ms will always be static, no matter what display device you are using. 110 is the maximum you can actually use, which means you can only use 100ms (as the beta is in 20ms incriments).

120ms was just fine over the optical, though. It was just from the analog connection to my TV (which is then passed to my receiver via optical) that the static occured. I just find it strange that 100 and 120ms caused static on one DVD and not the other.

SV

Have you tried the fix mentioned on this page?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6479534&highlight=Service+Menu+Sony#post6479524

Maybe give it a shot and let us know what your results are.

I tried this tonight and it had no effect on the jumping problem...

Question on Using the ZOOM button.

I just got my Oppo delivered (Im a Newbie, and I read all the guides and tips before posting) , I setup it up exactly as the you all said here.

I have a 16x9 HDTV 65" Sony RPTV. I am using the TVs DVI.

If I want to get rid of the black Bars on Star Wars III can I use the Zoom Button with out loosing any Picture quality? Or does using the Zoom cause the player to loose some of its native perfect picture as it translates the 1.5 zoom? The Star Wars DVD is the Wide Screen edition.


Also, am I correct in using Video Mode 2? I live in the USA.

1. Zooming in will make the picture look awful
2. Zooming in will get rid of the black bars....and cuts off picture on the left and right hand side of the image.....

If I want to get rid of the black Bars on Star Wars III can I use the Zoom Button with out loosing any Picture quality? Or does using the Zoom cause the player to loose some of its native perfect picture as it translates the 1.5 zoom? The Star Wars DVD is the Wide Screen edition.

Stop worrying about the black bars. Watch the movie, not the bars. That's the easiest solution.

In regarding black bars: No theatrical movie is filmed in a format that directly relates to the format of a 16:9 widescreen TV. Some movies are filmed in a way that allows re-cropping to fill the 16:9 format of widescreen tv without loosing important action. If this is the intent of the original film, it is done when the DVD is mastered and you will see a picture that fills your 16:9 screen. The big budget films are usually filmed in the widest screen processes (used to be called Cinemascope, Panavision, etc), and will never completely fill the screen top to bottom if they are displayed at their original theatrical width. If you zoom the image, not only do you lose important parts of the edges of the picture, but you decrease the picture quality of what is left.

maybe 480 and 1080 look "fine"....but why waste $200 on a DVD player that looks only "fine" when u can get a $50 player that will look fine too at 480 and maybe 1080i?.....the whole point of he Oppo is to use its DVI output at 720p with a display with a native resolution of 720.

Where did you get that idea? The Oppo is not specifically optimized for 720p. If you have a TV that has a 1080 resolution, or if your TV happens to do 1080 better than 720 (as is the case with Panasonic plasmas) then the Oppo is best used at 1080i.

I understand Zooming now, thanks.

But

How does HBO-HD, Starz-HD, and Show-HD get there movies to fill the whole screen, are they doing some kind of Zooming, are do they actualy get a real HD film? But then again I guess there is no such thing is full screen as they did not film it that way.

So does this mean that if I see a HD film on these HD channels, they probably used some kind of Zoom and the Picture quality is not that good, so I would be better of watching it on my Oppo using a DVD?

I guess what I am asking is if I see a show in HBO-HD in full screen and I also have the DVD and the Oppo , which is better?

Also besides the Zoom question, with Dishnetwork and Direct TV now doing HD -Lite does that also playing in the mix of which is better.

I am wondering if a DVD on an OPPO is just as good as HBO-HD on DIshnetwork & Direct TV in HD LIte w/ Zooming?

Something for us to all ponder on . . .

======chart=========
True 1080i 1920x1080i: 1920x540x60 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec
720p 1280x720p: 1280x720x60 = 55,296,000 pixels/sec
HD-Lite 1280x1080i: 1280x540x60 = 41,472,000 pixels/sec (Dishnet & Direct TV)
DVD 720x480i: 720x240x60 = 10,368,000 pixels/sec


True 1080i: 6X DVD quality
720p: 5.33X DVD quality
HD-Lite: 4X DVD quality

ScottChez,

The videophiles among us will provide more specifics, I'm sure. But i have read on these and other threads that when we see movies on HD channels, they are the actual 35 mm films. This rung true to me when I saw a Tom Hanks 1986 movie "Everytime we say goodbye" on D* HD recently. It has never been released on DVD. Yet it filled the 16:9 screen perfectly in 1980i HD.

Dana

The HD movies on the HD channels are at least 10x better quality than current DVDs with any player, even the oppo. At least on my TV. They are higher resolution.

Oppo DVDs look good, but HD movies look ridiculous. I'm surprised you can't tell the difference.

darn it....the 1224 fw still didn't get rid of the left shift in 720/1080 for me :(

How does HBO-HD, Starz-HD, and Show-HD get there movies to fill the whole screen, are they doing some kind of Zooming, are do they actualy get a real HD film? But then again I guess there is no such thing is full screen as they did not film it that way.

HBO crops all movies to 16:9 regardless of their original aspect ratio. Usually this means simply scissoring off the sides of the picture. Starz does this for most movies as well. Showtime is usually better about preserving the Original Aspect Ratio.

Widescreen isn't about filling your TV. It's about presenting the movie in the shape it was composed for.

There are many, many, many, many threads on this subject in these forums. Do a search for the term "OAR" in the HDTV Programming and the Movies, Concerts, Etc. forums or visit www.widescreen.org.

I understand Zooming now, thanks.

But

How does HBO-HD, Starz-HD, and Show-HD get there movies to fill the whole screen, are they doing some kind of Zooming, are do they actualy get a real HD film? But then again I guess there is no such thing is full screen as they did not film it that way.

So does this mean that if I see a HD film on these HD channels, they probably used some kind of Zoom and the Picture quality is not that good, so I would be better of watching it on my Oppo using a DVD?

I guess what I am asking is if I see a show in HBO-HD in full screen and I also have the DVD and the Oppo , which is better?



They are zooming the movie if it wasn't filmed in a 16:9 aspect ratio (contrary to a recent post, some movies are shot in 16:9--it's the director's perogative on which aspect ratio they want to use), so you will lose content the director meant to be seen (due to cropping the left/right sides).

Let your eyes decide for yourself on the quality. Some of the broadcast HD movies are taken from an HD master so the amount of information being sent is certainly greater than DVD capabilities (read as better than anything the Oppo can produce since it's limited to working with the information available from the DVD), and the resulting picture certainly reveals that. Some of the HD broadcast movies aren't taken from an HD master and they can look pretty terrible, and the Oppo is typically a better choice then.

Other considerations are signal quality the provider is sending out, that will impact how good the image appears as well.

But really, it only matters what looks best to you in the end. As well as deciding if it's important to you whether you see the film in the aspect ratio the director intended, or sacrificing that to see the film in "full screen."

I know the oppo can play DivX discs, but I know absolutely nothing about this subject. :confused: So I have a few ?s for those of you that use this feature.

If I convert a DVD to Divx, will it be of the same quality as the original? Will I be able to play it back in DTS or Dolby?

I went to the Divx site and downloaded the free trial, but I'm completely clueless as to what I'm getting into.

I guess I understand the desire to have your complete DVD collection compressed to fit on your hard drive if you are using a HTPC, but what other uses are there for this? If I download a movie from the Divx website (can you even do this?) and then burn a DVD, will it be just as good as buying or renting the DVD?

Sorry for all the seemingly stupid questions, but I'm just trying to decide if it's worth my time.

DivX is a video compression file format, like MP3, which allows video files to be reduced in size enough to be transported. For instance, a 2 hour high-def show won't fit onto a DVD, so you can convert it to DivX and make the file size small enough to put onto a DVD and store for later.

DivX is based on mpeg4 compression, which can put more info into a smaller size than the mpeg2 compression used on DVDs (DivX is more space efficient).

However, converting a DVD into a DivX file then copying it onto a DVD seems a waste of time.

The practical use of DivX is that it is possibly the most popular format for videos found online.

Where did you get that idea? The Oppo is not specifically optimized for 720p. If you have a TV that has a 1080 resolution, or if your TV happens to do 1080 better than 720 (as is the case with Panasonic plasmas) then the Oppo is best used at 1080i.

Sorry maybe I didn't explain clearly- I was referring to how the Oppo works specifically with my Samsung 50" HLP5063W DLP HDTV...outputting on the Oppo at 720p matches the native resolution of the Samsung perfectly producing perfect 1:1 pixel mapping.
Prior to owning the Samsung I had a Toshiba TW40X81 that did 480 and 1080 so if I was using the Oppo with that tv then of course I'd use 1080i.
However, having read thru this forum I thought the Oppo gave the best picture quality outputting at 720 to a display with a native rez of 720p?

I understand Zooming now, thanks.

But

How does HBO-HD, Starz-HD, and Show-HD get there movies to fill the whole screen, are they doing some kind of Zooming, are do they actualy get a real HD film? But then again I guess there is no such thing is full screen as they did not film it that way.

So does this mean that if I see a HD film on these HD channels, they probably used some kind of Zoom and the Picture quality is not that good, so I would be better of watching it on my Oppo using a DVD?

I guess what I am asking is if I see a show in HBO-HD in full screen and I also have the DVD and the Oppo , which is better?

Also besides the Zoom question, with Dishnetwork and Direct TV now doing HD -Lite does that also playing in the mix of which is better.

I am wondering if a DVD on an OPPO is just as good as HBO-HD on DIshnetwork & Direct TV in HD LIte w/ Zooming?

Something for us to all ponder on . . .

======chart=========
True 1080i 1920x1080i: 1920x540x60 = 62,208,000 pixels/sec
720p 1280x720p: 1280x720x60 = 55,296,000 pixels/sec
HD-Lite 1280x1080i: 1280x540x60 = 41,472,000 pixels/sec (Dishnet & Direct TV)
DVD 720x480i: 720x240x60 = 10,368,000 pixels/sec


True 1080i: 6X DVD quality
720p: 5.33X DVD quality
HD-Lite: 4X DVD quality

A lot of movies are shown in High Def in an incorrect aspect ratio--- Comcast In Demand are currently showing The Fifth Element in high definition with the black bars removed- so the image fills the entire screen....so basically picture information is missing from the left and right whle the center of the image is zoomed in to fill the screen....
I don't know why they do this but its butchering the Director's original artistic intent for the movie- in my opinion its almost as bad as showing the movie in Pan & Scan.
Regardless, in this instance the high definition picture is still clearly superior to the Superbit DVD.
I think when it comes to movies in Hi Def you'll really see the improved picture quality on the very best mastered movies. On movies with poorer quality transfers I think Hi Definition will only highlight the flaws in the picture and won't look much better than regular DVD.

The HD movies on the HD channels are at least 10x better quality than current DVDs with any player, even the oppo. At least on my TV. They are higher resolution.

Oppo DVDs look good, but HD movies look ridiculous. I'm surprised you can't tell the difference.

I've noticed that movies with really good picture quality to start off with, eg The Fifth Element, S.W.A.T., look fantastic in High Definition....but older movies or even newer movies with poor transfers don't look so good in High Def- seems like Hi Def tends to magnify the flaws in the picture quality.

They are zooming the movie if it wasn't filmed in a 16:9 aspect ratio (contrary to a recent post, some movies are shot in 16:9--it's the director's perogative on which aspect ratio they want to use), so you will lose content the director meant to be seen (due to cropping the left/right sides).



The 1:1.78 aspect ratio (16:9) is very, very rare in cinema. If the DVD/HD comes in that format it's almost certainly been cropped. 1:1.85 is the closest regularly used AR to 16:9, and that will have black bars top and bottom on a 16:9 display.

Dave

I have a question for you learned folks.
I still have a rear-projection Toshiba 50" which will be in use for about another year until we upgrade to a new HD TV somewhere later in the year (not certain yet exactly what we'll be getting but that's for another thread). I've been using a Malata 520 for several years which has been great and has played just about everything I've thrown at it. However, it's been having many problems lately and I've been looking to replace it.
My question is, is it worth getting the Oppo described above as I'm still using an analog tv for a bit? This seems to be a great option if you've got a digital tv, but is it worth it for me at this point? In looking to replace the Malata I'm most concerned with PAL to NTSC conversion and region-free capabilities. The ability to Zoom and use X-Y scaling has spoiled me as well (there's a lot of overscan on my TV and it's nice to see the full picture).
Any input is appreciated.
Thanks,
Phil

The HD movies on the HD channels are at least 10x better quality than current DVDs with any player, even the oppo. At least on my TV. They are higher resolution.

Oppo DVDs look good, but HD movies look ridiculous. I'm surprised you can't tell the difference.


This i definately do not agree with.....I thought this as well but after a proper calibration on my set[Hitachi 57s500 crt-using dvi at 480p with the oppo] I honestly could not tell the difference!!
I was watching House of The Flying daggers on starzHd and had it playing on my oppo at the same time all thru dvi using a geffen dvi switcher.......in every scene and i spent an hour or longer going back and forth scene after scene,the oppo performed neck and neck with starzhd......I was using comcast cable hd over dvi.......I have watched many movies in high def and i relly dont believe we are getting true 1080i...yet....no way.....So I beleive your oppo is not set up correctly or something.....have you read your the setup tips in this thread???



I will say I have seen a few HD movies that looked somewhat better than the oppo and i mean as it relates to things like shapness and depth of field.....so i would say on the best hd movie it might be 10% better than the oppo at best.......but 10x better??? Dude your are smoking crack cocaine with that ridiculous statement......there is no way that is true......and please stop making statements like that unless you follow them with a "lol" or a "j/k"...

Also one of my favorite dvd transfers on the oppo is spiderman 2.....i have compared that in Hd too and that was the one that had more depth than the oppo...

1:1.85 is the closest regularly used AR to 16:9, and that will have black bars top and bottom on a 16:9 display.

Dave


Are you sure about this? Interpreting the ratios strictly you are correct, but in actual veiwing my experience has been contrary. Every 1.85:1 movie I have is presented full screen w/o letterboxing on my 16:9 display that hasn't been zoomed. Even though 1.78:1 is closest to the ratio of 16:9, seems 1.85:1 is essentially a "match" on a 16:9 display, with minimal cropping.

I tried this tonight and it had no effect on the jumping problem...

Ok, I just got my replacement from Oppo, and it has the exact same jitter issue as the first one I got. I have done a bit of research, and it looks like this is a sync problem with some Sony sets. DaEnigma, your player is just fine. I am going to hook up both the component and DVI outs on the player, and use the component out for stretching non-anamorphic material. I am hoping for a firmware update that might address the jitter, but we'll see. Chances are, any non-anamorphic DVDs I watch would not really benefit quality-wise from being output through the DVI anyway.

I have to say that I am truly impressed with Oppo's service, even with the problems I have with the player. I had my original and a replacement sent to me within a week. They sent the replacement out yesterday, and I actually got it today on Saturday. Granted, I am only a couple hours away, but still... GREAT service.

Hey guys!

I'm not on here too often. I just got my Oppo 971H and it is the best player I have owned.
It was weird it wouldn't load my DVE calibration disc until I put in the region free code.
Question: My player says it has the 1111b firmware. Is that the newest one?

Hey guys!
Question: My player says it has the 1111b firmware. Is that the newest one?

Yes, latest released by Oppo. There are some beta firmware releases about that are more recent. Oppo has stated a new firmware release will be available within the next two weeks.

This i definately do not agree with.....I thought this as well but after a proper calibration on my set[Hitachi 57s500 crt-using dvi at 480p with the oppo] I honestly could not tell the difference!!
I was watching House of The Flying daggers on starzHd and had it playing on my oppo at the same time all thru dvi using a geffen dvi switcher.......in every scene and i spent an hour or longer going back and forth scene after scene,the oppo performed neck and neck with starzhd......I was using comcast cable hd over dvi.......I have watched many movies in high def and i relly dont believe we are getting true 1080i...yet....no way.....So I beleive your oppo is not set up correctly or something.....have you read your the setup tips in this thread???



I will say I have seen a few HD movies that looked somewhat better than the oppo and i mean as it relates to things like shapness and depth of field.....so i would say on the best hd movie it might be 10% better than the oppo at best.......but 10x better??? Dude your are smoking crack cocaine with that ridiculous statement......there is no way that is true......and please stop making statements like that unless you follow them with a "lol" or a "j/k"...

Also one of my favorite dvd transfers on the oppo is spiderman 2.....i have compared that in Hd too and that was the one that had more depth than the oppo...I have looked through the settings here. I'm not saying that DVDs look BAD, I'm just saying there is a night and day difference between HD and DVDs on my SXRD. Don't know what to tell you. DVDs look "flat" compared to HD in my opinion. Maybe there is still a setting that is screwed up, but I just thought it was the difference in resolutions.

I have looked through the settings here. I'm not saying that DVDs look BAD, I'm just saying there is a night and day difference between HD and DVDs on my SXRD. Don't know what to tell you. DVDs look "flat" compared to HD in my opinion. Maybe there is still a setting that is screwed up, but I just thought it was the difference in resolutions.

I respect your opinion and i am just telling you that maybe your sxrd is the culprit.....not all displays wre the same with this player. That being said, if i had not done this comparison and seen the results with my own eyes i would tend to agree with you.......as i am only familiar with your set as far as resolution which is 1980x1080 i can only say that im sure there is a difference but is it really "10x better" than the oppo? and if it is then return the oppo as it is defective......i can only imagine what the oppo would look like on a sxrd.....as i have seen many sxrd's in circuit city with run of the mill dvd players hooked up to it playing robots and to tell you the truth i was impressed......the dvd looked good and so did the hi-def but put it in prospective...."10x better "is unreasonable.thats all im saying........maybe the sxrd is more adept at displaying HDTV images than it is dvd, i dont know.......now as for sports in hidef versus the oppo there is a dramatic difference because of the video........

I have looked through the settings here. I'm not saying that DVDs look BAD, I'm just saying there is a night and day difference between HD and DVDs on my SXRD. Don't know what to tell you. DVDs look "flat" compared to HD in my opinion. Maybe there is still a setting that is screwed up, but I just thought it was the difference in resolutions.
I also think HD looks much better than DVDs. The difference is resolution is really quite noticable. If you've ever seen stuff on HDNet Movies (esp. the show where they just show recent movie trailers) or INHD (esp. some of those IMAX conversions), HD really looks spectacular... even in comparison to a great DVD.

Of course, not all channels showing HD material are of the same standard and not all material is prepared well. But, from what I have seen, the best of HD, in my opinion, is significantly better than the best of DVD. (And DVD can look really good, I agree.)

The Oppo does a great job with DVD, but I can't wait to see what Blu-Ray (or HD DVD) gives us.

(I watch on an ISF calibrated Sony 55XS955 LCD RP, by the way.)

-Terry

I also think HD looks much better than DVDs. The difference is resolution is really quite noticable. If you've ever seen stuff on HDNet Movies (esp. the show where they just show recent movie trailers) or INHD (esp. some of those IMAX conversions), HD really looks spectacular... even in comparison to a great DVD.

Of course, not all channels showing HD material are of the same standard and not all material is prepared well. But, from what I have seen, the best of HD, in my opinion, is significantly better than the best of DVD. (And DVD can look really good, I agree.)

The Oppo does a great job with DVD, but I can't wait to see what Blu-Ray (or HD DVD) gives us.

(I watch on an ISF calibrated Sony 55XS955 LCD RP, by the way.)

-Terry

I am only saying there is no night and day difference or 10x better............on the best hd movies pq is noticably better, for sure but not all movies produce that quality, very few do, well many do but it is a 30% range than offer that........spiderman2 for example, i have compared this to its hd rival and other than a slightly sharper picture and more depth of field i am hard pressed to say that it is way better....maybe 2x better and that is with a quality hd and dvd transfer....

I wouldn't say the true HD broadcasting is only slightly better than the upscaled DVD contents. There is a noticeable difference. You'll know you're watching HD contents in HD and when you're not watching HD contents in HD. I would imagine the true 1080i or 1080p via Blue Ray will best HD broadcasting. So, I'd expect the True HD contents from HD transfers of Blue Ray DVD will distant itself from all upscalled 480i DVD's. Just picture yourself playing 3D games on a 1080p LCD screen, one rendering at 480p and other rendering at 1080p through the game and see how much difference you can see in the PQ.

I have a question for you learned folks.
I still have a rear-projection Toshiba 50" which will be in use for about another year until we upgrade to a new HD TV somewhere later in the year (not certain yet exactly what we'll be getting but that's for another thread). I've been using a Malata 520 for several years which has been great and has played just about everything I've thrown at it. However, it's been having many problems lately and I've been looking to replace it.
My question is, is it worth getting the Oppo described above as I'm still using an analog tv for a bit? This seems to be a great option if you've got a digital tv, but is it worth it for me at this point? In looking to replace the Malata I'm most concerned with PAL to NTSC conversion and region-free capabilities. The ability to Zoom and use X-Y scaling has spoiled me as well (there's a lot of overscan on my TV and it's nice to see the full picture).
Any input is appreciated.
Thanks,
Phil

>>> With Hi Definition just around the corner I would recommend you wait for either a HD-DVD player or preferably a BluRay DVD player- if your current player breaks I'd just pick u a cheapo player to tide you over in the meantime until Hi Def gets here.

I wouldn't say the true HD broadcasting is only slightly better than the upscaled DVD contents. There is a noticeable difference. You'll know you're watching HD contents in HD and when you're not watching HD contents in HD. I would imagine the true 1080i or 1080p via Blue Ray will best HD broadcasting. So, I'd expect the True HD contents from HD transfers of Blue Ray DVD will distant itself from all upscalled 480i DVD's. Just picture yourself playing 3D games on a 1080p LCD screen, one rendering at 480p and other rendering at 1080p through the game and see how much difference you can see in the PQ.

I didnt say "True HD" was slightly better than upscaled dvd either......the only true hd ive ever seen was on a Hd loop at fry's that was showing off a mitsubishi display and that was on some kind of hard drive disk....if that was even true HD......

I have a question for you learned folks.
I still have a rear-projection Toshiba 50" which will be in use for about another year until we upgrade to a new HD TV somewhere later in the year (not certain yet exactly what we'll be getting but that's for another thread). I've been using a Malata 520 for several years which has been great and has played just about everything I've thrown at it. However, it's been having many problems lately and I've been looking to replace it.
My question is, is it worth getting the Oppo described above as I'm still using an analog tv for a bit? This seems to be a great option if you've got a digital tv, but is it worth it for me at this point? In looking to replace the Malata I'm most concerned with PAL to NTSC conversion and region-free capabilities. The ability to Zoom and use X-Y scaling has spoiled me as well (there's a lot of overscan on my TV and it's nice to see the full picture).
Any input is appreciated.
Thanks,
Phil

It jsut depends on when you get the hd display and also you have got to understand that dvd isnt going anywhere we might be the only ones to early adopt these new formats for awhile...IMO.....dvd 480i will not be replaced for at least 3-5 years.....

>>> With Hi Definition just around the corner I would recommend you wait for either a HD-DVD player or preferably a BluRay DVD player- if your current player breaks I'd just pick u a cheapo player to tide you over in the meantime until Hi Def gets here.

Tha has absolutely been a consideration, and I definitely plan on getting a hi def player, likely BluRay since it seems to be the frontrunner in support, but that won't happen for at least 1 1/2 to 2 years when prices come down, likely when the second wave of players is out. Even then, my preference would be to have an all region/PAL to NTSC player and I can't count on that happening right away. With a current sizable collection I'm not in a hurry to upgrade all my software. So I still want something that can play my non-region 1 and PAL discs for the next couple of years.

Some folks have suggested a Samsung 950, but I've also heard such good things about the Oppo, I just want to make certain it will give me a good picture on my analog set with a mere S-video connection and an optical audio connection to my receiver. I'm still actually tempted to get another Malata as I really wore that thing into the ground and feel I got my money's worth out of it...

It jsut depends on when you get the hd display and also you have got to understand that dvd isnt going anywhere we might be the only ones to early adopt these new formats for awhile...IMO.....dvd 480i will not be replaced for at least 3-5 years.....

I agree completely about DVD not going away anytime soon. There are too many folks who have invested too much money for it to go away overnight. Myself among them. ;) People will upgrade, without a doubt, but there's a whole lot of mileage left in these lovely current discs. Besides, for the more obscure discs it becomes a question of ownership and rights issues again. There have been a fair amount of licenses that have expired for the smaller distribution companies and it'll be interesting to see whether the release schedules include more esoteric films and what the extra content will be. Doesn't bode too well that they chose Charlie's Angels as the rollout disc, but it isn't surprising either. It should all be very interesting, in any case.

How the heck do you do multiple quotes in a single post, btw?

So I still want something that can play my non-region 1 and PAL discs for the next couple of years.

That's why I picked up the Oppo. I may invest in BR this year by buying a PS3 (I have very little interest in it as a game machine, but as a $500 BR player? Sign me up!), but around 1/2 my collection is non-r1 and unlikely to work in any BR player.

just want to make certain it will give me a good picture on my analog set with a mere S-video connection and an optical audio connection to my receiver.

I bought my oppo mainly for use with my projector, but I also have it hooked up to my 27" CRT via composite cable and it looks okay. No better or worse than any other player I've used on that TV. I watch TV shows on DVD that way and I don't have any complaints.

How the heck do you do multiple quotes in a single post, btw?

You can add a quote to your post by simply using a tag at the beginning and end of the quote you want. In other words, just type the word quote with [] around it. Then at the end of the text you want in quotes type /quote with [] around it. It's as simple as that :cool:

>>> With Hi Definition just around the corner I would recommend you wait for either a HD-DVD player or preferably a BluRay DVD player- if your current player breaks I'd just pick u a cheapo player to tide you over in the meantime until Hi Def gets here.

That is exactly what I consider the Oppo to be, and inexpensive, temporary DVD player that may even have some value on the resale market.

You can add a quote to your post by simply using a tag at the beginning and end of the quote you want. In other words, just type the word quote with [] around it. Then at the end of the text you want in quotes type /quote with [] around it. It's as simple as that :cool:[/QUOTE]

Yes, thanks, but how do you get multiple quotes in one post?

Thanks again,

Larry

Are you sure about this? Interpreting the ratios stictly you are correct, but in actual veiwing my experience has been contrary. Every 1.85:1 movie I have is presented full screen w/o letterboxing on my 16:9 display that hasn't been zoomed. Even though 1.78:1 is closest to the ratio of 16:9, seems 1.85:1 is essentially a "match" on a 16:9 display, with minimal cropping.
I think what happens here is that for a 1.85:1 image in a 16:9 frame, the black bars are so small that that they're lost in the overscan of a typical display. By some rough calculations, I figure that the bars should take up around 4% of the image vertically. That's about 2% at the top, and the same at the bottom. If your display's overscan at top and bottom is greater than 2% (which it almost certainly is, for an RPTV or direct-view CRT), then the black bars will be outside the viewable area of the screen, and your 16:9 screen will be completely filled with the picture.

I'm not sure offhand if flat-panel displays like plasma and LCD also have significant overscan; if they don't, then the bars might be visible. Has anyone here actually seen the bars on a 1.85:1 movie shown on a 16:9 flat-panel display?

You may be in a DVI resolution which is not supported by your Sony SXRD. Stop all disc playback then press DVI (lower left hand corner of your remote). If you still can't get an image, switch to the component inputs, change the DVI mode to 720p, then switch back the DVI input.

Also you need to remember that the Sony does not directly synch with the OPDV971H all the time. As such, there are instances where you will need to switch inputs back and forth to synch the image again.
Thanks,Neuromancer...got it working :)

I think what happens here is that for a 1.85:1 image in a 16:9 frame, the black bars are so small that that they're lost in the overscan of a typical display. By some rough calculations, I figure that the bars should take up around 4% of the image vertically. That's about 2% at the top, and the same at the bottom. If your display's overscan at top and bottom is greater than 2% (which it almost certainly is, for an RPTV or direct-view CRT), then the black bars will be outside the viewable area of the screen, and your 16:9 screen will be completely filled with the picture.

I'm not sure offhand if flat-panel displays like plasma and LCD also have significant overscan; if they don't, then the bars might be visible. Has anyone here actually seen the bars on a 1.85:1 movie shown on a 16:9 flat-panel display?

Ahh yes...overscan would explain it. :o

OK OK jeez, maybe not TEN times better, but CONSIDERABLY better, and that was my point.

You are saying that on your set, certain titles look BETTER on DVD than HD. On my set, there is no comparison with the same title, one in HD, and one on DVD. DVD looks GOOD. Most people would think that a DVD on the oppo IS HD until they drop their jaw when the same flick is put on in HD.

10x was an overstatement that was not meant to be taken literally. There is no way to judge such an objective thing anyway. In my personal opinion, there is a night and day difference between good quality HD and good quality DVD.

I am only saying there is no night and day difference or 10x better............on the best hd movies pq is noticably better, for sure but not all movies produce that quality, very few do, well many do but it is a 30% range than offer that........spiderman2 for example, i have compared this to its hd rival and other than a slightly sharper picture and more depth of field i am hard pressed to say that it is way better....maybe 2x better and that is with a quality hd and dvd transfer....
I don't think "10x" or some other numerical value makes any sense in these kinds of discussions, so that we can agree on. However, most of the HD transfers I've watched on HBO HD, Showtime HD, HDNet, INHD, and even TNT HD and ABC HD, all look pretty fabulous. (Thankfully HDNet and Showtime usually keep the original aspect ratio.) Their HD versions of movies are definitely better than their DVD counterparts. Resolution and color are amazing.

I think a few posts ago you mentioned only seeing "true" HD on a Fry's showroom floor. Store displays are notoriously bad places to do any kind of critical viewing or product comparisons. I think if you had a large display you were very familiar with in your own home (and was ISF calibrated for both HD and SD), you could really see the difference better. It is significant.

The difference really makes me want a HD disc format soon! (I don't want to spend all that money, though... but I guess that comes with the territory.)

-Terry

Quick question for someone who might know...

If DVD is 720 x 480 resolution (it is, right?), that is a ratio of 1.5:1. How does this content stretch to fill the 16:9 (1.78:1) standard widescreen display? Are we losing some of the picture that a 4:3 TV would have (with bars), if a "widescreen" DVD fills up the whole screen?

Or am I looking at this all wrong?

The difference really makes me want a HD disc format soon! (I don't want to spend all that money, though... but I guess that comes with the territory.)

-Terry+1 on both counts.

Quick question for someone who might know...

If DVD is 720 x 480 resolution (it is, right?), that is a ratio of 1.5:1. How does this content stretch to fill the 16:9 (1.78:1) standard widescreen display? Are we losing some of the picture that a 4:3 TV would have (with bars), if a "widescreen" DVD fills up the whole screen?

Or am I looking at this all wrong?
I guess that's where the whole "anamorphic" thing comes into play. Here's more info on it (down at the bottom part is the info specific about dvds):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic

The widescreen image is squeezed into the normal (more squarish) resolution of the dvd. Then is unsqueezed when displayed on a widescreen display.

-Terry

I don't think "10x" or some other numerical value makes any sense in these kinds of discussions, so that we can agree on. However, most of the HD transfers I've watched on HBO HD, Showtime HD, HDNet, INHD, and even TNT HD and ABC HD, all look pretty fabulous. (Thankfully HDNet and Showtime usually keep the original aspect ratio.) Their HD versions of movies are definitely better than their DVD counterparts. Resolution and color are amazing.

I think a few posts ago you mentioned only seeing "true" HD on a Fry's showroom floor. Store displays are notoriously bad places to do any kind of critical viewing or product comparisons. I think if you had a large display you were very familiar with in your own home (and was ISF calibrated for both HD and SD), you could really see the difference better. It is significant.

The difference really makes me want a HD disc format soon! (I don't want to spend all that money, though... but I guess that comes with the territory.)

-Terry

read the post and you will see that i said i "thought" it was true hd.........and i agree about comparisons on store floors...most stores split out thier signals 10-15 times....

Are you sure about this? Interpreting the ratios strictly you are correct, but in actual veiwing my experience has been contrary. Every 1.85:1 movie I have is presented full screen w/o letterboxing on my 16:9 display that hasn't been zoomed. Even though 1.78:1 is closest to the ratio of 16:9, seems 1.85:1 is essentially a "match" on a 16:9 display, with minimal cropping.


It depends on your display. Some will automatically zoom/crop a 1:1.85 film to fit the 1:1.78 TV frame. I only noticed the difference when I got a PJ with zero overscan and an HDMI input (the oppo's DVI out - HDMI ae700. You get exactly what is recorded on the DVD and 1:1.85 gives a small black bars top and bottom. Just as it should be. It's amazing how much overscan is thought acceptable by many displays.

Dave

If DVD is 720 x 480 resolution (it is, right?), that is a ratio of 1.5:1. How does this content stretch to fill the 16:9 (1.78:1) standard widescreen display? Are we losing some of the picture that a 4:3 TV would have (with bars), if a "widescreen" DVD fills up the whole screen? Yes, DVD is 720x480 pixels, but did you know that those pixels are not square? It gets pretty complicated, but a widescreen display with square pixels has to compensate by converting the image to 853x480 (16:9) or 1280x720 (16:9) or 1920x1080 (16:9).

Then there is the whole anamorphic stretch thing as well. See this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5124988&&#post5124988) for a pictorial explanation.

Gary

I posted this in my display's group as well, but was wondering about overscan, and whether it's from the Oppo or the display.

Attached is a frame from Star Wars, with yellow lines added where the edges of my screen image are on my Samsung DLP (5668w). Is this due to something in the Oppo, or is overscan always due to the display?

Thanks!

SV

I posted this in my display's group as well, but was wondering about overscan, and whether it's from the Oppo or the display.

Attached is a frame from Star Wars, with yellow lines added where the edges of my screen image are on my Samsung DLP (5668w). Is this due to something in the Oppo, or is overscan always due to the display?

Thanks!

SV

In this case it's very probably your display/set up. The oppo very slightly underscans everything, 3 or 4 pixels, so it shouldn't be that.

Dave

That's why I picked up the Oppo. I may invest in BR this year by buying a PS3 (I have very little interest in it as a game machine, but as a $500 BR player? Sign me up!), but around 1/2 my collection is non-r1 and unlikely to work in any BR player.



I bought my oppo mainly for use with my projector, but I also have it hooked up to my 27" CRT via composite cable and it looks okay. No better or worse than any other player I've used on that TV. I watch TV shows on DVD that way and I don't have any complaints.



You can add a quote to your post by simply using a tag at the beginning and end of the quote you want. In other words, just type the word quote with [] around it. Then at the end of the text you want in quotes type /quote with [] around it. It's as simple as that :cool:

Thanks for the info, Joekun. I'm going to be ordering one of these this week. I think it will serve me just fine.

Glad to help. After I read your post about scaling and overscan I tried that with my oppo (my TV cuts off TONS of picture!), but 1/2 is the largest size it has below the full image so that doesn't work very well, too bad. Since I mostly use it with my projector it's not a huge deal, but that would be a nice feature :)

Can we please stop discussing general topics such as overscan and aspect ratio on a thread that should be an Oppo FAQ/Brain Dump thread?

Can we please stop discussing general topics such as overscan and aspect ratio on a thread that should be an Oppo FAQ/Brain Dump thread? Huh? Overscan and aspect ratio are Frequently Asked Questions. That's what FAQ means. It would be nice if people would search the thread for previous occurrences of those issues, but different variations of the questions have come up recently.

Gary

The DVDs that can be upconverted over component are ones that are not encoded with CSS encryption. CSS, Content Scrambling System, is the encryption that was broken some time ago as you say. That is what I meant (and what I should have said) by "copyrighted dvds". Not all major releases are encoded with CSS, for whatever reason. Here is an old list (http://www.videolan.org/removed/freedvd.html) of movies that were released without CSS.

There is nothing in CSS which physically prevents DVD players from upconverting over component. However, any manufacturer who wants to produce a DVD player that can play CSS-encoded material has to obtain a CSS licence from the DVD Consortium, and part of the CSS licence forbids the upconversion of CSS-encoded material over analog connections. So while it isn't really illegal to manufacture a player that can do that, it is a violation of the CSS licence agreement. This licence also requires that players enforce region code restrictions. And just as there are players which can be hacked or which entirely ignore region code restrictions, there are some players which will upconvert anything over component. Most players adhere to the licence, however.

Again, though, this is totally different from HDCP.

This explanation seems reasonable, and I would have said the same thing, except that on an UN-hacked Zenith DVB-318 player which I owned, (one with February 2005, OEM firmware that was not supposed to up-convert protected content over component video outputs) some DVDs did up-convert, and some did not. Two test cases were "Gladiator", which did up-convert, beautifully, and "Castaway", which stayed at 480p, despite a 720p setting on the player. Win-DVD tells me that both of these DVDs are encrypted MPEG2 streams. Something is not adding up, and it could be the Zenith player was broken, or it could be that there is something else required to block the up-conversion.

On a related note, it is mystifying that any "license agreement" would forbid analog signals as in the Zenith, but not un-encrypted digital siganals as in the Oppo. It is precisely un-encrypted digital signals that are the greatest threat to content protection, since they can be recorded without loss of signal fidelity. It is this simple logic that led me to conclude there should be HDCP protection at the output of the Oppo's DVI connection. Apparently in the world of movie-studio legal agreements, logic takes a back seat to some other form of cause and effect.

Hey everyone,

I own a Sceptre 37" Version 2 LCD from Costco which Im pretty satisfied with. I also have the Oppo Upconverting DVD Player, and I've noticed with almost any DVD playback, I see all sorts of white dots or dashes that flash randomly over the entire picture. It's hard to describe but it almost looks like artifacts in the picture. Does that make any sense to anyone? Could this be my Oppo DVD player, or is it the jitter/tearing problem that many are having on the Sceptre 37" LCD?

I don't have these issues when watching TV or HDTV on this set via my Explorer 8300HD box... at least not to a point where I have noticed it.

Any and all help is truly appreciated!


Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I own a Sceptre 37" Version 2 LCD from Costco which Im pretty satisfied with. I also have the Oppo Upconverting DVD Player, and I've noticed with almost any DVD playback, I see all sorts of white dots or dashes that flash randomly over the entire picture. It's hard to describe but it almost looks like artifacts in the picture. Does that make any sense to anyone? Could this be my Oppo DVD player, or is it the jitter/tearing problem that many are having on the Sceptre 37" LCD?

I don't have these issues when watching TV or HDTV on this set via my Explorer 8300HD box... at least not to a point where I have noticed it.

Any and all help is truly appreciated!


Thanks in advance!

that shoulds like sparkling..... most of the time, it has to do with the poor DVI/long dvi cables. Well made cables should help.

that shoulds like sparkling..... most of the time, it has to do with the poor DVI/long dvi cables. Well made cables should help.

Yeah, I guess the best way to describe it is sparkling. However I do have short high quality cables from Monoprice. They are the ones with Ferrets on them and everything and I spent some decent money on them.

Any other suggestions?

I am using the Monoprice cables with no problem so I doubt if it is the cables. Try the cable that came with the Oppo. I doubt it will make a difference. I would also check the HDMi connection. Somtimes they can become loose. Try to unplug it and plug it in again.

I am looking at OPPO for a DVD player, but I am wondering if it is overkill or its features are unnecessary for me -- my projector and LCD TV both have DCDi scalers installed, so would it be better to just get something that drives a non-scaled output for less money? Perhaps there are other features of the OPPO that are unique and still of value to me?

Also, is the OPPO still a good value compared to the latest inexpensive models from other manufacturers?

Thanks for your help!

Yeah, I guess the best way to describe it is sparkling. However I do have short high quality cables from Monoprice. They are the ones with Ferrets on them and everything and I spent some decent money on them.

Any other suggestions?

hmm.... I also use HDMI/DVI and DVI/DVI cables from monoprice with no problem. Both of mine are 15' 24awg, but HDMI/DVI has the NF since I use it from the cable box with RF remote. If I were you, I would make sure that all the ends are securely plugged in tight. Also, try not to run parallel or cross the power cable.

Also, make sure the DVI/HDMI plug on your display is good by testing out other equipments into the same port and see if similar problem is shown at the resolutions. So, if everthing is fine with the display, it might be the DVI port on your oppo unit.

Yeah, I guess the best way to describe it is sparkling. However I do have short high quality cables from Monoprice. They are the ones with Ferrets on them and everything and I spent some decent money on them.

Any other suggestions?
I think I see your problem -- the sparkling is caused by those Ferrets chewing on your cables. Try offering them some ferret treats and see if the problem goes away. ;)

(The word you want is "ferrites". :) Sorry I don't have any more constructive suggestions for you.)

Thought this might be interesting for some of you. The OPDV971H will do MP3 Suffle and Random in multiple folders. The secret?

When you first put in the MP3 disc and are brought to the Explorer window, press the Angle key. This will flatten all folders into one view.
Now press the Repeat key to shuffle through the different playback modes.

Low and behold, all of your files will now play in Random/Shuffle modes. Previously, only MP3s within the same DIR could do this. But if you flatten the folder structure, it works without a hitche.

this has been double posted. Please only respond in the FAQ/Brain Dump.

I am looking at OPPO for a DVD player, but I am wondering if it is overkill or its features are unnecessary for me -- my projector and LCD TV both have DCDi scalers installed, so would it be better to just get something that drives a non-scaled output for less money? Perhaps there are other features of the OPPO that are unique and still of value to me?

Also, is the OPPO still a good value compared to the latest inexpensive models from other manufacturers? For the quality of the picture, yes, the OPPO is still a great deal.

If your display and the Oppo both use the same Faroudja chip, deinterlacing and scaling performance will be pretty much identical. BUT... the difference is very clear when you know what to look for:

DVI/HDMI eliminates the noise and other inaccuracies (like contouring) that are introduced by analog connections and by the D-to-A and A-to-D conversions that have to take place on both ends.

If your Faroudja displays can fully support 480i over HDMI, then you may want to wait a few more months for the OPPO DV970H that will not have a Faroudja chip and may cost a bit less.

Gary

Thought this might be interesting for some of you. The OPDV971H will do MP3 Shuffle and Random in multiple folders. The secret?

When you first put in the MP3 disc and are brought to the Explorer window, press the Angle key. This will flatten all folders into one view.
Now press the Repeat key to shuffle through the different playback modes.

Low and behold, all of your files will now play in Random/Shuffle modes. Previously, only MP3s within the same DIR could do this. But if you flatten the folder structure, it works without a hitch. Excellent!

Thought this might be interesting for some of you. The OPDV971H will do MP3 Suffle and Random in multiple folders. The secret?

When you first put in the MP3 disc and are brought to the Explorer window, press the Angle key. This will flatten all folders into one view.
Now press the Repeat key to shuffle through the different playback modes.

Low and behold, all of your files will now play in Random/Shuffle modes. Previously, only MP3s within the same DIR could do this. But if you flatten the folder structure, it works without a hitche

wow, who the hell figured that one out by randomly pressing buttons? well..done...sirs... (and sir-ettes).

wow, who the hell figured that one out by randomly pressing buttons? well..done...sirs... (and sir-ettes).

Actually, I was purusing the manual last night and noticed something about file and directory playback modes. I didn't know what the hell this meant, so I thought I would try it out. low and behold, it flattened a CD I had of multiple directory JPEG files into one view. I opened one image, and left it on Random. It loaded files from directories I knew were different. So I thought, what the hell, why won't this work for MP3's? It turns out: nothing.

Just make sure you do the Angle button before playing back a file. If you play a file beforehand, you need to Eject or double press Stop.

Has anyone experienced color spacing issues with the Oppo?

Has anyone experienced color spacing issues with the Oppo?Your question is not very specific, so I'm not sure if this will answer it:

The color-space problems reported with some HDMI DVD players, was due to one particular HDMI transmitter chip that messed up YCrCb color-space. It made assumptions about the display's color-space instead of detecting it properly.

The OPPO output is DVI RGB, so there is no chance of color-space problems.

Gary

While watching Serenity this past weekend, we noticed something very odd. There are several scenes where there are light area's on one side of the screen while the other half is dark. This reverses from scene to scene. For instance, when two people are talking in a dark area, their faces are light the area around them dark, and the camera switches from one side to the other. What was odd was that an 'after-image' was clearly visible in each of the dark areas when the switch happened. You could see the outlines of the people's faces for example. The image lasted several seconds as it slowly faded out. It was very annoying, and I am not sure if it was due to the Oppo, the AE700, or perhaps even the HCCV screen?

I have read in this thread that NR circuitry can sometimes cause after-images. I have it turned off on the Oppo, and I did not think to check the AE700 while I had it turned on. (I will check next time I strike the lamp). I have not noticed this effect before, except faintly in the Oppo screen saver mode as the oval moves around on the screen. The effect in the movie seemed much more extreme.

Has anyone else noticed this or have a link that explains what is going on or what might be causing this to happen? :confused:

While watching Serenity this past weekend, we noticed something very odd. There are several scenes where there are light area's on one side of the screen while the other half is dark. This reverses from scene to scene. For instance, when two people are talking in a dark area, their faces are light the area around them dark, and the camera switches from one side to the other. What was odd was that an 'after-image' was clearly visible in each of the dark areas when the switch happened. You could see the outlines of the people's faces for example. The image lasted several seconds as it slowly faded out. It was very annoying, and I am not sure if it was due to the Oppo, the AE700, or perhaps even the HCCV screen?

I have read in this thread that NR circuitry can sometimes cause after-images. I have it turned off on the Oppo, and I did not think to check the AE700 while I had it turned on. (I will check next time I strike the lamp). I have not noticed this effect before, except faintly in the Oppo screen saver mode as the oval moves around on the screen. The effect in the movie seemed much more extreme.

Has anyone else noticed this or have a link that explains what is going on or what might be causing this to happen? :confused:

Check above, this has been mentioned before. It is to do with video buffering, I think, and as such--if turning of the ae700 NR doesn't help--probably unavoidable on the very few DVDs it occurs on.

(By the way, I've had the NR turned off on my ae700 for months and it's fine.)

Dave

Check above, this has been mentioned before. It is to do with video buffering, I think, and as such--if turning of the ae700 NR doesn't help--probably unavoidable on the very few DVDs it occurs on.

(By the way, I've had the NR turned off on my ae700 for months and it's fine.)

Dave

I thought that was probably the case, from what I have read on here. It was difficult to search, as I didn't know what to call it. Wasn't sure if there was a work-around though. It seems to be a rare occurrance, as this is the first time I have noticed it in the year and a half that I have had it.

It was rather embarrassing for me to have this happen with a room full of guests. It was the first time that some of my guests had seen my setup, and this left a pretty bad first impression. It wasn't something that happened briefly that could easily be ignored, it happened over and over again...

For all the wonderful things this Oppo does, occassionally it most certainly has some very stanky quirks about it.

Your question is not very specific, so I'm not sure if this will answer it:

The color-space problems reported with some HDMI DVD players, was due to one particular HDMI transmitter chip that messed up YCrCb color-space. It made assumptions about the display's color-space instead of detecting it properly.

The OPPO output is DVI RGB, so there is no chance of color-space problems.

Gary

I tried three different upconverting players (2 Sonys and a Toshiba) and I experienced issues with red or green.

So, I suspect this will not be an issue with Oppo.

<snip>
What was odd was that an 'after-image' was clearly visible in each of the dark areas when the switch happened. You could see the outlines of the people's faces for example. The image lasted several seconds as it slowly faded out
<snip>
Has anyone else noticed this or have a link that explains what is going on or what might be causing this to happen? :confused:

I have seen such after-images as well. The screen saver oval emblem for sure, after it moves to a different spot. Also on fades to black (end of scene). Haven't noticed it yet in any other situation, but I've had the Oppo only a few weeks to date. If I start seeing it in the middle of scenes, it would likely be distracting to me. Display is an Infocus SP7200.

Doug

I have seen such after-images as well. The screen saver oval emblem for sure, after it moves to a different spot. Also on fades to black (end of scene). Haven't noticed it yet in any other situation, but I've had the Oppo only a few weeks to date. If I start seeing it in the middle of scenes, it would likely be distracting to me. Display is an Infocus SP7200.

Doug

I find it ironic that the 2-3 second fade is blamed on a video buffering problem, yet they can't seem to buffer 100 ms of video to get rid of the lip synch problem. :p I must admit, this was the first dvd I saw this problem, and hopefully it won't happen too often.

[COLOR=Black]I have seen such after-images as well. The screen saver oval emblem for sure, after it moves to a different spot. Also on fades to black (end of scene). Haven't noticed it yet in any other situation, but I've had the Oppo only a few weeks to date. If I start seeing it in the middle of scenes, it would likely be distracting to me. Display is an Infocus SP7200.

Doug

I've noticed the same thing with the emblem, although I never looked hard during viewing to see if it happend during normal playback :eek:

I'm sorry if this has been covered, but I can't figure out the Oppo's speaker distances. (I want to use DVD-Audio). On my Onkyo, there are settings for each speaker, and one simply measures the distance from listener to speaker.

so
Fronts: 7ft
Center 6 ft
Surround L & R: 4 ft each
Subwoofer: 7ft

But on the Oppo, there's no setting for fronts. I've read this (on audioholics review)


According to OPPO, the audio channel delay adjustments are relative distance between the main speakers and the center, left surround and right surround speakers. The adjustments are not the absolute distance between each speaker and the listener. For this reason the adjustable distance of the center channel is limited to 68”, and for the same reason the delay for the main speakers is not adjustable. The idea is to compensate the audio propagation difference caused by the distance difference of the speakers. This is not clearly mentioned in the manual, thus the confusion.


but this re-explanation is still not clear to me

Does one subtract the center, surround, and subwoofer distances from the front distance?

This would yield, in my case.

Center: 7-6= 1 ft
Surround Left: 7-4 = 3ft
Surround Right: 7-4= 3 ft
Subwoofer: 7-7=0ft.

Is this correct?

What was odd was that an 'after-image' was clearly visible in each of the dark areas when the switch happened. You could see the outlines of the people's faces for example. The image lasted several seconds as it slowly faded out. It was very annoying, and I am not sure if it was due to the Oppo bakpakva, I believe turning on "Truelife" will fix this.

I am beginning to suspect that when Truelife is OFF, the NR circuit defaults to LOW, even though the menu says it's OFF.

With the following two settings, the image retention/ghosting performance is 100% IDENTICAL:
Truelife OFF, NR OFF
Truelife ON, NR LOWWith Truelife ON, and NR OFF, the problem goes away.

Some snappy-action scenes in "Stealth" and "Finding Nemo" suffer quite badly with this problem until you turn on Truelife.

Anyone else care to check this and see what you think?

The main reason we recommend turning Truelife OFF, is because it can reduce macroblocking quite dramatically - if your display suffers with that affliction.

Gary

Does one subtract the center, surround, and subwoofer distances from the front distance?

This would yield, in my case.

Center: 7-6= 1 ft
Surround Left: 7-4 = 3ft
Surround Right: 7-4= 3 ft
Subwoofer: 7-7=0ft.

Is this correct?Correct.

Gary

bakpakv, I believe turning on "Truelife" will fix this.

Gary

I will try turning on TrueLife tonight and play back the scenes. It will be very easy to check on Serenity. Happens a lot, and very obvious. I currently have TL and CCS turned <OFF>. I will also turn off the NR on the AE700 (if it is on). Will let you know if that fixes the problem.

Greg

With the following two settings, the image retention/ghosting performance is 100% IDENTICAL:
Truelife OFF, NR OFF
Truelife ON, NR LOWWith Truelife ON, and NR OFF, the problem goes away.

As I've seen this with TrueLife and NR OFF, I'll take a look using the other combos. FYI, as of this point, I've yet to see Macroblocking.

Doug