On the topic of firmware, I have the last 2006 "official" firmware from the company's website, but I was wondering if there are other unofficial feature-enhanced firmware editions floating around out there, and if so, where would I find them? I've gotten a few missed TV series episodes off of ********** that were xvid-encoded and they don't play on the Oppo.

Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately there were no other firmware releases past the 11-0830 Firmware.

What happens if you try and push the button from inside the case thereby bypassing the outside eject button? Just a thought. Strangely enough, once the tray is open, he can use the eject button on the front panel to close the tray, so that seems to rule out hardware problems... but you never know.

Gary

Exactly.. I had thought of opening it up but wasn't sure from the symptoms if that would accomplish anything.

I bought this on the recommendation of an audio/videophile friend of mine who said Oppo made one of the best dvd players... so far I'm trying to convince my wife that it is! All she notices is the button doesn't work, the sound and video don't match up on some of our divx movies and when you hit stop and play it starts over from the beginning instead of returning to where you left off! Oh well you can't please everyone.

I bought this on the recommendation of an audio/videophile friend of mine who said Oppo made one of the best dvd players... so far I'm trying to convince my wife that it is! All she notices is the button doesn't work, the sound and video don't match up on some of our divx movies and when you hit stop and play it starts over from the beginning instead of returning to where you left off! Oh well you can't please everyone. You bought it used on ebay, and this problem may have been the reason it was sold to you. Nevertheless, if it is important to you to fix it, OPPO can do so for a very reasonable price.

It is true that OPPO makes some of the best dvd players available, but remember that this model is many years old now. Technology has improved in leaps and bounds since then. Additionally, this player's claim to fame is high quality DVD playback... not Divx, which is just a nice-to-have feature.

Gary

I recently got a new tv set. when I played the oppo dvd player on the new set. it works much better then on the old set. the new set is a philips pfl7403 while the old tv was a rear projection samsung hc-r4755.

it seems to be working better with the new tv. thank goodness.

Jacob

Good Show!

Gary,
after getting the dvi cable and playing with this for several weeks gotta say its been a great machine. its lived up to all my expectations. great pal player and plays my burnt dvds (-R) great too. tray seems a bit flimsy but working great. appreciate all the great info.

I've had my 971 for a long time, but I recently upgraded my receiver and now have mutichannel analog inputs. I have quite a few DVD-A discs that I would like to play ( they sound awesome in my wife's car). I'm mostly palying blu-rays and dvd-video through my PS3 now, but would like to use the oppo for dvd-audio.

So I tried hooking up the multichannel outs from the oppo to the ins of my Onkyo tx-sr805 receiver but I'm only getting sound from the right front speaker:confused:.

What settings does the oppo need to play it properly? I spent quite some time yesterday messing with but to no avail. I'm sure it's probably something simple that I missed, but any help would be appreciated.

Ensure that your DownMix is set to 5.1 and your Channel Trims are set to 0dB.

If you connect Left Front (Analog Cable) to Right Front (Analog Output) do you hear audio?

What if you move Right Front (Analog Cable) to Center (Analog Output)?

I've had my 971 for a long time, but I recently upgraded my receiver and now have mutichannel analog inputs. I have quite a few DVD-A discs that I would like to play ( they sound awesome in my wife's car). I'm mostly palying blu-rays and dvd-video through my PS3 now, but would like to use the oppo for dvd-audio.

So I tried hooking up the multichannel outs from the oppo to the ins of my Onkyo tx-sr805 receiver but I'm only getting sound from the right front speaker:confused:.

What settings does the oppo need to play it properly? I spent quite some time yesterday messing with but to no avail. I'm sure it's probably something simple that I missed, but any help would be appreciated.

Just to confirm, you're sure the cables are connected properly? You should use the Front, Surround, Center, and Subwoofer outs on the Oppo (not the Mixed). And you're sure they are connected to the Multichannel inputs on the Onkyo (not the Pre Out inputs)?
From the Oppo manual regarding 5.1 audio connection: "Please set the audio down-mix mode of the DVD player to '5.1 CH.' (Refer to page 28 for details.)"
Setup Menu Options, General Setup Page:
6. DVD-Audio Mode: To select which portion of a hybrid DVD-Audio disc to playback. The options are:
• DVD-Audio – Play the DVD-Audio portion of the disc with surround audio
• DVD-Video – Play the DVD-Video portion of the disc with Dolby Digital or DTS audio
Speaker Setup Page:
1. Downmix Mode: To set the audio down-mix mode to convert multi-channel audio into twochannel output. This setting only affects the “Mixed L/R” analog audio outputs. The options are:
• LT/RT - Left and Right channels only. This mode is intended for use with two-channel Dolby Pro Logic receivers. If the content is encoded with Dolby Pro Logic then the encoded audio will be passed to the receiver for Dolby Pro Logic processing. For stereo content the output will be stereo. For multi-channel content only the left front and right front channels will be re-produced.
• Stereo - This mode down-mixes decoded multi-channel (5.1ch) audio to 2-channel stereo output. For stereo content the output will be stereo. For multi-channel content the surround and center channels will be mixed with the left and right front channels. Recommended for use with TV sets or stereo receiver/amplifiers.
• V. SURR - Virtual Surround. This mode creates a virtual surround effect from stereo or multi-channel audio contents.
• 5.1 CH – This mode enables 5.1ch decoded analog audio output. The number of actual output channels depends on the disc.

Good luck!

Just to confirm, you're sure the cables are connected properly? You should use the Front, Surround, Center, and Subwoofer outs on the Oppo (not the Mixed). And you're sure they are connected to the Multichannel inputs on the Onkyo (not the Pre Out inputs)?
From the Oppo manual regarding 5.1 audio connection: "Please set the audio down-mix mode of the DVD player to '5.1 CH.' (Refer to page 28 for details.)"
Setup Menu Options, General Setup Page:
6. DVD-Audio Mode: To select which portion of a hybrid DVD-Audio disc to playback. The options are:
• DVD-Audio – Play the DVD-Audio portion of the disc with surround audio
• DVD-Video – Play the DVD-Video portion of the disc with Dolby Digital or DTS audio
Speaker Setup Page:
1. Downmix Mode: To set the audio down-mix mode to convert multi-channel audio into twochannel output. This setting only affects the “Mixed L/R” analog audio outputs. The options are:
• LT/RT - Left and Right channels only. This mode is intended for use with two-channel Dolby Pro Logic receivers. If the content is encoded with Dolby Pro Logic then the encoded audio will be passed to the receiver for Dolby Pro Logic processing. For stereo content the output will be stereo. For multi-channel content only the left front and right front channels will be re-produced.
• Stereo - This mode down-mixes decoded multi-channel (5.1ch) audio to 2-channel stereo output. For stereo content the output will be stereo. For multi-channel content the surround and center channels will be mixed with the left and right front channels. Recommended for use with TV sets or stereo receiver/amplifiers.
• V. SURR - Virtual Surround. This mode creates a virtual surround effect from stereo or multi-channel audio contents.
• 5.1 CH – This mode enables 5.1ch decoded analog audio output. The number of actual output channels depends on the disc.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info. I definitely have the cables connected correctly. The odd thing is that I don't recall seeing anything on the general setup page that allowed me to do anything with dvd-audio. I think it was locked. I'll try it again tonight when I get home.

:o I figured it out last night. Options were not available in the menu when a disc was installed, so I couldn't set the downmix to 5.1 channels. I'll play with it more tonight to get the bass management set up correctly.

:o I figured it out last night. Options were not available in the menu when a disc was installed, so I couldn't set the downmix to 5.1 channels. I'll play with it more tonight to get the bass management set up correctly.

Oops. Yeah, it's been awhile since I've played with the menus, totally forgot about not having a disc in. Glad you solved it.

The DownMix should be alterable during playback. Grayed out options like DVD-Audio should require that the tray be ejected or playback double stopped.

:D

I got it dialed in last night and I must say it sounds fantastic. Definitely worth the effort. Flipping between the optical output with Dolby PLIIx music and some other options- and the analog multichannel outs of full high res sound on my Onkyo 805 was not just a minor difference. I can now hear how muffled and compressed lossy formats are. Until you do an A/B comparison, you would never know.

I don't watch very many DVDs anymore now that there is more and more blu-rays coming out and when I do I usually just pop them into the PS3. But this Oppo is definitely staying in my equipment rack for DVD-Audio:).

Glad to hear that you resolved your audio issues.

Hi Guys,
I've had an Oppo 971 for several years now. I've been running it via DVI at 1080i to a BenQ PE7800 which is a 576p pj. The 971 was a huge improvement over my Panny CP72 which was the 5-disk version of the RP81. I'm upgrading my pj to a BenQ W5000 1080p and will probably buy a blu-ray player (either Pioneer 51FD or Sony S550 but that's another thread).

How may have upgraded the 971 to the 981? Is it worth it or should I just keep the old 971. I'm sure there is a ton of info on that in this thread but it's over 8000 posts and I will skim through it.

Scaling is probably 20% of less of your picture quality. The biggest enhancement to picture quality will be the de-interlacing. I would not recommend upgrading the OPDV971H with the DV-981HD.

If anything, I would wait for the BDP-83 to be released. It will scale and de-interlace standard definition DVDs to a much higher precision that your OPDV971H while having the ability to playback true high definition video and audio formats.

I never even considered that option. Buying the 981 and the 51FD blu-ray player are going to cost me $600. I could just sit on my 971 and wait for the BDP-83.

Scaling is probably 20% of less of your picture quality. The biggest enhancement to picture quality will be the de-interlacing. I would not recommend upgrading the OPDV971H with the DV-981HD.

If anything, I would wait for the BDP-83 to be released. It will scale and de-interlace standard definition DVDs to a much higher precision that your OPDV971H while having the ability to playback true high definition video and audio formats.

Hi Guys,
I've had an Oppo 971 for several years now. I've been running it via DVI at 1080i to a BenQ PE7800 which is a 576p pj. The 971 was a huge improvement over my Panny CP72 which was the 5-disk version of the RP81. I'm upgrading my pj to a BenQ W5000 1080p and will probably buy a blu-ray player (either Pioneer 51FD or Sony S550 but that's another thread).

How may have upgraded the 971 to the 981? Is it worth it or should I just keep the old 971. I'm sure there is a ton of info on that in this thread but it's over 8000 posts and I will skim through it.

I did A/B testing of the players with 720p/DVI from the 971 and 1080p/HDMI from the 981 both to a 1080p LCD. The differences were negligible.

-Bill

Thanks Bill,
I think that once I plug the 971 into the new W5000 which is 1080p, I'll see a big difference in pq from my old 7800 but probably not so much between the 971 and 981. I'm going to keep the 971 and either buy a blu-ray player now or wait for the new oppo.

Buying the 981 and the 51FD blu-ray player are going to cost me $600. I could just sit on my 971 and wait for the BDP-83. Perfect solution. You will not be sorry!

Gary

Just experience this problem with Fast and the Furious DVD off my PS3 using a Pioneer FPJ1 projector. Checked other 2.35 material but did not see the lines. Do you ever figure out what was causing it?

Does anyone else know?

I did a search of the thread for "thin black line" and didn't find anything so please excuse this question if it has already been asked and answered.

Last night, while watching Sahara (great popcorn flick!) on the Oppo 971, I noticed two very thin horizontal black lines at the top and bottom of the image. These lines are located just a few pixels below and above the black letterbox bands (they are in the movie image). They sort of look like "ghost" lines paralleling the black letterbox bands. Since I had not noticed it before, I assumed it was the DVD. But I later popped in a few other 2:35:1 discs and, sure enough, the lines were there too.

When I first installed the Oppo, I had routed the video (DVI to HDMI) directly to my JVC HD70FH96. But a few weeks ago, I added an Intel Mac Mini as my HTPC and, at that time, changed the HDMI routing so that the Oppo and the Mini went through my Pioneer VSX-72TXV first (giving me the ability to switch between them without having to deal with the extremely slow video input switching of the JVC).

So, my question is... has anyone else noticed these very thin horizontal black lines in the picture area just below and above the letterbox bands? And, if so, were you connected directly to the display or routed through a A/V receiver?

Thanks!

Mark