Casey at NuForce is very adamant about the Front Left and Right having different tonal characteristics than the Mix outputs, but I have seen no information that supports this. The loads are the same on each output.

mustang5o: I had the same problem when using HDMI of getting Oppo splash screen then snow when I used HDMI. What fixed it for me is to go into the setup for the Oppo and in the HDMI setup change the setting which says something about the HDMI including audio in the bitstream. I think my projector was confused when it received both video and audio in the HDMI stream.

Hi quick question here. Would I get the same Macroblocking as the OPDV971H if I used an external scaler like the Faroudja DVP-1000 with my DV-970HD? This would be going to DLP through component.

Thanks,
Bob

Hi quick question here. Would I get the same Macroblocking as the OPDV971H if I used an external scaler like the Faroudja DVP-1000 with my DV-970HD?
Not unless the DVP-1000 uses the same chip. I think the problem is specific to only a few models of chips.

Not unless the DVP-1000 uses the same chip. I think the problem is specific to only a few models of chips.

Hi Stereodude,

Thanks for the reply. I looked all over the Faroudja site for info on the DVP-1000 chip model. Couldn't find anything, was hoping someone here would know the specifics

cheers,
BR.

Hi folks, newbie here. I am hearing that 970 has issues with its USB capability in playing Divx movies from attached external USB disk drive. Could u advise if this is true. I need to decide if I buy 970 or Philips 5960.

Plus, Now that 981 is coming, and a lot of people are wanting to upgrade, anyone wants to sell me their 970? PM with a price please.

I just bought this player to accompany my HD-A1. You really notice how slow the HD-A1 is after you buy one of these babies.

This is a great deal for $150. I have the player hooked up to my Pioneer TSX 82 and then to my HLS5087W TV. I seem to get a very good picture using the 480i via HDMI. I assume the "scalers" in my Pioneer tsx82 and my Samsung HLS5087W are superior to that in the Oppo 970.

Nac, we/I have gone over this -testing/listening to oppo/denon3803 >Calibrated for SACD. But set my OPPO speaker settings to large and my 3802 to small.
I saw this line--
Also, to use the receiver bass management options, select speaker sizes to "Large---__ are you saying in the receiver set the subwoofer to large?
how about in the oppo970. I have not heard of setting, the sub ,only to large before.
Most say for most system speaker to small+LF. I have a modest towers+a good center+good rears+svs12isd. all set to small.
Just thinking out loud.
db



Larry,

I don't have a Denon receiver (Yamaha). I connected a digital optical out from the Oppo to the Yamaha Optical In (Yamaha has 4 optical in connections). This connection is used for DVD movies and DD/DTS audio. For video I used the HDMI connection from Oppo to TV (I have an HDTV with 2 HDMI inputs which I can calibrate separately for DVD and Satellite).

For Multichannel SACD and DVD-A I purchased RCA cables and connected as follows: There are Multichannel Analog L/R/SL/SR/C/Sub connecting from Oppo to my Multichannel Connections on the Yamaha. Make sure the Oppo and Receiver are powered off when you make these connections. Yamaha has a Multichannel Button on remote and unit which must be selected to operate Multichannel connection for SACD and DVD-A. I'm not sure how Denon applies this setting.

When you connect everything, make sure you go into the Oppo Setup (listed on remote control) and select SACD - Multichannel 5.1 to get full multichannel output (This is important, because when I initially connected the Multichannel cables, I only had sound through the 2 main speakers and thought there was a problem with the Oppo - switching setting for SACD fixed the problem). Also, to use the receiver bass management options, select speaker sizes to "Large".

Casey at NuForce is very adamant about the Front Left and Right having different tonal characteristics than the Mix outputs, but I have seen no information that supports this. The loads are the same on each output.

not in front of my machine, but does the volume control affect the 5.1 outs? it does the mix output, but i would assume the 5.1 channel outs would be fixed. if that's the case, this could account for the difference.

if using the F L&R outs, w/ the downmix set for 5.1, and the SACD layer set for 2 channel, what do you get?

The volume controls only effect the analog outputs with a few covets. One, if you turn the volume all the way down all audio is muted. Two, if you press Mute on the remote control all audio is muted.

The Mix and the 5.1 analog outputs are effected fully by the volume controls. There is no fixed audio output for the analog audio connections.

With SACD 2.0 Stereo the audio will playback identically through the Front Left and Right and Mix output, as there has been no downmixing of the source. What becomes an issue is that the Mix and the Front Left and Right are on the same load, so technically you could be altering your audio performance by having both connected at the same time.

Nac, we/I have gone over this -testing/listening to oppo/denon3803 >Calibrated for SACD. But set my OPPO speaker settings to large and my 3802 to small.
I saw this line--
Also, to use the receiver bass management options, select speaker sizes to "Large---__ are you saying in the receiver set the subwoofer to large?
how about in the oppo970. I have not heard of setting, the sub ,only to large before.
Most say for most system speaker to small+LF. I have a modest towers+a good center+good rears+svs12isd. all set to small.
Just thinking out loud.
db

OPPO recommends:
* Speaker Setup Page:
o Down-mix: 5.1 CH
o Front Speaker: Large
o Center Speaker: Large
o Rear Speaker: Large
o Subwoofer: On
* Audio Setup Page:
o Digital Output: Raw
o HDMI Audio: Auto
You will then alter your receiver's settings to fit your proper bass management needs. Bookshelves will likely be "Small" while floorstanding speakers will be "Large".

I have the player hooked up to my Pioneer TSX 82 and then to my HLS5087W TV. I seem to get a very good picture using the 480i via HDMI. I assume the "scalers" in my Pioneer tsx82 and my Samsung HLS5087W are superior to that in the Oppo 970.
The 82TXS doesn't do anything to 480i HDMI video except pass it on, so you are relying on the processing in your TV.

If Oppo wants to keep fixing SACD related items, I have a few:

- Track 10 shows up as 0, not 10 and 0 is where the 1 should be.
- The previous track button doesn't work if you're playing track 1. Meaning you can't skip back to the beginning of track 1.

This is probably a dumb quest, but the (970H) specs say it has built-in DD and 5.1 output.
Does that mean I could connect the player to the TV via the HDMI cable and hookup the speakers/subwoofer directly to the player and not need a A/V receiver at all?

This is probably a dumb quest, but the (970H) specs say it has built-in DD and 5.1 output.
Does that mean I could connect the player to the TV via the HDMI cable and hookup the speakers/subwoofer directly to the player and not need a A/V receiver at all?
No, it won't work because the 970HD doesn't have amplifiers for the speakers.

The 82TXS doesn't do anything to 480i HDMI video except pass it on, so you are relying on the processing in your TV.

Interesting! So do you think my TV (Samsung HLS5078W) is "upconverting" the signal to 1080P? Anyway, Oppo recommends setting the player at 720p for a DLP set, so I'm going to watch it on that setting to see if I see any difference (positive or negative).

Interesting! So do you think my TV (Samsung HLS5078W) is "upconverting" the signal to 1080P? Anyway, Oppo recommends setting the player at 720p for a DLP set, so I'm going to watch it on that setting to see if I see any difference (positive or negative).You're better off setting it to 1080i, as that is closer to your set's native resolution.

A progressive frame is better for a native progressive display than an interlaced frame. Let the DVD player do the de-interlacing and your television do the scaling from 720p. In many cases, this will produce a better picture, as at 1080i you will re-interlace the video, basically nullifying any de-interlacing advantages of the DVD player.

A progressive frame is better for a native progressive display than an interlaced frame. Let the DVD player do the de-interlacing and your television do the scaling from 720p. In many cases, this will produce a better picture, as at 1080i you will re-interlace the video, basically nullifying any de-interlacing advantages of the DVD player.
If that's the case, why set the 970HD to 720p instead of 480p? Why scale it 2x in two different devices when you can scale it once in one?

I hooked up my 970 last night to my Panasonic TH42Px50U plasma. It has a native resolution of 1024 x 768. Should I set the 970 at 720 or 1080i?

If Oppo wants to keep fixing SACD related items, I have a few:

- Track 10 shows up as 0, not 10 and 0 is where the 1 should be.
- The previous track button doesn't work if you're playing track 1. Meaning you can't skip back to the beginning of track 1.

I agree that the most common playback things should work, but there is a workaround for your point #2.

The problem is that the first few seconds are aften cut off by the time my receiver recognizes the disc and starts playback.

I simply fast advance to track 2, then 2 clicks backward to track one and it plays from the very beginning. But I agree, it's crazy to have to find a workaround for a "feature" that works on every other dvde player.

Btw, I use the 970 strictly for cd/dvd-a/scad playback.

Shelly

If that's the case, why set the 970HD to 720p instead of 480p? Why scale it 2x in two different devices when you can scale it once in one?

If I set the player to 480i does this limit the audio going to my txs 82, in any way, when using the HDMI connection?

If I set the player to 480i does this limit the audio going to my txs 82, in any way, when using the HDMI connection?
Yes, you can't transmit 5.1 SACD and 5.1 DVD-A with anything but 720p or 1080i HDMI output.

Yes, you can't transmit 5.1 SACD and 5.1 DVD-A with anything but 720p or 1080i HDMI output.

I guess I should have been more specific...what I meant to ask was with regards to DVD playback, I'm I losing any audio information using the 480i playback over HDMI to the TXS82?

Thanks,
Jim

I guess I should have been more specific...what I meant to ask was with regards to DVD playback, I'm I losing any audio information using the 480i playback over HDMI to the TXS82?
No, you're not losing anything.

If that's the case, why set the 970HD to 720p instead of 480p? Why scale it 2x in two different devices when you can scale it once in one?

Depending on the scaling of the display, the DVD player will do a better job. Now becomes the question you have to ask yourself: How good is the scaling on the display; how good is the de-interlacing of the display? If either of them is "not good" then you will want to use the DVD player or external solution to fill that gap.

For most displays their scaling is good. What becomes an issue is how good is the scaling from a 480p source to a 1080p source. Most displays I have used which are fixed pixel designed are horrible in this regard. So, by sending an already HD signal to the display, the display itself will have to do less work to bring it up to its native resolution.

The overall picture quality will be better at 720p over 480p, and likely better than using 1080i if the de-interlacing of the display is not well designed.

I guess I should have been more specific...what I meant to ask was with regards to DVD playback, I'm I losing any audio information using the 480i playback over HDMI to the TXS82?


If you are using Dolby Digital or DTS RAW (bitstream) audio, then you will not be losing any quality at 480i.

I hooked up my 970 last night to my Panasonic TH42Px50U plasma. It has a native resolution of 1024 x 768. Should I set the 970 at 720 or 1080i?

You should use 720p instead of 1080i in this case.

A progressive frame is better for a native progressive display than an interlaced frame. Let the DVD player do the de-interlacing and your television do the scaling from 720p. In many cases, this will produce a better picture, as at 1080i you will re-interlace the video, basically nullifying any de-interlacing advantages of the DVD player.
What do you mean by "re-interlacing"? Are you saying that when the Oppo is set to 1080i, it de-interlaces a DVD to 480p and then re-interlaces to 1080i?

What do you mean by "re-interlacing"? Are you saying that when the Oppo is set to 1080i, it de-interlaces a DVD to 480p and then re-interlaces to 1080i?Yes, to generate good 1080i, DVD players have to de-interlace 480i to 480p, upscale to 540p, then re-interlace to 1080i. Unless you have a 1080p DVD player, 720p is the next-best resolution to feed a 1080p TV. See this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7407251#post7407251) too.

Gary

For anyone interested, the 720p output from the DV-970HD looks incredible on the 1080p LCD flat panels from Sony (the KDL-46XBR2/3, the KDL-46V2500, and the KDL-46V25L1 series).

Some people prefer the sharpness of the 970 when compared to the 971. On my 720p Samsung DLP, though, I found that the image was a wee bit too sharp for my liking... it looked wonderful with reference quality DVD recordings, but with bad transfers, it looked a bit too "digital" - the DLP seemed to enhance any noise, banding or macroblocking that was recorded on the disk.

Paired with the Sony LCD however, the 970 appears considerably smoother, without softening edges.

Just so that you know, my TV's are always carefully calibrated, and all artificial image "enhancements" are turned OFF.

Gary

Ross1, I can confirm that the Oppo970H (6.13 beta firmware) outputs SACD over HDMI at 88.2KHz. I have it connected to a Panasonic SA-XR57 and when "both units are properly set-up and used", the Panasonic will show "PCM 88.2" when a SACD is played.

Having said that, I believe that there are still some "issues" (apart from the reported SACD playback bugs - no auto play - no skip to next song or go to a specific song the usual way, no seamless transition on discs like DSOM, etc).

a. Once in a while, when playing a SACD, I'll lose sound. Usually, it'll come back after a couple of seconds. Sometimes, it'll come back one time, and then go away after 2-3 secs. The only way to get back SACD sound is to cold boot the Oppo and start over again.

b. Sometimes, when playing a new SACD disc (i.e., one was playing. I ejected it and then I inserted a new disc), the Panasonic will not pick up the sound. I have to change input to somthing else and then back to DVD (I changed the default from DVR to DVD - you'll know what I mean if you have this Panny unit).

Obviously, a. and b. are HDMI handshake issues. Not sure if it is Oppo's or Panny's fault. Unfortunately, I don't have another HDMI 1.1 receiver to test.

Can anyone with a Pany XR57 or a different brand HDMI 1.1 receiver and with a variety of SACDs (pure and hybrid) tell me if you are also noticing these issues?
I found this post about HDMI handshake issues between the Oppo and an HDMI audio receiver. An interesting thing is that the EXACTLY same phenomena as described above (a. and b.) are observed with my Marantz SR4001, especailly when playing SACD via HDMI connection whether 2-ch or multi-ch playback. I think that Oppo should be aware of this problem and if possible consider correcting this in future firmwares. This is an important issue because many people buy the Oppo---I did---because they want this feature: every audio format including SACD via HDMI.

P.S. The firmware version on my Oppo is 3A-0919.

hmm. heres a new one i guess, so please bear with me. this thread has 93 pages, thus filtering through each page is a bit difficult.
as suggested on top,
nueromancer wrote...
OPPO recommends:
* Speaker Setup Page:
o Down-mix: 5.1 CH
o Front Speaker: Large
o Center Speaker: Large
o Rear Speaker: Large
o Subwoofer: On
* Audio Setup Page:
o Digital Output: Raw
o HDMI Audio: Auto

My problem is, i purchased my first sacd which is 'james taylor' JT. i suddenly felt that there was an open 'space' and a center was missing. fooled around the settings and well here are my questions.
1. for sacd/dvd-audio disc, should the settings be 5.1 ch or stereo? the advanced setup guide mentioned that the downscaling is for the 'mixed l-r' connections, thus assuming this shouldnt affect the multianalog connections.

2. should i set the bit rate as high as 192?

thanks guys. newbie on this one, so please bear with me. im used to dvd-audio but using the dts tracks.

btw, im not using any sound thru the hdmi cable, since the hd70 doesnt have a speaker. and i thought i dont need it, since im feeding the video signal to a pj and not a hdtv.

I don't know if this has been reported before but my 970 seems to have trouble intermittenly when playing some standard audio cds. It will be playing along and then it starts failing on the decode. I have not seen this on any of my other players. First time it happened was on Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark and now today on Steely Dan's Gaucho. I have had no problem with DVD audio.. only cds. I am using HDMI to my Pioneer Elite 82 receiver.

I am trying to justify keeping the 970 as an SD Upscaling player and as audio cd player. Although the 970 is a pretty darn good upscaler it does not quite match my HTPC with the NVIDI Pure Video Decoder at 1080P..

The 970 is a heck of a lot more convenient than the HTP so I would like to keep it around. The wife and the HTPC are just not really a match, so please any suggestions on the garbled decode of cd audio would be a big help. As far as I know these same two CDs play fine on all my other players.

I don't know if this has been reported before but my 970 seems to have trouble intermittenly when playing some standard audio cds. It will be playing along and then it starts failing on the decode. I have not seen this on any of my other players.Does this only happen on burned (as opposed to stamped) CDs, i.e ones you've burnt yourself, possibly at fairly high speeds? And, are your burned DVDs suffering from the same problem? Just a thought, as I had/have similar problems with my 971H. Turned out (in my case) that many writeable CD/DVDs don't like heat. The 971H gets fairly hot, especially when run on 240V (as opposed to 120V). In the end I wound up putting a small fan inside the 971H. That helped solve the problem with almost all of the writeable DVDs that were giving me a problem before. Oddly enough, re-writeable DVDs don't appear to suffer from the heat problem nearly as much.

I found this post about HDMI handshake issues between the Oppo and an HDMI audio receiver. An interesting thing is that the EXACTLY same phenomena as described above (a. and b.) are observed with my Marantz SR4001, especailly when playing SACD via HDMI connection whether 2-ch or multi-ch playback. I think that Oppo should be aware of this problem and if possible consider correcting this in future firmwares. This is an important issue because many people buy the Oppo---I did---because they want this feature: every audio format including SACD via HDMI.

P.S. The firmware version on my Oppo is 3A-0919.
Odd, I don't get a. and b. with my 970HD and my Pioneer Elite 84TXSi. I've got the latest firmware also.

My problem is, i purchased my first sacd which is 'james taylor' JT. i suddenly felt that there was an open 'space' and a center was missing. fooled around the settings and well here are my questions.
1. for sacd/dvd-audio disc, should the settings be 5.1 ch or stereo? the advanced setup guide mentioned that the downscaling is for the 'mixed l-r' connections, thus assuming this shouldnt affect the multianalog connections.

2. should i set the bit rate as high as 192?

thanks guys. newbie on this one, so please bear with me. im used to dvd-audio but using the dts tracks.

btw, im not using any sound thru the hdmi cable, since the hd70 doesnt have a speaker. and i thought i dont need it, since im feeding the video signal to a pj and not a hdtv.
If you're using the 5.1 or 7.1 analog multi channel inputs on your receiver you should set it to 5.1. If you're using a stereo input on your receiver you should set it to stereo, and you should probably set the Oppo to play back the stereo mix from the SACD, not the Multichannel mix. The bit rate setting doesn't affect the SACD analog output. It only affect digital output from some DVDs.

The Search function hasn't turned anything up so bear with me...

If the Oppo is set to output 480i over HDMI , are all the other Video outputs active and also at 480i ?

I'll be feeding an outboard scaler the 480i but would like to also use an LCD monitor to view SACD and DVD-A menu's without having to power up my PJ. I realize that I will have to increase the Video setting , in the Oppo , to 720p or 1080i to get up to 192Khz/24-bit Audio over HDMI but I'm not sure if that will kill the other outputs if I want to use them for a monitor .

Thanks in advance ,

Scott......................

The Search function hasn't turned anything up so bear with me...

If the Oppo is set to output 480i over HDMI , are all the other Video outputs active and also at 480i ?

I'll be feeding an outboard scaler the 480i but would like to also use an LCD monitor to view SACD and DVD-A menu's without having to power up my PJ. I realize that I will have to increase the Video setting , in the Oppo , to 720p or 1080i to get up to 192Khz/24-bit Audio over HDMI but I'm not sure if that will kill the other outputs if I want to use them for a monitor .

Thanks in advance ,

Scott......................

I have the 971 set at 720p connected with hdmi direct to my front pj and run a composite video cable from the 971 to my baby 5" b&w tv near my couch. this is used for reading menus witthout turning on my pj. The composite video is always active.

I have the 970 just for cd/sacd and dvd-a without any hdmi or other video cable. It is set to 1080i and the composite video cable that also runs to my baby tv is still active as well.

All of my sources run composite video to a sinmple switchbox and then into my tv for using just the menus.

Shelly

If you're using the 5.1 or 7.1 analog multi channel inputs on your receiver you should set it to 5.1. If you're using a stereo input on your receiver you should set it to stereo, and you should probably set the Oppo to play back the stereo mix from the SACD, not the Multichannel mix. The bit rate setting doesn't affect the SACD analog output. It only affect digital output from some DVDs.

ok, so i am using 5.1 on my reciever. great.confirmed one part. but why should the oppo be set to play the SACD in stereo not multichannel? just a silly question.

Thanks stereodude.

but why should the oppo be set to play the SACD in stereo not multichannel? just a silly question.
If you're using the 5.1 outputs, it shouldn't be set to stereo. That's only if you're using the stereo outputs.

If you're using the 5.1 outputs, it shouldn't be set to stereo. That's only if you're using the stereo outputs.

see thats the wierd part. i have the reciever set to recognize analog/digital automatically, removed the toslink connection, and tried to experiment with it.

now, on the oppo settings the sacd is set at multichannel, the analog downmix (although i assume it not to affect the multichannel analog settings, at 5.1

yet when i play james taylor's JT album, it comes out like its er... forgot the term, 'out of phase'!.

maybe its the disc. hmm. darn it, first sacd album ive ever bought and this happens. dont have another one btw.. :confused:

THanks stereo dude. if this calls for pms people let me know.

The Down Mix settings will effect the Mix and Multi-channel analog outputs. If you plan on using the Multi-Channel analog outputs, you have to set the DVD player to 5.1.

Additionally, all outputs on the DVD player are live at once. Most receivers will search for the digital coaxial and optical connections first, then analog. For this reason, if you leave it on Auto, the receiver may be defaulting to the optical input.

If the audio is out of phase, see if your receiver does not do speaker and bass management. If it does not, then your settings on the DV-970HD are not correct for your speakers, which can cause phasing errors.

The Down Mix settings will effect the Mix and Multi-channel analog outputs. If you plan on using the Multi-Channel analog outputs, you have to set the DVD player to 5.1.

Additionally, all outputs on the DVD player are live at once. Most receivers will search for the digital coaxial and optical connections first, then analog. For this reason, if you leave it on Auto, the receiver may be defaulting to the optical input.

If the audio is out of phase, see if your receiver does not do speaker and bass management. If it does not, then your settings on the DV-970HD are not correct for your speakers, which can cause phasing errors.

wierd part is, my reciever does support speaker and bass management.
i also made sure to manually choose the analog connection when playing sacds/dvd-audio disc.
it seems to only apply to the sacd disc, but when i plug in a dvd-audio disc im familiar with, it works perfectly fine.
so, to summarize it, im using the multichannel analog outputs, and have it set at 5.1, bit rate is at 192k, and speakers to large. reciever is the pioneer vsx-815 series...
maybe its the sacd itself?
anyone have a james taylor JT album SACD? what say you on the audio?

I have the 971 set at 720p connected with hdmi direct to my front pj and run a composite video cable from the 971 to my baby 5" b&w tv near my couch. this is used for reading menus without turning on my pj. The composite video is always active.

I have the 970 just for cd/sacd and dvd-a without any hdmi or other video cable. It is set to 1080i and the composite video cable that also runs to my baby tv is still active as well.

All of my sources run composite video to a simple switchbox and then into my tv for using just the menus.

Shelly

Thanks Shelly ,

That's what I was hoping for . Great minds think alike .

Scott.................... :D

I currently have a Hitachi 42HDS69 hanging on a retractable arm in a 10 inch deep niche. I am considering attaching the Oppo 970 vertically on the wall BEHIND the plasma since I have no room underneath it. My other components are in a closet over 20 feet away supplied with component cables. I am aware of the hack for component, but would like to use HDMI. Can anyone confirm that the 970 will function properly when in a vertical position? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!

You will not be able to use it in a vertical manner because the disc tray does not have any of those little prongs which can hold DVDs. So, it would slip out and into the DVD player itself. Which would be bad.

just a heads up, i found the problem. i think. i had to recheck the inputs for the reciever, and well, it chose digital, then analog right? well, mine has digital, analog, then 5.1 signal, thus the 'open space'...
All is fine on my end. thank you again for all your help guys...

Since we all always need new things to obsess about ;> .....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748147

see especially 'Summary of requirements' near the end of the first post

So, now, I'm trying to find workarounds for these LFE issues*. Currently using the Oppo 970 via HDMI, for all audio , meaning it's set as per multichannel SACD/DVD-A digital passage recommendations, connected to a Pioneer Elite AVR. The problem is that there is no way to selectively apply a +10-dB boost to LFE as required for some formats and not others, in this config. THis boost needs to be applied BEFORE bass management occurs, btw, so as not to also boost redirected bass from other speakers; it should be applied ONLY to LFE data put there in the studio (and only to Dolby Digital/DTS [and multichannel DVD-A?] .1 channel data, not multichannel SACD .1 channel data).

I'm thinking that I'll have to get creative with different outputs for different formats (e.g. using toslink for movie audio) but it's still pretty much a stumper. Any ideas?





*(btw, there's another LFE issue involving the 'studio eoncoded' LFE crossover pt , which for Dolby Digital is 120 Hz, and the AVR bass management xover , which is often 80 Hz, but I'll leave that for another day...)

Jomari, for what it is worth the - i have listen to that Jamestaylor SACD, on both the 970 and a modified SonyCE775 . That SACD sounds- off -on both players. A very good SACD to heard details is DKRALL- girl inthe other room-.

OPPO recommends:
* Speaker Setup Page:
o Down-mix: 5.1 CH
o Front Speaker: Large
o Center Speaker: Large
o Rear Speaker: Large
o Subwoofer: On
* Audio Setup Page:
o Digital Output: Raw
o HDMI Audio: Auto
You will then alter your receiver's settings to fit your proper bass management needs. Bookshelves will likely be "Small" while floorstanding speakers will be "Large".

This is the way i have mysystem set up. _except for the fronts_. MY speakers a re PSB Silveri towers, i thought i had tried them at large but didn't hear that much of a difference, but i;ll review it again.
Thanks,
db

I'm thinking that I'll have to get creative with different outputs for different formats (e.g. using toslink for movie audio) but it's still pretty much a stumper. Any ideas?Set HDMI to Auto. Problem solved. The level adjustments you make to the HDMI output won't affect DD or DTS.

just posted a comparison of the 970 and the Pioneer DV-46AV here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=754689

I will soon be receiving my new Mitsubishi HD1000U projector. I am wondering what would be the best way to hook up the 970: HDMI for the video signal with audio optical out to the receiver, or stay via component and apply the upconversion hack?

I will be ordering cables and really do not want to run both.

mustang5o: I had the same problem when using HDMI of getting Oppo splash screen then snow when I used HDMI. What fixed it for me is to go into the setup for the Oppo and in the HDMI setup change the setting which says something about the HDMI including audio in the bitstream. I think my projector was confused when it received both video and audio in the HDMI stream.

I thought about that but I am converting to DVI on my display (DVI has no sound). Anyway, it is working now. I just had to have the diplay powered up first so the HDCP handshake would work correctly. Funny thing is I have now played several commerically pressed DVD's which should have CSS encryption but when I choose the component input it still shows 1080i when I hit that HDMI button to see what it's doing.

On another note, I had mentioned earlier as well that I was experiencing brief hiccups will watching movies before I got my HDMI-DVI connection to work. Well, I watched another movie this week and instinctively chose the component connection. Shortly into the movie a couple of those "hiccups". Realized I was on component and switched to DVI. Not one hiccup. That is two full movies and several tests now using HDMI-DVI and no more of those "hiccups". Just out of curiousity has anyone else seen these "hiccups" when trying to do 1080i via component outputs?

needs help with playing .ogm file.
i do get the sound but video keep freezing.
any idea? or hacks?
thank you

What is the resolution of the video portion of the OGM? I have only had limited testing with OGM and did not have any problems with it outside of not being able to change audio and subtitle streams.

What is the resolution of the video portion of the OGM? I have only had limited testing with OGM and did not have any problems with it outside of not being able to change audio and subtitle streams.

I don't know the resolution of the video. the file is 701 mb for 90 mins of video/audio. I had my oppo at 480i and 480p.

I just found out oppo wouldn't play mpeg 4 file .

do you think 613a mod has anything to do with it?

thanx again

Received my 970 last week a few quick comments.

Ordered a refurbished 970 by phone direct from Oppo ($134.00 delivered). Excellent Customer servcie arrived in 3 days by Std Fedex.

Hooked the system to my 5 yr old Panny 47" CRT rear projector via component inputs, calibrated with Avia - Looks Great. Then used the Silicon Optix HQV disk to compare the 970 to my 3 & 4 yr old (progressive scan) Samsung and Sony players. No contest the Jaggies previously seen have nearly disappeared with the 970!

If you have an older DVD player - THis is a no brainer "must purchase" !!!

I then installed the hack software to allow 1080i over component video. No problems just follow the directions (although I did use a UPS on the Oppo during the upgrade). Now with 1080i I think I have improved the PQ a tiny bit more - keep in mind my PQ was already excellent (seem to have gained a tiny bit in the noise and detail ldepartment - could be me).

PS > this forum is great - Thanks to all contributing to this string !!!

The main downside (for me) is the aspect ratio feels slightly off because of the MediaTek shrinking problem, so instead of 16x9 the picture is more like 16x9 squeezed into a 16x8.5 frame. Even on 16:9 movies I get slight black bars on top and bottom. However I've grown used to it and it doesn't bother me as much.

Oppo Digital and the 970HD testers are well aware of this problem and it is being addressed.

Paul


Have they corrected this problem?

(I posted this question on the thread for the TV I have coming this Tuesday - Hitatch 65F59 - but wanted to also hear from others who may have different opinions outside of Hitachi TVs...)

I've decided on the Oppo DVD players but don't know which one is better suited for this type of television -- the 970HD or the 971HD. I thought the 970HD would be best, especially since there is a hack to let you upconvert to 1080i over component, but after reading the FAQ on Oppo's website they say that if your TV is over 50" that the 971 is recommended. Mine is the Hitachi 65F59, a 65" rear projection TV that supports up to 1080i.

Does anyone else have any experiences or thoughts to share?

Many thanks,
Ray

Have they corrected this problem?

No. There is an internal beta which fixes this error, but it is not ready for prime time.

so any update on if oppo is going to release a fix for the reduced size in 720p/1080i issue? i find it quite annoying to have 2 black bars in 720p/1080i modes. with my panasonic ax100u projector and a 110" screen, whatever slight improvement in image quality 720p/1080i mode doesn't make up for those black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. i'm using 480p mode mostly, which gives me a nice full-screen image. at first i thought the ax100u projector might have a better scaler than the oppo, but i think the 480p picture over hdmi is actually better than the 480i picture.

do you guys know if the reduced size problem in 720p/1080i mode is only found on oppo 970? does oppo 971 also have the same problem? what about other up-converting dvd players from sony, samsung, or panasonic, or when watching sd dvd using a hd-dvd player or a blueray player?

thanks.

Does anyone else have any experiences or thoughts to share?
I have a 970HD, and a Pioneer 84TXSi (with a Faroudja in it). I'm sure the comparison I'm about to make is not exactly representative, but the 84TXSi can convert 480i (via component) into 1080i or 720p out via HDMI. I have a Hitachi 57S715 (RP CRT). Running the 970 into the Pioneer via component (480i) and having the Faroudja do it's thing to 1080i HDMI out is definitely a step below in image quality from the 970HD doing 1080i via HDMI. There seemed to be a lot more mpeg-2 type artifacts going through the Faroudja in the 84TXSi and onto the display. Of course my HTPC handily beats the 970HD, so it's not the end all.

I'd love to see a real 971 to see if the same mpeg-2 type artifacts are present in it as well. I do know that passing 480i component to the TV (which has a pixelworks chip) doesn't yield the same mpeg-2 style artifacts, so the artifacts aren't glaringly obvious in the 480i output.

so any update on if oppo is going to release a fix for the reduced size in 720p/1080i issue?

No. There is an internal beta which fixes this error, but it is not ready for prime time.

do you guys know if the reduced size problem in 720p/1080i mode is only found on oppo 970? does oppo 971 also have the same problem?


The OPDV971H product does not suffer from the same vertical compression as the DV-970HD product, the OPDV971H naturally underscans. For this reason, if you have a display which does not overscan, such as a projector, then you may possibly see bars around the entire picture.

why won't oppo play avi files that burnt on DVD disc. It only plays the file that is burn on CD.
HELP

THANX

I've been using DVD-RW without any problems. Haven't tried AVIs on regular DVD-R.

why won't oppo play avi files that burnt on DVD disc. It only plays the file that is burn on CD.
All my burned DVD-R and +Rs work fine. It may be something in the way you're burning them.

Depending on the scaling of the display, the DVD player will do a better job. Now becomes the question you have to ask yourself: How good is the scaling on the display; how good is the de-interlacing of the display? If either of them is "not good" then you will want to use the DVD player or external solution to fill that gap.

For most displays their scaling is good. What becomes an issue is how good is the scaling from a 480p source to a 1080p source. Most displays I have used which are fixed pixel designed are horrible in this regard. So, by sending an already HD signal to the display, the display itself will have to do less work to bring it up to its native resolution.

The overall picture quality will be better at 720p over 480p, and likely better than using 1080i if the de-interlacing of the display is not well designed.

On my Sammy 5687W DLP[1080p] the 480I and P looks "better" then the 720P-1080i and no vertical compression as well.The higher scale settings looks "processed" with no added detail just noise. The 480I/P settings looks more smother and "filmlike". YMMV

why won't oppo play avi files that burnt on DVD disc. It only plays the file that is burn on CD.
HELP

THANX

Try using ImgBurn, a free download. I'm using it to burn single and double sided DVDs. So far, this DVD player reads everything I through at it. I'm burning on Pio 111D w/TDB FW upgrade to INT8.29. Not only does the 970 read the avi files I can scan forward and backward with ease. My guess is you did not make the disk with the proper file systems (ISO9660+UDF). Follow this guide and see if it helps:

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=1780

My other guess is your media may be suspect. Try a different brand that you know matches your burner.

On my Sammy 5687W DLP[1080p] the 480I and P looks "better" then the 720P-1080i and no vertical compression as well.The higher scale settings looks "processed" with no added detail just noise. The 480I/P settings looks more smother and "filmlike". YMMV

It's the same situation on my Panasonic AX100u projector. 480i/480p look much more film like than 720p/1080i modes.

I set the screen mode to '16:9/Auto' which shows 4:3 content in letterbox. When I use zoom for content, the picture is never centered. With 1.5 zoom, I see some black space on the right side. Anyone seen this?

Also I wonder why there is no zoom setting of 1.33 (4/3)? 4/3 will make 4:3 picture correctly occupy full width of a 16:9 screen.

Thanks.

Try using ImgBurn, a free download. I'm using it to burn single and double sided DVDs. So far, this DVD player reads everything I through at it. I'm burning on Pio 111D w/TDB FW upgrade to INT8.29. Not only does the 970 read the avi files I can scan forward and backward with ease. My guess is you did not make the disk with the proper file systems (ISO9660+UDF). Follow this guide and see if it helps:

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=1780

My other guess is your media may be suspect. Try a different brand that you know matches your burner.

On a slightly different topic, some of my burned DVDs - mostly DL media, but occasional DVD-R media as well - have become unreadable after a period of time. They initially worked fine, but somehow "degraded". Would this more likely be a media problem or a burner problem?

All my burned DVD-R and +Rs work fine. It may be something in the way you're burning them.
Thanx, I used NERO express ( Make data DVD) and just add .file and sub tiltle file to it and burn.
should i use UDF DVD? UDF/ISO DVD?

I've been using DVD-RW without any problems. Haven't tried AVIs on regular DVD-R.
THANX, I don't have any problem with DVD back up copy. but i have can't play media files burnt on dvd. But no problem with watching media files on CD-R.

Hacked 970HD Calibration Note/Question:

I have a 970HD connected via component to my Panny 47WX49. I did the original calibration of the system with an Avia disk - result was excellent color and PQ

Then I did the hack to allow 1080i via component:
- The hack went well and video seemed to improve a tiny bit more.
- I then recalibrated using Avia, only this time with the Oppo set for 1080i.
- Put in a movie and was surprised - WOW the colors were extremly oversaturated.
- I then compared the Avia color bars with Oppo set for 480p versus 1080i - a big difference!

I have since recalibrated with the Oppo set for 480p. and all seems well with 1080i viewing.

The Question:
Is the oversaturation I experienced when calibrating at 1080i setting a quirk with the Avia disk or just a characeteristic of progressive scan versus interlace scanning, or simply me..?

Thanks in Advance!
CuzEd2

So I have the DV970HD hooked up via HDMI using an HDMI-DVI adaptor. When I watched the movie Elf it filled the screen at 1080i. However when I watched T2 and Davinci Code they both had black bars. Then again DC said it was 2.40:1 aspect ratio so I expect it to have black bars. Is this not correct?

Is the oversaturation I experienced when calibrating at 1080i setting a quirk with the Avia disk or just a characeteristic of progressive scan versus interlace scanning, or simply me..?

Upconversion should not affect your colors. Not sure what would cause the problem you're seeing.

So I have the DV970HD hooked up via HDMI using an HDMI-DVI adaptor. When I watched the movie Elf it filled the screen at 1080i. However when I watched T2 and Davinci Code they both had black bars. Then again DC said it was 2.40:1 aspect ratio so I expect it to have black bars. Is this not correct?

Elf is a 1.85:1 movie and should fill your screen. Terminator 2 and DaVinci Code are 2.35:1 movies and will have black bars.

www.widescreen.org

Hacked 970HD Calibration Note/Question:


The Question:
Is the oversaturation I experienced when calibrating at 1080i setting a quirk with the Avia disk or just a characeteristic of progressive scan versus interlace scanning, or simply me..?

Thanks in Advance!
CuzEd2

I think it is your set receiving the wrong colorspace. Try switching the colorspace on the Oppo back and forth from Colorspace = YCbCr 4:4:4 and Colorspace = RGB. My Panny (47x54) doesn't allow me to change it's colorspace at 1080i or 480i, it defaults to HD at 1080i and SD at 480i. At 480p I can select the colorspace on the panny. I haven't been able to find out what the Panny colorspace is at SD or HD but if the wrong combo is used between the Panny and the source, in this case the Oppo, you can see oversaturated colors and the panny's infamous red push or you'll see washed out colors. I am using the Oppo at 1080i over HDMI with Colorspace = YCbCr 4:4:4.

I think it is your set receiving the wrong colorspace. Try switching the colorspace on the Oppo back and forth from Colorspace = YCbCr 4:4:4 and Colorspace = RGB. My Panny (47x54) doesn't allow me to change it's colorspace at 1080i or 480i, it defaults to HD at 1080i and SD at 480i. At 480p I can select the colorspace on the panny. I haven't been able to find out what the Panny colorspace is at SD or HD but if the wrong combo is used between the Panny and the source, in this case the Oppo, you can see oversaturated colors and the panny's infamous red push or you'll see washed out colors. I am using the Oppo at 1080i over HDMI with Colorspace = YCbCr 4:4:4.


Moxie1617,

Thanks - this will be an easy test. I am currently using the YCbCr setting.
I will try both settings on the Oppo. I suspect you are correct, as my set seems to have defaults that take precedent whenever the the compnent inputs are selected.

As for the Panny & red push:
I too am plagued with this. According to the Avia readings (with the RBG filters) I am finding the following:
Blue = 0%
Green = +10%
Red =+20 to +25%, Ouch!

I notice you are in Northern Illinois - Do you know of any ISF calibrators in the area that are proficient (and reasonable) on the rear projection CRT Pannys ?

CuzEd2


I have put the following off for about 4 years now.
However - I have found some recommendations and am about to go into the service mode in the hopes of changing values in the interest of improving the red push.

Moxie1617,

Thanks - this will be an easy test. I am currently using the YCbCr setting.
I will try both settings on the Oppo. I suspect you are correct, as my set seems to have defaults that take precedent whenever the the compnent inputs are selected.

As for the Panny & red push:
I too am plagued with this. According to the Avia readings (with the RBG filters) I am finding the following:
Blue = 0%
Green = +10%
Red =+20 to +25%, Ouch!

I notice you are in Northern Illinois - Do you know of any ISF calibrators in the area that are proficient (and reasonable) on the rear projection CRT Pannys ?

CuzEd2


I have put the following off for about 4 years now.
However - I have found some recommendations and am about to go into the service mode in the hopes of changing values in the interest of improving the red push.

I haven't had my set ISF'd so can't recommend anyone in this area. There are shops in the area that are listed at the ISF site but they are high end custom installation shops. You may want to ask around at the Chicago OTA forum. I have seen names at AVS that work or will come to the Chicago area but I can't remember where and when I saw it.

Thanx, I used NERO express ( Make data DVD) and just add .file and sub tiltle file to it and burn.
should i use UDF DVD? UDF/ISO DVD?UDF is not necessary. I burn all my disks as ISO only. The only time you need UDF is when a file is greater than 2GB.

Since everyone is talking about burning things on discs, I recently tried a CD-R that I burned some MP3 files on with MusicMatch, the disc plays perfectly in my Pioneer DVD player but the Oppo 970 won't recognize it. Is there anything special that must be done for the Oppo to recognize a CD-R with MP3s on it? The fact the Pioneer plays it perfectly has me confused about the Oppo...

THANX, I don't have any problem with DVD back up copy. but i have can't play media files burnt on dvd. But no problem with watching media files on CD-R.

I just checked my two AVI DVDs and they are both +R with one being single layer and one being DL. Both were burned with ImgBurn. I'll try a -R on my next burn next week if no one replies before then.

What is an AVI dvd??

What is an AVI dvd??

Well, it's short hand for a DVD with .avi files on it. In my case, I have down loaded and burned the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica on to DVD.

Well, it's short hand for a DVD with .avi files on it. In my case, I have down loaded and burned the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica on to DVD.
Bear in mind too, that .AVI files are not necessarily in 480/576i or NTSC/PAL format. They can be in any format like 720p. You may then have to do some downsampling to get them onto a standard SD DVD in VOB format for them to be able to be read in standard DVD players. Some HD Media Players though are capable of reading 720p .AVI files directly of a standard SD DVD-R/RW.

Will the 'gapless SACD' firmware, or any othr firmware upgrade, override the 'Component Up-Res' hack? An earlier post implied it (or any future fw upgrade) might.

Also, is there a PQ gain or loss up-converting over component (specifically on an Sony Bravia XBR1 if known).

Thanks in advance

StevenPK

1) Will the 'gapless SACD' firmware, or any othr firmware upgrade, override the 'Component Up-Res' hack? An earlier post implied it (or any future fw upgrade) might.

2) Also, is there a PQ gain or loss up-converting over component (specifically on an Sony Bravia XBR1 if known).
1) Yes

2) Compared to what? Odds are your DVI/HDMI input will look better than the component input, even at 1080i.

Any thoughts on this player with a Sammy DLP TV (HLS 4266)? Specifically, does that TV have a good enough scaler/deinterlacer that I wouldn't benefit much from this DVD player, or does the Oppo provide superior quality? Further, I assume there are no macroblocking issues with this player? I have heard that the 971 is a great player but leaves a bit to be desired on DLP TVs due to macroblocking, so I was leaning towards the 970.

Thanks!

Just to verfiy, if I do the hack to upconvert 1080i over component, I should not ever do any other firmware updates of any kind or else I will lose the ability to send 1080i over component? Is the 1080i over component hack from Oppo? If so, why wouldn't they allow those who installed it to laster install other upgrades without losing 1080i over component?

Just to verfiy, if I do the hack to upconvert 1080i over component, I should not ever do any other firmware updates of any kind or else I will lose the ability to send 1080i over component? Is the 1080i over component hack from Oppo? If so, why wouldn't they allow those who installed it to laster install other upgrades without losing 1080i over component?
The "hack" so called, modifies the firmware code to turn off HDCP control. Very sensible in my book, as the source that you're playing is only SD anyway, so why stop you from trying to make it look better? A very silly unwanted byproduct that Intel imposes on those manufacturers that choose to use their HDMI chipset.

Anyways, the entity that does the hack, has to modify each firmware release to turn off the HDCP flag - probably just a one or two byte change. You may find that they have later firmware versions available on their site, but it'll probably always be one or two revisions behind. As much as Oppo might want to do this themselves, they would loose their license to use the HDMI chipset if they did.

The only way around this, if you don't like getting the hacked firmware is to get the Oppo 971H model, which has a DVI output instead of an HDMI one. This player is NOT HDCP enabled, so you can always scale up on the DVI ouput. Be aware though, that this player does NOT upscale over component.

Anyone know how to find out if another firmware hack is in the works that is based on a more recent version?

Elf is a 1.85:1 movie and should fill your screen. Terminator 2 and DaVinci Code are 2.35:1 movies and will have black bars.

www.widescreen.org

Which is what I expected to see. I guess what I am wondering is when would someone experience the vertical compression? Is it that my display does overscanning so I never see it? The DV-970HD is currently connected to a Toshiba 42HDX82 (CRT-RPTV) via HDMI with an HDMI-DVI adaptor. I am curious because I plan to step up in size next year to either a large (60"+) DLP, HD-ILA or SXRD RPTV or I might just take the plunge for a Sony VPL-VW50.

Thanks again.

"AVS high school football rules!" :)

Is it that my display does overscanning so I never see it?

Yes. Around 5%.

I have a DENON DVD-2200 (no UPCONVERSION), over component video to my projector OPTOMA HD70 . I'm wondering if switching to OPPO will make a difference in term of PQ.

I have tried the PANASONIC from CIRCUIT CITY , and in Blind test my wife couldn't tell any difference. I returned it.

Also , I see some echoes on my screen ( on the right of sharp edges like second lines) , could it be that my (cheap) cable (30ft) is guilty ?

Thanks you all .

I have a DENON DVD-2200 (no UPCONVERSION), over component video to my projector OPTOMA HD70 . I'm wondering if switching to OPPO will make a difference in term of PQ.

I have tried the PANASONIC from CIRCUIT CITY , and in Blind test my wife couldn't tell any difference. I returned it.

Also , I see some echoes on my screen ( on the right of sharp edges like second lines) , could it be that my (cheap) cable (30ft) is guilty ?

Thanks you all .

I once A/B'd the Oppo 970 and the Denon 2900 (2200 is similar) and the Denon was clearly better with 480p component. Upscaling with the 970 might yield different results, however - especially if your protector scales everything and doesn't do native 480p.

Any thoughts on this player with a Sammy DLP TV (HLS 4266)? Specifically, does that TV have a good enough scaler/deinterlacer that I wouldn't benefit much from this DVD player, or does the Oppo provide superior quality? Further, I assume there are no macroblocking issues with this player? I have heard that the 971 is a great player but leaves a bit to be desired on DLP TVs due to macroblocking, so I was leaning towards the 970.

Thanks!

I emailed OPPO support and they told me to go with the 970 with my HLR Sammy due to the macroblocking issue. Hope this helps.

Any one using 970 on a panny plasma? How is PQ?

Thanks

Any one using 970 on a panny plasma? If so, how is the PQ?

Thanks

Any one using 970 on a panny plasma? If so, how is the PQ?

Thanks
Yes. 1080i via HDMI through a Pio VSX-72TXV to a 42" Panny plasma. IMO PQ is outstanding! You didn't ask, but SQ for CD and SACD (especially) is also outstanding! I'm very happy the Oppo 970's performance in my setup. :)

Oppodigital all the way!

My Dad called Oppo about his Panny 42" Plasma and they recommended a 971 for him. We have both tho, so we'll try the 970 and 971 and see which looks better. Am also going to test both out on my Hitachi 65F59 and share the results shortly. Any recommended DVDs to use?

Ray

My Dad called Oppo about his Panny 42" Plasma and they recommended a 971 for him. We have both tho, so we'll try the 970 and 971 and see which looks better. Am also going to test both out on my Hitachi 65F59 and share the results shortly. Any recommended DVDs to use?

Ray

If you have the Cars movie you can check for macroblocking by going to 21:34 on Chapter 5. Look at McQueen's windshield through the entire sequence of him on the ramp. Let us know how the Panny looks. The 970 is suppose to handle this better than the 971. Since the panny has 2 HDMI inputs you will be able to easily switch inputs with both players connected.

Oppo 970 is in the house :D

Thanks to everyone for all their comments , good and bad , which helped me make this decision . It's quite the little box .

I'm running 720p out over HDMI to a Pioneer 74 A/V receiver , then HDMI/DVI to my SP5000 PJ . I spent a little time Sunday tweaking the picture ( using GetGray , AVIA and Smart III ) through this new Video chain and when I was finished I popped in LOTR ROTK . Ended up watching the whole movie .

I see better black levels and details than I had with the Samsung HD841 . Outputting video as RGB has also increased perceived colour detail . Shots of flags and armor were exceptional .

I've also had time to play with DVD-Audio and SACD disks . Excellent , in a word . It's so nice to have something that works as advertised and doesn't down-rez all the Audio .

I've also used my USB memory stick to give a slide show of jpeg's . Quite easy . It may be worth trying an external USB HD to play some HD Mpeg's .

The only disappointment was my Compact Flash card from my DSLR didn't fit anywhere in the card reader . I wonder if a USB to Card Reader Accessory would work ? :rolleyes:

Well , off to try a few more Demo scenes .

Scott................. :)

Any one using 970 on a panny plasma? If so, how is the PQ?

Thanks

On my 42" - incredible. Though I have since retired the Panny and hooked up the 970 outputting 720p to a Mits HD1000U 720p projector via HDMI lighting up an 80" screen.

Even more incredible. Pants wetting incredible. Details I have never seen before. Now I have to watch all these movies AGAIN! :)

Thanks for all your input. I posted in other forums about an upconvert dvd player. Is it worth to spend that much? I am trying to justify the cost factor. I am in a dilemma.

Hi!

Great forum with lots of knowledgeable folks!
I'm trying to decide between either the 981 or 970. I like the sacd and dvd-a option of the 981/970, but prefer the price of the 970. Right now I have an LG 7832(zenith 318) which performs great for me. I have a Hitachi 50v500a rplcd. Would the 970 be okay with this tv or should I pursue the 981?

These pix are of the DVE sharpness test pattern, using HDMI 480i from the Oppo into a Crystalio II, outputting 1080p to an LCD flat panel, with 1:1 pixel mapping AR (so the source is embedded in the output without scaling). The pix aren't all that great, but they do show the artifacts I see. I see them regardless of output resolution from the Oppo, regardless of which deinterlacer I use on the CII, and with or without scaling by the CII. Is this what others see? (Aside, the Oppo's sharpness control seems to have no visible effect on this test pattern, again regardless of output resolution, is that to be expected?)
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3892/sharp1jr4.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7522/sharp2pn5.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9365/sharp3yb6.jpg

I just load the new "MVer: 05.00.01.07 Batch: 4A-1113" beta firmware. It say "Summary of Changes in This Release: Super Audio CD (SACD) gapless playback"

...but, I checked the OSD and now I have the "Font size" option to select beetwen 3 size of Divx/Xvid sizes. And now I can watch the entire subtitle window (when the subtitles are too long, they was partially displayed ). I has a great surprise, because this is not mentioned in the sumary of changes.... but WOW! it works OK (type 1 are the smallest and type 3 are the largest fonts)

Question about the HDMI output. Is there a setting that allows for output of only Video (i.e., no Audio feed) via HDMI. I'd want to use the Optical out to go straight to a receiver, and then the HDMI out to go to my TV.

I have a Samsung HL-S4666W and I can't find any settings on the TV that allow for a strict Video acceptance of HDMI.

If not, am I better off just getting the Oppo 971 and just outputting the video via DVI? Thanks for any help.

Question about the HDMI output. Is there a setting that allows for output of only Video (i.e., no Audio feed) via HDMI. I'd want to use the Optical out to go straight to a receiver, and then the HDMI out to go to my TV. There is no need to turn off the HDMI audio feed. The player puts out HDMI, coaxial, optical and analog audio simultaneously. So mute the TV and connect the optical to your receiver.

Gary

These pix are of the DVE sharpness test pattern, using HDMI 480i from the Oppo into a Crystalio II, outputting 1080p to an LCD flat panel, with 1:1 pixel mapping AR (so the source is embedded in the output without scaling). The pix aren't all that great, but they do show the artifacts I see. I see them regardless of output resolution from the Oppo, regardless of which deinterlacer I use on the CII, and with or without scaling by the CII. Is this what others see? (Aside, the Oppo's sharpness control seems to have no visible effect on this test pattern, again regardless of output resolution, is that to be expected?)... The DVE disk is notorious for artificial edge enhancement all over the place. I see this on all my players too. Just make sure that every device in the video chain has its sharpness set to 0. The Avia sharpness pattern is much better, but it too, has a tiny amount of ringing (EE) on the pattern. The 970 is also very sharp by nature. Many people prefer it to the 971 for that reason, but I personally prefer the smoothness of the 971.

As for the sharpness control having no effect, that could be because the 480i signal is sent out before processing. I don't know for sure.

Gary

I have a Hitachi 50v500a rplcd. Would the 970 be okay with this tv or should I pursue the 981? The 981 might be overkill for your 720p set. The 970 will do extremely well, but if you need 1080p future-proofing, or if you yearn for DCDi de-interlacing, then you might prefer the 981.

Gary

Thanks for all your input. I posted in other forums about an upconvert dvd player. Is it worth to spend that much? I am trying to justify the cost factor. I am in a dilemma. I wouldn't consider anything less than the 970. Its a remarkable player for the money, and OPPO's customer support is legendary.

Gary

Sorry to ask a question without having time to read the whole thread. How well does the 970 handle DVD +R and +RW media? My 8 year old Sony DVD player is on it's last legs and needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Disc compatibility is a significant concern for me. CNET (although I take their reviews with a grain of salt) indicated that the Oppo had trouble with some of their "easy" to read discs. Everything else I have heard and/or read about the 970 is very positive. Any insight you 970 owners can provide is greatly appreciated.

I too much prefer the Avia sharpness pattern because you can (and should) look at the frequency patterns (even recommended by Guy) to set sharpness.

My Dad called Oppo about his Panny 42" Plasma and they recommended a 971 for him. We have both tho, so we'll try the 970 and 971 and see which looks better. Am also going to test both out on my Hitachi 65F59 and share the results shortly. Any recommended DVDs to use?

Ray
Looking forward to hear your experience. I don't know whether I should go with 970 or 981 on my Panasonic 42PV600(PX600) display. 981 has better chip, but I don't know if it's visible on a 42" screen. 970 has less macroblocking though. Another thing is that most movies I have are PAL, and I've heard that 970 has problems with some PAL movies.
If anyone has suggestion which to choose, I would be greatful. To bad 970 doesn't come in black.

If you're going to be watching PAL mostly, then just stick with the 971. :)

Ray

If you're going to be watching PAL mostly, then just stick with the 971. :)

Ray
Why? I rather buy 981 over 971 .
http://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/index.html

Oh, I thought you meant between the 970 and 971. :)

I didn't know the 981 was out now. What's the difference with that one?

Ray

There is no need to turn off the HDMI audio feed. The player puts out HDMI, coaxial, optical and analog audio simultaneously. So mute the TV and connect the optical to your receiver.

Gary

Thanks a bunch Gary! Exactly what I wanted to hear!

There is no need to turn off the HDMI audio feed. The player puts out HDMI, coaxial, optical and analog audio simultaneously. So mute the TV and connect the optical to your receiver.

Gary

Thanks, I just received my OppoHD yesterday, and had the same question. Glad I took the time to scan this thread before I asked it again. :D

I'll be setting it up soon, along w/ the new 50" plasma. :D :D :D

Looking forward to hear your experience. I don't know whether I should go with 970 or 981 on my Panasonic 42PV600(PX600) display. 981 has better chip, but I don't know if it's visible on a 42" screen. 970 has less macroblocking though. Another thing is that most movies I have are PAL, and I've heard that 970 has problems with some PAL movies.
If anyone has suggestion which to choose, I would be greatful. To bad 970 doesn't come in black.

I just asked the PAL question to Oppo and their terrific and candid customer service promptly responded.

"The PAL support is far superior on the DV-981HD player versus that of the DV-970HD as the DV-981HD supports 2:2 Cadence, while the DV-970HD does not. This means that the DV-970HD will have more aliasing (jagged edges) and interlacing (combing) errors than the DV-981HD."

Dana

I just asked the PAL question to Oppo and their terrific and candid customer service promptly responded.

"The PAL support is far superior on the DV-981HD player versus that of the DV-970HD as the DV-981HD supports 2:2 Cadence, while the DV-970HD does not. This means that the DV-970HD will have more aliasing (jagged edges) and interlacing (combing) errors than the DV-981HD."

Dana
Thanks. :)

The 981 might be overkill for your 720p set. The 970 will do extremely well, but if you need 1080p future-proofing, or if you yearn for DCDi de-interlacing, then you might prefer the 981.

I have the LG 7832 with the same chipset as the 971, would I see a difference with the 970/971? Would it be maybe equal or better/less? I'm now thinking that all I would need would be the 970 for its sacd/dvd-a capability if my Lg is = or > than the 971/970...???

The DVE disk is notorious for artificial edge enhancement all over the place.
OK, but what I see from the Oppo is worse than what I see using multiple SW players on my PC, especially the artifacts on the circle in the first picture.

Just make sure that every device in the video chain has its sharpness set to 0.
Been that way since day 1.

The Avia sharpness pattern is much better
I see, you're quite right.

As for the sharpness control having no effect, that could be because the 480i signal is sent out before processing. I don't know for sure.
I was perhaps unclear, it has no visible effect for any of the Oppo's output resolutions over HDMI.

I've tried playing the one and only PAL disc I have , which came in a British magazine, but the Display says it's the wrong region disc ! This strikes me as odd since the player is an NTSC Region 1 device and of course all PAL disks will probably be other than Region 1 . So why include a PAL to NTSC conversion in this player if it won't recognize these discs ?

Maybe something that could be enabled in firmware ?

Scott.................... :confused:

Press Setup.
Press 9210 in quick succession. A new window will appear.
Press 0.
Press Setup to Exit.

I've tried playing the one and only PAL disc I have , which came in a British magazine, but the Display says it's the wrong region disc ! On the remote, press "setup" then 9210. Now press 0 to set the region to 0.

Gary

What the?... Neuromancer beat me to it again! What the heck is he doing up at this hour?

OK, but what I see from the Oppo is worse than what I see using multiple SW players on my PC, especially the artifacts on the circle in the first picture...
I was perhaps unclear, it has no visible effect for any of the Oppo's output resolutions over HDMI. The 970's image is known to be pretty sharp. Many other players soften the image (including SW players). But you are also introducing two more processing steps in the chain - the scaler and the display. I'll have to check on the effect of the sharpness control tomorrow.

Gary

Sorry to ask a question without having time to read the whole thread. How well does the 970 handle DVD +R and +RW media? My 8 year old Sony DVD player is on it's last legs and needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Disc compatibility is a significant concern for me. CNET (although I take their reviews with a grain of salt) indicated that the Oppo had trouble with some of their "easy" to read discs. Everything else I have heard and/or read about the 970 is very positive. Any insight you 970 owners can provide is greatly appreciated.
I can't comment on RW but it plays all my burnt +R and -R discs and all the dual layer ones too, which is a rarity.So far it played every disc I inserted.

I love my 970HD, but I have noticed a somewhat annoying issue with it. In some DVDs, when there is a light color object moving around a dark background, it seems to leave a smear of dark, pixely noise.

For example, the OPPO screensaver is a black background with the OPPO logo popping up randomly with different colors. When the logo disappears, it leaves a patch of dark (almost black) pixels.

I have the Samsung 4253 (42" Plasma) and the OPPO is hooked up using HDMI. I'm pretty sure it's not image retention, because if I change my video source, the screen immediately clears to complete black.

Anyone else have this same issue?

Looking further at DVE, I discovered that the problem I see with the sharpness pattern Title 7 Basic Instructions, Chapter 6 Sharpness, is only visible at the very end when the picture goes static for you to do the adjustment. During the video introduction in that chapter, and for the brief moment at the end before the Oppo time indicator stops advancing, the picture is fine; the artifacts appear as soon as the time indicator stops advancing. Could this be a result of the Oppo outputing only a single field when the DVD puts itself into pause mode? On the other hand, although not quite the same image, Title 12 Display Setup Patterns, Chapter 17 1.33 Overscan Pattern looks just fine; I'm not sure why the result is different between the two.

Many other players soften the image (including SW players). But you are also introducing two more processing steps in the chain - the scaler and the display.
I know the display isn't introducing sharpness artifacts for 1080p in, and I trust the CII more than the Oppo. I now think the difference is in how the players handle the way the DVD pauses itself in this case; it looks to me like the SW players handle it reasonably, and the Oppo handles it poorly.

Press Setup.
Press 9210 in quick succession. A new window will appear.
Press 0.
Press Setup to Exit.

Thank you Neuromancer , and GSB . Yeah it looks like a few of us were up late . Had a Winter storm thrash the house relentlessly all night and I couldn't sleep so......on to the computer and surfed until I was to tired to notice anymore ;) .

This region change will not affect the basic Oppo firmware and features will it ?

Scott.....................

Just had to get past the dreaded 666 post :eek:

Scott........... :D

What the?... Neuromancer beat me to it again! What the heck is he doing up at this hour?

You know, sacrificing young virgins to the Technology Gods.

This region change will not affect the basic Oppo firmware and features will it ?

No, it will not.

I love my 970HD, but I have noticed a somewhat annoying issue with it. In some DVDs, when there is a light color object moving around a dark background, it seems to leave a smear of dark, pixely noise.

What you are describing is likely macroblocking. This error occurs due to compression errors on the disc itself. These errors can be enhanced due to a poor calibration.

For this reason I would recommend using a calibration disc such as AVIA or DVE to ensure that your calibration for brightness, contrast, and saturation is done correctly on your display. If you lack AVIA or DVE, you can use the THX Optimizer found on many THX Optimized films.

You may also want to ensure that no video enhancers like Digital Noise Reduction are turned on on your display, as these will also increase instances of macroblocking.

I love my 970HD, but I have noticed a somewhat annoying issue with it. In some DVDs, when there is a light color object moving around a dark background, it seems to leave a smear of dark, pixely noise.

For example, the OPPO screensaver is a black background with the OPPO logo popping up randomly with different colors. When the logo disappears, it leaves a patch of dark (almost black) pixels.

This is more likely an issue with the plasma than with the DVD player. Have you tried any other DVD players on the same set?

Thanks for the replies guys.

What you are describing is likely macroblocking. This error occurs due to compression errors on the disc itself. These errors can be enhanced due to a poor calibration.

I've run the THX Optimizer before, and it hasn't really helped with this issue, although turning my contrast and brightness down much lower seems to get rid of it. Unfortunately, those lower settings aren't enough to pass the optimizer tests.

While loading up The Incredibles to run the THX Optimizer, I noticed that it even shows up in the black bars when the video changes from 16:9 to letterboxed anamorphic widescreen.

From what I understand, this doesn't seem to be macroblocking. The smears look like noise, composed of specks of red or sometimes blue pixels. I haven't seen this happen on any of my other video sources.

When I change my video source to something else, it immediately goes away. If I keep cycling through video sources and come back to the OPPO, it shows up again.

This is more likely an issue with the plasma than with the DVD player.

Do you mean that my TV and the the DVD player might have an incompatibility?

I contacted Oppo regarding which DVD player would be best suited to my 52" JVC-DILA
RPTV and they replied the 970HD as I have checked that I cannot tell no noticeable difference between 480i & 480p from my current DVD player this suggests that the upscaling of the TV is pretty good; so my question is, is the 970HD the way to go?
or should try the 981?

I am confuse, is that mean i can watch this movie on my Oppo DV-970HD. Superman Returns HD DVD format.

http://entertainment.circuitcity.com/Movies/Movie.aspx?v_id=V+++316298&type=&From=NewReleases&prodid=WHV81037HD

The 970HD can not play the two new HD optical disc formats (HD-DVD and Blu-ray) - for that you need either an HD-DVD player (Toshiba makes two and has two new ones coming soon) or a Blu-ray player (Samsung and Panasonic have players, Pioneer and Sony have some coming, and the PS3 can play Blu-ray). The 970HD can play standard DVD's, but it scales the video up to HD resolutions. Your HDTV does the same sort of thing with any standard definition video sources (DVD, regular TV, VHS, and such), but the scalers are not necessarily as well designed as the scaler in the OPPO players.

Thanks, how about the new Oppo DV-981HD, it says it has 1080P

https://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/index.html

Will that do it.

Thanks, how about the new Oppo DV-981HD, it says it has 1080P

https://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/index.html

Will that do it.No. None of the OPPO players are BluRay or HD-DVD players.

Gary

Looking further at DVE, I discovered that the problem I see with the sharpness pattern Title 7 Basic Instructions, Chapter 6 Sharpness, is only visible at the very end when the picture goes static for you to do the adjustment. During the video introduction in that chapter, and for the brief moment at the end before the Oppo time indicator stops advancing, the picture is fine; the artifacts appear as soon as the time indicator stops advancing. Could this be a result of the Oppo outputing only a single field when the DVD puts itself into pause mode? On the other hand, although not quite the same image, Title 12 Display Setup Patterns, Chapter 17 1.33 Overscan Pattern looks just fine; I'm not sure why the result is different between the two. Fascinating discovery! Good job. Your guess at the cause may be correct, but it wouldn't bug me in the slightest, because what you saw, doesn't occur while watching DVD movies... a timed-out test pattern is not representative of normal viewing conditions.

Gary

I've been following this thread since its inception, but I never noticed the problem that I have just run into. If it came up earlier, forgive me.

Just reconnected my Oppo 970 to Panny 50px600u via hdmi. I am unable to get a solid sound using dvds.

THe sound is now akin to a slurred echo like in a cave!

The problem started tonight when I used one DVD (7days and 6 nights). The background music came on crystal clear, and played, but the audio from the voices of the people on the screen was non existant. Since this was a disc from my local library, I tried another disc from the library (Daily Show) and this time the voices were all echo and slurred.

I tried to change the setup (general & audio) since my avr is no longer connected to my regular equipment due to construction and temporary relocation of equipment to another room so that only the Plasma and the Oppo are connected to each other.

[Previously, prior to construction] I had the HDMI from the OPPO-->Plasma.
Coax audio from OPPO-->AVR
Digital toslink out from Panny-->AVR
AND EVERYTHING WORKED.

Last week ONLY the Oppo and the Panny were reconnected to each other via HDMI and the system worked.

Tonight, when I reconnected the oppo to the panny via HDMI --- non functioning as discribed above.



I then tried a disc that I own and have played before (Elmo), and got the same echo sounds.

I changed the HDMI on the Panny from HDMI slot 2 to slot 1 (HDMI-1). Same echo sound. THe HDMI -2 was the original set up prior to the problem.
Then switched it back to HDMI-2. Still same echo.

I swopped out the HDMI cable for another cable. Same echo sounds.



Any one experience this before?
Any thoughts?
Neuromancer? GSB?

Thanks in advance,
..Mark

THe sound is now akin to a slurred echo like in a cave!

When I set my TV's sound profile to "Living Room," it adds reverb to the audio. Perhaps you set something similar?

Do you mean that my TV and the the DVD player might have an incompatibility?

No, I mean that your plasma might have a problem with image retention lag. If your first instinct is to blame the DVD player, the easiest way to factor that out is to try a different DVD player. If the problem goes away, then yeah it must have been the Oppo. If you get the same problem with 2 different DVD players, it would have to be your TV at fault.

When I set my TV's sound profile to "Living Room," it adds reverb to the audio. Perhaps you set something similar?

Also check the Sould Field and EQ setting on the DVD player.

Just reconnected my Oppo 970 to Panny 50px600u via hdmi. I am unable to get a solid sound using dvds.

THe sound is now akin to a slurred echo like in a cave! Two things:
If "HDMI Audio" is set to "LPCM" in the setup menu, the "Audio delay" feature works over HDMI, but not optical/coaxial, hence an echo. So mute the TV when using optical/coax audio to an AVR. Or set "HDMI Audio" to "OFF".
If the audio "Down-mix Mode" is set to "5.1 CH", but your TV is 2 channel, you may be hearing the front left/right channels, but no center or surround (so you might hear only muffled dialog - or none - coming from the TV speakers). So, install the latest OPPO firmware (3A-0916), and see their release notes here (http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd-firmware-3a-0916.html) for the settings you should be using, in the section entitled, "1. Improved HDMI Audio Compatibility and High Resolution Audio Output through HDMI".
Gary

Hit my first issue with the 970 last night. Instead of burning a DVD, I just copied an .avi file onto a SD card (micro SD with SD adapter actually). Immediately noticed lip sync problems, but still watchable... until an action scene hit. Then the FPS rate dropped to like 10 (guessing) and the sound was so choppy I couldn't tell what was going on. So, I stopped the playback over SD and went to burn the show on a DVD+RW. This played back perfectly: no lip sync and no dropped frames. I don't have the details on the .avi file, but it's ~350 MB rip of an hour long TV show w/o commercials (you know, the kind you can download all day long over uTorrent) Bottom line is .avi playback over SD is unusable and a big disappointment as this would have been so convenient. It was also one of the reasons I bought this player. Suggestions are welcome (yep, I'm using the latest ROM).

Do we know whether or not the Oppo 970 transcodes the SD (601) colorspace to HD (709) colorspace when it scales to 720p and 1080i ?

It seems that some players do and some don't and the only way to tell is a test pattern/sequence on DVE Pro (or an experienced eye :p ).

I know the difference is subtle but I would still like to be able to choose the right one on the PJ before calibration .

Scott....................... :)

The oppo 970hd uses 601 for 480i/p and 709 for 720p/1080i.

Hit my first issue with the 970 last night. Instead of burning a DVD, I just copied an .avi file onto a SD card (micro SD with SD adapter actually). Immediately noticed lip sync problems, but still watchable... until an action scene hit. Then the FPS rate dropped to like 10 (guessing) and the sound was so choppy I couldn't tell what was going on. So, I stopped the playback over SD and went to burn the show on a DVD+RW. This played back perfectly: no lip sync and no dropped frames. I don't have the details on the .avi file, but it's ~350 MB rip of an hour long TV show w/o commercials (you know, the kind you can download all day long over uTorrent) Bottom line is .avi playback over SD is unusable and a big disappointment as this would have been so convenient. It was also one of the reasons I bought this player. Suggestions are welcome (yep, I'm using the latest ROM).

Thank you for the post. I was about to purchase a 970 specifically for this reason (Divx/Xvid AVI's of hour long show's that I downloaded) and liked that I could put them on a USB flash drive or SD card for easy copy/playback (rather than always having to burn it to DVDR).

Anyone else have this experience? Maybe it was a bad encoding job on that particular show?

The oppo 970hd uses 601 for 480i/p and 709 for 720p/1080i.

Thanks Jeff ,

If I may ask , where did you find that info ?

This may explain a little color shift I've seen after calibration . I'll try again and set the PJ to 709 and see how I make out .

Scott..................... :)

Sorry this may have been mentioned but there's just too many pages to go through. I noticed some people mention that thin black bars are appearing and that a firmware would eventually be released to fix it. Has this happened yet?

Also I'm seeing alot of phrases saying this dvd player plays what's on the dvd accurately. That's not really what I want. I don't care about how accurate it plays a dvd back. I care about picture quality and if the dvd player needs to alter the dvd to make it more pleasing to my eye I would prefer this. Based on this should I be looking at some other dvd players? Accuracy doesn't matter to me. Looking good on the screen does.

It's like audio equipment. One can look great on paper while another sounds good. I'll take the one that sounds good. Any suggestion for a dvd player that looks good over performing well on tests?

Hit my first issue with the 970 last night. Instead of burning a DVD, I just copied an .avi file onto a SD card (micro SD with SD adapter actually). Immediately noticed lip sync problems, but still watchable... until an action scene hit. Then the FPS rate dropped to like 10 (guessing) and the sound was so choppy I couldn't tell what was going on. So, I stopped the playback over SD and went to burn the show on a DVD+RW. This played back perfectly: no lip sync and no dropped frames. I don't have the details on the .avi file, but it's ~350 MB rip of an hour long TV show w/o commercials (you know, the kind you can download all day long over uTorrent) Bottom line is .avi playback over SD is unusable and a big disappointment as this would have been so convenient. It was also one of the reasons I bought this player. Suggestions are welcome (yep, I'm using the latest ROM).
Same problem here. I've tried an SD card and a USB thumb drive. Both stuttered while playing various .AVI's. Some have said this is a hardware limitation, but I hope a firmware fix can be developed.

ive got this very annoying vertical roll bar that moves from the right to left of my screen intermittenly. it only shows up when upconverting to 1080i on my sony kd34xbr970. its really killing the whole hd experience. ive changed my hdmi cables. gone directly into the tv (without any receiver) bought a massive power surge protector.... nothing seems to help. i dont have anything else connected to the tv but the oppo 970, so i guess its either the tv, or dvd player.
any thoughts would be really helpful.
thanks!!!

Thank you for the post. I was about to purchase a 970 specifically for this reason (Divx/Xvid AVI's of hour long show's that I downloaded) and liked that I could put them on a USB flash drive or SD card for easy copy/playback (rather than always having to burn it to DVDR).

Anyone else have this experience? Maybe it was a bad encoding job on that particular show?

This is not an encoding issue. I didn't make it clear, but I didn't re-encode or trans-code the file in any way. I simply copied it via ImgBurn to the DVD. So the exact same file that didn't play on SD, played perfectly on read off the DVD. I'd guess it's an SD card reader bandwidth limitation problem. Not sure if it's the SD card is too slow, or the Oppo SDIO bus is too slow, but somewhere there is a BW problem.

I have been using the SD Card reader extensively playing back all sorts of movies (avi's) without problems. Yes I know the SD reader is only 1.1 speeds (akin to the USB slot) however I have a slight suspicion that it may be due to the SPEED of the SD card itself. I only use Sandisk Ultra II cards so I don't have anything slower to A/B with.

Sandisk Ultra II's are notorious for being able to handle up to 5MB/s read/write.

the robgalbraith website has tests using cameras. Choose the Nikon D80 as it's the current champ for read/write performance.

Yes I know USB 1.1 is probably the underlying bottleneck, but I've watched so many movies using the SD reader that i'm pretty confident that it maybe due to either SD card compatibility or speed.

Regarding the thin horizontal letterbox bar top and bottom, I thought that was normal for DVDs that contain 1.85:1 images because the display devices are 16:9 (1.78:1) ratio so ofcourse there would be thin horizontal letterbox bars on top and bottom. The only way I'd think to get rid of the bars is to increase overscan on the display device which would also result in chopping off from the sides as well.

Also I'm seeing alot of phrases saying this dvd player plays what's on the dvd accurately. That's not really what I want. I don't care about how accurate it plays a dvd back. I care about picture quality and if the dvd player needs to alter the dvd to make it more pleasing to my eye I would prefer this. Based on this should I be looking at some other dvd players? Accuracy doesn't matter to me. Looking good on the screen does.

This is a very slippery slope. What is it that you define as "looking good" to you? Do you want the picture to be so noise-reduced that there's no fine object detail left? Do you want it artificially sharpened at the expense of adding jaggies and halos everywhere? Do you want the colors boosted so that they're all oversaturated? What is it that you want?

It isn't the job of the DVD player to guess what your preferences may be. It's the job of the DVD player to render the image on disc as accurately as possible to the original encoding. After that, you're free to fiddle with the settings on your TV to distort the results as much as you please.

I have been using the SD Card reader extensively playing back all sorts of movies (avi's) without problems. Yes I know the SD reader is only 1.1 speeds (akin to the USB slot) however I have a slight suspicion that it may be due to the SPEED of the SD card itself. I only use Sandisk Ultra II cards so I don't have anything slower to A/B with.

Sandisk Ultra II's are notorious for being able to handle up to 5MB/s read/write.

the robgalbraith website has tests using cameras. Choose the Nikon D80 as it's the current champ for read/write performance.

Yes I know USB 1.1 is probably the underlying bottleneck, but I've watched so many movies using the SD reader that i'm pretty confident that it maybe due to either SD card compatibility or speed.

Thanks, it's good to hear it's working for you. I'll get a faster SD card and give it a try.

...Accuracy doesn't matter to me. Looking good on the screen does....
Looks good to whom? Your eyes could be terribly skewed, and nothing will look good to them when presented to you! What combination have you found "looking good" in the past? Perhaps stick with that. There's plenty of internal adjustment settings within the Oppo, or many other DVD players, that will allow you to send any sort of signal to the display, whether it's what's intended by the film maker or not. Most of us would prefer to have an "accurate" portrayal of color and sharpness. To put it to your audio analogy, we'd like a full frequency spectrum to be reproduced by our speakers in a flat response pattern so that the sound will come through as intended. You may like the bass or treble to hit a lot harder, and that's possible through the adjustments.

This is a very slippery slope. What is it that you define as "looking good" to you? Do you want the picture to be so noise-reduced that there's no fine object detail left? Do you want it artificially sharpened at the expense of adding jaggies and halos everywhere? Do you want the colors boosted so that they're all oversaturated? What is it that you want?

It isn't the job of the DVD player to guess what your preferences may be. It's the job of the DVD player to render the image on disc as accurately as possible to the original encoding. After that, you're free to fiddle with the settings on your TV to distort the results as much as you please.


I get what you're saying, but the way I see it is if dvd's currently have flaws and producers aren't willing to spend money to improve on current dvd production then I'd prefer to have a dvd player that hides these at the expense of clarity. I'd rather have the dvd player hide the flaws from me than have a beautiful picture that constantly has flaws appearing because it is playing a dvd exactly how the dvd is telling it to play based on its encoding.

I'd rather them hold off the idea of playing the dvd as it was encoded until hd-dvd hits because perhaps the flaws will be corrected when they go over to hd-dvd so that we aren't frustrated with a beautiful picture that has frustrating flaws.

To me the added clarity would make the flaws that much more frustrating but that's a personality thing I guess. The flaws would stick out more to me with the added detail.

Looks good to whom? Your eyes could be terribly skewed, and nothing will look good to them when presented to you! What combination have you found "looking good" in the past? Perhaps stick with that. There's plenty of internal adjustment settings within the Oppo, or many other DVD players, that will allow you to send any sort of signal to the display, whether it's what's intended by the film maker or not. Most of us would prefer to have an "accurate" portrayal of color and sharpness. To put it to your audio analogy, we'd like a full frequency spectrum to be reproduced by our speakers in a flat response pattern so that the sound will come through as intended. You may like the bass or treble to hit a lot harder, and that's possible through the adjustments.

Yes but I don't like accurately flawed. I don't want flaws accurately portrayed.

But with the speaker analogy I'd rather be missing pieces of the audible spectrum if it prevented an audible popping noise in the speakers.

What looks good to me is a dvd playing in a non-progressive scan player on a crt, lol. But my non-progressive scan dvd player doesn't look good hooked up to the plasma. Don't have room for a crt now so I'm stuck with the plasma. So I have to make due trying to get as close as possible to what was accomplished through old technology through the use of new technology and equipment.

Not trying to be an ass to anyone, just giving my perspective. I prefer flaws be hidden from my eye even if it means I lose some "clarity/detail" because to me I'd define "clarity/detail" as not having to see flaws in the dvd throughout watching.

So I guess my question is, which player (970hd or 971h) is better at hiding flaws in dvd's when playing dvd's at 720P?

...The flaws would stick out more to me with the added detail.
As I stated, the player can be set to lessen sharpness, undersaturate the colors, and various other picture and sound adjustments. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water...not all DVDs have the "flaws" you speak of, and if you find one objectionable, just adjust for it! Are you still waiting to buy a "high-def" tuner because FM stations may have some cross-talk?

As I stated, the player can be set to lessen sharpness, undersaturate the colors, and various other picture and sound adjustments. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water...not all DVDs have the "flaws" you speak of, and if you find one objectionable, just adjust for it! Are you still waiting to buy a "high-def" tuner because FM stations may have some cross-talk?


Okay. Thanks for input I'll pick up the 970HD player. It's hard for me to dish out the money because I haven't seen any dvd players on display. The stores in my area just have them in a box so you're going at it blindly or looking at other people's input. I watched transporter2 on my plasma with a regular non-progressive scan dvd player and I was blown away at the quality with just a 480i input through S-video. I then watched the Count of Monte Cristo and the sky and other areas had some distortion apparent.

I just don't want to pay $150 for a dvd player that doesn't make my dvd's look much better than a non-progressive scan player. Hopefully the negatives I hear are from people that are pickier than me on these upscaling dvd players, lol.

OK- I have gone through many of the posts here talking about 971/970 on the Pioneer xx70 panels - I currently have the 971 but am contemplating trying the 970 for its 480i output over HDMI - apparently the Pioneers have fantastic deinterlacers and scalers (I can kind of tell this from the very very good standard def pictures I get on Direct TV).

So - my last remaining question before I give it a whirl is this - if I output PAL, then will the resultant 576i signal be picked up by the 5070 and correctly deinterlaced, accounting for all the fancy cadence pulldowns done natively on the Oppo 971.

Thanks!

...I just don't want to pay $150 for a dvd player that doesn't make my dvd's look much better than a non-progressive scan player....
I think you'll be happy just sending a progressive signal to the plasma display. Then, you can fool around with the settings to see if you like the upconversion to 720p any better. Play with the settings first in your panel, and then in the DVD player. Avia or DVE discs are also a good idea to adjust the picture and the sound to industry standard, but for this, an inexpensive sound level meter is needed for the optimum benefit to get all channels equal. From those picture settings, adjust to your eyes, and what makes you happy, and then sit back and enjoy those discs!

OK - I've just pulled trigger and will report my 971 vs 970 findings on the Pio 5070. Hoping that the latter provides a better pic over 480i...

OK- I have gone through many of the posts here talking about 971/970 on the Pioneer xx70 panels - I currently have the 971 but am contemplating trying the 970 for its 480i output over HDMI - apparently the Pioneers have fantastic deinterlacers and scalers (I can kind of tell this from the very very good standard def pictures I get on Direct TV).

So - my last remaining question before I give it a whirl is this - if I output PAL, then will the resultant 576i signal be picked up by the 5070 and correctly deinterlaced, accounting for all the fancy cadence pulldowns done natively on the Oppo 971.

Thanks!

Okay. Thanks for input I'll pick up the 970HD player. It's hard for me to dish out the money because I haven't seen any dvd players on display. The stores in my area just have them in a box so you're going at it blindly or looking at other people's input. I watched transporter2 on my plasma with a regular non-progressive scan dvd player and I was blown away at the quality with just a 480i input through S-video. I then watched the Count of Monte Cristo and the sky and other areas had some distortion apparent.

I just don't want to pay $150 for a dvd player that doesn't make my dvd's look much better than a non-progressive scan player. Hopefully the negatives I hear are from people that are pickier than me on these upscaling dvd players, lol. I get your drift, but I don't understand why you are interested in OPPO players, renowned for their accuracy. Just stick with El Cheapo players that output 480i over composite or S-video. These will be the best at masking DVD problems by reducing detail. If a DVD looks bad to you on such a player, it may look worse on an HDMI player that has so much detail that it shows every flaw. And by the way, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is no guarantee that such issues will be resolved. HD still comes from an imperfect source (film) and is still encoded on a disk using MPEG compression (which produces artifacts).

Gary

I have been following this thread since its inception and still have not seen the answer to the "squeeze" question. Wynswrld98 finally phrased this corretcty: "Regarding the thin horizontal letterbox bar top and bottom, I thought that was normal for DVDs that contain 1.85:1 images because the display devices are 16:9 (1.78:1) ratio so of course there would be thin horizontal letterbox bars on top and bottom. The only way I'd think to get rid of the bars is to increase overscan on the display device which would also result in chopping off from the sides as well."
His geometry is correct.
So which is it? Is the issue simply a matter of some slight letterboxing, which is not objectionable to me, or is the issue that along with this the picture is compressed and distorted verically? For our house, an accurtately displayed image is the key, and we do not use any of the expand or zoom controls. If it is the former then this is the replacement player. After months and 80 pages, I still don't see a clear answer to this here.Thank you.

The Mediatek chip used in this player (and other players, like some of Sony's players) creates a slight vertical compression on the 720p and 1080i output. A 16:9 image (1.78:1) is displayed with thin black bars top and bottom. These bars are not visible on a display that overscans. OPPO is still working to fix this.

Gary

I get your drift, but I don't understand why you are interested in OPPO players, renowned for their accuracy. Just stick with El Cheapo players that output 480i over composite or S-video. These will be the best at masking DVD problems by reducing detail. If a DVD looks bad to you on such a player, it may look worse on an HDMI player that has so much detail that it shows every flaw. And by the way, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is no guarantee that such issues will be resolved. HD still comes from an imperfect source (film) and is still encoded on a disk using MPEG compression (which produces artifacts).

Gary


It turns out Oppo is really close to me so I'm going to check out their various models to see which I like. If I don't like any I'll walk away. Hopefully they'll let me bring my own dvd's. :)

The Mediatek chip used in this player (and other players, like some of Sony's) creates a slight vertical compression on the 720p and 1080i output (a perfect 16:9 image is displayed with a thin black bar top and bottom).

How thin ? how many pixels ?

The Mediatek chip used in this player (and other players, like some of Sony's) creates a slight vertical compression on the 720p and 1080i output (a perfect 16:9 image is displayed with a thin black bar top and bottom). These bars are not visible in a display that overscans. OPPO is still working to fix this.

Gary
I don’t mean to sound testy, but damn, it’s been 6 months!

Well, my Mitsubishi WD-65831 will be here just after Christmas and I'll be looking at a DVD player for it. There "was" no doubt that it was going to be a 981, but in the Mits thread, I found this post:

Here is a response from oppo regarding which model to get.
I have the mits 65-831, and loving it by the way!

Ken,

For your DLP display we would not recommend the DV-981HD, even though it
supports 1080p, because of the macroblock enhancing that will occur with
the DLP and the DV-981HD. For this reason, we still highly recommend
that you keep and enjoy your DV-970HD product.

We are looking into Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but at this time we do not know
when we will produce such a product.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.
453 Ravendale Dr, Suite D
Mountain View, CA 94043
Service@oppodigital.com
Tel: 650-961-1118
Fax: 650-961-1119

So that being said, it seems as though the the 970HD is the player for me...

Until I realized that I DO have an XBOX 360, but I don't have the HD-DVD player for it...yet.

So I got to wondering, which do I get? I know that the Oppo upconverts as good as anything on the market, but which do I get. I'm really lost on this one. I'd greatly appreciate any/all input on this. I still have a couple of weeks until I have to pull the trigger, just trying to do some learning until then!

Quote:
Originally Posted by adm
Just reconnected my Oppo 970 to Panny 50px600u via hdmi. I am unable to get a solid sound using dvds.

THe sound is now akin to a slurred echo like in a cave!


Two things:
If "HDMI Audio" is set to "LPCM" in the setup menu, the "Audio delay" feature works over HDMI, but not optical/coaxial, hence an echo. So mute the TV when using optical/coax audio to an AVR. Or set "HDMI Audio" to "OFF".
If the audio "Down-mix Mode" is set to "5.1 CH", but your TV is 2 channel, you may be hearing the front left/right channels, but no center or surround (so you might hear only muffled dialog - or none - coming from the TV speakers). So, install the latest OPPO firmware (3A-0916), and see their release notes here (http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd-firmware-3a-0916.html) for the settings you should be using, in the section entitled, "1. Improved HDMI Audio Compatibility and High Resolution Audio Output through HDMI".
Gary


Gary,
Thanks for the response. I will check it out.
Currently the AVR and all other speakers are NOT connected so that the only cable running out of the OPPO is the HDMI (which is direct to the Plasma).

I also tried to change the audio output settings prior to your email, and unless I missed something, nothing changed.

I will try use coax from the OPPO to the plasma w/o the hdmi and see if that changes things until I can download the firmware and upload to the Oppo.

Thanks again,
..Mark

In the 'speaker setup" menu on the Oppo there is a setting for "downmix"; make sure it set for "stereo" not "5.1" if indeed that is the audio that the plasma outputs.

In the 'speaker setup" menu on the Oppo there is a setting for "downmix"; make sure it set for "stereo" not "5.1" if indeed that is the audio that the plasma outputs.


Thanks, Tried that last time. No change.
BTW- also tried swopping out the HDMI for another one and changed the HDMI input on the plasma from hdmi 1-->2

I don’t mean to sound testy, but damn, it’s been 6 months!

There is a beta firmware available from Oppo which addresses the issue. However, severe horizontal resolution loss is noticable on static test patterns. But, for "real world" viewing I'm not sure how much it's really noticable.

Not to beat a dead horse but... So are we all in agreement that if a DVD with a 1.85:1 ratio image is played in any DVD player (not just Oppo DV-970HD) on a display device that is 16:9 (1.78:1) ratio there will be slight horizontal letterbox bars top and bottom? This is assuming the display device doesn't do a lot of overscan.

So the "bug" with the DV-970HD is that it's making the horizontal letterbox bars taller than they are displayed by other DVD players?? Does anyone know how much Oppo's bug adds to the height in horizontal letterbox bars (e.g., specified by pixels)?

I'm also worried about this squeeze bug, I want to get 970 and I'm OAR perfectionist.
Does this bug expands the black bars or is it squeezes the picture and distorting OAR ? By how much it squeezes ?
Anyone can post screenshots of the effect ?

I just got a Oppo 970HD and haven't set it up yet as I need some additional cables, but I thought I'd ask for some quick set up advice.

I purchased the player to use with a new Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR3 LCD display. The Sony has HDMI inputs so I was going to connect the DVD player directly to the TV using the HDMI cables that were provided. I also have a Sony AVR that's a few years old. It doesn't have HDMI inputs, but it does have digital optical and coaxial inputs, as well as, analog SACD inputs. I'd like to send the DVD player's audio output to one of the AVR's digital optical inputs so I can listen to movies and music in Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS. Should I disable the HDMI audio signal to the TV or can I output audio to both the TV and the DVD player?

Sorry if this has already been covered on the forum. I started to read the posts from the beginning, but after the first 10 pages, I thought I might as well go ahead and ask this question as I'm anxious to use the player.

Any other suggestions on settings or general set up advice would also be appreciated. Thanks!

JR

p.s. Now I can start saving my money for a new AVR that has HDMI connections. :)

I'm also worried about this squeeze bug, I want to get 970 and I'm OAR perfectionist.
Does this bug expands the black bars or is it squeezes the picture and distorting OAR ? By how much it squeezes ?
Anyone can post screenshots of the effect ?

I don't know that I'm a perfectionist, but it would bug the heck out of me if the image looked stretched in any way. My Hitachi 57F59 has enough overscan that I don't see any black bars on 1.85:1 movies and everything about the picture looks perfect to me.

BTW, I'm doing 1080i over component...

Should I disable the HDMI audio signal to the TV or can I output audio to both the TV and the DVD player?
It can do both at the same time.

It can do both at the same time.

Oops, sorry I meant to the TV and to the AVR, but you apparently knew what I was asking. Thanks for the quick reply!

JR

Well, my Mitsubishi WD-65831 will be here just after Christmas and I'll be looking at a DVD player for it. There "was" no doubt that it was going to be a 981, but in the Mits thread, I found this post:



So that being said, it seems as though the the 970HD is the player for me...

Until I realized that I DO have an XBOX 360, but I don't have the HD-DVD player for it...yet.

So I got to wondering, which do I get? I know that the Oppo upconverts as good as anything on the market, but which do I get. I'm really lost on this one. I'd greatly appreciate any/all input on this. I still have a couple of weeks until I have to pull the trigger, just trying to do some learning until then!


Not to bump myself, but I really would appreciate some feedback on this. Anyone?

For me this problem is very severe on Sony 50" LCD RP TV, upscaling to 720p via HDMI.

Watching Lord of the rings, the actors on the screen appeared to be distorted. They look short and fat - like looking into a mirror at a Carnival fun house ride. Though the color and image depth is very very nice. (981HD is a little better)

Any idea if a firmware solution will come out soon to eliminate the problem? If there is no fix, I have no choice but to upgrade to 981HD.

The Mediatek chip used in this player (and other players, like some of Sony's) creates a slight vertical compression on the 720p and 1080i output (a perfect 16:9 image is displayed with a thin black bar top and bottom). These bars are not visible in a display that overscans. OPPO is still working to fix this.

Gary

You can request the patch from OPPO if you want to try it out. Ensure that you have also using an upscaled resolution and your display is not adding additional aspect ratio "corrections".

WynsWrld98 , I do believe there are movies out there that are presented in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio.

Not to beat a dead horse but... So are we all in agreement that if a DVD with a 1.85:1 ratio image is played in any DVD player (not just Oppo DV-970HD) on a display device that is 16:9 (1.78:1) ratio there will be slight horizontal letterbox bars top and bottom? This is assuming the display device doesn't do a lot of overscan.

Many 1.85:1 movies are transferred to disc in full 16:9 format by slightly opening the mattes. The difference between 1.85:1 and 1.78:1 is only a few scanlines, and most filmmakers do not object to the change. Warner Bros and Paramount do this as a matter of policy. Sony usually keeps the original 1.85:1 framing with tiny letterbox bars.

Hit my first issue with the 970 last night. Instead of burning a DVD, I just copied an .avi file onto a SD card (micro SD with SD adapter actually). Immediately noticed lip sync problems, but still watchable... until an action scene hit. Then the FPS rate dropped to like 10 (guessing) and the sound was so choppy I couldn't tell what was going on. So, I stopped the playback over SD and went to burn the show on a DVD+RW. This played back perfectly: no lip sync and no dropped frames. I don't have the details on the .avi file, but it's ~350 MB rip of an hour long TV show w/o commercials (you know, the kind you can download all day long over uTorrent) Bottom line is .avi playback over SD is unusable and a big disappointment as this would have been so convenient. It was also one of the reasons I bought this player. Suggestions are welcome (yep, I'm using the latest ROM).

An update on this issue: It turns out to be the SD card speed... mostly. I used a Transcend 2GB SD card rated at 150x (newegg.com) and the problem mostly went away. By mostly I mean that the .avi file was very watchable, even on action scenes. It's mostly because there were occasional lip-sync problems. Not sure why as they appeared randomly and only lasted about 5 seconds. For me this was acceptable and I will be watch my downloads on this SD card.

If I wanted to get a card to do this with, what do I look for to make sure I'm getting a card with optimal speed? Of course I'm a cheap bastard and want to spend as little aspossible as well. Thanks

If I wanted to get a card to do this with, what do I look for to make sure I'm getting a card with optimal speed? Of course I'm a cheap bastard and want to spend as little aspossible as well. Thanks

I've done a lot of business with Newegg and never had a problem. Try these:

Patriot Extreme Performance 1GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash Card Model PEF1G133SD
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820241009

Transcend 2GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash Card Model TS2GSD150
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820163158

I don’t mean to sound testy, but damn, it’s been 6 months! The vertical compression problem is a Mediatek issue, not an OPPO issue. Nevertheless, OPPO Digital is doing what they can to fix it.

Gary

I tried to capture what the vertical compression looks like:http://picasaweb.google.com/digitiquinti/SCREENCAPTURESHDMI1080iVSComponent480p The photos are not the best because I have no tripod and my camera is only 2 Megapixels. The first photo is the upconverted 1080i version with the Oppo 970HD tweaked for that output. The second is 480p non-upconverted or tweaked. I sincerely hope that the uploaded images are visible to everyone. Thanks.

Joshz makes the vertical compression issue sound like it's just a couple of scan lines. Digiti's photo's (I don't know the size of the display) make it look much bigger than that. It looks to be almost the height of the pause icon on screen. That's not small, IMO.

I guess the compression issue is present when using the "hacked" firmware for component upconversion to 1080i?

Best,
jeff

Don't forget that's an image of a 2.35:1 shot on a 16:9 screen. I think you should be comparing the distance of the pause icon from the top in each shot.

Joshz makes the vertical compression issue sound like it's just a couple of scan lines. Digiti's photo's (I don't know the size of the display) make it look much bigger than that. It looks to be almost the height of the pause icon on screen. That's not small, IMO.

I guess the compression issue is present when using the "hacked" firmware for component upconversion to 1080i?

Best,
jeff
The display is a Samsung TXP 3064W 30"CRT.

I tried to capture what the vertical compression looks like:http://picasaweb.google.com/digitiquinti/SCREENCAPTURESHDMI1080iVSComponent480p The photos are not the best because I have no tripod and my camera is only 2 Megapixels. The first photo is the upconverted 1080i version with the Oppo 970HD tweaked for that output. The second is 480p non-upconverted or tweaked. I sincerely hope that the uploaded images are visible to everyone. Thanks.
Well, you're 480p one has a ton of overscan. You don't have enough black bars on the top and bottom, and you're missing a fair bit of the left and right image. Your 1080i one looks like it just has less overscan than the 480p one on all 4 sides, but still too much.

Here's what it should look like on your TV. http://stereodude.cjb.net/PC080270_sim.jpg Note how much extra content is visible on the left and right side of the image.

Joshz makes the vertical compression issue sound like it's just a couple of scan lines.

I wasn't referring to the vertical compression issue. I was referring to the difference between the 1.78:1 and 1.85:1 aspect ratios. Competely different topics.

Sorry JoshZ, my bad.

Well, you're 480p one has a ton of overscan. You don't have enough black bars on the top and bottom, and you're missing a fair bit of the left and right image. Your 1080i one looks like it just has less overscan than the 480p one on all 4 sides, but still too much.

Here's what it should look like on your TV. http://stereodude.cjb.net/PC080270_sim.jpg Note how much extra content is visible on the left and right side of the image.
Yes I see what you are talking about. When I first got the TV I had some black banding of about 1/16 inch on the left side using HDMI from my SA8300HD,so I called Samsung Service during the warranty period to do an in home service adjustment..The technician evidently overcompensated by adding too much overscan. Incidentally the Photoshopping of my photo was fantastic. How did you get your screen capture? Thanks.

Please forgive my not reading every post in this thread(!), but I did do a search and nothing came up...

Does anyone know if the Oppo's audio bitstream behaves correctly (i.e. to standard) during layer change and other disc transitions (e.g. menus)?

I have a Meridian G68 audio processor which is VERY fussy when it comes to locking on to the DVD bitstream. Far too many (most?) DVD players interrupt the bitstream on transitions rather than passing digital silence.

Thanks!

Well I think i'm finally set on this player. I've currently got a Pioner DV-434 connected to my Pioneer SD-532-HD5. It only has component input. I've always thought my DVD player sucked, and until only recently I've found out that it is not even true progressive.

So from the little reading I've done so far (this thread is 99 pages long!), I know the player doesn't allow 1080i over the component out of the box. But there is a hack avaliable that will allow this? I don't feel like copying all my 300+ original dvd's that I have.

Yes I see what you are talking about. When I first got the TV I had some black banding of about 1/16 inch on the left side using HDMI from my SA8300HD,so I called Samsung Service during the warranty period to do an in home service adjustment..The technician evidently overcompensated by adding too much overscan. Incidentally the Photoshopping of my photo was fantastic. How did you get your screen capture? Thanks.
I played it back in Media Player Classic with a 100% zoom and hit the printscreen button.

Well I think i'm finally set on this player. I've currently got a Pioner DV-434 connected to my Pioneer SD-532-HD5. It only has component input. I've always thought my DVD player sucked, and until only recently I've found out that it is not even true progressive.

So from the little reading I've done so far (this thread is 99 pages long!), I know the player doesn't allow 1080i over the component out of the box. But there is a hack avaliable that will allow this? I don't feel like copying all my 300+ original dvd's that I have.
You are correct that the 970 does not allow 1080i or 720p output over component with the official firmware, and that there is a hack (here's a link to an old post buried a ways back in this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8189937#post8189937)) that circumvents this.

anyone compared this player with 1080i over component to the zenith 318 or lg 481 (or lg 531)? thanks,
jeff

I keep checking the first post in this thread to see whether this problem


Reduced picture size with 720p/1080i -- this is a well-known issue. It is a Media Tek chip problem and will be addressed in a future firmware update.
has been addressed. As far as I can tell it hasn't--though the thread is so long that it's hard to be sure.

Is that the case? If so it's surprising to me because it seems like a very important issue--in some contexts a deal-breaker--and I would have thought more customers would care about this.

I would care if I could see it, but it looks like any TV with even moderate overscan will make it a non issue. At least that's the case for me...

That is a pretty good representation of vertical compression problem. The aspect ratio of the head in the 1080i picture looks wrong. Vertically it looks squashed. It would be better if it was a picture of a building or full body picture of a person. It should be more obvious.

If it means anything, I measure the height of the black border on top and bottom. On my 50" Sony RP TV with 970HD driven with 720p and 1080i. The black border is about 0.5 inch on top and 0.75 inch on the bottom. 1.25 inch un-utilized screen real-estate vertically, that is enough to cause image distortion.

No correction is done on the TV as 480i/480p represents the image aspect ratio correctly.


I tried to capture what the vertical compression looks like:http://picasaweb.google.com/digitiquinti/SCREENCAPTURESHDMI1080iVSComponent480p The photos are not the best because I have no tripod and my camera is only 2 Megapixels. The first photo is the upconverted 1080i version with the Oppo 970HD tweaked for that output. The second is 480p non-upconverted or tweaked. I sincerely hope that the uploaded images are visible to everyone. Thanks.

Apparently, it is only visible on a few TVs. I was told by Oppo that certain TV with over-scanning would take care of it. I guess the old CRT HDTVs and Plasma would not have the problem?

On my Sony 50" Rear Project LCD TV A10-series. (I would imaging on any Sony RP TV). The problem is pretty obvious where you see a ~0.5 inch block border on top and bottom. I don't mind so much the black borders. But the aspect ratio distortion of objects in the image bothers me.

I hope Oppo can come up with a fix soon. As it is a pretty attractive DVD player at a good price.

I keep checking the first post in this thread to see whether this problem

has been addressed. As far as I can tell it hasn't--though the thread is so long that it's hard to be sure.

Is that the case? If so it's surprising to me because it seems like a very important issue--in some contexts a deal-breaker--and I would have thought more customers would care about this.

That is a pretty good representation of vertical compression problem. The aspect ratio of the head in the 1080i picture looks wrong. Vertically it looks squashed. It would be better if it was a picture of a building or full body picture of a person. It should be more obvious.
Except his pictures don't show anything but a bad overscan problem.

Does anyone know if the colorspace setting (i.e. RGB/4:4:4/Auto) applies only to HDMI or to component as well?

related to the color space setting is the colorspace that's output, i.e. HD or SD, via component. Anyone know what colorspace is used when outputing upconverted DVD via component? If no green depression is observed then it's probably correct.

Best,
jeff

Except his pictures don't show anything but a bad overscan problem.

A vertical squeeze, IMO, can't be fixed by adjusting overscan. If your overscan adjustment is global for the display, if you adjust the vertical size to be correct for the 970, then it'll be wrong for any other source, i.e. wrong means circles won't be circles any more.

Beta still not ready for real release?

That is it is a known problem and is being addressed, though they do not know when.

Like David said, there is an internal beta that OPPO can send you, but it drastically effects test patterns. If the vertical compression error is something that annoys you, request the beta from OPPO.

Does anyone know if the colorspace setting (i.e. RGB/4:4:4/Auto) applies only to HDMI or to component as well? HDMI only. Component is analog, and doesn't support RGB/YCbCr.

Gary

I have had my 970HD since Thanksgiving, but have already run into this 4 times: when putting in a new disk, the Oppo just failed to read the disk, and was stuck in "Loading" state forever; it did not respond to any button on the remote or the front panel, and the only way out was to unplug the power. I have the latest firmware, 05.00.01.07 Batch: 3A-0916. So what's the problem? Anybody seen it? I will call Oppo next week.

I have had my 970HD since Thanksgiving, but have already run into this 4 times: when putting in a new disk, the Oppo just failed to read the disk, and was stuck in "Loading" state forever; it did not respond to any button on the remote or the front panel, and the only way out was to unplug the power. I have the latest firmware, 05.00.01.07 Batch: 3A-0916. So what's the problem? Anybody seen it? I will call Oppo next week. Try loading another disk, then loading the "stuck" disk again. That may clear the problem.

Gary

Anyone know what colorspace is used when outputing upconverted DVD via component? Analog SD... YPbPr.

Gary

I just got mine. I am going to firmware it with the 1080i on component "hack" after I get it adjusted. Before I do, what's the process the to get it back to it's original state if I don't see a difference in picture quality and would rather have the latest firmware instead of the 1080i over component firmware?

Analog SD... YPbPr.

Gary

That presents a problem then for any display that expects HD colorspace on 720p or 1080i signal. the 970HD does the right thing for hdmi upconverted. why not for component upconverted also?

jeff

That presents a problem then for any display that expects HD colorspace on 720p or 1080i signal. the 970HD does the right thing for hdmi upconverted. why not for component upconverted also? We'd better research this further, but as far as I know, SD DVD is not converted to HD color space when upconverted, even on the HDMI output. My TV allows me to pick SD or HD colorspace, and I have to select SD colorspace for the 970, my other DVI/HDMI players, and my DVI PC output.

Gary

I just got mine. I am going to firmware it with the 1080i on component "hack" after I get it adjusted. Before I do, what's the process the to get it back to it's original state if I don't see a difference in picture quality and would rather have the latest firmware instead of the 1080i over component firmware?

All you will need to do is download the latest firmware release from OPPO. There are no special steps, as all firmware overwrites the previous firmware installation.

A vertical squeeze, IMO, can't be fixed by adjusting overscan. If your overscan adjustment is global for the display, if you adjust the vertical size to be correct for the 970, then it'll be wrong for any other source, i.e. wrong means circles won't be circles any more.
I'm not saying the 970HD doesn't have a vertical squeeze problem. I'm saying his pictures don't show much beyond a bad overscan problem. The 970HD and its vertical squeeze problem doesn't matter much to be since I don't use it to play back DVDs.

We'd better research this further, but as far as I know, SD DVD is not converted to HD color space when upconverted, even on the HDMI output. My TV allows me to pick SD or HD colorspace, and I have to select SD colorspace for the 970, my other DVI/HDMI players, and my DVI PC output.

Gary

Please do Gary. I read in the secrets review (I think it was) that when upconverting there were no colorpsace issues. Maybe I misinterpreted the 970HD review:
"Both color space outputs are mapped correctly..."
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all&type=&manufacturer=68&maxprice=0&deInt=0&mpeg=0

so there are 2 seperable issues: 1) what colorspace is used for hdmi upconversion and 2) if using the hacked firmware to upconvert via component, what colorspace is used.

I've sent an email to oppo asking about the colorspace used. My opinion is that if you output an HD resolution the HD colorspace should be used. Many displays do not have the flexibility to change colorspaces.

Best,
jeff

My opinion is that if you output an HD resolution the HD colorspace should be used. Not necessarily true. My PC doesn't know what HD colorspace is... it outputs RGB 720p in SD colorspace over DVI. My monitor and my TV are both expecting SD, and they display the signal correctly.

Some TV's can detect the colorspace info, and switch automatically. My Samsung DLP does this, but my Sony LCD seems to expect manual switching.

I'll look into it further.

Gary

I just got a 32" lcd HDTV, and have been researching on whether I should upgrade from progressive scan to an upconverting dvd player. I watch a lot of Divx files on my Philips DiVx player so I need something that can play Divx files. I haven't read all 100 pages but I had a question regarding Divx playback on this unit. Would an avi file at say 628 x 254 res and video bitrate of 923 kbps be high enough for the processor to upconvert to a fairly clear picture? When I play the file on a standard tv, it looks great, sharp and hardly any pixeltation if any. Its just that everything looks a little soft and blurry when using 480p to my Westinghouse on my Philips. Is it really even worth it to upgrade to an upconverting player if most of what you are watching is Divx? One of the problems I am having with divx and regular dvds in general is slight ghosting during fast motion scenes. I don't get this on 720p cable material so I am hoping the Oppo player would take care of that. Anyone have any experience with Divx playback on this unit?

All you will need to do is download the latest firmware release from OPPO. There are no special steps, as all firmware overwrites the previous firmware installation.

That's what I thought. Anyway, their latest firmware available on their webpage is batch: 3A-0916. That's what I downloaded through a link in this thread stating that it was the 1080i through component hack. My player came with batch 3A-0919. Which firmware has the component video "hack." Is 0916 the same as 0919?

the 3A-0919 and 3A-0916 are the same. The hacked firmware I believe is based on the 1A-0613 Firmware.

Putting a flash drive in the USB port lets me play audio files as long as they are mp3. No windows media files or wavs. Is that how it is suppossed to be? Just mp3s?

Try loading another disk, then loading the "stuck" disk again. That may clear the problem.

Gary

Not sure what you meant. When it is stuck, the only fix is to unplug the power, and then it will read the disk, so I am looking for a fix rather than a work-around. Anyone else seen this problem?

Oppo reports that the component output will be YCfCb 4:4:4. But that's a different statement than 601 or 709 colorspace. The way you can tell is that green will appear depressed, i.e. a minus value relative to the other colors. Non of my upconverters have ever "twisted" the colorspace. I believe that the current generation of upconverters via DVI and HDMI proper "twist" the colorspace.

My mits and tosh HDTV's both expect 1080i to use 709. feeding them 601 colorspace 1080i leaves green depressed.

I've asked the 601 versus 709 question of oppo.
Best,
jeff

Not sure what you meant. When it is stuck, the only fix is to unplug the power, and then it will read the disk, so I am looking for a fix rather than a work-around. Anyone else seen this problem?

Mine has frozen up on me several times before, but hasn't done it for quite a while now (knock on wood). Maybe a handshake problem. Maybe a power on sequence is the cure, like first turn on the TV, then the receiver, then the dvd. I've heard of this type of sequence done to cure similar problems. :rolleyes:

I have had my 970HD since Thanksgiving, but have already run into this 4 times: when putting in a new disk, the Oppo just failed to read the disk, and was stuck in "Loading" state forever; it did not respond to any button on the remote or the front panel, and the only way out was to unplug the power. I have the latest firmware, 05.00.01.07 Batch: 3A-0916. So what's the problem? Anybody seen it? I will call Oppo next week.
Yes mine does this too but it does respond to commands from the remote you just have to give it a few seconds.When this happens press open on either the player or the remote. On the screen it should say open, but it is not responding yet, wait a few seconds don't press any buttons. It should open the tray, without touching the disc press close on the remote or the machine, it should read the disc correctly this time, and play the disc. If it's not, then your problem is worst then I thought.

I'm not saying the 970HD doesn't have a vertical squeeze problem. I'm saying his pictures don't show much beyond a bad overscan problem. The 970HD and its vertical squeeze problem doesn't matter much to be since I don't use it to play back DVDs.
Given that my photos show overscan; the original purpose was to show the relative height of the black bars relative to the two inputs used. A better choice would have been a DVD that fills the entire screen which would show a thin 1/4 inch black bar at the top of the screen which is the vertical squeeze I am experiencing due to the chip in the 970. See here:http://picasaweb.google.com/digitiquinti/SCREENGRABCASTAWAYHDMIUPCONVERTION . Cut and past link to your browser

Putting a flash drive in the USB port lets me play audio files as long as they are mp3. No windows media files or wavs. Is that how it is suppossed to be? Just mp3s?

Nope, mine plays wma's just fine. I've got a Christmas mix on right now that's all wma files. What happens when you put in a drive containing wma's?

Not sure what you meant. When it is stuck, the only fix is to unplug the power, and then it will read the disk, so I am looking for a fix rather than a work-around. Anyone else seen this problem?
I had this problem when I accidently plugged the HDMI cable from the player into the 'output' jack on my receiver. Your problem appears to be an HDMI handshake problem. As Smarty-pants suggested, a particular power on sequence may be a cure.

The 970HD using component outputs YCrCb 4:4:4 using 601 (SD) color space, according to Oppo digital, regardless of output resolution. I've asked if the mediatek chipset allows for a change of colorspace from 601 to 709 that firmware could (theoretically) address.

Their prompt reply says they will ask the engineers if it's feasible. What an extraordinary company to investigate a request for a feature on an output option that they don't "officially" support. You have to love them.

Best,
jeff

One of the things addressed with the most recent firmware is faster powering up/opening tray time. How much of a slower tray opening response will I experience if I go to the component 1080i firmware "hack?"

I switched to the hacked firmware and didn't notice a difference. I actually haven't noticed any differences at all, in either reliability or performance. Granted, I only use it for DVD movies, standard CD's, and listening to digital audio via USB (i.e. no DVDA or SACD).


Their prompt reply says they will ask the engineers if it's feasible. What an extraordinary company to investigate a request for a feature on an output option that they don't "officially" support. You have to love them.


From what I know about Oppo I wouldn't be surprised if they have no problem with the 1080i hack. They can't officially support it for legal reasons, but I think they're cool with it. Wouldn't surprised me if they actually intended it to be a "feature" of sorts, knowing the target demographic for a player like this. It was certainly a selling point for me.