Try all resolutions you can and use the one you think looks the best.

larry

ok so for a novice like me that means I should run out and pick up a $2000 DVDO scaler? :) I'm just wondering what setting should I put it at now to get the best picutre for my setup. I only got the LCD, the player, and DD DTS speaker set decoder (not a A/V reciever just cheap logitech 5.1 speaker set). I'll probably invest in a scaler when my basement is finished and I start buying components for my basement home theater project.

In this case I think a 720p or 1080i output resolution should be good. For audio you can use the optical or coaxial digital to the Logitech, and set the OPPO to output Raw for it SPDIF interfaces. This should be a decent setup. The Logitech Z-5500 was very favorably reviewed by Vancouver Sun together with the OPPO DV-970HD very recently.

I recommend comparing both 480i and 480p, because some displays (like mine) have better scalers than the 970HD, but not better de-interlacers. The Mediatek de-interlacer does a better job eliminating ICP than my Fujitsu's AVM II processor.

As far as connections, even though I expected to see a difference, after viewing for a week I see no significant improvement sending 480p HDMI over 480p component into my Fujitsu 50XHA40US. Maybe it would be different if I was feeding a VP30 or other high quality external scaler. Since I'm using my display to scale, connecting via component is just fine and I don't have to put up with the HDCP handshake delay.

/steve

Secrets review is out.

Hope you guys enjoy the benchmark results. I was very impressed with the 970HD. Could easily be considered the best overall value of any DVD player I've ever reviewed. Here is a link to the benchmark review:

970HD Benchmark (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=130#Oppo%20DigitalDV-970HD%20(HDMI))

Great write-up, Kris. I've been looking forward to seeing how the 970 did on your tests.

It's been said elsewhere, but thanks for the work you've done with the benchmarks - it's a great resource for all of us.

He was talking about macroblock enhancement with the Oppo DV971H if I am not mistaken. By all accounts, the DV971H is much better than the Yamaha 1500 for DVD-V.

Chris
That is correct. It was with the Oppo DV971H I was talking about. I never really used the Yamaha for video.

The macroblock enhancement bug is very noticeable on my display and can be very annoying.

Does anyone have any information regarding the three "quirks" I mentioned in my original post?

1 - The gap that is inserted between songs
2 - You can not just press play for DVD-A discs and have them start.
3 - The song titles aren't displayed for SACD's.

The insertion of gaps between songs could be the deal breaker for me. I would also really like to be able to use this player for listening to DVD-A discs without the display being on so #2 would also be important to me.

Thanks,
Rich

Great job as usual Kris! See you at CEDIA. :)

Hope you guys enjoy the benchmark results. I was very impressed with the 970HD. Could easily be considered the best overall value of any DVD player I've ever reviewed. Here is a link to the benchmark review:

970HD Benchmark (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=130#Oppo%20DigitalDV-970HD%20(HDMI))

Great write up Kris. I noticed on the Oppo website they have a beta firmware available that claims to do the following:

Summary of Changes in This Release:

Improved HDMI Multi-Channel PCM Audio Compatibility
Automatic Selecting Multi-Channel PCM Audio for HDMI when Playing High Resolution Audio Content (DVD-Audio and SACD)
New Default Contrast Setting for Component Video Output

Do you know if the fixes listed there are to address the DVD-A and SACD issues you experienced with your D2 over HDMI 1.1 (only 2ch output unless at 1080i)?

Good review as usual Kris. :cool:

Didn't do as well as I thought it'd do. I had expected it to be in the 90's.

Still an exceptional value, though, and who knows.... knowing Oppo firmware updates may be released to fix some issues and increase the score.

I just purchased a Denon 4306 receiver, anyone with both this player and the Denon have a reccomendation for how I should set it up? Should I let the Oppo or the Denon do the scaling? If I let the Denon do it I should output a 480i signal from the player?

Great write up Kris. I noticed on the Oppo website they have a beta firmware available that claims to do the following:



Do you know if the fixes listed there are to address the DVD-A and SACD issues you experienced with your D2 over HDMI 1.1 (only 2ch output unless at 1080i)?

I know it fixed interoperability with some of the receivers they've been testing with, but not with my Anthem unit. I'm sure they'll figure something out though.

Still an exceptional value, though, and who knows.... knowing Oppo firmware updates may be released to fix some issues and increase the score

This won't happen. The limitations of the chip can't be fixed with firmware when it comes to their de-interlacing capabilities. It is just a limitation of the design and very common for these one chip solutions. Oppo knew this going in and didn't have issue with it at this price point. They also looked at this as more of a transport solution. Remember that they still have a replacement for the 971H in the works and another one that is even more exciting to come.

Just checked my firmware and it says Batch:1A-0526 is that newer than the one listed on the first page?

Also what setting should I set HDMI audio to if I am using an optical cable for sound, off or spdif?

Thanks Kris! Another very interesting player from an excellent company. Great job Oppo.

Kris,

They can probably fix the "Bad Edit" issue, right? There are other pure MediaTek players out there that are passing this (Like the Pioneer DV-588A). What do you think? This would probably get them up to about an 88...but that would be it.

I know it fixed interoperability with some of the receivers they've been testing with, but not with my Anthem unit. I'm sure they'll figure something out though.

This won't happen. The limitations of the chip can't be fixed with firmware when it comes to their de-interlacing capabilities. It is just a limitation of the design and very common for these one chip solutions. Oppo knew this going in and didn't have issue with it at this price point. They also looked at this as more of a transport solution. Remember that they still have a replacement for the 971H in the works and another one that is even more exciting to come.

Apparently Bad Edit is a "huge" issue as quoted from Hometheaterhifi.com.

From Bad Edit description on hthifi.com:

"We feel strongly that players that can't pass this test are not worth considering, given that there are inexpensive players that do pass it."

Kris... just to clarify, the component out @ 480i on the 970HD only has the 1 pixel cropped from the bottom of the screen correct? Just like the HDMI out @ 480i.

Just checked my firmware and it says Batch:1A-0526 is that newer than the one listed on the first page?

The is the most up to date official release. OPPO has a beta firmware called 1A-0613.

Also what setting should I set HDMI audio to if I am using an optical cable for sound, off or spdif?

You can turn it to OFF.

From the review:On the video side, you’ll find support for DIVX HD
I thought I read here that this player doesn't support HD DivX/MPEG4. Can someone clarify?

Hope you guys enjoy the benchmark results. [...]

Great write-up Kris. I'm a little confused though. I thought smearing of the red triangles on the Snell & Wilcox test pattern in Title 15, Chap 7 of DVE, was indicative of ICP? If so, I don't see any ICP on my 970HD at 480P, only at 480i, which led me to assume the de-interlacer in my Fujitsu was inferior to the Mediatek's.

Or are there degrees of ICP? Thx.

/steve

I know it fixed interoperability with some of the receivers they've been testing with, but not with my Anthem unit. I'm sure they'll figure something out though.

Hopefully they will. My oppo arrived yesterday and my D2 should be here by Thursday! :eek:

Do you think it might have something to do with DVD-A and SACD being converted to 88.1khz instead of 96khz? Maybe the D2 is expecting 96 and isnt handling 88.1 properly?

Kris, What firmware was the test done with?

Thanks

Hopefully they will. My oppo arrived yesterday and my D2 should be here by Thursday! :eek:

Do you think it might have something to do with DVD-A and SACD being converted to 88.1khz instead of 96khz? Maybe the D2 is expecting 96 and isnt handling 88.1 properly?
AFAIK, only the SACD is being converted to 88.1kHz, DVD-A shows 96kHz on my Denon 3806.

" BAD EDIT" can someone explain what it really means........ thanx

Also Kris, is the test showing HDMI with a 480i output? Did you also test it via the VP30 with the ABT-102 SD de-interlacer ?

Thanks for a great review!

Jim

OPPO, would you be able to also output 480i over HDMI at 4:2:2. That res wold be best for the Lumagen scalers. Could this be in a "soon" future firmware update

OPPO, would you be able to also output 480i over HDMI at 4:2:2. That res wold be best for the Lumagen scalers. Could this be in a "soon" future firmware update

From Kris's review..........

Unfortunately, the engineers at Mediatek have noticed issues with the 4:2:2 output, so selections for this chip, and the 970HD, are limited to RGB and YCbCr 4:4:4.

AFAIK, only the SACD is being converted to 88.1kHz, DVD-A shows 96kHz on my Denon 3806.

That makes sense since DVD-A is already PCM and doesnt need the conversion. Since Kris had problems with both formats it probably isnt the 88.1 causing issues.

Remember that they still have a replacement for the 971H in the works and another one that is even more exciting to come.

Kris,

Can you please elaborate a bit more about this other model that is even more exciting than the 971 replacement? It sounds like a higher-end Oppo.

OPPO, would you be able to also output 480i over HDMI at 4:2:2. That res wold be best for the Lumagen scalers. Could this be in a "soon" future firmware updateAt 480i, I don't see what a difference 4:2:2 vs 4:4:4 would make unless lumagen has some super-duper way of upsampling 4:2:2 to 4:4:4. Even then would the difference be visible?

larry

"....and another one that is even more exciting to come."

This must mean HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray. ;)

Kris,

Can you please elaborate a bit more about this other model that is even more exciting than the 971 replacement? It sounds like a higher-end Oppo.

"....and another one that is even more exciting to come."

This must mean HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray. ;)

A universal???? :cool:
Please please please.

Great write-up Kris. I'm a little confused though. I thought smearing of the red triangles on the Snell & Wilcox test pattern in Title 15, Chap 7 of DVE, was indicative of ICP? If so, I don't see any ICP on my 970HD at 480P, only at 480i, which led me to assume the de-interlacer in my Fujitsu was inferior to the Mediatek's.

Or are there degrees of ICP? Thx.

Upon re-reading Kris's review, I wonder if his finding of ICP is similar to the original 480i CUE issue he reported to Oppo that was subsequently resolved?

/steve

Kris,

Can you please elaborate a bit more about this other model that is even more exciting than the 971 replacement? It sounds like a higher-end Oppo.

Loose lips sinks ships. If he says anymore, OPPO Ninjas will assissinate Kris, and we do not want that.

I recommend comparing both 480i and 480p, because some displays (like mine) have better scalers than the 970HD, but not better de-interlacers. The Mediatek de-interlacer does a better job eliminating ICP than my Fujitsu's AVM II processor.

As far as connections, even though I expected to see a difference, after viewing for a week I see no significant improvement sending 480p HDMI over 480p component into my Fujitsu 50XHA40US. Maybe it would be different if I was feeding a VP30 or other high quality external scaler. Since I'm using my display to scale, connecting via component is just fine and I don't have to put up with the HDCP handshake delay.

/steve

I think this is great advice, but I need a little bit more help in knowing what to look for. I have the 970HD hooked up to an NEC PX-50XR5A over HDMI and am currently outputting 480i, based on the safe advice that the raw feed to the NEC, which is said to have a pretty good scaler, is a pretty safe bet. However, I have not heard any discussion regarding the NEC de-interlacer, particularly versus the MTK in the Oppo.

I know the usual advice (pick the setting that looks the best), but in this case, the differences (if any) will be slight, and I'm not experienced enough to know what to look for. Can someone provide some guidance on what to look for when comparing de-interlacers? For example, is it diagonal jaggies? Something else? Thanks!

A universal???? :cool:
Please please please.

IIRC, part of the BR licensing agreement is that you cannot manufacture a BR player that will also play HD-DVDs.

Concerning Kris's review, does he seem to be implying that because of high pixel cropping via component connection that someone like me (who must use this connection) should maybe look elsewhere? Could this high pixel cropping with component be improved upon by firmware updates?

Also sure would have liked to see him comment on how bad viewing PAL disc were.

At 480i, I don't see what a difference 4:2:2 vs 4:4:4 would make unless lumagen has some super-duper way of upsampling 4:2:2 to 4:4:4. Even then would the difference be visible?

larry

I am getting confused on all the 444 or 422 stuff. In the processor forum there was conflicting suggestions as to what would be the best. I checked and the Lumagen appears to have 444 so the OPPO should be fine.
I admit I don't fully understand all this and hope I did not confuse folks more that I am already confused :confused:

PAL is not part of the benchmark unfortunately. I would normally reserve those comments for a full review. Plus I don't have a lot of PAL material lying around to do subjective testing with. Sorry.

I am not implying anything about the component pixel cropping. Just that if you do have the choice between HDMI and component, we recommend HDMI. Most people's monitors overscan far more pixels than this player crops, but we still report on it. I don't overscan anything.

The 88.2/24 comment is for SACD only. I was referring to the resolution of the DSD to PCM convert. Sorry about that. For DVD-A I was seeing 96/24.

The tests were doing using the newest available firmware. If any new firmware was released during my tests, I re-did all of them. While I had the unit they resolved issues for audio, CUE, white levels, pixel cropping, and menu selections.

Feeding the Lumagen 480i with a 4:4:4 colorspace shouldn't be a big deal at all. The Lumagen is more than capable of handling 4:4:4 and since EVERY display on the planet eventually converts to RGB before display, it shouldn't affect the image overall. (As long as colorspace conversions are done correctly of course!!)

Anyone know if there are discreet codes for HDMI output resolutions?

This would at least allow users to program a macro to set the player to 1080i when listening to DVD-A and SACD, then back to 480i before shutting it down.

What does 1 pixel cropped on HDMI 480i mean to the display? It doesnt seem like a big deal but ive never had a player that cropped anything.

Kris, will you be keeping the oppo as your personal player?

I am getting confused on all the 444 or 422 stuff. In the processor forum there was conflicting suggestions as to what would be the best. I checked and the Lumagen appears to have 444 so the OPPO should be fine.
I admit I don't fully understand all this and hope I did not confuse folks more that I am already confused :confused:If you look near the bottom of this FAQ page, you'll find a link that explains the various YCbCr formats.

larry

" BAD EDIT" can someone explain what it really means........ thanx

When the deinterlacer "hiccups" or sort of gets...distracted, and starts combing the image (I'm oversimplifying)...I also would like to see this fix in a future firmware update, if it falls in that domain (this is easily the biggest mar on the 970s sheet), though I haven't really noticed it personally.

I was wondering if 970 owners can recomend high quality animorphic widescreen material that really displays the strong points of the player, I'm currently using Fifth Element Superbit.

Thanks.

When the 970HD is used with, say, Denon AVR-3806 or Panasonic SA-XR57, for SACD or DVD-A playback via HDMI digital connection, which is responsible for bass management, the player or the receiver?

In other words, does the receiver accept multi-ch signals to which a BM has already been applied by the player? Or is it that the receiver gets full frequency signal for all channels and can apply BM to it? Or either way is possible?

If this issue has already been discussed in this thread, please let me know.

P.S. I think this question also applies to speaker distance compensation.

When the 970HD is used with, say, Denon AVR-3806 or Panasonic SA-XR57, for SACD or DVD-A playback via HDMI digital connection, which is responsible for bass management, the player or the receiver?

The DVD unit is responsible for all bass management.

I was wondering if 970 owners can recomend high quality animorphic widescreen material that really displays the strong points of the player, I'm currently using Fifth Element Superbit.

Thanks.


Try Night Watch R1.
Saw last nite on my 970hd/DVDO VP30.
Spectacular. :)

The DVD unit is responsible for all bass management.

Are you sure? That would mean the multichannel settings in the player also carry over to HDMI? I imagine you can set it so all TA and BM are done by your processor?

The DVD unit is responsible for all bass management.
It would be the receiver that would be responsible for BM, time alignment, levels, etc when using HDMI for audio.

It would be the receiver that would be responsible for BM, time alignment, levels, etc when using HDMI for audio.

Who is right?

It would be the receiver that would be responsible for BM, time alignment, levels, etc when using HDMI for audio.

The receiver is capable of doing bass management, assuming that a) the receiver has this option for multi-channel inputs b) you did not alter the audio in a way to negate the bass management of the receiver.

For example, if I set all the speakers to Large on the DV-970HD, no information will be sent to the subwoofer. However, the receiver (assuming bass management is available) will beable to re-decode the information and map it according to its specifications.

If I set the speakers to Small, I am removing all 100Hz response from the speakers, and the receiver likely won't beable to re-decode the information to redistribute the audio accordingly. The DVD player has stripped a part of the audio signal in this sense, and your receiver usually can't compensate.

I noticed the high frequency response roll-off measured in Kris's review, so I decided to revisit the 970HD's settings and play with the "sharpness" control in an attempt to flatten out the curve a bit. I'm not completely certain that this control directly impacts that end of the video frequency response curve, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway.

Lo and behold, when I set it to "sharp" and recalibrated*, I saw a sublty cleaner image with more sense of depth and no sign of any white line etching around solid objects. I compared scenes at 480p from my "Robots" DVD to an HBO 720p HD satellite broadcast version of "Robots" I had previously saved on my HDTivo. Sitting 10' away from my 50" screen, except for some subtle color differences, all the scenes I watched were virtually identical!

So who needs HD-DVD? :) Until I get a 1080p display, I doubt I'm going to see much of an improvement over what I'm seeing now.

Here are my new ratings:

Over the air broadcast HD: 10 out of 10
DirecTV satellite HD: 9 out of 10
Oppo 970HD 480p, either HDMI or component: 8.9 out of 10

Still a very happy camper!

/steve


*Note: With the 970HD's sharpness "off", I found I had to previously crank my Fujitsu panel's sharpness way down to properly render the Avia and DVE sharpness calibration screens (to -14 on a scale of -16 to +16). With the 970HD set at "sharp", -14 is still the correct setting for my display, but the test patterns now appear a bit "brighter" and not as uniform across the board. Those of you who use these patterns will know what I mean. Sharpness was set at -7 for the component input I watched the HBO broadcast version of "Robots" on, calibrated with the HDNet test pattern.

So who needs HD-DVD? :) Until I get a 1080p display, I doubt I'm going to see much of an improvement over what I'm seeing now.

Depends on your display and what you pay attention to in the picture. When I compared TLS HD-DVD and SD-DVD there was fine content in the HD-DVD picture that just wasn't present in the SD-DVD. If you have a smaller display and/or sit far enough away, you might not notice the differences as much. It's not a revolutionary difference, more evolutionary, IMO. It does look better than broadcast movies because there is no compression artifacts. It doesn't look like live sporting events but that is because of how the source is being created.

The DVD unit is responsible for all bass management.

Wouldn't this only be the case if HDMI audio is set to Multi-channel? I thought if you set it to SPDIF (and SPDIF was set to RAW) that the 970H passed a RAW audio bitstream to the A/V receiver for full management/decoding of the audio signals. That's how I have it set going via HDMI to my VP30 scaler for video upconversion and via coax (from the scaler) to a Denon 4806 AVR for audio processing. Great picture, great sound and the Audyssey EQ adjusts everything.

The receiver is capable of doing bass management, assuming that a) the receiver has this option for multi-channel inputs b) you did not alter the audio in a way to negate the bass management of the receiver.

For example, if I set all the speakers to Large on the DV-970HD, no information will be sent to the subwoofer. However, the receiver (assuming bass management is available) will beable to re-decode the information and map it according to its specifications.

If I set the speakers to Small, I am removing all 100Hz response from the speakers, and the receiver likely won't beable to re-decode the information to redistribute the audio accordingly. The DVD player has stripped a part of the audio signal in this sense, and your receiver usually can't compensate.

I think this is a complicated issue. It depends on the specific implementation details of either the player or the receiver. In theory, everything is possible. Then the question is, does the 970HD perform BM to digital PCM multi-ch audio signal before sending it to a receiver?

And another question is, does the Denon 3806 or the Panny XR57 apply BM to PCM multi-ch signal coming thru its HDMI input?

Anyone know about this?

I think this is a complicated issue. It depends on the specific implementation details of either the player or the receiver. In theory, everything is possible. Then the question is, does the 970HD perform BM to digital PCM multi-ch audio signal before sending it to a receiver?
It shouldn't, and I would hope that it wouldn't.

And another question is, does the Denon 3806 or the Panny XR57 apply BM to PCM multi-ch signal coming thru its HDMI input?

Anyone know about this?
The Denon 3806 applies everything on the HDMI digital PCM input. If the player is doing something to the signal before it's sent to the receiver then things will get messy.

Guys,

I just ordered the 970H (and I already have the 971 ;) )and I would like VERY much to be able to upconvert over component and I'm not by a long shot interested in 480i over hdmi.

Oppo tells they do not intend to offer this as a hack or specialty fw, so the options would be a BBK 988 firmware or wait until someone ingenious enough hacks the FW.

Wich option you think would be more feasible ?

From Who and where we would expect to find a hacked FW ?

Br

Mauricio

The receiver is capable of doing bass management, assuming that a) the receiver has this option for multi-channel inputs b) you did not alter the audio in a way to negate the bass management of the receiver.

For example, if I set all the speakers to Large on the DV-970HD, no information will be sent to the subwoofer. However, the receiver (assuming bass management is available) will beable to re-decode the information and map it according to its specifications.

If I set the speakers to Small, I am removing all 100Hz response from the speakers, and the receiver likely won't beable to re-decode the information to redistribute the audio accordingly. The DVD player has stripped a part of the audio signal in this sense, and your receiver usually can't compensate.
Ideally the player should not be altering the digital output with any of the speaker size, distance settings, etc. that are used for the analog 5.1 outputs. Are you saying that those settings are altering the digital PCM output?

The receiver is capable of doing bass management, assuming that a) the receiver has this option for multi-channel inputs b) you did not alter the audio in a way to negate the bass management of the receiver.

For example, if I set all the speakers to Large on the DV-970HD, no information will be sent to the subwoofer. However, the receiver (assuming bass management is available) will beable to re-decode the information and map it according to its specifications.

If you set all speakers to LARGE, subwoofer to ON, and the trim and distance controls to 0, i dont think it even matters whether or not the player provides these functions over HDMI. With these settings youre essentially sending an untouched PCM signal to the receiver over HDMI.

Wouldn't this only be the case if HDMI audio is set to Multi-channel? I thought if you set it to SPDIF (and SPDIF was set to RAW) that the 970H passed a RAW audio bitstream to the A/V receiver for full management/decoding of the audio signals.


For SPDIF you are sending the RAW bitstream to the receiver for decoding. However, the questions was:

"...for SACD or DVD-A playback via HDMI digital connection, which is responsible for bass management..."

which is why I said bass management would be handled by the DVD player, as it will be doing the audio decoding. However, as stated previously, if the receiver can do multi-channel disc management, then you can do a secondary decoding to redistribute the bass to the desired speakers.

Ideally the player should not be altering the digital output with any of the speaker size, distance settings, etc. that are used for the analog 5.1 outputs. Are you saying that those settings are altering the digital PCM output?

When creating the PCM track, the DVD unit is doing the audio decoding. In this situation, it is doing the bass management for the audio. You can leave everything at Large with Subwoofer as On and hope that you can use your receiver for additional management.

If not, then you will have to use the DVD player as a source of management, which means no fine tuning for people who have specific cross-overs and full range speakers.

Just burn a backup of your movie and it will play over the component outs upconverted since the disc will have no CSS encryption.

Guys,

I just ordered the 970H (and I already have the 971 ;) )and I would like VERY much to be able to upconvert over component and I'm not by a long shot interested in 480i over hdmi.

Oppo tells they do not intend to offer this as a hack or specialty fw, so the options would be a BBK 988 firmware or wait until someone ingenious enough hacks the FW.

Wich option you think would be more feasible ?

From Who and where we would expect to find a hacked FW ?

Br

Mauricio

I own the HP md5880n DLP rear projection TV set which supports 1080P input over the HDMI inputs. Has anyone tested the OPPO players with this set? Can anyone recommend the model that would be the best match for the HP? I don’t know if the OPDV971H or the DV-970HD would be the better choice for this TV. The comparison on Oppo website suggests that one should purchase the 971H for screens larger than 50 inches (mine is 58 inches) but the comparison also suggests that the 971H requires careful calibration to be used with DLP rear projection units. I like the new features of the 970 but what I am looking for is the best picture quality from standard DVDs with my HP DLP rear projection.

I don't know if it would be better to upconvert to 1080i in the OPPO or just use the native 480i output mode and let the HP do the scaling. Any suggestions?

Ideally the player should not be altering the digital output with any of the speaker size, distance settings, etc. that are used for the analog 5.1 outputs.

I agree with you, keenan. But the questions is, do all HDMI v1.1 compatible receivers/SSPs with BM and TA functions, such as the Denon 3806, 4306, and the Panny XR57, etc, actually apply BM and TA to multi-ch PCM tracks coming thru their HDMI input? You said the 3806 does. How do you know this? Is it from an actual test or from reading?

When creating the PCM track, the DVD unit is doing the audio decoding. In this situation, it is doing the bass management for the audio.

Likewise, are you sure that the 970HD does this?

I am pretty sure. If not, I blame me being sick, and it is clouding my judgement.

When creating the PCM track, the DVD unit is doing the audio decoding. In this situation, it is doing the bass management for the audio. You can leave everything at Large with Subwoofer as On and hope that you can use your receiver for additional management.

If not, then you will have to use the DVD player as a source of management, which means no fine tuning for people who have specific cross-overs and full range speakers.

If youre sending the full range signals of the channels and the sub-LFE to the receiver via PCM, there is no 'additional' BM being done because youre not doing any BM in the player to begin with. For DVD-A youre sending everything over natively and for SACD youre just converting the DSD to PCM. Either way the player itself is not doing any BM.

Saying 'additional' BM is somewhat misleading because it implies that youre doing BM twice, once in the player and once in the receiver, and its not the case.

If youre sending the full range signals of the channels and the sub-LFE to the receiver via PCM, there is no 'additional' BM being done because youre not doing any BM in the player to begin with. For DVD-A youre sending everything over natively and for SACD youre just converting the DSD to PCM. Either way the player itself is not doing any BM.

Saying 'additional' BM is somewhat misleading because it implies that youre doing BM twice, once in the player and once in the receiver, and its not the case.
You're right. Anyway, it is interesting that the BM and TA can possibly be messed or applied twice when we set speakers to small and different distances for TA setting in the player and also have our receiver do it again.

I agree with you, keenan. But the questions is, do all HDMI v1.1 compatible receivers/SSPs with BM and TA functions, such as the Denon 3806, 4306, and the Panny XR57, etc, actually apply BM and TA to multi-ch PCM tracks coming thru their HDMI input? You said the 3806 does. How do you know this? Is it from an actual test or from reading?




Because that's how it explained in the Denon manual and from experience using the Toshiba HD-A1, and because that's the way it should be handled. I don't know for a fact if all HDMI 1.1 rec/pre-pros can handle the signal like the Denon does but I would bet that most, if not all, probably do.

Just burn a backup of your movie and it will play over the component outs upconverted since the disc will have no CSS encryption.

Kind of, but not very practical to backup 400+ dvds ;)

If youre sending the full range signals of the channels and the sub-LFE to the receiver via PCM, there is no 'additional' BM being done because youre not doing any BM in the player to begin with. For DVD-A youre sending everything over natively and for SACD youre just converting the DSD to PCM. Either way the player itself is not doing any BM.

Saying 'additional' BM is somewhat misleading because it implies that youre doing BM twice, once in the player and once in the receiver, and its not the case.
I suppose it's possible, albeit highly unlikely, that some signal manipulation is happening when the DSD stream is converted to PCM prior to output, but I doubt it.

Ideally the player should not have any signal manipulation done other than converting to PCM for transport. If the Oppo is doing something other than that, then in my opinion it's a flaw and should be corrected.

Agreed, it's a basic rule of audio that you don't do BM twice on the same signal.

You're right. Anyway, it is interesting that the BM and TA can possibly be messed or applied twice when we set speakers to small and different distances for TA setting in the player and also have our receiver do it again.
This shouldn't happen, the only time player speaker, time and BM settings should affect the signal is if it's the signal going to the analog outputs of the player itself as most analog multichannel inputs to rec/pre-pros only apply amplification, no other signal management usually takes place.

This shouldn't happen, the only time player speaker, time and BM settings should affect the signal is if it's the signal going to the analog outputs of the player itself as most analog multichannel inputs to rec/pre-pros only apply amplification, no other signal management usually takes place.

Agreed (FWIW, the D2 does provide the option to convert the analog inputs to digital for any processing, BM, TA, etc you want to do on it, one of the few)

Yeah, that's why I said most, that's a particularly nice feature of the D2. :)

Has anyone heard about the mods that are available for the 970? There is quite a bit of info on the Audiogon site with regard to the RAM mods for the unit. Very expensive. Would be interesting to know if they really make any difference. Thanks
NETHOMAS

Hi,

How is the 970 for a plasma tv? Does it have screensaver features to avoid burn-in. I was looking at the sony ns-75h, but apparently when you zoom, it displays an annoying zoom logo which might burn into the plasma screen. Is the Oppo plasma friendly?

Thanks

It has a screensaver.

Hi,

How is the 970 for a plasma tv? Does it have screensaver features to avoid burn-in. I was looking at the sony ns-75h, but apparently when you zoom, it displays an annoying zoom logo which might burn into the plasma screen. Is the Oppo plasma friendly?

Thanks
I have the 970HD mated to an NEC PX50XR5A via HDMI. The Oppo does have a screen saver, and it does work as described in the owner's manual. I consider it very plasma friendly.

Hi,

How is the 970 for a plasma tv? Does it have screensaver features to avoid burn-in. I was looking at the sony ns-75h, but apparently when you zoom, it displays an annoying zoom logo which might burn into the plasma screen. Is the Oppo plasma friendly?

Thanks

The zoom display also shuts off after a few seconds so if you zoom, there is no annoying zoom icon on the screen.

...For audio you can use the optical or coaxial digital to the Logitech, and set the OPPO to output Raw for it SPDIF interfaces. This should be a decent setup. The Logitech Z-5500 was very favorably reviewed by Vancouver Sun together with the OPPO DV-970HD very recently.

My neighbor ordered his Oppo DV-970HD on Monday (6/26) and received it late Tuesday afternoon (6/27) in Elk Grove, CA via the least expensive ground transportation option (this Sacramento suburb is less than 100 miles form the Bay Area)! It came with the extra manual (Advanced Setup), but I have not checked what firmware version it shipped with. What should the current version be?

After dinner that night, we quickly connected it to a new Pioneer Elite Pro-1130HD, 50-inch plasma via HDMI and set the Oppo's HDMI video output resolution to 480i, given recommendations by members of this esteemed group and the Pio's reputation for quality de-interlacing and scaling. Out of the box, without running DVE calibration, the picture was pretty darn good using the default settings, but we did not compare the 480i output to 480p, 720p, or 1080i settings or adjust color or sharpness values. Also, the default settings for the film-to-video conversion (pulldown) looked fine, though I don't know whether the Pio plasma or the Oppo was controlling this. We have some DVE calibrations to perform today.

We also connected it to a Pioneer Elite VSX-59TXi AV Receiver via the receiver's default DVD Player audio setting (digital coax) and used the Oppo's default video and audio settings to watch "Eight Below" last night (a terrific little movie). The connected Comcast Cable DVR input previously was calibrated for 3:1 using Pio's MCACC calibration (his rear surrounds haven't arrived yet), but in playing the DVD movie on the Oppo, the sub and left-right mains sounded great, while the center channel dialog was muffled a bit.

My guess is that either the Pio MCACC calibration needs to be run again (and the center's volume increased), but the center speaker also seemed to be set to "large" instead of "small" without my realizing it, which killed sending crossover bass from the center to the sub. Or perhaps both the volume and crossover were problems..I'll have to check this all out today, but his family was chomping at the bit to watch a movie without further setup delays last night, warts and all.

Before I help them with the audio calibration today, is there any chance the muffled center channel audio was caused by some Oppo setting? It's been a few days since I last listened to their cable TV through the AV Receiver, but I think the center channel sounded pretty good on the cable TV side (but I could be wrong -- tests will tell).

Overall, we came away feeling the Oppo DV-970HD appears to be a great purchase.

Since you are using the digital coax output for audio with the OPPO default settings, the receiver gets raw DD or DTS bitstreams. The DVD player should not affect how the center channel sounds in this case.

Since you are using the digital coax output for audio with the OPPO default settings, the receiver gets raw DD or DTS bitstreams. The DVD player should not affect how the center channel sounds in this case.
I notice the center channel is "low" also. Of course, I can always trim it upwards. Didn't notice this with my Sony DVD 900 or any other player I've had. BTW, I was going into my Outlaw 1050 5.1 direct mode.

I notice the center channel is "low" also. Of course, I can always trim it upwards. Didn't notice this with my Sony DVD 900 or any other player I've had. BTW, I was going into my Outlaw 1050 5.1 direct mode.

This has been asked before, and has been claimed that the center channel is 5.5dB lower than it should be. OPPO has measured it, and there is no improper channel trimming when using a RAW S/PDIF output.

My neighbor ordered his Oppo DV-970HD on Monday (6/26) and received it late Tuesday afternoon (6/27) in Elk Grove, CA via the least expensive ground transportation option (this Sacramento suburb is less than 100 miles form the Bay Area)! It came with the extra manual (Advanced Setup), but I have not checked what firmware version it shipped with. What should the current version be?

After dinner that night, we quickly connected it to a new Pioneer Elite Pro-1130HD, 50-inch plasma via HDMI and set the Oppo's HDMI video output resolution to 480i, given recommendations by members of this esteemed group and the Pio's reputation for quality de-interlacing and scaling. Out of the box, without running DVE calibration, the picture was pretty darn good using the default settings, but we did not compare the 480i output to 480p, 720p, or 1080i settings or adjust color or sharpness values. Also, the default settings for the film-to-video conversion (pulldown) looked fine, though I don't know whether the Pio plasma or the Oppo was controlling this. We have some DVE calibrations to perform today.

We also connected it to a Pioneer Elite VSX-59TXi AV Receiver via the receiver's default DVD Player audio setting (digital coax) and used the Oppo's default video and audio settings to watch "Eight Below" last night (a terrific little movie). The connected Comcast Cable DVR input previously was calibrated for 3:1 using Pio's MCACC calibration (his rear surrounds haven't arrived yet), but in playing the DVD movie on the Oppo, the sub and left-right mains sounded great, while the center channel dialog was muffled a bit.

My guess is that either the Pio MCACC calibration needs to be run again (and the center's volume increased), but the center speaker also seemed to be set to "large" instead of "small" without my realizing it, which killed sending crossover bass from the center to the sub. Or perhaps both the volume and crossover were problems..I'll have to check this all out today, but his family was chomping at the bit to watch a movie without further setup delays last night, warts and all.

Before I help them with the audio calibration today, is there any chance the muffled center channel audio was caused by some Oppo setting? It's been a few days since I last listened to their cable TV through the AV Receiver, but I think the center channel sounded pretty good on the cable TV side (but I could be wrong -- tests will tell).

Overall, we came away feeling the Oppo DV-970HD appears to be a great purchase.

480i is the preferred setting for most with separate video processors - it is usually not be the best output for a direct display input. I would try it with 480p also - that's what works best on my Panny plasma from a RP-56. Of course why not go ahead and try 1080i?

I would do 480i or 720p in this situation. I would not bring in 1080i into the equation as it will involve two de-interlacing and scaling sequences, as well as one re-interlacing sequence.

Kind of, but not very practical to backup 400+ dvds ;)


It's not practical as you say but it onlly take about 20 minutes to do it so make a copy of the movie as you're getting your popcorn ready and warming up th projector. 720p with the 970 is a beautiful thing.

BTW- www.doom9.org is where you need to go if you don't know already.

480i is the preferred setting for most with separate video processors - it is usually not be the best output for a direct display input. I would try it with 480p also - that's what works best on my Panny plasma from a RP-56. Of course why not go ahead and try 1080i?

Yeah, 480p looks best on my old one as well.

My 970 is supposed to arrive in a few days and I was wondering:

1. Are there any changes to the default settings I should make out of the box before I run through DVE calibration on my Sony 42A10?

2. What is the best video clip to use to tell whether the deinterlacer in my TV is better than the player's? (ex. flag waving sequence on DVE, etc)

Mr. Deering, do you have an opinion here?

Thanks guys.

Good review as usual Kris. :cool:

Didn't do as well as I thought it'd do. I had expected it to be in the 90's.

[...]

After a couple of posts about this with no response, I'm still confused why Secrets is penalizing the 970HD for ICP error. I wonder how many points that's worth?

By it's own Secrets Test Criteria (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_10_1/dvd-benchmark-guide-to-progressive-scan-shootout-1-2003.html): "Does the player have a deinterlacer or postprocessor that hides the chroma artifacts in 4:2:0 interlaced material?", the 970HD appears to handily pass this test. There is no ICP at 480p by my own visual inspection, or at 1080i, as pointed out by Paul Bigelow in the first post of this thread.

Yes. there is ICP at 480i, but that's prior to de-interlacing, where ICP is usually removed, if I understand the problem (http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidbug2.htm) correctly. (Or here (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/dvd-benchmark-special-report-chroma-bug-4-2001.html).)

I wonder if Kris, Stacey or someone else at Home Theater Secrets would care to set me straight on what I'm missing here? Are there degrees of ICP, and maybe my visual tests are not as sensitive as measured tests? Or is there some other test it's failing that's not available on DVE? Thx! :)

/steve

1. Are there any changes to the default settings I should make out of the box before I run through DVE calibration on my Sony 42A10?

Defaults should be fine.

2. What is the best video clip to use to tell whether the deinterlacer in my TV is better than the player's? (ex. flag waving sequence on DVE, etc)

I prefer popping in films which are CG (Incredibles, Monsters Inc), are well encoded (Star Wars, Fifth Element) or use a mix of CG and Live Action (Star Wars Episode III, I Robot, Spiderman 2).

I prefer popping in films which are CG (Incredibles, Monsters Inc), are well encoded (Star Wars, Fifth Element) or use a mix of CG and Live Action (Star Wars Episode III, I Robot, Spiderman 2).

I'd second that list, and add Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" to it. It's not animated, but filmed "claymation" with razor sharp edge definition around the characters and gorgeous and richly-detailed highlights and blacks, useful for setting white and black levels. Pretty good surround sound too!

/steve

Can the remote from a denon...say the 4306 work with the 970 or even the 971?

Can the remote from a denon...say the 4306 work with the 970 or even the 971?
It's a learning remote... no?

shane

If the remote control is a universal learning remote control, then yes (as you will teach it each command one by one).

If the remote requires a 3 or 4 digit manufacturers code, then no (as there are no manufacturer codes for OPPO products).

How do you change the output of the HDMI from 480P to 480i? My VP30 shows a 480P source.

Thanks,

Jim

How do you change the output of the HDMI from 480P to 480i? My VP30 shows a 480P source.

Thanks,

Jim
Stop the player then use the HDMI button at the bottom left of the remote to cycle through the different resolutions.

Where can I buy replacement COLOR FILTER for DVE or Avia.

http://www.videoessentials.com/extra_filters.php

For people with smaller displays (37" and below) I would recommend the DV-970HD as it has the sharper image, and the aliasing errors are less noticeable. For larger displays, the OPDV971H is more adept to image reproduction, unless macroblocking is a major concern or cavet.[/QUOTE]

Question: Will macroblocking be an issue for the Sony 40" lcd? Will I see a difference in the scaling and de-interlacing abilities of the less expensive unt over the one which costs $50 more?

Answer. For most users, the ability to distibguish between the scaling and de-interlacing abilities of the two units starts around 37". For this reason, we recommend the OPDV971H for users with large screen displays. LCDs will not have an issue with macroblocking, so it should not be a concern.

Which one did I buy? The 971. Hope to get it by Monday.

http://co-store.com/thx

An OPPO tech support response to my query on macroblocking:

Question: Will macroblocking be an issue for the Sony 40" lcd? Will I see a difference in the scaling and de-interlacing abilities of the less expensive unt over the one which costs $50 more?

Answer. For most users, the ability to distibguish between the scaling and de-interlacing abilities of the two units starts around 37". For this reason, we recommend the OPDV971H for users with large screen displays. LCDs will not have an issue with macroblocking, so it should not be a concern.

Which one did I buy? The 971. Hope to get it by Monday.

Hi all,

I'm considering the 971 or 970. I have a Panasonic PT50DL54 50" DLP and LG 7832 DVD player (via component atm). Macroblocking can be a pain on this display - I spent forever trying to tweak it with little success, and I'd really like to avoid another player with the issues.

Can anyone recommend one unit over the other?

An OPPO tech support response to my query on macroblocking:

Question: Will macroblocking be an issue for the Sony 40" lcd? Will I see a difference in the scaling and de-interlacing abilities of the less expensive unt over the one which costs $50 more?

Answer. For most users, the ability to distibguish between the scaling and de-interlacing abilities of the two units starts around 37". For this reason, we recommend the OPDV971H for users with large screen displays. LCDs will not have an issue with macroblocking, so it should not be a concern.

Which one did I buy? The 971. Hope to get it by Monday.I don't know where they got the idea that LCDs are immune from the Faroudja MB enchancement feature. Are they?

larry

I don't know where they got the idea that LCDs are immune from the Faroudja MB enchancement feature. Are they?

larry
I'm curious about this myself as I was going to give my 970 to my mother to use with her little Vizio/V-Inc 32" LCD.

970HD will be no problem - no Faroudja 2310. At least you're not giving her your 5900. :) You had one those didn't you?

larry

This has been asked before, and has been claimed that the center channel is 5.5dB lower than it should be. OPPO has measured it, and there is no improper channel trimming when using a RAW S/PDIF output.
OK, so this is what's happening. Going in direct, that is 5 cables, LF, RF, CF SR and SL (not raw S/PDIF) to my surround reciever, I find that trimming up the center channel +6 db is necessary. ;)

Would the 971 be an issue with a Panny 50px60u? Or will the 50 inch size negate the macro problem? Leaving me to get the 970...

970HD will be no problem - no Faroudja 2310. At least you're not giving her your 5900. :) You had one those didn't you?

larry
Noooo...I still have that 5900 and it stays, for a long time, too much invested and coupled with the VP30 it still gives me fantastic PQ and sound quality, I couldn't be happier with it. :)

I purchased the HD-A1, but I'm not buying another player until someone like Denon puts out a universal. The first BD player seems to not be doing so well, so I held off on BD.

Getting the 970 was more curiosity than anything else, wanted to see how well it did with the 480i output. I'll be giving her the 970 and about $600 worth of PAL UK TV show DVDs that I have accumulated over the last few years.

Would the 971 be an issue with a Panny 50px60u? Or will the 50 inch size negate the macro problem? Leaving me to get the 970...

From what I understand, 971 (Faroudja) + Panny = macroblocking, unless carefully calibrated to mask the problem.

From what I've seen, the new Panny's have decent scalers. I would recommend to you what I'm currently very happy with (connected to my Fujitsu 50"): the 970 HD at 480p over HDMI or component. Gorgeous picture quality when properly calibrated with DVE or Avia. I recommend setting player sharpness to "high", and then calibrating display sharpness using the DVE or Avia test patterns.

/steve

I don't know where they got the idea that LCDs are immune from the Faroudja MB enchancement feature. Are they?

larry

Not immune, but less prone to further enhancement than the DLP and plasma counterparts. To save time, it becomes a "non-issue", rather than an "unlikely issue, but..."

You need to save time in tech support, otherwise you will drive yourself mad answering each question with all the bases covered to their maximum.

OK, so this is what's happening. Going in direct, that is 5 cables, LF, RF, CF SR and SL (not raw S/PDIF) to my surround reciever, I find that trimming up the center channel +6 db is necessary. ;)

And my statement still holds true for the multi-channel analog and HDMI output. The boys and girls at OPPO kindly spent an afternoon measuring the levels, and they found no difference between their channels when measuring. Could be Gremlins in your system, like the other poster who experienced the same thing.

From what I understand, 971 (Faroudja) + Panny = macroblocking, unless carefully calibrated to mask the problem.

From what I've seen, the new Panny's have decent scalers. I would recommend to you what I'm currently very happy with (connected to my Fujitsu 50"): the 970 HD at 480p over HDMI or component. Gorgeous picture quality when properly calibrated with DVE or Avia. I recommend setting player sharpness to "high", and then calibrating display sharpness using the DVE or Avia test patterns.

/steveThe Panny's got a bad rep years ago because they had some non-defeatable NR that exaggerrated the MB bug from the Faroudja. I'm sure the NR is still on by default in the newer models, but I think it's defeatable. I also think the video processing in a unit is more of a cause and non-cause than the technology used to produce the digital display. It was happening on RPTV CRTs when the 5900 came out, IIRC.

larry

I just received my oppo 970. I order it on 25th and got it on 29th but when I open the outside shipping box I fond the oppo 970 box all beat up and ripped open from the bottom of the box, I continue to open the box found the beat up shipping foam and 970 unit wrap in cloth. I took out the unit and i found dirty finger all over the unit. I also realized that there was no power cord in the box. I called oppo right away and talked to gentleman named Kevin. He was very helpful and told me they will ship the advance replacement.
I looked for the power cord and fond one of my old cord and plug it in the unit and eager to try out the unit via component. Then I fond out there was no remote control in the box. All i got in the box was 970 unit, USER MANUAL, ADVANCED SETUP GUIDE BOOK AND HDMI CABLE. I called OPPO back and left the msg for Kevin at oppo. I am waiting for his call back.

Is there a remote code for oppo 970 , to use it with my one for all remote.
i was able to see pic but no sound but static, i think because of default setting must be digital out . My preamp doesn't support it.
what is the video default out put on unit? since i don't have remote , i could not do the setting.
what a luck.......

excue my writing, i am not very good at this

Kevin from oppo just called me back and they will ship a new unit out today. Hopefully everything in it.

without the remote, what am i watching? default setting is 480p???

I just received my oppo 970. I order it on 25th and got it on 29th but when I open the outside shipping box I fond the oppo 970 box all beat up and ripped open from the bottom of the box, I continue to open the box found the beat up shipping foam and 970 unit wrap in cloth. I took out the unit and i found dirty finger all over the unit. I also realized that there was no power cord in the box. I called oppo right away and talked to gentelman named Kevin. He was very helpful and told me they will ship the advance replacement.
I looked for the power cord and fond one of my old cord and plug it in the unit and eager to try out the unit via component. Then I fond out there was no remote control in the box. All i got in the box was 970 unit, USER MANUAL, ADVANCED SETUP GUIDE BOOK AND HDMI CABLE. I called OPPO back and left the msg for Kevin at oppo. I am waiting for his call back.

excue my writting, i am not very good at this


Sounds like there was a customs official who lost his remote...and kept the power cord just in case his went out...its good to be king. Good news is, you got his fingerprints...heh, find him and press charges! : )

Guys, thanks for the suggestions on good viewing material for the 970...which scenes do you use to compare deinterlacing capabilities (or would it be the same material). Can someone suggest a specific scene from a movie? Thanks, again.

Is there a remote code for oppo 970 , to use it with my one for all remote.

If you have a One-For-All try using 1525. If this code does not work, then you will need to update your remote by calling their tech support, and they will update the remote over the phone.

without the remote, what am i watching? default setting is 480p???

Yes, you are watching 480p.

If you have a One-For-All try using 1525. If this code does not work, then you will need to update your remote by calling their tech support, and they will update the remote over the phone.

Is the OFA code a recent addition? Do you know if it supports discreet on/off? /s

The One-For-All code is for the OPDV971H, so there is no Discrete On/Off commands.

The Panny's got a bad rep years ago because they had some non-defeatable NR that exaggerrated the MB bug from the Faroudja. I'm sure the NR is still on by default in the newer models, but I think it's defeatable. I also think the video processing in a unit is more of a cause and non-cause than the technology used to produce the digital display. It was happening on RPTV CRTs when the 5900 came out, IIRC.

larry
Yes it was/is pretty bad, the solution is to remove the Faroudja from the signal path by going SDI and then used with a video processor it gives you one of the finest pictures you can get, at any price.

Yes it was/is pretty bad, the solution is to remove the Faroudja from the signal path by going SDI and then used with a video processor it gives you one of the finest pictures you can get, at any price.


How much better than the 970's 480i HDMI in your opinion?

where did you get the code? it doesn't work or listed at UFOUSA.COM

Is there any other way to change 480p to 720p or 480i without remote???

Hello,


Does anybody know if the software that ships with the 970 is the one Kris at Secrets did the review with?

Thanks for your reply,
rmlowz

audio101,

The code was recently added several months ago. Call their tech support and inquire about the OPDV971H Black remote code. They will beable to update your remote as needed.

Does anybody know if the software that ships with the 970 is the one Kris at Secrets did the review with?


Yes, it is the same firmware.

Guys, When I first tested out my Oppo I used the included 6 ft, 24 gauge HDMI cable.

Now for my permanent setup, I have move the Oppo over to the component cabinet, and am using a 15 ft, 28 gauge cable.

(I realize the longer cable with lesser thickness is not optimal but that’s what I had at hand.)

Maybe I’m seeing things – But it seems to me I am getting some minor macro blocking or something similar with the new cable.

Is this type of side effect possible with a poor cable or am I just seeing things? Thanks.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI) (not always the most authoritative source):

A reported problem with HDMI is the maximum cable length. As with all cables, signal attenuation becomes too high at a certain length. For the standard HDMI copper cables at 28 AWG, some users have found signal performance degrades above a cable length of about 5 meters. For front projection televisions and computer hookups, this can result in lost data and the video device compensating in unacceptable ways.

The HDMI Web site, however, disputes the 5 meter limit. "HDMI technology has been designed to use standard copper cable construction at long lengths. In order to allow cable manufacturers to improve their products through the use of new technologies, HDMI specifies the required performance of a cable but does not specify a maximum cable length. Cable manufacturers are expected to sell reasonably priced copper cables at lengths of up to 15 meters."

One reported way to increase the distance limit is to increase the thickness of the copper cables, effectively decreasing impedance. 24 AWG wire is considered superior to 28 AWG. Another way is to use fiber optic or dual Cat-5 cables instead of standard copper. Some companies also offer amplifiers and repeaters that can string several HDMI cables together.

From what I understand, 971 (Faroudja) + Panny = macroblocking, unless carefully calibrated to mask the problem.

From what I've seen, the new Panny's have decent scalers. I would recommend to you what I'm currently very happy with (connected to my Fujitsu 50"): the 970 HD at 480p over HDMI or component. Gorgeous picture quality when properly calibrated with DVE or Avia. I recommend setting player sharpness to "high", and then calibrating display sharpness using the DVE or Avia test patterns.

/steve


Thanks for the info Steve...

How much better than the 970's 480i HDMI in your opinion?
It's hard to quantify how much better. The 5900 is a much more refined piece from the way the drawer opens and closes to the audio quality. PQ-wise the 5900 seems to have just a bit more film-like look with colors a bit more natural..but this could be because I'm so used it as opposed to the 970. I can say that the 5900/VP30 combo is probably not worth the extra $4000 plus dollars over the 970, but even then, that gets pretty subjective as many will spend more and more to get the last little bit they can get.

I'll also admit that I probably have a bias as to how good can a $150 DVD player really be, but honestly it holds it's own, and if you figure cost in, it's really a no-brainer, the 970 is an excellent piece. Of course I think to get the most out of this player an outboard video processor is probably needed, so that will add to the overall cost.

Does anybody know if the software that ships with the 970 is the one Kris at Secrets did the review with?Yes, it is the same firmware.
Kris wrote in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7908682&&#post7908682):The tests were doing using the newest available firmware. If any new firmware was released during my tests, I re-did all of them. While I had the unit they resolved issues for audio, CUE, white levels, pixel cropping, and menu selections.
which says he was running the latest beta firmware so, unless they're installing beta in currently shipping units, the answer is no.

The firmware fixes Kris Talks about in the June 2006 benchmark, will there be a new firmware soon with all of them?

I am looking to buy a 970 for a gift, and be nice to know if those items are already addressed.

The firmware fixes Kris Talks about in the June 2006 benchmark, will there be a new firmware soon with all of them?You can download the latest from the 970 support page (http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd_support.html).

You can download the latest from the 970 support page (http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd_support.html).

I see it now, makes it hard not to pull the trigger and order.

thanx

Kris wrote in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7908682&&#post7908682):
which says he was running the latest beta firmware so, unless they're installing beta in currently shipping units, the answer is no.

The beta only changes the audio syncing for Denon and other receivers. It does not effect the video at all.

So yes, it does turn out he is using the beta firmware, but no, there is no difference in terms of performance (unless you are using component, which it does effect).

So yes, it does turn out he is using the beta firmware, but no, there is no difference in terms of performance (unless you are using component, which it does effect).Correct, I should've been more clear. I'm focused on component because that's the only video input I have.

before you order, you should read my earlier post. I like to put the pic of box how i received it this morning. But I don't know how to put the pics here.

before you order, you should read my earlier post. I like to put the pic of box how i received it this morning. But I don't know how to put the pics here.
Use the advanced reply button at the bottom of the quick reply box and then use manage attachments.

It's hard to quantify how much better. The 5900 is a much more refined piece from the way the drawer opens and closes to the audio quality. PQ-wise the 5900 seems to have just a bit more film-like look with colors a bit more natural..but this could be because I'm so used it as opposed to the 970. I can say that the 5900/VP30 combo is probably not worth the extra $4000 plus dollars over the 970, but even then, that gets pretty subjective as many will spend more and more to get the last little bit they can get.

I'll also admit that I probably have a bias as to how good can a $150 DVD player really be, but honestly it holds it's own, and if you figure cost in, it's really a no-brainer, the 970 is an excellent piece. Of course I think to get the most out of this player an outboard video processor is probably needed, so that will add to the overall cost.


I was just curious of what your opinion was. :)
Moved my Onkyo sp1000 upstairs after picking up 970 for my VP30/ABT102.

Is there any way to dim the front LED display on the DVD player?

Is there any way to dim the front LED display on the DVD player?

Not yet, but it will likely be in the next firmware release, as this feature is currently in their latest closed beta.

Not yet, but it will likely be in the next firmware release, as this feature is currently in their latest closed beta.

Perfect. :)

That's my only (incredibly small) quibble about this player. Picture on my Toshiba 52HMX84 with the 970HD and VP30 produces the most breathtaking DVD picture I've ever seen. Though I can't compare it to say, a Denon with SDI mod as I've never witnessed that in real-time.

Congrats Oppo, on a truely incredible value. Well done. :cool:

*Edit*
Forgot to mention the lightning fast shipping, I'm in Canada and it took 4 days. Package arrived in pristine condition, double-boxed.

Not yet, but it will likely be in the next firmware release, as this feature is currently in their latest closed beta.

AWSOME!!!!!!!! I was asking the russian firmware hacker to do this for the 971, but on the 970 nice...

Lets hope its a short closed beta :)

After a couple of posts about this with no response, I'm still confused why Secrets is penalizing the 970HD for ICP error. I wonder how many points that's worth?

By it's own Secrets Test Criteria (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_10_1/dvd-benchmark-guide-to-progressive-scan-shootout-1-2003.html): "Does the player have a deinterlacer or postprocessor that hides the chroma artifacts in 4:2:0 interlaced material?", the 970HD appears to handily pass this test. There is no ICP at 480p by my own visual inspection, or at 1080i, as pointed out by Paul Bigelow in the first post of this thread.

Yes. there is ICP at 480i, but that's prior to de-interlacing, where ICP is usually removed, if I understand the problem (http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidbug2.htm) correctly. (Or here (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/dvd-benchmark-special-report-chroma-bug-4-2001.html).)

I wonder if Kris, Stacey or someone else at Home Theater Secrets would care to set me straight on what I'm missing here? Are there degrees of ICP, and maybe my visual tests are not as sensitive as measured tests? Or is there some other test it's failing that's not available on DVE? Thx! :)

/steve

I came to this thread to find an answer to the very same question. The text almost implies that the 970 with a firmware update passes the Chroma ICP test, but then it's penalized in the score. I'm a little confused. :confused: Can anyone offer some clarification?

I have this DVD player and I get artifacts at the beginning of most DVDs when it goes to black. For instance on the title of the film. When it goes to black, it looks like spots of darker and lighter blacks. Once the film starts, it looks great. I have set to 720 HDMI. I use all the recommended settings.

I have a 32" Samsung LCD

I came to this thread to find an answer to the very same question. The text almost implies that the 970 with a firmware update passes the Chroma ICP test, but then it's penalized in the score. I'm a little confused. :confused: Can anyone offer some clarification?

It passes but fails ICP at the same time.

It fails ICP when using the 480i/576i setting (obviously, as the I in ICP stands for interlaced) and the algorithms designed to keep ICP at bay at the progressive resolutions is rather slow (load a ICP test and you will see that it takes about 2~3 seconds for the player to actually sense and filter), crippling the ability to mask ICP errors.

Not yet, but it will likely be in the next firmware release, as this feature is currently in their latest closed beta.

I hope the beta is doing well cause it's quite difficult to dim LED AFAIK. For vacuum display it should be easy to dim, but LED is a different animal.

LEDs can be turned off in the current firmware. The LCD can be dimmed (off was an option, but that becomes a service nightmare) in the current closed beta.

Although the poster said LED, he said LED display, which makes me believe he meant LCD, in which my statements still hold.

how can you turn off the LED/LCD on the OPPO?

Also can they be turned off on the 971 as I have both coming today
Thanks

Yes I meant LCD :rolleyes: I blame lack of sleep :o

Finally I got yesterday my oppo 970. I was one of the first takers, but it took about a month to get home (most of the time, stopped at customs, the bastards).

I connected it directly to a samsung lcd via hdmi. I was not very impressed with PQ but not disappointed also and it seems a nice player indeed for the money.
Stuff I like:
* fair image out-of-the-box when connected directly to the display (PAL discs). However the pretended setup is to connect this oppo to an iscan hd+ I have, and from this to a philips 50" (50pf9966), but I need to get an hdmi-dvi cable first.
* features -- usb and card reader
* nice information presented on "info" keys
* several OSD modes
* direct goto chaper/title/time
* fair zooming
* fast, responsive

Minor problems found and dislikes:
* only 32x maximum forward speed
* the speed forward should cycle back to normal play after maximum (convenience)
* play button (on unit) doesn't start the player-- we need to press power then play (convenience)
* didn't read an 1GB usb-pen I have and got stuck (had to unplug the power cord from the mains), but it read other pen-drive I had around
* when it changed to usb, the image got scrambled, but pressing on the P/N key solved it.

But globally I'm happy with it, and waiting for the cables to see the 970-hd+ combo in action.

It passes but fails ICP at the same time.

It fails ICP when using the 480i/576i setting (obviously, as the I in ICP stands for interlaced) and the algorithms designed to keep ICP at bay at the progressive resolutions is rather slow (load a ICP test and you will see that it takes about 2~3 seconds for the player to actually sense and filter), crippling the ability to mask ICP errors.

If you're talking about DVE Title 15, Chap 7, that delay may be display dependent, because it's less than a second on mine. It may be caused by ICP detection, but it could very well be caused by film mode detection ( the "3:2 cadence, film flags" test). If you watch the white concentric circles in the middle of that screen, you'll see what I mean.

It sure would be nice to get a definitive answer from the Home Theater Secrets folks on this, since they ran the tests. I'm pretty sure they monitor this forum. :) It seems to me that if they tested the player in 480i mode and ICP can only be cured in 480p mode, a "n/a" rather than a "fail" might be a more appropriate score, but maybe that's the way all players are tested, in which case, it is an objective measure.

/steve

All of the tests in the benchmark are done at 480P. Verification tests are done at 480i. The player was not passing the ICP test before but I will re-look at it. I use the WHQL test discs for this which are extremelly difficult to pass.

Thanks!

I wish i could say same, I have 970 sitting there because it came yesterday with no remote and powercord. SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
How unlucky am i?? Or somethingelse ?????

how can you turn off the LED/LCD on the OPPO?

Also can they be turned off on the 971 as I have both coming today
Thanks

OPDV971H
Setup->Light->Off
Further options will allow you to dim the LCD and is in the closed beta firmware.

DV-970HD
None so far, since there is only one LED on the system (power) and that is off when the unit is on. LCD dimming is in a closed beta right now, but do not know if it will make it as a final cut or not.

* the speed forward should cycle back to normal play after maximum (convenience)

Try again. Once you go past 32x the unit will begin playing at normal speed.

* play button (on unit) doesn't start the player-- we need to press power then play (convenience)

The Play button on the remote control and the DVD unit will turn on the power. Please try this operation again.[/QUOTE]

All of the tests in the benchmark are done at 480P. Verification tests are done at 480i. The player was not passing the ICP test before but I will re-look at it. I use the WHQL test discs for this which are extremelly difficult to pass.

Thanks Kris.

I wish i could say same, I have 970 sitting there because it came yesterday with no remote and powercord. SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
How unlucky am i?? Or somethingelse ?????

Hello,

I thought mine did not come with remote or power cord also. It is in the bottom of the box in a white box that looks like packing card board??

rmlowz

Try again. Once you go past 32x the unit will begin playing at normal speed.
The Play button on the remote control and the DVD unit will turn on the power. Please try this operation again.

You're right!! I would swear I had tried those yesterday! Even the "eject" starts the player, when it's off. Nice!

Check Out The Pics

I wish i could say same, I have 970 sitting there because it came yesterday with no remote and powercord. SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
How unlucky am i?? Or somethingelse ?????

Hello,

I thought mine did not come with remote or power cord also. It is in the bottom of the box in a white box that looks like packing card board??

rmlowz

HERE ARE PICS

Did you order your unit directly from OPPO? Because the two boxes in the background do not have an OPPO logo on them. All DVD units shipped from OPPO come in a box that has "OPPO" written on all four sides (unless you are shipped oversized due to buying larger cables).

They do not do double boxing of any kind.

Check Out The Pics

If I were you I would stay away from buying any lotto tickets.

The missing part of the box that was ripped out is where you would find the remote and power cord.

My Oppo beat the FedEx driver to the house. I heard it land on the front porch and then 5 seconds later the door bell rang. All was okay though, maybe I should buy the lotto ticket. :)

Did you order your unit directly from OPPO? Because the two boxes in the background do not have an OPPO logo on them. All DVD units shipped from OPPO come in a box that has "OPPO" written on all four sides (unless you are shipped oversized due to buying larger cables).

They do not do double boxing of any kind.
Yes , i did order it from OPPO. Kevin from oppo said the same thing to me that they ship unit with oppo logo on it. What i got was two brown boxes put together to make one big box to put 970 box in it. Very possible that something happen to it on the way to my house.
what puzzle me was when you look at the ripped boxes , they don't look like a fresh rip, they look like a old damage boxes.
oh well, i will get my unit tomorrow. keep my fingers cross.

It could have been water damage in transit, which is why the original shipping box was no longer used when the item actually arrived.

One thing you have to remember is that all units are upgraded before they go out, and they all have to be individually packed into their boxes. It is highly unlikely that the technician doing the upgrade, and the technician doing the packaging would let such a unit go out. Add to the fact that yours looks like a special order (the bag on top of the manual looks like a DVI-HDMI cable), your box was handled an additional time. It would have been gross neglegance for the alarms to not have gone off.

It could have been water damage in transit, which is why the original shipping box was no longer used when the item actually arrived.

What part of the country do you live in? We've been inundated with rain in the NY, NJ, CT tri-state area this past week. Lot's of flooding in NJ.

/steve

Likely not something that happened naturally. I've seen damage caused by moisture, the carrier placed it on a wet surface, some other package leaked, and so forth. Sometimes I will get wet/damaged goods due to natural reasons (rain, sprinklers, etc), but that is very few and far between.

It looks very much like freight damage mishandling and was reboxed by the carrier. I'll bet the final delivery was made by a contractor working for someone like Fedex.

Add to the fact that yours looks like a special order (the bag on top of the manual looks like a DVI-HDMI cable)

I've asked for the dvi-hdmi cable when I ordered but they sent me the hdmi-hdmi anyway :-(

Getting back to the oppo, I've found the following (nothing serious, anyway): if I use the oppo volume control, it does in fact lower/upper the volume but only if I'm using the HDMI connection (the only audio connection I tested, perhaps also work for analog audio). But if I'm using SPDIF (I've tested via coaxial), the volume remains the same regardless the oppo volume level, except when it is at 0, where it mutes.

I've asked for the dvi-hdmi cable when I ordered but they sent me the hdmi-hdmi anyway :-(

Getting back to the oppo, I've found the following (nothing serious, anyway): if I use the oppo volume control, it does in fact lower/upper the volume but only if I'm using the HDMI connection (the only audio connection I tested, perhaps also work for analog audio). But if I'm using SPDIF (I've tested via coaxial), the volume remains the same regardless the oppo volume level, except when it is at 0, where it mutes.

The volume controls require that you use the DVD player do to the audio decoding. The analog outputs, as well as the HDMI mulit-channel output, are all decoded by the DVD unit. As such, you can alter the volume through the remote control.

SPDIF RAW (bitsream) does not have any audio decoding going on on the DVD side, which is why the volume controls do nothing.

wait how do divx files look? are the upconverted to HD? i will use a usb key and watch divx, i want a really good quality, will it work with this?

Has anyone noticed how awfully similar the Oppo menu system is to Philips/Yamaha? Even the little logos for Pause, Fast Fwd, Rev and all that are the same. The zoom function is the exact same as a Yamaha I have in my bedroom(which is built off Philips chassis).

They use the same chipset too, the MTK 1389EE IIRC.

Anyone know if the Oppo shares any design with Philips? Same OS or...?

The menus and icons are pretty much the default MTK ones. OPPO has not spent a dime changing them.

Aha! So it's the MTK similarity, not the Philips. Okay makes sense now.. was just a thought.

wait how do divx files look? are the upconverted to HD? i will use a usb key and watch divx, i want a really good quality, will it work with this?

For divx, burning it to CD/DVD is still the best way. The USB/card slots on the 970HD are too slow for serious divx playback.

For divx, burning it to CD/DVD is still the best way. The USB/card slots on the 970HD are too slow for serious divx playback.

really? i heard otherwise... i heard the philips or something is bad and the oppo is great, have you tried it? have you used usb 2.0. wouldnt usb 2.0 have a faster read speed?

ok, but i guess ill use cds, because its cheaper too, but is the divx content upscaled?

Has anyone noticed how awfully similar the Oppo menu system is to Philips/Yamaha? Even the little logos for Pause, Fast Fwd, Rev and all that are the same. The zoom function is the exact same as a Yamaha I have in my bedroom(which is built off Philips chassis).

They use the same chipset too, the MTK 1389EE IIRC.

Anyone know if the Oppo shares any design with Philips? Same OS or...?

I have owned and still own many different DVD players from China and whatever name is on the outside (and there are many), they usually have 1 of 3 major chipsets : ESS, MediaTek or Zoran. Most use unmodified GUIs and you can quickly start to tell which chipset is used simply by looking at the setup screen/page.

really? i heard otherwise... i heard the philips or something is bad and the oppo is great, have you tried it? have you used usb 2.0. wouldnt usb 2.0 have a faster read speed?

They're all USB1 readers, so usign a USB2 drive doesn't increase speed. but still that should be sufficient for DIVX. I realy hope it works well, as this is one of the main reason i ordered the oppo. I'm sick of burning stuff to CD and would rather stream it direct via an external HDD/flash drive.

USB 1.1 should be more than enough for DivX (as most DivX at 720x480 is about 2mbits max). However, I could not even get a 700kbps DivX working properly, which makes me believe that the USB interface is being further hampered. OPPO is looking into the situation, and hopefully will release a firmware which addresses this low bandwidth.

Just wanted to chime in on my experience using this player for the last week and a half. Using a 52" Mitsubishi DLP HDTV on the 1080i setting with the included HDMI cable and the picture is very clear and film-like. Much better picture than my APL Hi-Fi modded Pioneer 563As player or my brother-in-law's Samsung HD-841. I realize that Oppo had optimized the audio circuitry but on my all Magnepan IIIa home theater system with Velodyne sub, the sound is just fair to me. I guess I must be spoiled by the APL Hi-Fi modded player I have. When listening to the Oppo in 2 channel or in hi-rez 2-channel or 5.1, the overall sound presentation is veiled. The sound is not as life-like as I am used to compared to my Pioneer but when I compare it's CD performance to my stock Sony CD player, then I would say the Oppo is easier to listen to and compares very well to stock CD players at the same price point. Overall, I have been very impressed with what Oppo Digital can provide us as consumers in this price range. My family and friends were so impressed with the picture and sound quality that three of my friends ended up purchasing the Oppo as well. For the price, there is nothing that I have seen that comes even close. :)

wait, if you burn divx to dvd-r it will still work right?????

A DVD has a read speed that averages 12mb/s. For this reason, there will be no decoding slow downs with burned DivX/XviD files.

slbenz,

Welcome to the club. Glad to hear that your DV-970HD is working out so well for you, and is looking like a good player for the rest of your family.

wait, but my question was i read somewhere that dvd-r wont work with divx is this true? im very excited to get this thing on monday, and i think i may be getting my ln-s3251d tommorow too. very exciting!

Does anyone know if the 970 supports being able to select multiple subtitle and audio files inside an ogm file? I've read elsewhere that MediaTek could handle multiple audio tracks but not subtitles.

I realize that Oppo had optimized the audio circuitry but on my all Magnepan IIIa home theater system with Velodyne sub, the sound is just fair to me. I guess I must be spoiled by the APL Hi-Fi modded player I have. When listening to the Oppo in 2 channel or in hi-rez 2-channel or 5.1, the overall sound presentation is veiled. The sound is not as life-like as I am used to


I have been suspecting the same...
I use the Optical Out for Dolby/DTS to my Denon 4802 and it just doesn't seem as life-like as my Onkyo sp1000.
Admittedly, I haven't A/B to be sure...maybe some of my recent DVDs haven't been the best audio either. :confused:
I had been using the Onkyo for 1 1/2 years and the sound is nothing short of superb.
Need to do some investigating... ;)

Well, I finally got my 970 and connected it ,via HDMI, to my Optoma H79 DLP Projector.

The projector gives a readout of the signal coming from the Oppo,and I was surprised to see that on the 576i setting it shows a frame rate of 25 Hz instead of the normal 50Hz.
NTSC discs show the expected 480i/60Hz rate.

Is this to do with the 2:2 cadence issue?

...and it just doesn't seem as life-like as my Onkyo SP1000....
Do you honestly think an Oppo at 1/10 the price of your Onkyo should perform as well? The idea here is that the Oppo performs beautifully at a much lower price point. I would hope that transports selling for such large sums could deliver a better sound!

I have been suspecting the same...
I use the Optical Out for Dolby/DTS to my Denon 4802 and it just doesn't seem as life-like as my Onkyo sp1000.
Admittedly, I haven't A/B to be sure...maybe some of my recent DVDs haven't been the best audio either. :confused:
I had been using the Onkyo for 1 1/2 years and the sound is nothing short of superb.
Need to do some investigating... ;)

For giggles, have you tried the coax spdif out?

Do you honestly think an Oppo at 1/10 the price of your Onkyo should perform as well? The idea here is that the Oppo performs beautifully at a much lower price point. I would hope that transports selling for such large sums could deliver a better sound!

Actually, using optical or coaxial SPDIF out, yes i would. I dont think the cost difference is spent on getting a better signal out of the optical or coax connections, i mean how much can you really improve or screw them up? :)

Do you honestly think an Oppo at 1/10 the price of your Onkyo should perform as well? The idea here is that the Oppo performs beautifully at a much lower price point. I would hope that transports selling for such large sums could deliver a better sound!

You're right, but with the PQ of the 970HD being so good, the expectation for the audio to be just as good is not surprising.

I don't have a top-shelf SACD or DVD-Audio player to run audio A/B tests against, but I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

As a reformed audiophile who used to spend thousands of dollars on what I used to call "designer" separates, my experience has been that sometimes some careful equalization is all you need to make an average sounding piece of gear sound almost or as good as a much higher priced one, in a blind-fold listening test.

I generally found that spending proportionally more audio dollars often yielded only incremental improvements in quality, if that makes any sense.

/steve

You're right, but with the PQ of the 970HD being so good, the expectation for the audio to be just as good is not surprising.

I don't have a top-shelf SACD or DVD-Audio player to run audio A/B tests against, but I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

As a reformed audiophile who used to spend thousands of dollars on what I used to call "designer" separates, my experience has been that sometimes some careful equalization is all you need to make an average sounding piece of gear sound almost or as good as a much higher priced one, in a blind-fold listening test.

I generally found that spending proportionally more audio dollars often yielded only incremental improvements in quality, if that makes any sense.

/steve

I would expect the oppo to get trounced for hi res audio using analog connections against a good high end player.

I just got this player and was trying to get subtitles to work with Spiderman I. Pressing the "subtitle" button does nothing, have to enable it in the DVD menu.

I have installed the latest beta. What do I need to do to get this to work ?


Thanka

Oppo 970HD fans may be able to have their PQ cake AND enjoy top-flight audio, too. A well-regarded modifier, Reference Audio Mods, is doing an extensive mod to the audio output section of the 970HD that, they claim, will bring the unit in to close sonic competition with much more costly units. Here's the link for more information:

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=Oppo_DV970HD&Category_Code=MODS&Product_Count=39

The basic information appears below:

Oppo DV-970HD Univeral Format Player (Our Impressions)-

RAM performs High Performance modifications and provides New Modified Oppo DV-970HD Universal players. Our modifications to the DV970HD unit to take it to a completely different level of sound, embarassing so many $600-$5000+ costing players!!! It was also mentioned that even the Stock Oppo DV-970HD is very comparable to the Stock Marantz SA-11S1 (Retail $3499), so there is no doubt that we are providing you a giant killer that will play just about every format (including HDCD). Talk about a complete sleeper! The Player is provided with in its Highly Modified package with the option to upgrade the stock clocking to the acclaimed Audiocom Superclock 3. The fully modified unit costs $1095 shipped from RAM. Highly Recommended to purchase the full modded unit for the best audio and video performance! This price and performance that the Oppo exhibits with our modifications, is going to bring the customer excellent audio and video performance that they have not previously seen or heard in their system, all on a beer budget! It is that good! It will bring you a presentation that rivals some of the most expensive units, and even the best out there will not be night/day better, the Oppo is that good!... for a complete fraction of the price! We have compared it to the stock Marantz SA-11S1, Stock Esoteric DV-50S, Stock Sony SCD-1. All these flagship units sounded flat and dull in comparison. With the RAM Oppo, the resolution was on a much higher level, music sounded in the room with great presence, we had a much larger, wider, deeper soundstage, with exceptional crystal clear vividness in voices and instruments with great seperation of instruments and refinement of brushes and cymbals and great dynamics.


Look at what this great unit can do!



DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD (SACD), DivX, Xvid, Redbook CD, HDCD, Kodak Picture CD and more!
Plays DivX® 5, DivX® 4, DivX® 3, and DivX® VOD content and XviD, .SRT, .SMI, .IDX and .SUB format content
HD film-like picture quality to up-convert 720x480 interlaced video on DVD discs to 480p/720p/1080i
High-quality pure digital video and audio through a single HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable
HD HDMI and component outputs*: NTSC: 480i/480p/720p/1080i; PAL: 576i/576p/720p/1080i
Compatible with HDTV, HD-Ready TV, HDTV monitors and projectors
Built-in Dolby Digital decoder with individual 5.1ch and down-mixed stereo outputs
Optical and coaxial digital audio outputs for Dolby Digital, DTS and Linear PCM
Unique "Audio Only" mode with video processing turned off for perfect acoustic fidelity
3D Surround (Virtual Surround): Concert, Live, Dance, Techno, Classic, Soft
Built-in equalizer, channel trim and channel delay functions
Compatible with CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW and DVD+R DL
Special disc tray - thin, flexible and strong. Can tolerate some bending without breaking.
4-in-1 flash memory card reader compatible with Memory Stick, Secure Digital, Multi-Media Card, and SmartMedia (MS/SD/MMC/SM)
Playback MP3 and WAV Audio files back via 4-in-1 slot for excellent audio playback!
USB connector/interface for expanded connectivity
Smooth and easy navigation of photo albums, music collections and video files on DVD, CD, flash memory cards and USB disks.
Selectable subtitle and audio tracks
Discrete ON/OFF remote control IR code for programmable universal remote controls
Wide range universal power supply (~100V-240V, 50/60Hz AC) WORLD WIDE USE!

Whats included in the box? (accessories)


High-quality certified HDMI cable with ferrite core and gold-plated HDMI connectors
Remote control with "glow in the dark" keypad (batteries included)
Stereo audio cable
Composite video cable
User manual

NOTE on Power Cord:
RAM installs a Furutech IEC connector to eliminate the 2-prong stock power connector, to the rear of the Oppo DV-970HD unit. We do not provide a power cord for this connection, please make sure you have a stock or aftermarket power cord ready when you receive the unit to power it up and even it further with your own aftermaket power cable.


Modification Package Descriptions and Prices
$800 shipped for Highly Modified New Unit
$625 shipped if you send your DV970HD to RAM
Please also look at the Audiocom SuperClock 3 and RAM Interconnect Upgrades below the mods descriptions


Furutech IEC Connector- We add a high quality gold plated Furutech IEC connector to the rear of the chassis for use with high performance aftermarket power cords.

Rubycon ZL/ZA capacitors-
We replace an abundance of voltage rail decouple/bypass capacitors in all critical areas with Rubycon ZL/ZA series caps! Very Very Nice improvement! A HUGE change in total sonic tonality and character, the stock caps are very bad! We feel the Rubycon ZA/ZL sound superior to even the very best Blackgates and are the most transparent electrolytic cap available (offering more speed, openness and vividness in the soundstage) and offer more ripple current and less impedance which makes them optimal in this use.

Custom RAM Exotic Ultra High Speed Diode Bridge-
We replace the stock noisy/glary/grainy rectifiers with a handmade RAM Exotic version made out of ultra fast SMD diodes. These are superior sounding to the Harris versions and offer Less glare, grain and harshness! Better Video as well! These are wired into the circuit with Audio Consulting Silver Wire. Very little metal is used, this helps out the eddy current issues and give better resolution and bass.

Jensen 4-pole Electrolytic cap in power supply-
We install an Jensen 4-pole Electrolytic capacitor in the power supply to replace the stock smoothing cap. This cap has an unique ability of reducing power supply distortion while at the same time remaining very fast and natural. Such a clear and audible improvement delivering more resolution, texture, dynamics, and liveliness. We wire this with Exotic Audio Consulting 24awg silver wire w/natural unbleached cotton tubing. The cap betters the best blackgates and any other cap on the market used in this particular position in the mod. This cap costs more than half the cost of the acutal stock player!!!! This even makes video looks better as well!

Analog Output Stage upgrades (for use as a standalone player)-
We delete the stock Analog Output stage (all caps, analog filtering, opamps, etc) in favor for our own version using Rubycon Capacitors and Audio Consulting silver wiring for a very "minimalistic" approach. We feel that this minimalistic approach will most likely be of higher resolution than if you compared it to a outboard DAC. (The factors of connectors, coupling caps, digital cables, impedance, input receivers, filters, stock electronics, etc.. come into play in the outboard DAC) Past clients who had our previous "samsung and toshiba" mods like this package here have said the player was definitely better sounding than if they connected it to a outboard DAC.

Digital Output Stage upgrades (for use as Transport)-
We shorten the digital output path with Audio Consulting Silver wire and improve the output digital signal coupling. We replace the stock Coaxial rca connector with the WBT NextGen connector for better performance. If you intend to use this unit as an transport (or as a stand-alone machine), please make sure you also select the "Audiocom Superclock 3" Upgrade option to drastically lower the stock jitter lower for definite improved performance! (We also recommend having RAM modify your outboard DAC for even better performance!)

Audiocom Super Regulator 2-
We add the Audiocom Super Regulator 2 to discretely power the DAC chip inside the Oppo unit. This removes specific AC noise from the power supply and offers the DAC chip a clean stable reguated voltage with very low noise, which improves the DAC function and the following analog circuits to hear greater detail, less hash, smoother highs, better defined bass and resolution, in comparison to not having the regulator inside the oppo unit.

WBT NextGen Female Copper RCA Connectors for 2ch out-
These are the best sounding RCA connectors in the industry and take the sound to a higher level. These are eddy current free designs and drastically improve the integrity of the signal over the stock rca connectors on the unit.


Optional Upgrades:
Take the Standard RAM Modded DV-970HD much further!



Audiocom Superclock 3 Reference Clocking Upgrade ($295 Installed)-
Replace stock oscillator circuit with the Audiocom Superclock 3 ultra low jitter reference clock. The Superclock 3 offers much lower jitter rate for the digital circuitry than the stock cmos type oscillator. The effects of adding the Superclock 3 into Oppo DV-970Hd bring: More focus and detail into the presentation, Wider/Deeper/Taller Soundstaging, More subtle detail is now coming off the disc so the inner resolution of instruments and guitar plucks (for example) have the texture and liveliness and presence like they do in person. Overall resolution increases and Bass/Dynamics are tighter, deeper and more refined and controlled. Video will look better as the phase noise in the digital processing circuits is much lower, more vibrant colors and less grain.


RAM Handmade 1 Meter RCA Silver Interconnect ($195, will be included in box with unit)-
Need an extremely high performance interconnect, but dont want to pay the 200-500% profit margins that exist in the cable industry? Let RAM handmake and include in the box a 1 Meter Analog Interconnect that will really impress you. Our interconnects feature Audio Consulting 99.999% Silver Wire, Natural Unbleached Cotton Tubings, Eichman Bullet Plugs Connectors. Our Interconnects achieve unique natural, smooth resolving and dynamic sound. We have compared our handmade cables to multi-thousand dollar IC's on the market and it was very evident our was more live and natural sounding. Since the audio signals travel on the surface or skin of the wire, whatever is touching the wire (usually teflon or PVC) these synthetic properties are directly reflected into the music, giving you an inbalance or shift of the mid to high frequencies and some harshness in some cables out there. Our cables do not exhibit any type of brightness or hardness that is usually associated with silver wire because we use natural unbleached cotton tubing as an insulator, thus passing the signal with no apparent change or shift in tonality from the player to the next component you connect too. Truely an awesome interconnect that we could really price into the $XXXX range.

I just got this player and was trying to get subtitles to work with Spiderman I. Pressing the "subtitle" button does nothing, have to enable it in the DVD menu.

On the DVDs I've tested I had no problem with the subtitles. They can be changed with the "subtitle" key as you mention (cycle through all available, displaying them OSD) or with the "info" key, pressing select on "subtitle" label. Perhaps you can try this later method, although both should be equivalent.

I like this "info" menu a lot. Not only it gives some information about the disc, but also it allows see all available subtitles, audio tracks (and choose one of them), going to specific chapter and titles, etc.

Another good thing is that subtitles are kept on the same screen location with zooming on. If one zooms via an external processor, the subtitles usually end up chopped. Yet, I really miss a zooming mode like samsung's "ezview".

GO PORTUGAL :)

[...]
RAM Handmade 1 Meter RCA Silver Interconnect ($195, will be included in box with unit)-
[...]Since the audio signals travel on the surface or skin of the wire, whatever is touching the wire (usually teflon or PVC) these synthetic properties are directly reflected into the music, giving you an inbalance or shift of the mid to high frequencies and some harshness in some cables out there. Our cables do not exhibit any type of brightness or hardness that is usually associated with silver wire because we use natural unbleached cotton tubing as an insulator, thus passing the signal with no apparent change or shift in tonality from the player to the next component you connect too. Truely an awesome interconnect that we could really price into the $XXXX range.

Precisely why I joined AA (audiophiles anonymous.) 5 years sober and still counting! :)

/steve

Just placed the order for this Oppo, decided to go with it over the Sony DVP-NS75H. Hopefully I will be happy with the decision and be able to retire my Xbox 360 from dvd playback duties.

Just placed the order for this Oppo, decided to go with it over the Sony DVP-NS75H. Hopefully I will be happy with the decision and be able to retire my Xbox 360 from dvd playback duties.

this was my exact situation. and im recieving my oppo tommorow, i hope its like ridiculously better than the 360, thats what i was hoping. i hope its basically like the non hd movies you see on tnt hd. that would be AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

Steve wrote:
Precisely why I joined AA (audiophiles anonymous.) 5 years sober and still counting!

/steve

Reply:
I haven't heard the Reference Audio Mod to this unit, but I have heard--under controlled conditions--the Modwright tube-output mod to the Pioneer DV-45A (Don Wright has since moved on to other, more recent models), and I can tell you that the result is glorious--night-and-day better than the stock version and almost any solid-state output on any redbook player I've heard--and that isn't even Modwright's latest, state-of-the-art circuit.

As for audio interconnect wires--there is a dramatic sonic difference among many brands in many price ranges. Whether "different" is necessarily "better" is in the ear of the beholder. But one needn't fall prey to obsessive fetisihism or dollar chauvisnim to acknowledge the potential merit of this or that wire combination or this or that mod upgrade. From what I've read about Reference Audio Mod's work on various forums, they have received accolades from nearly all customers. But each potential customer has to do his own cost-benefit analsysis and, above all, use his own ears (sound quality) and eyes (picture quality). In the end, only your own sense perceptions should be the final judge, and only you and your accountant know whether a given purchase is a flighty extravagance or a wise investment.

There are many non-neurotic satisfied consumers of both mods and audio-grade wires out there. Sorry to hear you're not one of them.

Do you honestly think an Oppo at 1/10 the price of your Onkyo should perform as well? The idea here is that the Oppo performs beautifully at a much lower price point. I would hope that transports selling for such large sums could deliver a better sound!


I bought the Oppo to use as digital TRANSPORT to my VP for dvd movies.
Not for playing Hi-Rez audio. :rolleyes:

Neuromancer, keenan, and Expletive:

I found the following paragraph in the Panasonic SA-XR57 manual:

"Speaker settings are canceled when the unit receives a DVD-Audio multi-channel signal through the HDMI input terminal. Set distances from the listening-viewing position and speaker sizes on your DVD recorder or DVD player in such cases."

Interesting. This means that when used with the Panny XR57, a DVD player should apply BM and TA to multi-ch PCM audio before sending the signal thru its HDMI out. According to Neuromancer, ths 970HD does this. But keenan said that if this is the case for the 970HD, it's a flaw and should be corrected. For the Panny XR57 users, however, this seems not to be a flaw but a necessity. And I heard that Denon receivers (e.g., 2807, 3806, 4306) apply BM and TA to multi-ch PCM audio coming thru HDMI input. In this case, as Expletive mentioned, we can set speakers to large and subwoofer to on and speaker distances to zero compensation in the 970 setup. So in my opinion, BM and TA application to HDMI multi-ch audio in the 970HD may not be viewed as a flaw but as a convenient function.

I just got this player and was trying to get subtitles to work with Spiderman I. Pressing the "subtitle" button does nothing, have to enable it in the DVD menu.

I have installed the latest beta. What do I need to do to get this to work ?


Thanka

I think it's title dependent. Last night , The Bourne Identity Extended Edition, subtitles didn't work with the remote button. The Bourne Supremacy, no problem. Worked on all of the LOTR, not on Star Wars EpIII.

Neuromancer, keenan, and Expletive:

I found the following paragraph in the Panasonic SA-XR57 manual:

"Speaker settings are canceled when the unit receives a DVD-Audio multi-channel signal through the HDMI input terminal. Set distances from the listening-viewing position and speaker sizes on your DVD recorder or DVD player in such cases."

Interesting. This means that when used with the Panny XR57, a DVD player should apply BM and TA to multi-ch PCM audio before sending the signal thru its HDMI out. According to Neuromancer, ths 970HD does this. But keenan said that if this is the case for the 970HD, it's a flaw and should be corrected. For the Panny XR57 users, however, this seems not to be a flaw but a necessity. And I heard that Denon receivers (e.g., 2807, 3806, 4306) apply BM and TA to multi-ch PCM audio coming thru HDMI input. In this case, as Expletive mentioned, we can set speakers to large and subwoofer to on and speaker distances to zero compensation in the 970 setup. So in my opinion, BM and TA application to HDMI multi-ch audio in the 970HD may not be viewed as a flaw but as a convenient function.
I suppose for pre-pros/receivers that do not have any signal processing on the HDMI input, then the player should apply some signal management. In such cases the HDMI connection simply replaces 6 cables for one. In the case of the 970, it's too bad the signal management wasn't a bit more functional, especially with the time alignment function.

Why a pre-pro/receiver would have an HDMI connection, and not have control over the signal other than volume I suppose is the result of cost considerations

Hi Guys,
Anyone notice that 720p/1080i looks like it's vertically a little squeezed compared to 480i/p? I'm using HDMI to an Infocus 5700dlp (with DVI). Maybe it's just my display. On my 92" wide (106" diag) screen, 720P and 1080i have a 2 inch black bar on the top and bottom where 480i/480p on the same material goes to the screen edge using 16x9 material. pretty odd. using AVIA the circle pattern appears a bit vertically squeezed with 720p and 1080i as well.

Hi Guys,
Anyone notice that 720p/1080i looks like it's vertically a little squeezed compared to 480i/p? I'm using HDMI to an Infocus 5700dlp (with DVI). Maybe it's just my display. On my 92" wide (106" diag) screen, 720P and 1080i have a 2 inch black bar on the top and bottom where 480i/480p on the same material goes to the screen edge using 16x9 material. pretty odd. using AVIA the circle pattern appears a bit vertically squeezed with 720p and 1080i as well. Anytime you change resolutions you may need to recalibrate, especially when it involves additional functionality of video processing coming into play. 480i->480p: deinterlacer involved. 480p->higher: scaler involved.

larry

I think it's title dependent. Last night , The Bourne Identity Extended Edition, subtitles didn't work with the remote button. The Bourne Supremacy, no problem. Worked on all of the LOTR, not on Star Wars EpIII.

When functions like the Subtitle or Audio button don't work on specific titles, that's usually an issue with the disc authoring that the DVD player can't override.

Hello. I've had my Oppo 970 for a couple of weeks now, and I'm having one major problem. Sometimes, the motion on a dvd gets very jerky, almost slow-motion, for a few seconds. It seems to kind of get a little stuck. I've verified that it is the player, as it doesn't happen with the same scenes on my other dvd players.

Also, according to the THX Optimizer "drop shadow" test, my 970 is not passing below black info through the hdmi output.

I haven't been able to get subtitles to come up either, as many of you have said.

As for audio, I haven't really comapred it. I don't expect a machine this cheap to compare to the audio of my other players, like Denon 3910. But it's great that it plays all these formats. I'm using it just to feed a 480i signal to my DVDO vp30.

Any suggestions?

I'm going to email Oppo as well.

Has anyone else had this "jerking?"

Anytime you change resolutions you may need to recalibrate, especially when it involves additional functionality of video processing coming into play. 480i->480p: deinterlacer involved. 480p->higher: scaler involved.

larry

Since 480i & 480p are both the same size, but 720p and 1080i are slightly incorrect (vertically squished), I was wondering if anyone else had seen this behavior? at least that would tell me if the problem is with the OPPO or with my Projector.
- bert

RAM performs High Performance modifications and provides New Modified Oppo DV-970HD Universal players. Our modifications to the DV970HD unit to take it to a completely different level of sound...The fully modified unit costs $1095 shipped from RAM.


This seems to me to be missing the point of a budget player...

I'm trying to get some audio kinks worked out:

1.) I'm feeding a Sony 42A10 the 970-HDMI and trying to pass the audio through the TV to the receiver via an optical cable (my HD tuner does it). I've tried every combination of SPDIF, PCM, Raw, Multi-channel I can and still nothing. Does anyone know if this is possible?

2.) My surrounds don't seem to receive any signal from the 970 via the optical cable...again, I've tried every combination of SPDIF, PCM, Raw, Multi-channel I'm getting no better results. The surrounds work fine with my old junky DVD player and I've swapped cables...no difference. Also the HDMI is getting sound to my TV, so no prob. there.

Thanks for the advice...I'd be happy to post my results from the DVE calibration for the Sony 42A10 if anyone would like to see them.

Also, I used the flag waving sequence on DVE to test the Sony's scaler/deinterlacer vs. the Oppo's...can't really tell much of a difference. Can anyone suggest material that really pushes a scaler/deinterlacer?

RAM performs High Performance modifications and provides New Modified Oppo DV-970HD Universal players. Our modifications to the DV970HD unit to take it to a completely different level of sound...The fully modified unit costs $1095 shipped from RAM.


This seems to me to be missing the point of a budget player...


REPLY:

"Budget" is a relative term. If the RAM-modified Oppo 970 ends up with audio that rivals that of a $2,000-$5,000 player, then it is still a bargain.

Oppo puts most of its design expertise and expense into the video section and probably does more design and cost shaving on the audio section. So if you want to combine Oppo video quality with cost-no-object sound at a reasonable price ceiling, then the RAM mods might still be an option. But all this is relative to the buyer's subjective evaluation of the resulting sound quality vs. the flexibility of his bank account. There are "bargain" Lexuses to be had out there--if one can afford them! And there's the rub.

Hi Guys,
Anyone notice that 720p/1080i looks like it's vertically a little squeezed compared to 480i/p? I'm using HDMI to an Infocus 5700dlp (with DVI). Maybe it's just my display. On my 92" wide (106" diag) screen, 720P and 1080i have a 2 inch black bar on the top and bottom where 480i/480p on the same material goes to the screen edge using 16x9 material. pretty odd. using AVIA the circle pattern appears a bit vertically squeezed with 720p and 1080i as well.

You will have underscanning when using 720p/1080i and the DV-970HD. This is a known issue and will be corrected through firmware. What is really holding back a firmware release to correct this issue is that you will need to sacrafice some visual quality in order to remove the underscanning. The Sony NS-70H had this same error, and Sony rectified it with the NS-75H by doing a slight zoom and crop.

Hello. I've had my Oppo 970 for a couple of weeks now, and I'm having one major problem. Sometimes, the motion on a dvd gets very jerky, almost slow-motion, for a few seconds. It seems to kind of get a little stuck. I've verified that it is the player, as it doesn't happen with the same scenes on my other dvd players.

Are these commercially pressed or self made DVDs? If self made, then you are likely either using DVD-R media, have incorrectly burned the media, or are using a stand alone DVD Recorder to master your disc. All of which can cause problems with the DV-970HD depending on the media and burning practices.

If commercially pressed, what DVDs?

Also, I used the flag waving sequence on DVE to test the Sony's scaler/deinterlacer vs. the Oppo's...can't really tell much of a difference. Can anyone suggest material that really pushes a scaler/deinterlacer?

DVE Title 15, Chapter 4-7 are pretty good tests. See Paul Bigelow's take below on these tests, from his first post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7744401&&#post7744401) in this thread:

"15.4 - Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate Test Pattern, 2/3 rate - ideally the concentric rings should move smoothly,no breakup, no flashing, no distortion as it moves and changes direction. This tests the motion adaptive deinterlacing. In practice it is normal with a good motion adaptive deinterlacer for the concentric rings to distort for a moment, then resume good shape when redirection occurs. The diagonal lines on the left should be smooth with no jittering. If output is 480i then the motion adaptive circuitry used will be that of the TV -- if present. 480i will be more of a test of the display.
[...]
15.5 - Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate Test Pattern, frame rate - as above
[...]
15.6 - Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate Test Pattern, field rate - as above
[...]
15.7 - MPEG Decoder Test - *major* catch all test pattern:
1. diagonal lines on left smooth, no jittering
2. No banding with 4:2:0 on bottom left, it should be flashing alternate colors
3. Red and blue triangles in the center left should have smooth diagonal edges
4. Concentric blue/yellow and red/cyan circles in center upper left and right should be smooth and even brightness (aka ICP test)
5. Luminance sweeps at bottom should be even with no bleeding.
6. Rotating box in upper right should be smooth with no jaggies or combing"

Apologies to Pottscb, who asked this same question earlier in this thread. Answer didn't occur to me till now. /steve

These are commercially-made dvd's/ I haven't played any dvd-r or anything homemade in this machine. I rarely play anything like that-pretty much just store-bought movies.

I thought I'd seen it several times over the last few days, but kept ignoring it. Then I verified it on The Dogs of War and Star Wars Ep. 3. Both play fine on my other players, which are also running through the vp30.

I emailed Oppo and they repsonded quickly with the same question. Their customer service seems very good, so hopefully they'll help me fix it or exchange it for a new one.

I was actually very happy with the player until I noticed this.

Which scenes in Star Wars Episode III? Is it constant (replicable) or inconsistent? If you rewind and play the same sequence again does the error still occur, or not?

Has anyone made a .CCF file (pronto) with the discreet on/off codes yet? I need a .CCF file to convert the on/off codes for my MX-700. If so, can you pm me and I'll send my email address?

Thanks,

Has anyone made a .CCF file (pronto) with the discreet on/off codes yet? I need a .CCF file to convert the on/off codes for my MX-700. If so, can you pm me and I'll send my email address?

MX-700 codes were posted here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7748529&&#post7748529), earlier in this thread. Link doesn't seem to be working this morning, but you might want to PM MikeSRC, who originally posted it.

/steve

I've searched this thread and it doesn't seem like this issue has been addressed, so I'll go ahead and ask it flat out: can/will the issue with the 970's inserting gaps between the tracks of SACDs be fixed via a firmware upgrade? I'd really like to use this feature of the 970, but at the moment the gaps in playback render this feature useless to me.

I'm wondering if anyone has had the opportunity to compare the picture quality displayed on a 50px60u from the following two DVD players (at the given output resolutions and connections):

1) OPPO DV-970HD, output 480i via HDMI
2) OPPO OPDV971H, output 720p or 1080i via DVI-->HDMI (does the OPDV971H exhibit macroblocking on the px60u series with NR turned off?)

I'm trying to decide between these two players. I know that the 970HD is a universal player and that's a nice-to-have for me, but I'm primarily concerned about getting the best DVD picture quality I can on my 50px60u, without spending a ton of $. (I'm not ready to move to HD DVD or BluRay quite yet.)

Thanks for any information!

Thanks Steve...I did a search..but that post didn't come up!

I've searched this thread and it doesn't seem like this issue has been addressed, so I'll go ahead and ask it flat out: can/will the issue with the 970's inserting gaps between the tracks of SACDs be fixed via a firmware upgrade? I'd really like to use this feature of the 970, but at the moment the gaps in playback render this feature useless to me.

Thank you for posting this!
This is the exact same question I had. I keep checking this thread in the hopes of reading about a resolution to this. The thread is getting long :)

Has oppo acknowledged the issue, or commented on it?

I've searched this thread and it doesn't seem like this issue has been addressed, so I'll go ahead and ask it flat out: can/will the issue with the 970's inserting gaps between the tracks of SACDs be fixed via a firmware upgrade? I'd really like to use this feature of the 970, but at the moment the gaps in playback render this feature useless to me.

Yes, it will be fixed through a firmware upgrade. If you look at CDs, DTS CDs, and some other media, are gapless. SACD for some reason or another, has gaps. OPPO is aware of the issue and will be working on a firmware release which will fix the issue.

What is unknown is how long the fix will take.

Yes, it will be fixed through a firmware upgrade. If you look at CDs, DTS CDs, and some other media, are gapless. SACD for some reason or another, has gaps. OPPO is aware of the issue and will be working on a firmware release which will fix the issue.

What is unknown is how long the fix will take.

Thanks for the response. I'm glad to know this can be fixed via firmware update and isn't a hardware limitation.

Anyone know if there are 6 seperate audio DACs (like the Cambridge Audio and other units) or one for all 6 chanels?

TIA

shane

It was the first scene in Ep. 3, panning down on the sun into spaece battle. It was very jerky. It rewound it, and couldn't replicate it. However, on The Dogs of War, it's the same scenes and it can be replicated over and over (ch.2, I think it is, during a Baptism scene-after the long shot of the church, there's close shot the baby being help by the mother. This shot is jerky.slowd-down every time on the Oppo. It's smooth on my other players (Denon, Sony.)

I can't think of exactly where else I've noticed it this weekend, but there have been times I've seen it and just figured it was my eyes or the disc...

Thanks for your help.

I have had mine for a couple of weeks and have not noticed any glitches or slow downs.. brad

It was the first scene in Ep. 3, panning down on the sun into spaece battle.

This is the same error which effects the OPDV971H. It is a decoding error and not associated to your player.

Do not have Dogs of War so I can't comment on what errors may or may not be associated to a defective unit.

You will have underscanning when using 720p/1080i and the DV-970HD. This is a known issue and will be corrected through firmware. What is really holding back a firmware release to correct this issue is that you will need to sacrafice some visual quality in order to remove the underscanning. The Sony NS-70H had this same error, and Sony rectified it with the NS-75H by doing a slight zoom and crop.

As noted, I also experienced the "squeeze" when viewing DVDs in 720p. Switching to 480i corrected it. I'm having a hard time detecting any PQ differences between 480p, 480i and 720p. It's possible that the scaler in my Pioneer PRO-1130HD is doing a credible job; at this time, I'm just running in 480i mode and letting the 1130 do the scaling. Am I missing something by not using the 970 scaler?

Overall, I'm pleased with the 970 performance -- at its price point, it can't be beat.

I have a panasonic TH-50PHD8UK with HDMI board installed. I am trying to decide between the Oppo 970HD and 971H.

"They" say (what I've found here and from Oppo Digital) that you should use the 971 for 50" or larger HOWEVER the Faroudja chip is know to have macroblocking with Pannasonic plasmas.

So, it seems I have a conflict.

Is anyone else in the same scenario as me? Any luck figuring it out? Any suggestions?

Also, does anyone know the internal capabilities of the TH-50PHD8UK which might influence what I would need from the DVD player versus what the unit can do itself?

Thanks in advance.

I have reviewed both players on a 50" LG plasma in 720p over DVI. 971 looks way better in all respects. Much more video noise was also evident with the 970. I bought the 970 to try HDMI 480i direct into a projector and the lines were just too evident. The 970 upconverted image to 720p was also clearly inferior to the s97 and the 971 . I'll likely be selling this unit soon as I have no plans to use a video processor and there are far better standalone players.

I have reviewed both players on a 50" LG plasma in 720p over DVI. 971 looks way better in all respects. Much more video noise was also evident with the 970. I bought the 970 to try HDMI 480i direct into a projector and the lines were just too evident. The 970 upconverted image to 720p was also clearly inferior to the s97 and the 971 . I'll likely be selling this unit soon as I have no plans to use a video processor and there are far better standalone players.
Thanks jakeman.

Sounds like you also tested the panasonic players. Do you think the 971 is better than the s97? Does that mean you think the 971 is best?

Did you have any macroblocking issues with the 971?


Thanks again.

Both have excellent PQ and I did not see macroblocking with either player on the LG plasma and Sim projector. I have gone back and forth and can't decide. If I give a slight edge it is with the s97 because of its three capable noise reduction controls and its HDMI output.

Neuro,

What do you mean? If it's not associated with the player, why doesn't it happen on any of the other ones?

It happens on both the OPDV971H and the DV-970HD. It has to do with the way OPPO uses the MTK decoder. So it may not happen with other players, but it for sure happens with the two OPPO players.

PAL User review of the Oppo DV-97HD0

Reveiw System Overview
- Oppo DV-970HD Player vs Xbox with XBMC vs Rotel HDCD player
- Pioneer VSX-D712 Amplifier
- Grunding 29 inch PAL TV
- Arvus prototype speakers

Reason for Purchase
I've had a HTPC sitting next to my TV for 2 years that's never been used, The xbox with XBMC is very functional, but at the same time it's noisy as hell, looks clunky and not realy my cup of tea.

Initially I wanted to buy a DVD recorder to replace all the functions of a HTPC, and i was prepared to spend a fair bit of $$$ if i could get one to meet my needs that was also easy to use. But alas the only one i found that was perfect was $1200 EURO, but only available in Germany (Fijistu Simens unit) or not available to the public at all (ISetBox). Thomson/RCA had a model but i am doubious about their quality and there were some not flatering reviews makling me believe the functions i required would not work correctly.

Having run into dead ends with a DVD recorder i nearly went with a network media player (transtechnology), but i found all those types of players required a PC to be running their proprietry software to access files over the network which is a no no for me as I'm sure as hell not leaving my PC on all the time just to access my digital files.

At this point i was going to conceede that i'll either have to start my own consumer electronics company to get what i want or simply play the waiting game. Then along came www.allofmp3.com which re-invented my love of music, but not having any appropraite means of playing my digital files through the house I was back out hunting for a player.

Allong came the Oppo DV-970HD, on paper it did everyhting i every wanted (except record TV), whcih was a sacraffice i was willing to make (I've never had a VCR so it's not like i know what i'm missing out on). The added benefit of HDMI output and scalling interested me as it woudl nto surprise me if my TV dies one day. Along with plenty of good revies i whent ahead a purchased one. Shipping was 5 business days, which from the USA to New Zealand is very quick. The Oppo was well packaged and included everythign i needed to get setup less the correct power cable (which is to be expected for an imported unit). Bellow are my comments and experiences from two days of testing (thank god for getting the flew the same day your new DVD/Media player arrives).

Preformance - Sound
- All connections via analog outputs
- Overall, very good considering the price.
- CD playback, very compareable to the Rotel (dual 18 bit DAC).
- MP3 playback is good considering it's hard to hear the "mpeg" compression effects that i can normally pickup on other players, but it definetly looses a bit of staging depth even at high bit rate 320kb/s, and at 192kb/s it sounds muddy, but all of this i attribute to MP3 compression rather than the player.
- SACD playback, not tested, but will be so expect updates
- DVD Audio playback, not tested, but will be so expect updates

Preformance - Video
- Tested at PAL SD resolution only.
- NTSC to PAL conversion, first tested with "Butch Cassidy and the Sundace Kid", great results, no stuttering, good colour reproduction. Second test was "Madagascar" 24fps DivX, colour reproduction was great, zero stuttering, happily surprised as to how well the NTSC to PAL conversion is.
- DVD Playback, very good, as per above i'm not upscalling but even at 2x zoom i can't notice a lack of detail from the normal watching position. DVD loading is as fast as expected, player is responsive to button presses, Tested layer change speed with "Lawarence of Arabia" in supperbit, I couldn't even spot the change which is very good. Also the Oppo handles poorly mastered discs well, skipping over the errors and moving on, rather the locking up completely.
- DIVX Playback, from CD is very good, movie playback is quick, ffw works fine, zooming begins to show signs of mpeg compression (but this is to be expected), playback via USB HDD is what i expected (quite good), it takes a little longer to start playing, but once going works well. I was actually worried i would get major stuttering via USB from previous comments, and at high bit rates it is noticeable, on the good side the audio continues without stuttering.

USB/Card Reader
- Device Compatibility - of the five devices tested, only one was not readable by the Oppo (samsung mp3 player). 2x flash drives, one SD card, and my 80 gig USB 2.0 hdd were picked up fine. Note i believe it will only detect storage devices formated as FAT, FAT16, FAT32, so a simple re-format may solve compatibility issues.
- File Compatibility - This is particularly important as i've seen other reviews stating the Oppo won't display their "files". It appears as though the Oppo and the chipset used is a little particular about file naming. Ie don't have "." in the filename unless it is just before the extension ie "MyMovie.DVDR.avi" will not work, but "MyMovie_DVDR.avi" will work fine. So a simple fine rename will solve most issues. I've thrown my whole MP3 collection at the Oppo and it plays all of them fine, with the exception of my non standard bitrate (384kb/s) MP3s which even windows media player won't play so i didn't expect the Oppo to play them either. My only real gripe is the file explorer is limited to 8 character file naming so it's a little hard to decern particular file names. This i presume ,is an issues with the chipset used. It does however display the ID3 tags once the file is played. I've thrown about 10 DivX/XviD files at the oppo and other than the file naming issue they've all played fine.
- Speed - USB device detection and directory listing speed are very good. I've heard horror stories about other players taking forever to get directory listings, but no problems here with the Oppo. As mentioned earlier, there are limits on how fast the USB port can opperate, but i haven't reach it yet, so can't comment.
- Reliability - no issues so far, once it's detected your device it works consistantley.

Recomended Optional Extras
MacPower Pleiades USB2.0/LAN hard drive enclosure.
This is a factastic addition to the Oppo DV-970HD player. Mine is currently connected to the Oppo via USB and then connected to a wifi router via LAN. Meaning one can copy digital files to and from the storage device and then play them wihtout having to move your drive around the house. The only issue being you have to unplug the USB cable for the LAN connection to function.


My Wish List
On the whole this is a very good, well thought out product, but if i had the option of changing a few things this is what i would do.
- Add RGB Scart output.
- Up scalling of CSS protected content via component ouput. (Why is this illegal in the USA? It serves no purpose other than to annoy users).
- Rear USB port.
- Make the eject button open the tray when pressed when the unit is off. Curerntly it only powers on the unit.
- Option to turn of the LED
- Option to dim the LCD display.
- Display full file names in the file browser
- Display ID3 tag details as you scroll through files rather than once you select them
- A nicer remote, it's not exactly bad, but the buttons are not pleasant to touch when compared to my pioneer remote.
- In MP3 playback mode, when the oppo plays through the folder, have the "selection" move with the file being played.
- In MP3 playback mode have the skip forward and skip backward buttons move the selection down one and play automatically.
- Option to disable power over USB when the device is turned off. As it is currently setup the Oppo will provide power to a connected USB device even if the Oppo is turned off. This is great for charging MP3 players via USB, but causes my USB/LAN hdd to think it is still connected via USB thus disabling the LAN.

Summary
I've very happy with my decision, and will be keeping this unit.
Highly recomended if you need a multi purpose player. If all you need is SD playback of DVD Video only you're proabaly better off with a mainstream player at 1/2 the price. But if you require any of the following; good DivX/XviD support, reliable USB device support, SACD, DVD Audio, or upscalling via HDMI on a budget then the OPPO DV-970HD is well worth a look.

You will have underscanning when using 720p/1080i and the DV-970HD. This is a known issue and will be corrected through firmware. What is really holding back a firmware release to correct this issue is that you will need to sacrafice some visual quality in order to remove the underscanning. The Sony NS-70H had this same error, and Sony rectified it with the NS-75H by doing a slight zoom and crop. It is strange that this "underscanning" appears to occur in the vertical plane only, making a perfect circle look a wee bit more like an egg. I assume the Sony did the same? Since 480i/480p does not suffer with this issue, it appears to be a scaling problem for 720p/1080i

If the only fix is to zoom and crop (as the Sony has done), I hope it is possible to zoom in the vertical direction only. And if this sacrifices visual quality, I'd want a menu setting to select or deselect this option.

Gary

It is strange that this "underscanning" appears to occur in the vertical plane only, making a perfect circle look a wee bit more like an egg. I assume the Sony did the same? Since 480i/480p does not suffer with this issue, it appears to be a scaling problem for 720p/1080i

If the only fix is to zoom and crop (as the Sony has done), I hope it is possible to zoom in the vertical direction only. And if this sacrifices visual quality, I'd want a menu setting to select or deselect this option.

Gary

thanks for the reply guys. I was thinking about over/underscan as the culprit, however since analyzing the DVE test disk crop pattern did not show significant cropping delta between the 480 and 720/1080 modes, I was concerned that there's actual incorrect scaling going on when upscaling to 720/1080. I would prefer that OPPO not zoom/crop to fix this. When using hdmi to a 1280x720 display, a pixel perfect sync would be more ideal of course. Luckily 480P looks quite good for now.

Anyone notice that 720p/1080i looks like it's vertically a little squeezed compared to 480i/p? I'm using HDMI to an Infocus 5700dlp (with DVI). Maybe it's just my display. On my 92" wide (106" diag) screen, 720P and 1080i have a 2 inch black bar on the top and bottom where 480i/480p on the same material goes to the screen edge using 16x9 material. pretty odd. using AVIA the circle pattern appears a bit vertically squeezed with 720p and 1080i as well. Bertola, I've only just read this post of yours. And you are correct... 720p and 1080i are vertically squeezed. I've made measurements to confirm it, and compared it to other players. Thankfully, it is not glaringly obvious (except for the bars at the top and bottom).

Gary

Has anyone tried this player on a ED Panasonic plasma?, my PM50 suffers from underscan with most upconverting players.
I dont know if this would really be any better than my hacked LG418, i've tried many players and always fell back to the LG, also the horizontal letterbox zoom can't be beat.

I play alot of PAL/Xvid files and i did try a 971 5 months ago.

I got the audio probs. figure out (except for how to run HDMI into my Sony 42a10 and optical out to my receiver carrying my movie surround sound...but, whatdoyawantfromme?)

Here are my Sony42A10 settings after DVE calibration with the Oppo 970HD:

Pic- 69
Bright- 51
Color- 47
Hue- 0->(G+1)
Color Temp.- Neutral
Sharpness- Min.
<Advanced>:
black corrector: low
Auto Iris: low
everything else in here off.

There is a bit of "wiggle room" in these settings, start here and tweak until your eye likes it.

I'd love to hear how someone did it differently and came up with dazzling PQ...

Thanks.

Bertola, I've only just read this post of yours. And you are correct... 720p and 1080i are vertically squeezed. I've made measurements to confirm it, and compared it to other players. Thankfully, it is not glaringly obvious (except for the bars at the top and bottom).

Gary

I switched to 480i to get around this, as well. I wanted to avoid the black bands during the plasma break-in period. Allowing my Pioneer PRO-1130HD do the scaling, I can't, see any difference between 480i or 480p (or 720p, for that matter). Is there any advantage of one over the other?

...except for how to run HDMI into my Sony 42a10 and optical out to my receiver....
Why do you want to do this? Why not just run the optical from the player to your receiver and be done with it?

I switched to 480i to get around this, as well. I wanted to avoid the black bands during the plasma break-in period. Allowing my Pioneer PRO-1130HD do the scaling, I can't, see any difference between 480i or 480p (or 720p, for that matter). Is there any advantage of one over the other?


the scaling on the Pio Elite/Pro are very, very good...just use to Oppo as a transport and let the Pio do the scaling.... if the pio accepts 480i via HDMI, this would be your best option IMHO.

Cheers,

Marcelo

...optical out to my receiver carrying my movie surround sound...


If you check p29 of your owners manual, the digital audio out is only available for programs you receive via the TV's tuner, it can't be used for audio passthru from your DVD player or any other component.

I was thinking of this player for purchase to pair with my new 50" NEC plasma TV. Maybe someone can clear up a few questions/concerns I have.

The TV will do the scaling, so I need the player to essentially accurately read the disc while the TV does the brunt of the work.

However, am I able to use the HDMI-out to the TV for video and Optical/Coaxial digital out for the audio? I'm assuming this combination would be supported.

People are complaining about the sound quality with this player. I was going to use it almost exclusively for watching commercial DVD movies. Does this player not pass-through the DD/DTS stream for the receiver to decode? Is it altered in some way so as I will not get the sound quality I am expecting from movies? I wasn't entirely sure if the sound complaint was for reading other types of discs or if it was for commercial DVDs. Sound quality is very important to me, so this would raise a concern.

Thanks for the replies in advance.

You assume correctly that the 970 will allow HDMI video to a display and coaxial or optical digital audio out to a receiver. I think most of the discussion about the 970's sound quality relates to its internal DAC's, which are used for DVD-Audio and SACD due to copy protection restrictions. I hadn't noticed any complaints about the 970's ability to pass a Dolby Digital, DTS, or stereo PCM bitstream from disc to receiver, as in that scenario the player is simply being a digital transport.

You assume correctly that the 970 will allow HDMI video to a display and coaxial or optical digital audio out to a receiver. I think most of the discussion about the 970's sound quality relates to its internal DAC's, which are used for DVD-Audio and SACD due to copy protection restrictions. I hadn't noticed any complaints about the 970's ability to pass a Dolby Digital, DTS, or stereo PCM bitstream from disc to receiver, as in that scenario the player is simply being a digital transport.

Ah, ok. Excellent. I had thought as much, but was unsure as most of the sound related complaints didn't seem to specify what they were using the player for at the time.

I hadn't noticed any complaints about the 970's ability to pass a Dolby Digital, DTS, or stereo PCM bitstream from disc to receiver, as in that scenario the player is simply being a digital transport.

Exactly. Just set the player's output to "raw" over Optical or S/PDIF, and the DVD movie audio data will be sent unaltered to your pre-amp or receiver for decoding.

/steve

Why do you want to do this? Why not just run the optical from the player to your receiver and be done with it?


I'm already running the toslink from my TV to my receiver (carrying the built-in HD tuner's audio)...just trying to run 1 less cable (the whole point of HDMI)...

Ah, ok. Excellent. I had thought as much, but was unsure as most of the sound related complaints didn't seem to specify what they were using the player for at the time.

I've had no complaints with the quality of the audio via the 970 optical port into my Sony Dolby 5.1 system. To my "non-calibrated" ears, movie sound tracks play flawlessly and I've noticed no 3/2 decoding problems. I also ran a separate audio L/R cable from the 970 RCA Front jacks directly to the CD input on the Sony A/V receiver to use while playing plain vanilla CDs, thus bypassing all the DAC stuff in the Oppo. Both seem to sound fine, so it is probably just related to DVD-A & SACDs. Note that I'm just a happy camper, not a purist!

I also ran a separate audio L/R cable from the 970 RCA Front jacks directly to the CD input on the Sony A/V receiver to use while playing plain vanilla CDs, thus bypassing all the DAC stuff in the Oppo.
I think you may be mistaken here. The only way to bypass the DAC's is to run a digital signal (Toslink or Coax) out of the unit. The red & white (L&R) RCA's are analog. If it's analog, it's been DAC'd.

shane

It is strange that this "underscanning" appears to occur in the vertical plane only, making a perfect circle look a wee bit more like an egg. I assume the Sony did the same? Since 480i/480p does not suffer with this issue, it appears to be a scaling problem for 720p/1080i

If the only fix is to zoom and crop (as the Sony has done), I hope it is possible to zoom in the vertical direction only. And if this sacrifices visual quality, I'd want a menu setting to select or deselect this option.

Gary

Sony had the same erorror in the NS70 series that they corrected in the NS75 series by just doing a slight vertical stretch and crop. The overally image is still very good, but it overscans the sides slightly and you get a little loss of resolution on the top and bottom (all of this is IRC, its been a while since I looked at the two Sony DVD player models).

OPPO can make the same decision with the DV-970HD, but it is one that they have been unwilling to do time and time again (see: underscanning and OPDV971H).

I think you may be mistaken here. The only way to bypass the DAC's is to run a digital signal (Toslink or Coax) out of the unit. The red & white (L&R) RCA's are analog. If it's analog, it's been DAC'd.

shane

Hmmm.....new info here. Since I'm already using the Toslink output to feed the Sony Dolby decoder for 5.1, it sounds like the L/R cable might be redundant, as least as far as the 970 goes. Going direct to the CD input on the Sony GA8ES amp, though, DOES bypass all the Dolby stuff in my external Sony decoder. Maybe that's why it doesn't seem to make much difference....!

This unit does not playback files encoded with the mp42(Microsoft MPEG-4) codec. That is the only thing I don't like about this unit. Every other "divx" player I have owned has been able to play these files.

MPEG-4 is not inclusive to DivX, as they are seperate licenses. If OPPO has not payed for the license, they do not support it.

However, the internal architecture can do MPEG-4, but it will require a hack (like the Russian hacks for the OPDV971H).

Does the OPPO upconvert via component at 720p and/or 1080i? It is not clear from the specs.

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if someone has tried this DVD player with the Panasonic 42PX50 or 50PX50 ?

For the same price I could have had the Panasonic S77 but I wasn't sure because of the potential Macro Blocking on my plasma. (I already ordered the 970HD..)

Also, as I don't have any scalers apart from my TV what is the best option for me ? 480i through HDMI and I cross my fingers that my plasma has a better scaler than the DVD ?

Thx in advance.

Patrick

Hmmm.....new info here. Since I'm already using the Toslink output to feed the Sony Dolby decoder for 5.1, it sounds like the L/R cable might be redundant, as least as far as the 970 goes. Going direct to the CD input on the Sony GA8ES amp, though, DOES bypass all the Dolby stuff in my external Sony decoder. Maybe that's why it doesn't seem to make much difference....!
Yah... L&R cable would be redundant... unless you really, really like the sound of the DAC's in the Oppo. ;)

shane