Hello everyone,

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

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

I have been running the 970HD connected via HDMI to the 50PX50 for about three weeks. I have played with all the 970HD output settings (480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i) and honestly can't tell the difference between any of them. Maybe the panny has a great scaler? Admittedly I am not an expert, and would have a hard spotting anything but the most obvious conversion artifacts, but they all look great to me. I've been running it at 720p just so I can feel like I'm getting my moey's worth. Maybe a more experienced eye could comment... Also I watch more concert DVDs than anything else, and the sound through my receiver (connected with coax digital) is also quite nice whether using DTS, Dolby or PCM.

Congratulations to us both, it's a great setup!

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

It will upconvert through the component outputs provided that the DVD being played back does not have CSS encryption.

If this question has already been answered, my apologies. How is the 970 with the Samsung HLS lines? I'm getting a 5087 next week from TVA and am torn between this model and the changer version of the Sony S75. I heard the 971 produces serious macroblocking issues because of the Faroudja chipset. And I've also heard that the 971 has problems with DVD-Rs.

I heard the 971 produces serious macroblocking issues because of the Faroudja chipset. And I've also heard that the 971 has problems with DVD-Rs.To put this in perpective, the 971 is one of the best Faroudja players (also as far as macroblocking goes). The Samsung DLP's can be calibrated to eliminate the macroblocking from the 971, and the resulting images are spectacular.

The 971 does not have problems with quality DVD-R's. I use them all the time. After all, it uses an MTK MPEG decoder chipset, just like the 970.

Gary

It will upconvert through the component outputs provided that the DVD being played back does not have CSS encryption.

And since almost every title available on DVD has CSS, it won't be possible to use this feature as much as we would like.

That is why you have the all powerful "Backup" DVDs which have been stripped of their CSS encryption.

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

Hi Gary,
It's true it's not terribly obvious on a plasma or RP display, however on my 106" projected image it's quite noticeable. Thanks for confirming that you are seeing this too. For a while I wasn't sure if the problem was the 970HD or my projector. I hope Oppo will correct this, however Neuromancer notes this problem exists in the 971 too and they have not been inclined to fix this. I suppose we should still get this on their radar at least.
-bert

I have been running the 970HD connected via HDMI to the 50PX50 for about three weeks. I have played with all the 970HD output settings (480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i) and honestly can't tell the difference between any of them. Maybe the panny has a great scaler? Admittedly I am not an expert, and would have a hard spotting anything but the most obvious conversion artifacts, but they all look great to me. I've been running it at 720p just so I can feel like I'm getting my moey's worth. Maybe a more experienced eye could comment... Also I watch more concert DVDs than anything else, and the sound through my receiver (connected with coax digital) is also quite nice whether using DTS, Dolby or PCM.

Congratulations to us both, it's a great setup!

Thx for the reply :)

Did you compare the video quality with other DVD players ?

Patrick

Wow!
I'm stunned they answered my email in 10 minute!!! In 20 years of dealing with A/V this is something I've never experienced. Just stellar!

----------------- / ------------------
Bert,

We are working on some solutions for the vertical squeezing error at the
upscaled resolutions, but we do not know what will be the final solution
we impliment. Likely a stretch will be done to compensate, but we do not
know if it will be a stretch ot a slight zoom and crop at this time.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.

Neuromancer notes this problem exists in the 971 too and they have not been inclined to fix this. The problem is slightly different in the 971, there is no vertical squeeze, its a 2-3 pixel border all around the image (underscan).

Gary

damn the "t" for being so close to "r".

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.

I am not a videophile by any stretch, but you may be interested to know that I will be testing the 970 and 971 with the HQV Benchmark DVD and NEC PX50XR5A over the next few days. My primary objective will be to determine which player pairs the best with my NEC, and then to identify which Oppo output resolution performs the best on that player/panel combo.

One thing I haven't figured out is which of the various threads I should post the results, but I'm leaning towards this one.

P.S. My guess is that the 480i out of the 970 or the 720p out of the 971 will win, but regardless, I expect all the scores to be extremely close.

Just got my Oppo. My Toshiba 42hp66 works well with this... though out of the box, the default contrast seems high. I left the dvd player on default for video options and reduced the contrast on the TV. Most movies I watched seems much sharper and more clearer though the downside is that I am noticing more compression artifacts... since they are DVD-Rs which are compressed and backed up from the originals(lower bit-rate). I didn't notice the artifacts before on my Philps dvp642 since I was using 480p over component and it seems to smooth things. I'm using HDMI with the 970 @ 720p (1080i was not as sharp) and it is very sharp so may cause this to be more visible... if anyone else has any suggestion to reduce the visibility of compression artifacts, let me know... by turning down the contrast, it helped but I can still see some and its much more evident than my old 480p dvp642. Folks noticed the 971 was more softer, would this help to reduce the compression artifacts more?

For the vertical squeeze... I sure hope they can do a stretch rather than a zoom+crop so we don't lose any precious resolution. I do think the picture is slighty flattened/shortened so a stretch would be best to maintain original aspect ratio.

Overall, I really enjoy the PQ and the near HD quality...

... if anyone else has any suggestion to reduce the visibility of compression artifacts, let me know... by turning down the contrast, it helped but I can still see some and its much more evident than my old 480p dvp642. Folks noticed the 971 was more softer, would this help to reduce the compression artifacts more? Try turning on any Noise Reduction circuits in the display. Mine makes a big difference without any side-effects.

The 971 is smoother still (very film-like), as long as the display is well calibrated.

Gary

It will upconvert through the component outputs provided that the DVD being played back does not have CSS encryption.


Thanks, how do you know if the DVD has the CSS encryption?

Hi!
Can anyone tell me, which OPPO(970 or 971) is better for my 42 plasma Samsung PS42S5S, max resolution 848x480? Its right, that all, what I need is 480p? How must I choose the right OPPO?

Thanks!

Hi!
Can anyone tell me, which OPPO(970 or 971) is better for my 42 plasma Samsung PS42S5S, max resolution 848x480? Its right, that all, what I need is 480p? How must I choose the right OPPO?

Thanks!

In theory, assuming the Faroudja de-interlacer is better than the Samsung built-in de-interlacer, 480p over HDMI from the 971H is probably the most elegant technical solution for your display.

In practice, depending on your viewing distance from your 42" screen, the 970HD at 480i or 480p, over either component or HDMI, might look just as good and give you both SACD and DVD audio capability, as opposed to just DVD audio with the 971H.

/steve

Thanks, how do you know if the DVD has the CSS encryption?

I am unaware of any clear way of determining if a DVD is CSS encrypted or not.

Thanks, how do you know if the DVD has the CSS encryption?

Just pop the DVD into your DVD-rom drive in your PC and load up DVD Decryptor. It will show the type of encryption/copy-protection. Most commercial will have CSS. Home burned will not.

My BBK 988 is now an Oppo 970. I purchased a BBK 988 when I was in Hong Kong in February. I thought it might be the new Oppo since BBK makes the Oppo. It seems that I was correct. It looks just like the 970 but had a few additional features including both DVI and HDMI and it could upscale over component. It had a few bugs similar to the ones on the 971 including the brightness and contrast being off. I dowloaded the Oppo firmware for the 970 to see if it would work on the BBK 988 and I took a chance. It upgraded the BBK to the Oppo 970. As I suspected the BBK bad remote that came with the unit does not work anymore. The remote that I have for the Oppo 971 now works and to make it region free I must use the 970/971 method. I am also sure that I lost upscailing on component with this new firmware. This is not a problem for me since I only use HDMI for the picture output. I feel it was worth loosing a few features that I do not use to get the Oppo fixes.

I bet that someone in the future will hack the firmware on this unit to make the component output upscale for those who might need it.

I got a BKK988 but did not like the black borders over 720p/1080i whilst running in my plasma so returned it.

Which OPPO fixes were you most interested in? And did they work?

As promised, here are the results from my Oppo shoot-out, comparing the 970 and 971 using the Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark DVD. I'm not good with formatting on these forums, so I hope this comes out readable. Here are some important points to note:


My display is an NEC PX-50XR5A plasma (from Forum Sponsor Plasma Concepts).
Both units were connected via digital outputs only - I did no tests over any analog outputs.
Cables were from Forum Sponsor Blue Jeans Cables (high quality).
These results are specific to this DVD/display pairing ONLY. Other displays will generate different results.
Settings were mostly default, NTSC settings. This has obvious implications to the 2:2 cadence scores, but I don't watch any PAL disks, so I didn't test for this specifically.
I am by no means a videophile, so my recommendation is to view these results in relative terms, not absolute terms. I feel comfortable that if you were to re-run these tests yourselves, you may come up with different scores, but still come to the same conclusions.

I don't want to clutter up this already lengthy post with an explanation of the HQV test. For those wanting more information, including an explanation of the scoring and a definition of each test, check out the Silicon Optix web site:

http://www.hqv.com/

The tests on the DVD are:

Color Bars
Jaggies 1
Jaggies 2
Flag
Detail
Noise Reduction 1
Noise Reduction 2
Film Detail
2:2 Cadence
2:2:2:4 Cadence
2:3:3:2 Cadence
3:2:3:2:2 Cadence
5:5 Cadence
6:4 Cadence
8:7 Cadence
3:2 Cadence
Horizontal Scrolling
Vertical Scrolling

I'm listing each configuration tested, followed by the scores for each test in the same order as the list above, with the total at the end.

970 - 480i: 10, 5, 3, 10, 10, 10, 5, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 10 - Total: 78
970 - 480p: 10, 5, 0, 5, 10, 10, 5, 5, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 5, 10, Total - 75
970 - 720p: 10, 5, 0, 5, 10, 5, 5, 5, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 5, 10, Total - 70
970 - 1080i: 10, 5, 3, 5, 10, 10, 5, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 10, Total - 73
971 - 480p: 10, 5, 3, 10, 10, 10, 5, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 10, 10, Total - 88
971 - 540p: 5, 5, 3, 10, 10, 10, 5, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 10, Total - 78
971 - 720p: 10, 5, 3, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 10, 10, Total - 93
971 - 1080i: 5, 5, 3, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 10, Total - 78


Observations:

For my set-up/panel, the 971 clearly outperformed the 970.
For my set-up/panel, the best output turns out to be the 971 at 720p. This is not overly surprising, since my panel's native resolution is 1365x768.
It's interesting to note that the second best output is the 971 at 480p, not the 971 at 1080i or the 970 at 720p.
The superiority of Faroudja processing is clear and consistent when comparing the scores between machines at 480p, 720p, and 1080i.
My hope that I had a superior deinterlacer and scaler in my NEC compared to the Oppo is not borne out by the fact that the 480i score is so low.
If you look at the individual test scores (yes, I know it's extremely difficult), the 970 does a better job of 2:2 cadence out of the box, without needing a Video2 setting like the 971 does.
Neither display did a good job with the "funky" cadences in the test. However, I am not aware of any player that does.


I originally purchased the 970 3 weeks ago and received the 971 and HQV disk today. The 970 is going back tomorrow for a refund. When calling Oppo for the return, the gentleman was extremely interested in my findings and took a bunch of notes. He also stated that the Oppo gang would be checking this forum to see the detailed results for themselves. Unbelievable customer service and product management.

I am now going to focus on optimizing my settings with Avia and DVE to get the most out of this configuration. (Yes, I self-calibrated before the test, but that was using the 970 that is being returned.) Any comments or questions are welcome.

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).

Is this a problem built into the video processing chips then? You mentioned the same error in the Sony player - so would any brand of player (using the same chips as the OPPO) have the same flaw?

I am still nursing my plasma and want to fill the screen. The only way I could do with 720p it was to set the display type to Wide/Sqz and then use the DVD remote to Zoom x2 but then I read I would lose resolution doing this.

It is a problem built into the upscaling chipset (DV-970HD and the Sony NS75H share the same chipset).

You can use 480p (which does not have the problem) for the interim.

[...]

970 - 480i: 10, 5, 3, 10, 10, 10, 5, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 10 - Total: 78
970 - 480p: 10, 5, 0, 5, 10, 10, 5, 5, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 5, 10, Total - 75
970 - 720p: 10, 5, 0, 5, 10, 5, 5, 5, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 5, 10, Total - 70
970 - 1080i: 10, 5, 3, 5, 10, 10, 5, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 10, Total - 73
[...]
My hope that I had a superior deinterlacer and scaler in my NEC compared to the Oppo is not borne out by the fact that the 480i score is so low.

[...]

Well at least you know your NEC's de-interlacer and scaler is better than the Mediatek in the 970HD. :)

Nice job of testing and reporting!

/steve

wait, i have a 32" sammy lns3251d and i asked oppo (i called em) and they said 970 would be better for me. i want the best picture possible and the 970 is amazing. but i was wondering would the 971 produce a better one?

It is a problem built into the upscaling chipset (DV-970HD and the Sony NS75H share the same chipset).

You can use 480p (which does not have the problem) for the interim.

Thanks very much Neuromancer :)

What does "IRC" mean though?

wait, i have a 32" sammy lns3251d and i asked oppo (i called em) and they said 970 would be better for me. i want the best picture possible and the 970 is amazing. but i was wondering would the 971 produce a better one?

Probably going to be very hard to see a difference on a 32" screen at normal viewing distances, IMO. /steve

great... i love the player as it is, i think ill like the USB port too so im happy with my purchase.

wait, i have a 32" sammy lns3251d and i asked oppo (i called em) and they said 970 would be better for me. i want the best picture possible and the 970 is amazing. but i was wondering would the 971 produce a better one?
This is definitely one of those situations where "your mileage may vary." Factors that play a considerable role include manufacturer/flat panel type (since certain manufacturers and technologies are more prone to the infamous macro-blocking enhancement), display size (since the smaller the display, the less any of these issues becomes), input/output options (if your set-up limits you to analog inputs/outputs, then all bets are off), and your viewing habits (970 is a little more versatile in different media types and formats compared to the 971, I believe).

No matter what, either of these decks will probably serve you very well.

yea... i honestly recommend this player to anyone out there, until hddvd becomes 200 bucks or even 100... because this is just so good. they would rather have a player like this then replace everything i think a new format is dumb and we should all just have upconverting players.

ummm..... lets not go to far now.... For people who have a 100" screen... They'll see the difference.

OK, I've been browsing this thread even before I got my Oppo 970 and have since been seeing some people say quite favorable things about the Oppo 971. Now, since the 971 plays Divx and Xvid also and is generally considered great at everything else it does, my question is simple: Is there or is there not ANY macroblocking problem with the 61" Samsung HLS-6187W 1080p HDTV set? If yes, then I'm sticking with my purchase. If there is absolutely no macroblocking problem with my set however, then I see no reason NOT to trade in my 970 and get a 971 for $50 plus shipping. Does anynbody have any info on this this issue?

OK, I've been browsing this thread even before I got my Oppo 970 and have since been seeing some people say quite favorable things about the Oppo 971. Now, since the 971 plays Divx and Xvid also and is generally considered great at everything else it does, my question is simple: Is there or is there not ANY macroblocking problem with the 61" Samsung HLS-6187W 1080p HDTV set? If yes, then I'm sticking with my purchase. If there is absolutely no macroblocking problem with my set however, then I see no reason NOT to trade in my 970 and get a 971 for $50 plus shipping. Does anynbody have any info on this this issue? DLP sets tend to enhance macroblocking when connected to a Faroudja player like the 971. Properly calibrating the TV can eliminate it, though. See this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7270763#post7270763).

Gary

Ah, so THAT'S what macroblocking is! Thanks Gary, I've learned much about the issue from reading your posts. In recent broadcasts of Wimbledon on ESPN2 (not in HD), I now know that the "dancing blocks" of interchanging colors (greenish to yellowish and back again) on the center of the court are in fact macroblocking artifacts! This was with DishHD over component inputs. I just switched to HDMI for my sat box and have done some light calibration on my set (kept DNIe on though - I just love the effect too much) using DVE over my second HDMI input with the Oppo 970. I will apply these settings to my TV and see if the macroblocking artifacts are still on the tennis court later today. But I must say, if I'm experiencing some macroblocking on regular TV with my DLP set, then the 971 will surely worsen it. Even if the artifacts go away completely with the new settings I calibrated with DVE (didn't change much - just ended up bumping up contrast and brightness slightly), I learned from your previous posts that the setting that gives the biggest help in alleviating macroblocking is the grayscale/gamma adjustment in the service menu, and I don't feel comfortable changing any settings in that menu (especially since I read in the calibration forum that my set is among the hardest to calibrate successfully). But thanks for the help - I just watched Memoirs of a Geisha last night on the Oppo 970 and was more than pleased with the picture quality, save for some minor banding on some sky scenes and facial close ups.

Is it expected to have black bands at a top/bottom of a display even while playing DVDs enhanced for a wide screen? My 970H is connected via HDMI to JVC HD-P70R1U. Oppo is set to 16:9 and TV is set to full. Every movie played so far (not a cartoon) had bands. When I adjust aspect on TV to other modes, I loose some of the picture. Same happens when I adjust Oppo settings. Am I hoping for the perfection?

Any movie shot in 2.35:1 format will have black bands on top and bottom. The 1.85:1 movies will lessen the bands...a 16:9 screen is 1.78:1 as I recall.

Has anyone experienced this?

This has happened twice since I got the player. It seems like a random thing. I did not rewind to see if it would occur again. I'm using the hdmi connection. I don't know if is due to a scratch on the disc or what. The audio keeps playing fine.

-Vic

Is it expected to have black bands at a top/bottom of a display even while playing DVDs enhanced for a wide screen? My 970H is connected via HDMI to JVC HD-P70R1U. Oppo is set to 16:9 and TV is set to full. Every movie played so far (not a cartoon) had bands. When I adjust aspect on TV to other modes, I loose some of the picture. Same happens when I adjust Oppo settings. Am I hoping for the perfection?

Look at this message from sfhub on page #2 :

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

OK, I've been browsing this thread even before I got my Oppo 970 and have since been seeing some people say quite favorable things about the Oppo 971. Now, since the 971 plays Divx and Xvid also and is generally considered great at everything else it does, my question is simple: Is there or is there not ANY macroblocking problem with the 61" Samsung HLS-6187W 1080p HDTV set? If yes, then I'm sticking with my purchase. If there is absolutely no macroblocking problem with my set however, then I see no reason NOT to trade in my 970 and get a 971 for $50 plus shipping. Does anynbody have any info on this this issue?

I've been reading the other responses with interest. However, since I can't do a side-by-side comparison to the 971, I'm quite happy with the 970. It looks so much better than my older Sony player that I see little need to upgrade until the DVD-HD vs Blue Ray wars play out. Maybe I'm missing something, but the 970, in 480i, looks absolutely fabulous on my Pioneer 50" Elite.

Got my 970 Thursday, and so far I am really pleased with it. I don't yet have any SACD or DVD-A discs to try, but I have some on order. I live in the Bay Area and so when I called in my order Wednesday, it shipped same day and arrived Thursday, at the $7 ground shipping price...

-- R

Sorry this may not be the smartest question but I'm not very technical myself. I read about the Faroudja chip being better than the one on the 970, but I never really found what the advantages of 970 over 971 are? It's cheaper by $50, but assuming money is not an issue why would someone prefer 970 over the 971?

Sorry this may not be the smartest question but I'm not very technical myself. I read about the Faroudja chip being better than the one on the 970, but I never really found what the advantages of 970 over 971 are? It's cheaper by $50, but assuming money is not an issue why would someone prefer 970 over the 971?

the 970 is designed to be used with external scalers, as it passes an (almost) unprocessed signal 480i/576i via HDMI... the 971 can't do this.

the 971 has a much better scaler then the 970, so for most people the 971 is a better choice.

the 970 is designed to be used with external scalers, as it passes an (almost) unprocessed signal 480i/576i via HDMI... the 971 can't do this.

the 971 has a much better scaler then the 970, so for most people the 971 is a better choice.

The 971H has a better deinterlacer and scaler, but the 970HD has a slightly sharper picture.

The 971H has a better deinterlacer and scaler, but the 970HD has a slightly sharper picture.

That's likely a primary reason why I'm very satisfied with the performance of the 970 -- I'm not sure if I can see the need for further sharpening and I'm not detecting other issues that are annoying to others. I'm not using a discrete external scaler, per se, but I think the scaler in the Pioneer 1130 must be doing a pretty good job with the 480i I'm feeding to it. It's also possible that I don't know what problems to look for, but if so, ignorance is bliss! Maybe I'm easily pleased....!

I bought the 970 yesterday when i learned my six year old Toshiba DVD player died on me. I have a 42" 60U panny plasma. With the Oppo provide a better picture than my old Toshiba or should I, REALISTICALLY, not expect much of a difference? I don't want to get my hopes up, and i don't have a lot tocomplain by my old players visuals. Just curious, thanks!

I bought the 970 yesterday when i learned my six year old Toshiba DVD player died on me. I have a 42" 60U panny plasma. With the Oppo provide a better picture than my old Toshiba or should I, REALISTICALLY, not expect much of a difference? I don't want to get my hopes up, and i don't have a lot tocomplain by my old players visuals. Just curious, thanks!

Based on my limited experience with various players, I would think that, yes, you will see an improvment. I went from a 5-year old Sony player to the 970. The difference was significant. I'm not sure why, specifically, but the technology has apparently improved over the intervening years. While I'm allowing the Pioneer 1130 to do the scaling, the improvement was apparent in all resolution modes in the 970.

I went from a 5-year old Sony player to the 970. The difference was significant. 5 years is ancient in terms of DVD players. 6 months can make a big difference.

larry

sakaike
Nice 970/971 & XR5, review, having the xr & 970 also. I am now some what disipointed not getting the 971- i had a chose.. But when looking at a movies {ROTK), How does the PQ differ? Test Patterens tell us ###, but if the PQ of the 970 is 7.5 what is the 971?
Night & day or shades of a gray??
db

Ok, 44 pages of posts!! I've gone through a few of them....lemme just ask a simple question.
My main reason for grabbing a new player right now is to play divx files.
I do have an HDTV with HDMI.

Would you get the 970 or the 971....I am not concerned about the extra $50.

One more question since I have never had a divx compatable machine.
I was planning on putting each divx file on a cd to play.
Can I load up a DVD or DVD9 with multiple files and select from them?

Last one....since Divx is my main concern....is Oppo even my best choice or should I consider something else?

Thanks for any help.

Hi, I am new here. This forum originally helped me decide to order the Oppo 970 back when it was announced. Just wondering if anyone knew the status of a firmware update to fix the SACD gap issue and the lack of track names for SACDs and CDs.

I am very happy with this unit in general, it is used with a Toshiba 34HFX84. Previously used the Samsung HD941 (moved that to the kids area of the house). The 970 has given me a much better picture and more formats, but it is far behind the 941 on the SACD-CD support because of the above issues and the need to eject the disc to change the SACD audio mode (very annoying when using a hybrid SACD). I was one of those having a DVD-A problem at first, but their posted beta FW update fixed that for me (excellent support when I called about it the week I got this unit).

TIA for any info, I am considering getting one for my adult son (new house and DLP TV), but not unless these issues are fixed (he likes his music).

I'm debating the whole 971 versus 970 thing too. I'd probably would have just done the 971 had it not been for the lack of SACD support and I have a fair number of SACDs. The 970 has all the features but I question if the picture quality will be as good as the 971 fabled performance. I have a Mitsubishi 65813 CRT RPTV with DVI so I don't think that macroblocking will be a big issue with me, but you never know. Currently, I'm using a 5 year old Sony DVD/SACD 5 disc changer for my DVD transport, but I know I can do better.

Any suggestions from the masses?

I'm debating the whole 971 versus 970 thing too. I'd probably would have just done the 971 had it not been for the lack of SACD support and I have a fair number of SACDs. The 970 has all the features but I question if the picture quality will be as good as the 971 fabled performance. I have a Mitsubishi 65813 CRT RPTV with DVI so I don't think that macroblocking will be a big issue with me, but you never know. Currently, I'm using a 5 year old Sony DVD/SACD 5 disc changer for my DVD transport, but I know I can do better.

Any suggestions from the masses?

you could always keep the Sony for SACD playback (you won't get much for it on ebay..) and get the 971.... you'd have the best of both worlds then ......

sakaike
Nice 970/971 & XR5, review, having the xr & 970 also. I am now some what disipointed not getting the 971- i had a chose.. But when looking at a movies {ROTK), How does the PQ differ? Test Patterens tell us ###, but if the PQ of the 970 is 7.5 what is the 971?
Night & day or shades of a gray??
db
The differences are definitely not night and day, but they do exist, even to my untrained eye. If the 970 is a 7.5, I would rate the 971 an 8.5. Watching LOTR, both decks deliver a great picture. The only difference, and I'm not sure how much is real vs. perceived, is the 971 seems to give a deeper, richer image. Colors, sharpness, blacks, whites, shadows, clouds, etc. all seem to be equivalent. The 971 just seemed a little more 3-D, if that makes any sense.

My XR5 was calibrated with the 970 and Avia. I have not recalibrated with the 971, but will be doing so soon. If the 971 didn't exist, I would have been extremely pleased with my original 970 purchase. You should have no regrets. OTOH, if you get an opportunity to swap or upgrade, you should feel comfortable doing so.

I noticed initially that the Oppo 970 @ 720p gave the best and sharpest image on my 42" plasma. I have since noticed that 720p was too sharp in many cases. 720p was so sharp that it often makes plain flat walls/skies come to life(vibrate/shutter)... as if the noise on the flat texture were being enhanced. One great example is in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(non-superbit) version... this could also be that the original film was noisey... but I'm noticing it on a lot of Movies. Has anyone else noticed this noise on flat/plain surfaces... it also happens a lot on blurred backgrounds where the camera focus is on a person's face and the blurred backgrounds starts to vibrate with noise instead of just remaining a blur. In these cases, I found that switching to the less sharp 1080i helped. I guess the additional processing of 1080i reduces sharpness and smoothes out the picture. So now I watch @ 720p and if I can't stand the noise, I switch to 1080i. Anyone else notice this? I guess sharper has its downside.

I was planning on putting each divx file on a cd to play.
Can I load up a DVD or DVD9 with multiple files and select from them?


I can confirm divx on DVDR works fine with the Oppo 970


Last one....since Divx is my main concern....is Oppo even my best choice or should I consider something else?


Most definetly. 50% of my viewing is DivX/XviD all on the Oppo.

Hi. I bought and watched the first PAL disc I was able to get and played it throught my new Oppo player. The picture was pretty lousey and I'm not sure if it was the disc, the player or the vp30. I went back to SilIm card a while back because I was frustrated with all the artifacts I was getting with the ABT. When there's a better fix, I'll reinstall it.

It was the region 4 disc of Child's Play (I know, not a great movie, but all I could get that I'd even heard of!). It was non-anamorphic, first of all. But it also had very jerky motion (something I've seen on several R1 discs played on the Oppo, as I've posted before), lots of artifacts, just looked nowhere near as good as my R1 discs. It could just be a lousey transfer.

But in general, do PAL discs not look as good on NTSC equipment?

Is there a conversion from PAL to NTSC that the Oppo is doing that I could let the vp30 do instead?

I've never gotten into other region discs, so I don't know how it works exactly. I couldn't find anything in the menus of the Oppo 970 or the vp30.

Can anyone tell me how this works?

Thanks!

Does your TV accept 50hz? If your VP30 is set to output 60hz, then anything you feed it is converted to 60Hz, IIRC. You should be able to send 576i via HDMI to the VP30 and output 50Hz video and look just as good as a NTSC DVD at 60Hz (ignoring DVD mastering issues). I believe the Oppo will convert PAL to NTSC - not the best way to go unless you only have a 60Hz capable TV.

larry

All:

I am a complete noob, both on these forums as well as in the world of Home Theater systems... so please excuse any questions in here you may consider stupid.

I just bought a Pio 4270HD and would like to replace my old Sony NS700P DVD player with one of these Oppos. After browsing all 44 pages of this thread... (Lotsa great information in here.) I understand that the 970HD is the way to go if you have a good de-interlacer built into the display unit or if using an external video processor. I am not going to buy a video processor (budgetary concerns), so the question is...

Is the processor in the Pio 4270HD good? In other words, if I purchase the 970HD and feed 480i via HDMI into my display, will the picture quality be as good as buying a 971H and feeding in 1080i to the display?

Also does anyone know if the Macro blocking is a big issue with the Pio displays if I did decide to go with the 971H?

All repsonses will be very much appreciated. And thanks again all for the great information posted here.

This isn't going to directly answer your question, but should be considered as food for thought.

I bought my NEC PX-50XR5A, based on the outstanding user reviews, including its deinterlacing and scaling abilities. The HD picture over cable was indeed incredible. I then purchased the 970HD, assuming that I would feed it 480i over HDMI and get an incredible picture (pure digital transport and all that). The picture was indeed incredible, but just out of curiosity, I also picked up a 971H and did a shoot-out with my panel. The results are posted and/or referenced in a few threads, including this one.

The bottom line is that the deinterlacer and scaler in the 971 turned out to be superior to my NEC, based on the results of my shoot-out. This was a surprise to me, but the results were clear.

This may have little to no applicability to your decision, except to suggest that you may want to consider performing your own shoot-out, or looking to see if someone has done something similar with your Pio (which is doubtful), since that model is so new.

Either way, no matter which Oppo you select, you will be very happy with the picture. Enjoy!

Hi. I bought and watched the first PAL disc I was able to get and played it throught my new Oppo player. The picture was pretty lousey and I'm not sure if it was the disc, the player or the vp30. I went back to SilIm card a while back because I was frustrated with all the artifacts I was getting with the ABT. When there's a better fix, I'll reinstall it.

It was the region 4 disc of Child's Play (I know, not a great movie, but all I could get that I'd even heard of!). It was non-anamorphic, first of all. But it also had very jerky motion (something I've seen on several R1 discs played on the Oppo, as I've posted before), lots of artifacts, just looked nowhere near as good as my R1 discs. It could just be a lousey transfer.

But in general, do PAL discs not look as good on NTSC equipment?

Is there a conversion from PAL to NTSC that the Oppo is doing that I could let the vp30 do instead?

With no disc in the player, go into the Oppo's setup menus and change the TV format type from NTSC to "Auto". This will allow the player to output PAL discs as 576i without converting them to NTSC first. The VP30 can do all of that conversion for you. If you're still getting artifacts, try changing the VP30's deinlerlacing setting (in the Input menu) from "Auto" to either 2:2 Even or 2:2 Odd. One should look obviously wrong and the other should look better. Just remember to switch the deinterlacing back to Auto before you put in an NTSC disc.

Which Oppo is better for my Sammy HLP 5063 (DLP) TV?

Thanks!

i have 971 for 2 weeks now, i am using via component to hitachi 53SWX10B. when i select 720p or 1080i , i get the soft and really shaky pic. especially when i am watching backup dvd disc. i have no problem with 480i or 480p.
is that my tv or something is wrong with the unit..
ANY SUGGESTIONS? PLEASE, SHOULD I RETURN IT?

If macroblocking and calibration is your main concern, then go with the DV-970HD. If you want higher precision in terms of de-interlacing, scaling, and post processing (digitan noise reduction and so forth) then you will want to look into the OPDV971H.

Which Oppo is better for my Sammy HLP 5063 (DLP) TV?

Thanks!


Sammy HLPs will show MB with Faroudja players.

This isn't going to directly answer your question, but should be considered as food for thought.

I bought my NEC PX-50XR5A, based on the outstanding user reviews, including its deinterlacing and scaling abilities. The HD picture over cable was indeed incredible. I then purchased the 970HD, assuming that I would feed it 480i over HDMI and get an incredible picture (pure digital transport and all that). The picture was indeed incredible, but just out of curiosity, I also picked up a 971H and did a shoot-out with my panel. The results are posted and/or referenced in a few threads, including this one.

The bottom line is that the deinterlacer and scaler in the 971 turned out to be superior to my NEC, based on the results of my shoot-out. This was a surprise to me, but the results were clear.

This may have little to no applicability to your decision, except to suggest that you may want to consider performing your own shoot-out, or looking to see if someone has done something similar with your Pio (which is doubtful), since that model is so new.

Either way, no matter which Oppo you select, you will be very happy with the picture. Enjoy!

So, can we assume from this observation that you sent the 970 packing back to Oppo - via UPS and kept the 971? ;)

redjr.... :)

If macroblocking and calibration is your main concern, then go with the DV-970HD. If you want higher precision in terms of de-interlacing, scaling, and post processing (digitan noise reduction and so forth) then you will want to look into the OPDV971H.


Ok, thanks!

Sammy HLPs will show MB with Faroudja players.


Thanks, I guess, I will be going with the 970HD.

This isn't going to directly answer your question, but should be considered as food for thought.

I bought my NEC PX-50XR5A, based on the outstanding user reviews, including its deinterlacing and scaling abilities. The HD picture over cable was indeed incredible. I then purchased the 970HD, assuming that I would feed it 480i over HDMI and get an incredible picture (pure digital transport and all that). The picture was indeed incredible, but just out of curiosity, I also picked up a 971H and did a shoot-out with my panel. The results are posted and/or referenced in a few threads, including this one.

The bottom line is that the deinterlacer and scaler in the 971 turned out to be superior to my NEC, based on the results of my shoot-out. This was a surprise to me, but the results were clear.

This may have little to no applicability to your decision, except to suggest that you may want to consider performing your own shoot-out, or looking to see if someone has done something similar with your Pio (which is doubtful), since that model is so new.

Either way, no matter which Oppo you select, you will be very happy with the picture. Enjoy!

Thanks for this.

Anyone have any experience with PIO displays and the Faroudja chips? The 971 sounds more like what I would need but I am really concerned about the macro blocking problem. I know Sammy displays have an issue with this and I just have not found any info on how PIOs handle this.

Recieved my 970 today, after some calibrations, I must say I am very happy with the picture. My only desire was to find a player that was better or equal to my xbox 360, as i've never felt comfortable using it as my primary player due to concerns of how fragile they can be.

After some comparisons I feel the Oppo is superior. Much crisper picture overall. Finally I can keep from overusing my 360.

I wish you could change the HDMI resolutions while the disc was playing as it would make it easier to decided which setting was the best. I ended up setting it at 720p for my Sony KDL-32S2000. The picture seemed to be a little better, but its hard to tell when you have to memorize the image before the change. Any easier way to compare?

Also, am I right that the picture seems to be cropped vertically when its set to 720p or 1080i? It's not to bad, but it is a little bothersome that the image is cropped a bit, any word on a fix for this?

I just pulled the trigger on this machine, thanks again for the healthy conversation and reviews. This forum has been great in helping me to set up my system!!!!

Also, am I right that the picture seems to be cropped vertically when its set to 720p or 1080i? It's not to bad, but it is a little bothersome that the image is cropped a bit, any word on a fix for this?

Yes... this is a (minor but irritating) problem that comes with the processing chips. OPPO mention it on their FAQ.

Its a pain for me as I am running in my plasma and dont want any unlit pixels on screen... But it also seems to happen on other players such as the new Pioneer 696 and previous Sony's (they fixed it by zooming and cropping a bit).

I have still to decide which player to go for... ALL of the current models seem to have some issues

All:

Thanks for all of your comments here. As I have mentioned in my previous post, I am a noob and am trying to understand all the concepts. One of the common themes in these posts seems to be that calibrating your disply is very important.

Towards that, what is the best method to calibrate my display? Where can I find whatever DVD/CD/Tools that you guys recommend? Is the calibration specific to each source... i.e do I need to calibrate individually for the 970HD and for my cable box?

Thanks very much!!

Yes you should calibrate each input.

The most popular ways of calibrating are using the Avia or DVE, which can be found wherever dvds are sold. A little cheaper, but not as accurate way of calibrating is by throwing in a dvd with the THX optimizer, like Star Wars or any of the Pixar films. Obviously these can only be used to calibrate DVD players, Xbox 360, etc.

As for calibrating for your cable, it's a little tougher, some channels will provide test patterns in the wee hours of the morning that some people dvr and then use. I myself just copied over my settings from my dvd player, then adjusted accordingly until I found a setting I liked for most of the channels I view. Since each channel is different, there is no one way to calibrate for all of your cable viewing. Just find a good setting that looks good to you.

I noticed initially that the Oppo 970 @ 720p gave the best and sharpest image on my 42" plasma. I have since noticed that 720p was too sharp in many cases. 720p was so sharp that it often makes plain flat walls/skies come to life(vibrate/shutter)... as if the noise on the flat texture were being enhanced. One great example is in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(non-superbit) version... this could also be that the original film was noisey... but I'm noticing it on a lot of Movies. Has anyone else noticed this noise on flat/plain surfaces... it also happens a lot on blurred backgrounds where the camera focus is on a person's face and the blurred backgrounds starts to vibrate with noise instead of just remaining a blur. In these cases, I found that switching to the less sharp 1080i helped. I guess the additional processing of 1080i reduces sharpness and smoothes out the picture. So now I watch @ 720p and if I can't stand the noise, I switch to 1080i. Anyone else notice this? I guess sharper has its downside. Yes, sharper has a downside. If the original movie has a lot of film grain, or if the DVD transfer has noise or compression artifacts such as macroblocking, they are glaringly obvious on a sharp digital player like the 970. Note that this does not affect all DVD recordings, only the bad ones... If you see moving/pulsating blocks of pixels on flat textures, that's macroblocking from MPEG compression.

I've found that the 970 is great for superb DVD transfers, but the 971 has a smoother, film-like image, that is more forgiving of bad transfers (as long as your display has been properly calibrated).

Gary

Yes you should calibrate each input.

The most popular ways of calibrating are using the Avia or DVE, which can be found wherever dvds are sold. A little cheaper, but not as accurate way of calibrating is by throwing in a dvd with the THX optimizer, like Star Wars or any of the Pixar films. Obviously these can only be used to calibrate DVD players, Xbox 360, etc.

As for calibrating for your cable, it's a little tougher, some channels will provide test patterns in the wee hours of the morning that some people dvr and then use. I myself just copied over my settings from my dvd player, then adjusted accordingly until I found a setting I liked for most of the channels I view. Since each channel is different, there is no one way to calibrate for all of your cable viewing. Just find a good setting that looks good to you.


Thanks.

Has anyone noticed that the 970HD runs pretty hot? After each movie I watch it seems noticeably hotter than any other player I've owned. Chime in if yours gets warm too.

Also has anyone noticed that the noise floor on it is quite high too? Alot higher than my Harman/Kardon DVD22 in my bedroom (which is pretty much completely silent). I can hear the noise floor of the Oppo from 11ft back in my seat.

Would be nice if someone could do a technical review of the audio performance to go along with the video review. I'd like to see a frequency response/distortion spectrum/noise floor graph on it. ;)

i have 971 for 2 weeks now, i am using via component to hitachi 53SWX10B. when i select 720p or 1080i , i get the soft and really shaky pic. especially when i am watching backup dvd disc. i have no problem with 480i or 480p.
is that my tv or something is wrong with the unit..
ANY SUGGESTIONS? PLEASE, SHOULD I RETURN IT?

sorry i meant 970,

The 970 or the 971? If it's the 971, that only does upconversion via DVI, not component.

i have 971 for 2 weeks now, i am using via component to hitachi 53SWX10B. when i select 720p or 1080i , i get the soft and really shaky pic. especially when i am watching backup dvd disc. i have no problem with 480i or 480p.
is that my tv or something is wrong with the unit..
ANY SUGGESTIONS? PLEASE, SHOULD I RETURN IT?

Box it up and send it back. The 971 is best used with DVI/HDMI. The component outputs are terrible. Either that or use the DVI output (if your TV has that input). You are wasting your money on a great DVI player if you are going to only use the component outputs.

I am buying the Sharp LC37D90U this weekend (July 15-16) which has 1080P and am wondering if anyone has an opinion as to whether to buy the Oppo 970 or 971 to go with this lcd? Thanks to all for all the great info on this forum, especially Neuromancer, GSB, et al....p.s. have read almost all post on the the 970 and 971 but still having trouble deciding which of these to buy...thanks again!

i have 971 for 2 weeks now, i am using via component to hitachi 53SWX10B. when i select 720p or 1080i , i get the soft and really shaky pic. especially when i am watching backup dvd disc. i have no problem with 480i or 480p.
is that my tv or something is wrong with the unit..
ANY SUGGESTIONS? PLEASE, SHOULD I RETURN IT?

sorry i meant 970,
i meant 970

Has anyone noticed that the 970HD runs pretty hot? After each movie I watch it seems noticeably hotter than any other player I've owned. Chime in if yours gets warm too.

It gets very warm around the PSU (left side) and the middle (loader) as there is no active cooling. It should be very warm to the touch, but nothing that will cause you to remove your hand from the surface of the unit.

Also has anyone noticed that the noise floor on it is quite high too? Alot higher than my Harman/Kardon DVD22 in my bedroom (which is pretty much completely silent). I can hear the noise floor of the Oppo from 11ft back in my seat.

Either you have superhuman ears, or something is not operating correctly. The DV-970HD should run whisper silent, except during initial bootups (when the disc is first spinning up). Make sure that the unit is not excessively vibrating and causing some kind of harmonic disturbance.

FWIW, DVDO has the Oppo 970h listed as a "Companion Product" for their Video Processors.

www.dvdo.com/pro/comp_oppo_dv-970hd.php

Either you have superhuman ears, or something is not operating correctly. The DV-970HD should run whisper silent, except during initial bootups (when the disc is first spinning up). Make sure that the unit is not excessively vibrating and causing some kind of harmonic disturbance.

Sorry maybe we misunderstand eachother. The actual operation of the unit is in fact whisper quiet.

I mean the sound coming through the speakers when the unit is turned on, and paused, the "hiss" you can hear from the speakers. Like I said I can hear it from 11ft back and with my H/K I can't hear it at all.

Are you using the analog outputs or the digital output?

Using the digital outputs, tested both coax/optical.

That's really odd - I don't know of a way for a bitstream's noise floor to be altered by a player, since the data is being passed directly from the disc to the player's output in the digital domain. If I had to guess, I'd suspect either a ground loop issue or a problem with the cabling downstream of the 970.

For any of you who have used both the 971 and the 970 with a Pioneer Elite 50 inch plasma, have you found that running native 480i out from the 970 via HDMI into the Elite provides a better picture (using Pio's ADV 3:3 setting) than if you use the 971's faroudja chipset to do the scaling?

To be clear the comparison is 480i HDMI out from the 970 versus any of the output options from the 971 into a Pio Elite 1130HD. Which is better? Thanks!

For any of you who have used both the 971 and the 970 with a Pioneer Elite 50 inch plasma, have you found that running native 480i out from the 970 via HDMI into the Elite provides a better picture (using Pio's ADV 3:3 setting) than if you use the 971's faroudja chipset to do the scaling?

To be clear the comparison is 480i HDMI out from the 970 versus any of the output options from the 971 into a Pio Elite 1130HD. Which is better? Thanks!

I'll be interested to see the responses to this one -- I've been using the 480i from my 970 into the PRO1130. I can't imagine how it could look any better, but I'll admit that I'm not a "purist". I guess that maybe ignorance is bliss!

That's really odd - I don't know of a way for a bitstream's noise floor to be altered by a player, since the data is being passed directly from the disc to the player's output in the digital domain. If I had to guess, I'd suspect either a ground loop issue or a problem with the cabling downstream of the 970.That is odd. If it really is the player doing "something", the pulling the coax out of the receiver/preamp should make the hiss go away.

larry

I'll be interested to see the responses to this one -- I've been using the 480i from my 970 into the PRO1130. I can't imagine how it could look any better, but I'll admit that I'm not a "purist". I guess that maybe ignorance is bliss!

Your setup may be just fine - I've read such good things about Pioneer's processor that letting it do the work may be better than a signal from the 971 that will be scaled twice (once in the player and once in the tv)

The OPPO website comparison tool indicates (from their view) that its a toss-up which player to use connected to a 50 inch panel, so I'm hoping all the tweakers out there have figured out what's best.

Your setup may be just fine - I've read such good things about Pioneer's processor that letting it do the work may be better than a signal from the 971 that will be scaled twice (once in the player and once in the tv)

The OPPO website comparison tool indicates (from their view) that its a toss-up which player to use connected to a 50 inch panel, so I'm hoping all the tweakers out there have figured out what's best.
The Oppo comparison is very general, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Any unique configuration, regardless of panel size, may or may not align with Oppo's general guidelines.

I ran a test on my 50" NEC with the 480i output of the 970 (and all other outputs as well), against all output resolutions of the 971, and concluded that the 720p output of the 971 was superior for my particular setup.

So in my particular case, deinterlacing with the MTK chip (to get from 480i to 480p), scaling and processing once with the Faroudja (I think I have the chip functionality correct) to get from 480p to 720p, and scaling once again in the NEC (to go from 720p to 768p) turned out to be the best picture. As always, your mileage may vary.

Has anyone found the 970 for less than $149? If so, where? Or at least where can one get the best deal (free shipping, etc.).

You may want to check ExtremePhono or SurfAudio and see what their shipping rates are.

About.com Review (http://tv.about.com/od/productrevi3/fr/OPPO970HD.htm) has been posted.

The Oppo comparison is very general, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Any unique configuration, regardless of panel size, may or may not align with Oppo's general guidelines.

I ran a test on my 50" NEC with the 480i output of the 970 (and all other outputs as well), against all output resolutions of the 971, and concluded that the 720p output of the 971 was superior for my particular setup.

So in my particular case, deinterlacing with the MTK chip (to get from 480i to 480p), scaling and processing once with the Faroudja (I think I have the chip functionality correct) to get from 480p to 720p, and scaling once again in the NEC (to go from 720p to 768p) turned out to be the best picture. As always, your mileage may vary.

Thanks sakaike, I certainly take it with some salt. That is interesting. Logic would say that a single scale from 480i to 768p would be better, but I trust you when you say your setup was the best to your eyes.

Have any Elite owners come to the same conclusion as sakaike with his NEC, that the 971 is the best (even though the image will be scaled twice)?

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.

Thanks Steve. My 24 AWG 15 foot HDMI cable came in today. Just hooked it up and it appears to have resolved my macroblocking issue. The picture looks near perfect now. :D

Rob

When doing a firmware update, does it automatically reset all video settings to default?

Also, you think it'd be possible to add seperate audio/video bitrates to the OSD when you press info? Would be nice. :) Wonder if it's even possible.

I posted this on the AVM-50 thread 2 days ago and got no response.

After upgrading AVM-50 with firmware 1.06 I lost multi-channel capability with Oppo 970. I have the latest firmware (6/13) installed in the 970.

I have Oppo connected via HDMI to preamp. Its set to output RAW/SPDIF. I can see it switch to multi-channel when playing a SACD by pressing setup when SACD is playing. I also have Oppo set to 1080i.

This used to work with firmware 1.04 but was having some other issues with Oppo.

Anthem seems to think the problem lies with the Oppo. They (Anthem) have fixed a couple of issues I was having with the Oppo namely loud noise when Oppo was shutoff but preamp still had input set to Oppo and also loss of sound when inputs was toggled between oppo to tv and back. Both issues have been fixed.

I contacted Oppo support yesterday and they claim no one else has reported this problem.

Can anyone who has Oppo with AVM-50/D2 confirm this issue with multi-channel SACD's with latest firmware ?

Thanks

Has anyone found any hacks for this player yet? Thanks

When doing a firmware update, does it automatically reset all video settings to default?

Yes.

Has anyone found any hacks for this player yet? Thanks

What kind of hack do you want? The 970HD can be made region-free the same way that the 971H can, by hitting SETUP-9-2-1-0 on the remote.

I too have found the best set up to be the 970 @ 480i HDMI to my Elite PRO-930HD.

i have 970 for 2 weeks now, i am using via component to hitachi 53SWX10B. when i select 720p or 1080i , i get the soft and really shaky pic. especially when i am watching backup dvd disc. i have no problem with 480i or 480p.
is that my tv or something is wrong with the unit..
ANY SUGGESTIONS? PLEASE, SHOULD I RETURN IT?
i hope my question is not too stupid. help

i have 970 for 2 weeks now, i am using via component to hitachi 53SWX10B. when i select 720p or 1080i , i get the soft and really shaky pic. especially when i am watching backup dvd disc. i have no problem with 480i or 480p.
is that my tv or something is wrong with the unit..
ANY SUGGESTIONS? PLEASE, SHOULD I RETURN IT?
i hope my question is not too stupid. help
Interesting. For macrovision protected DVDs - all movies - selecting 720p/1080i with component just drops back to 480p. For your "backup DVDs" have you verified that the TV is receiving 1080i/720p? Are your "backup DVDs" compressed? (taking the original MPEG2 and compressing it further).

larry

compressed? I think "yes" because i didn't use dl dvd. I just use dvd5 (4.7 g). Yes i did check with Hitachi, the TV will do 1080i /720p.

compressed? I think "yes" because i didn't use dl dvd. I just use dvd5 (4.7 g). Yes i did check with Hitachi, the TV will do 1080i /720p.

PooperScooper meant that can you check your TV is in fact receiving a 1080i/720p signal when you experience this shakiness?

On the Oppo970 website, new firmware for those using HDMI > for SACD.
{ I use HDMI for DVD> digital-spif, but 6 anolog for SACD} any reason do down load this _BETA_ firmware ?
db

If you are using the multi-channel analog outputs, there is no advantage other than a corrected contrast for the component outputs.

PooperScooper meant that can you check your TV is in fact receiving a 1080i/720p signal when you experience this shakiness?
how would i check my tv is receiving 720p /1080i. I checked online and hitachi supports, its should do 720p/1080i . when i switch back to 480i/480p on 970 , picture looks ok again.

Most televisions will have a button or menu which display the current resolution. Alternatively, change to another input then back to the one the DV-970HD is using, and generally a dialogue box will appear informing you of the current resolution.

my tv doesn't have indicator for current resolution or buttom for it. According to Hitachi , TV should select it automatically. But on tv's menu . I can change PICTURE FORMAT.
1. HD
2.SVD/DVD
3.1080I
4.570P
and i tried them all, i still get really shaky pic (unwatchable)

how would i check my tv is receiving 720p /1080i. I checked online and hitachi supports, its should do 720p/1080i . when i switch back to 480i/480p on 970 , picture looks ok again.

Check your remote for buttons labeled: 'Info', or 'Display'. These usually will pop up an overlay screen with the information. Sometimes, pressing the same button again will cycle through more information.

redjr.... :)

thanx , but no help there , there're just basic info.

i read most of the posts out of 46 pages here. Usually there are "help" or answer by other members.
Is my question too dumb? don't makesense?
this is 2nd day that i post the same question.
ummmm help help

how would i check my tv is receiving 720p /1080i. I checked online and hitachi supports, its should do 720p/1080i . when i switch back to 480i/480p on 970 , picture looks ok again.
Did you try the RPTV forum (I assume it's a RPTV, if not there's a forum here for it)?
You have a better chance of getting an answer in the proper forum.

larry

compressed? I think "yes" because i didn't use dl dvd. I just use dvd5 (4.7 g). Yes i did check with Hitachi, the TV will do 1080i /720p.The extra compression may account for the extra softness, but I don't know about shakiness.

larry

Is anyone using the 970 with a Panasonic 42PWD8UK? I'm interested, I'll need an HDMI blade, but all in it should only cost me about $350...sell my current Sony Player and the net should be nill.

i just got mine and watched a disk on my PDP-4270 through HDMI, last night in 1080i and the picture was soooo good I almost started to cry. it made my old Sony DVD look so bad i wanted to hit it with a hammer. i can't remember the movie because I was totally playing attention the picture not the movie. i also played around with other modes but the 1080 seemed to work best...at least for that movie. Thanks for the rec. this DVD player has beat my expectations. :D :D :D :D

HDTVLUVR - nope, i bought it from OPPO, it was about $6 bucks more then amazon but it came the next day!!!!! granted i live in Northen cali.

i just got mine and watched a disk on my PDP-4270 through HDMI, last night in 1080i and the picture was soooo good I almost started to cry. it made my old Sony DVD look so bad i wanted to hit it with a hammer. i can't remember the movie because I was totally playing attention the picture not the movie. i also played around with other modes but the 1080 seemed to work best...at least for that movie. Thanks for the rec. this DVD player has beat my expectations. :D :D :D :D

Did you get the 970 or the 971?

The reason I ask is that I too have a PDP-4270 and I bought a 970... and like you wanted to beat my old Sony NS-700P with a hammer.

However, I found the best picture to be with the output set at 480i (allowing my TV to do the scaling and deinterlacing)

If 1080i looked best to you and you are using the 970, you might also want to order the 971 and check it out because it has a better processor than the 970. You can return the one you like less...

Thanks. I tried to find the best deal and I guess it is too new to sell below MSRP. I ordered last night from Surf Audio.

BTW, THANKS MIKE for providing the mx700 file for the 970. I've already got it loaded into mx editor so I can download it to the remote when the player arrives.
I noticed there were learned commands on the volume and mute buttons. I assume these were to control your receiver? Or do they do something with the DVD player?

Volume and Mute commands only work for the analog outputs, or when you use the multi-channel option for HDMI or PCM playback.

If 1080i looked best to you and you are using the 970, you might also want to order the 971 and check it out because it has a better processor than the 970. You can return the one you like less...

The OPDV971H does not do a good job with interlaced output [ie. 1080i]. Additionally, since you are re-interlacing the video, you will not see much, if any improvement, to the video signal at 1080i. At the progressive level, the OPDV971H is still king, but when it comes to interlaced imagery, the DV-970HD is the unit of choice.

The OPDV971H does not do a good job with interlaced output [ie. 1080i]. Additionally, since you are re-interlacing the video, you will not see much, if any improvement, to the video signal at 1080i. At the progressive level, the OPDV971H is still king, but when it comes to interlaced imagery, the DV-970HD is the unit of choice.

I have a CRT RPTV with 1080i native. Are you saying the 970 is probably better for me instead of the 971 (for film-based material)?

I just got the 970 and attached to my Sony 60 SXRD. Initially the connection was at 480P, only average picture. Then I switched to 1080i (cannot switch while DVD is playing) and what a great picture.

First movie was Master and Commander, for black level test. Looks very dark, as it should. Then I popped in Aviator for the flying sequence in the beginning of the movie. Very sharp picture.

Lastly I threw in LOTR ROTK - and the colors had that HDTV-like 'pop'. Very impressed with the combo. I also viewed at 480i and the picture was somewhat inferior to 1080i. I recommend the 970 at 1080i for the Sony 60 SXRD.

I have a CRT RPTV with 1080i native. Are you saying the 970 is probably better for me instead of the 971 (for film-based material)?

Yes and no. Yes because the overall image may be sharper than the OPDV971H. No in the sense that your picture will likely have more visual errors in terms of noise, possible Y/C delay, vertical compression, chroma and other errors.

Neuro,

I thought the 970 didn't have YC Delay nor chroma (according to reviews).

Is the vertical compression noticable?

It has ICP errors which are masked once you upscale the image. General chroma errors can come about, due to the internal mechanics not being well designed to handle CCS.

Vertical compression is noticeable in the form of two bars at the top and bottom of the display when using any resolution greater than 480. In terms of seeing a loss of resolution, you only notice it when throwing down a test pattern. In real world applications you won't notice the compression, but you will see the bars.

Did you get the 970 or the 971?

The reason I ask is that I too have a PDP-4270 and I bought a 970... and like you wanted to beat my old Sony NS-700P with a hammer.

However, I found the best picture to be with the output set at 480i (allowing my TV to do the scaling and deinterlacing)

If 1080i looked best to you and you are using the 970, you might also want to order the 971 and check it out because it has a better processor than the 970. You can return the one you like less...


i have the 970, and was so entranced with the pciture that i haven't really analized 480i over the other modes in fine detail. when i looked at different modes it was hard to see a big difference, so i kept it on 1080. but once i get the stars out of my eyes i will take a closer look. is there a good DVD to gauge with?

The OPDV971H does not do a good job with interlaced output [ie. 1080i]. Additionally, since you are re-interlacing the video, you will not see much, if any improvement, to the video signal at 1080i. At the progressive level, the OPDV971H is still king, but when it comes to interlaced imagery, the DV-970HD is the unit of choice.

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that.

In my case I have the 970 connected to my brand new PDP-4270. I did not notice much difference between 480i and 1080i. Some DVDs (Ronin) looked slightly better in 480i and some (Matrix) slightly better in 1080i. What is a better signal to send in your opinion?

i have the 970, and was so entranced with the pciture that i haven't really analized 480i over the other modes in fine detail. when i looked at different modes it was hard to see a big difference, so i kept it on 1080. but once i get the stars out of my eyes i will take a closer look. is there a good DVD to gauge with?

My experience was similar. I've been quite happy with the 480i mode, allowing my Pio PRO-1130HD do the scaling. I can't imagine it looking any better. My experience might not be typical, though, since I moved from a 35" Sony CRT and an older DVD player to the Pioneer plasma and the Oppo 970 all in one fell swoop, so I'm probably still weak-kneed from excitement!

Thanks Steve. My 24 AWG 15 foot HDMI cable came in today. Just hooked it up and it appears to have resolved my macroblocking issue. The picture looks near perfect now. :D

Rob

Great news!

/steve

It has ICP errors which are masked once you upscale the image. General chroma errors can come about, due to the internal mechanics not being well designed to handle CCS.

Chris from Home Theater Secrets may retest for ICP error at some point.

My 970 HD seems to pass the DVE (Title 15, Chapter 7) test at 480p. I think the brief delay before the ICP is corrected is caused by the 3:2 pulldown sensing and not ICP detection, but I could be wrong!

I'm pretty sure it's not my display correcting it, because I do see some ICP "smearing" at 480i.

/steve

ICP is always there, let it be interlaced (hence the name) or progressive. When using progressive scan, ICP is masked, but still present when compared to the OPDV971H or other products which corrects the error.

It could be caused by a delay in the algorithm used, but this type fo delay could spell errors in playback, as the detection is not always constant.

[...]
So in my particular case, deinterlacing with the MTK chip (to get from 480i to 480p), scaling and processing once with the Faroudja (I think I have the chip functionality correct) to get from 480p to 720p, and scaling once again in the NEC (to go from 720p to 768p) turned out to be the best picture. As always, your mileage may vary.

You may be already saying this, but I believe the 480i to 480p de-interlacing step you mention above is actually being handled by the Faroudja Genesis chip in the 971H. I believe the Mediatek is only used for MPEG decompression at 480p and above in this player, but I could be wrong.

I never tested the 971H at 480p over DVI. I like the 970HD's performance at both 480i and 480p over HDMI, but now I wonder how the 971H at 480p compares on my display? If it turned out to be an improvement, it would definitely be "gilding the lily" in my case, since I see such a great picture now!

/steve

The MTK chipset only does the decoding. All other responsibilities (including de-interlacing - progressive scan) are handled by the Faroudja chipset through the DVI output on the OPDV971H.

The MTK chipset only does the decoding. All other responsibilities (including de-interlacing - progressive scan) are handled by the Faroudja chipset through the DVI output on the OPDV971H.

Thanks for the clarification. My observations still confirm the prevailing wisdom, which is that the MTK de-interlacer/scaler in the 970 is not as sophisticated as the Faroudja in the 971, and since I have none of the Faroudja-based issues when paired with my NEC plasma, this combination works best for me. Apparently the deinterlacer and scaler in my NEC is not superior to the Faroudja, and thus the 480i HDMI output on the 970 doesn't buy me anything PQ-wise.

My situation is a bit different. My Fujitsu panel has an excellent scaler and a very good de-interlacer... probably not as good as the Genesis, though. My built-in AVM II processor seems to handle 3:2 pulldown a bit better than the MTK, but does suffer from ICP. I see the difference on the DVE test patterns, but honestly don't see much of a difference when watching movies when switching between 480p and 480i. Sometimes I think one is better than the other, but it may just be pyschological. When properly calibrated, either setting provides almost DirecTV HD quality (comparable to HBO and HDNet movies) at 720p from my DirecTivo.

I'm tempted to try the 971H at 480p, especially since my Fujitsu has a non HDCP DVI input sitting unused, but I hate to give up the discrete"on" and "off" commands, which helps make my set-up very "wife-friendly". :)

/steve

My experience was similar. I've been quite happy with the 480i mode, allowing my Pio PRO-1130HD do the scaling. I can't imagine it looking any better. My experience might not be typical, though, since I moved from a 35" Sony CRT and an older DVD player to the Pioneer plasma and the Oppo 970 all in one fell swoop, so I'm probably still weak-kneed from excitement!

Of course, I have already posted the same result, above - and couldn't agree more! The 970 is the perfect complement to the Pio 1130! :D

LIY

I recently installed a 970HD feeding a Yamaha HTR-5990. Both are new to me, and I seem to have an audio issue. Using HDMI only, feeding a Z4. When I configure the Oppo per the manual (SPDIF and Raw), the Yamaha does not see the Dolby Digital stream, or at least is not decoding it. HDMI is the only audio source, so it appears to be PCM stereo or Lt/Rt. If I connect the optical output, the Yamaha sees DD and decodes as I would expect.
If I configure the Oppo for "multichannel", then the channel present indicators on the Yamaha all illuminate, although the DD indicator still does not light. Does this mean the Oppo is doing the decoding and sending it as discrete audio streams to the Yamaha via the HDMI cable?
Is this an implementation choice made by Yamaha or Oppo, a function of HDMI, or am I making an error in observation? The Yamaha manual is not very well written, and I posted this same question in other forums without response.
Any ideas or comments?

Ensure that the HDMI on the DV-970HD is also set to SPDIF. Otherwise, you will get 2.0 PCM.

When set to Multi-Channel, the OPDV971H is doing all the audio decoding, which is why you are not seeing the DD or DTS symbols on your receivr.

Forgive me if I am asking a question that has been answered already....

I want to buy the DV-970HD for playing other regional DVDs as well
as quite a few PAL discs I own.

I read this:


then you will want to go with the OPDV971H, as the DV-970HD does not support 2:2 Cadence.


Could someone explain this a little more clearly?

Would I really be better off going with the 971H for PAL playback
or can I survive with the 970HD.

Look forward to your response.

Hi Folks,

I purchased two DV-970HD players for my Panny PX-50TH60U based on the threads I have read.

Quick Question: Anyone else have the setup, and if so, what output on the Oppo are you using? 480i, 720p, etc...

Reason I ask is, I really can't figure out what is the better choice. I thought the Panny had a nice scaler (correct term?) based on how good other sources looked.

But, I had a Toshiba 49xx DVD Player over Component and I really can't see the BIG difference that I was expecting based on the threads.

Actually, I'm not sure it is even equal, and I really want it to be :)

I was also considering changing to the 971 (one or both of them) but I wanted the HDMI for the bedroom TV (using one cable). I could always switch one of the players (in the family room) where I currently use HDMI to the set and optical to the receiver.

Am I doing something wrong here? I find it very hard to tell the difference when you have to stop the play, switch the output and start again...but again, could be my untrained eyes.

Any thoughts from 970 and 50th60u users?

Thanks!

djap2

Ensure that the HDMI on the DV-970HD is also set to SPDIF. Otherwise, you will get 2.0 PCM.

When set to Multi-Channel, the OPDV971H is doing all the audio decoding, which is why you are not seeing the DD or DTS symbols on your receivr.

Thanks, Neuro, but as I said in the original question, when I set the Oppo to SPDIF (and Raw), the Yamaha still does not show it is receiving Dolby Digital (thru the HDMI) This may be an implementation decision by Yamaha, but the manual is so deficient in information I can't tell. As I said, if I connect the optical output, the Yamaha sees and decodes DD, but not, apparently, thru the HDMI input. It wouldn't be a problem just to add the optical link, the units are close to each other, but I felt it would be better to use the HDMI interface.

Forgive me if I am asking a question that has been answered already....

I want to buy the DV-970HD for playing other regional DVDs as well
as quite a few PAL discs I own.

I read this:



Could someone explain this a little more clearly?

Would I really be better off going with the 971H for PAL playback
or can I survive with the 970HD.

Look forward to your response.

Ron,

The 971H performs poorly over component .....if I recall, your Toshiba CRT RPTV is component-based only. If this is still the case, you definitely want the 970.

Oh, did I mention? I just bought a new DLP television with HDMI input.

I appreciate the fact that someone remembered I owned a Toshiba.

My main question is the playback of PAL discs with the 970 over HDMI.

One reviewer states a problem with 2:2 cadence and that the 970
would not handle it well.

That's all pretty foreign to me as far as what it means.

Simply, will the 970 play recent PAL disc releases with minimal problems?

Thanks!

It will play them with a minimal of problems, but you may see errors such as interlacing and anti-aliasing artifacting, due to the lack of internal Film 2:2 Cadence support. 2:2 Cadence is analogous to 3:2 Pulldown for NTSC discs.

Neuromancer,

Thanks for that information. In that case, would the 971 fare better or is it the
same situation for both?

My Malata plays PAL discs fine and I don't even know if there is 2:2 cadence support
on that player.

Dear friends, :)

I am a happy owner (may be not happy anymore) of a old Sony DVP-S7000.

I've decided to exchange it by the sony dvp-ns55p ($70), since both my receiver (Yamaha RX-V2500) and my 50" Toshiba TV don´t have HDMI interfaces.

However after read all the notes you guys posted about OPPP 970 ($150) I really became very interested in it. ;)

My main requisites are multi region free Player compatible with DVD+R DL media.

Has any of you already tested if this player reads media DVD+R DL (Verbatim). ??? :confused:

Thanks to your posts I've already known that it can be region free.

Should I prefer this player to SAMSNG 950HD, PANASONIC S97, SONY DVP-NS75H, DENON 1920 and even OPPO 971 ?

Thanks in advance.

JL

Has any of you already tested if this player reads media DVD+R DL (Verbatim).

I'll burn one tonight and test for you.

I've tried the RISC part of the Oppo 970 FW (1A-0526) on my Philips LX3900.
Everything works fine except two things:

1) If I want to play Nero Digital files it stops after few seconds and jump to the next file on the CD.
2) It happens also with some Xvid files

Any ideas?
Had anybody experienced the same problem with the Oppo (with pre-installed Oppo original FW 0526)

Thanks in advance,
Eman

My main requisites are multi region free Player compatible with DVD+R DL media.

Has any of you already tested if this player reads media DVD+R DL (Verbatim). ??? :confused:

I have not had problems with the Verbatim, Fuji, and Memorex DL media I have used.

A couple weeks ago I attempted to play a DVD recorded in VR mode in the Oppo and found that the disc couldn't be recognized. Has anyone else had any luck playing DVD-VR discs in the 970?

I have not had problems with the Verbatim, Fuji, and Memorex DL media I have used.

Thanks Neuromancer for the report. :)


I have another question for everyone...

Since I have a non-HDTV Toshiba 50" (rear projection TV), will I take any benefits from up-scaling/up-conversion functionality of OPPO 970 , we say from connecting it thru video component video interface ?

Beside the HDMI interface and its up-conversion features, is the OPPO 970 a basic DVD player better then Sony DVP-NS55P ?

In my case which one is better: OPPO 970 or OPPO 971 ? Or it doesn't matter?

Does anyone have experience yet with the USB port and flash or hard drives? I suppose the USB flash drives will work OK, but it occurred to me that I should be able to hook up a real hard drive that has been converted to USB. I'm wondering about any limits that may be in the OPPO firmware related to the filesystem. Seems like they should be able to handle up to the limit of standard FAT16....

I wish Oppo would release a firmware that fixes the "jerky" bug that's apparent on Star Wars Ep. 3 and other dvd's. I really like the player aside from that.

Thanks Neuromancer for the report. :)


I have another question for everyone...

Since I have a non-HDTV Toshiba 50" (rear projection TV), will I take any benefits from up-scaling/up-conversion functionality of OPPO 970 , we say from connecting it thru video component video interface ?

Beside the HDMI interface and its up-conversion features, is the OPPO 970 a basic DVD player better then Sony DVP-NS55P ?

In my case which one is better: OPPO 970 or OPPO 971 ? Or it doesn't matter?

I have a CRT RPTV too.....I *suspect* the 970 is a better option.

From what I have gathered, the 970 might be a better player over the 971 for CRT RPTVs for these reasons:

- Better 1080i output (Faroudja works better with progressive output)
- Sharper image
- Better 480p component which MIGHT be best for many CRT RPTV

On any rate, I ordered the 970 and will be comparing it to my 971 this week. I'll post my thoughts afterward.

Since I have a non-HDTV Toshiba 50" (rear projection TV), will I take any benefits from up-scaling/up-conversion functionality of OPPO 970 , we say from Since your display is not HDTV, you cannot upconvert anyway. The upconversion only applies to HDMI interface, you cannot upconvert on the component video connection. At least not for copy-protected DVDs (which is basically all of them).
If your TV supports progressive 480p on component input, I think you might benefit a little from the better deinterlacer in the 971. Although on a non-HD display I doubt the differences would be that visible.
On the flipside, someone in this thread suggested the 971 is much better on its HDMI than its component output.
But overall, I'm guessing you'll never notice any difference. The more important consideration might be for when you upgrade your display. The 971 has the macroblocking issue, the 970 does not. Check the DVD players forum for macroblocking to see if that may affect you in the future.

A couple weeks ago I attempted to play a DVD recorded in VR mode in the Oppo and found that the disc couldn't be recognized. Has anyone else had any luck playing DVD-VR discs in the 970?

Most VR discs will not work unless they are closed, and unless they are DVD+R media.

ok, so i spent some time this weekend going back and forth between 480I and 1080I on my pdp-4270 with HDMI and damm if i did not see a difference. they both looke3d great to me, so i am going to stick with 1080 for now (makes me feel better).

cheers!

Does anyone have experience yet with the USB port and flash or hard drives? I suppose the USB flash drives will work OK, but it occurred to me that I should be able to hook up a real hard drive that has been converted to USB. I'm wondering about any limits that may be in the OPPO firmware related to the filesystem. Seems like they should be able to handle up to the limit of standard FAT16....

The USB 1.1 interface is FAT only. That is, you will not beable to use external HDDs which have a partition larger than 2.0 GIG. It is primarily a Flash interface.

Hi - new to Home Theater in general. I'm a new owner of a used Sony KDF-42WE655 42" Grand WEGA LCD. I was looking for a DVD player and originally purchased a Sony DVD Player from Costco - not exactly sure which model but it has HDMI and includes a HDMI cable. I figured it was the easiest route to go.

I stumbled upon this forum and ended up getting excited about the Oppo so I ordered one. It arrived EXTREMELY fast and I got everything plugged in and going relatively quickly. Here's my review:

1. I noticed a SLIGHT upgrade from the Oppo to the Sony - I was watching Wallace and Gromit but not significant.

2. The remote is pretty disgusting.

Being that I am a complete noob to all of this, that's how these comments should be taken. I know nothing and thus I don't really see the difference. The Sony player at costco cost me about $140 total while the Oppo cost me $170 total. I'm going to keep the Oppo because it's easier to return the Sony and because the Oppo IS region free and I'm not going to spend the rest of my life comparing DVD players.

Thus, my opinion is that there really isn't THAT much to the Oppo. It's nice but is it going to change the way you watch DVDs? No.

My questions to the forum are:
1. Am I using the Oppo player incorrectly? Is there something with the TV that I should be able to adjust to make things even "better"? I can't seem to figure out if my TV has a great "scaling and de-interlacer" since Oppo recommends to use the TV instead of the DVD player for upconverting if it does have that. I've found 720p to be the best output so far.

2. I haven't tried the USB connection but does that mean I can take my USB drive or USB hard drive and play all of the movies that are on it? That would be...AWESOME!

(Thanks to everyone who's posted so far - this forum has been VERY helpful.)

First off, fantastic thread and site. I was looking for a new dvd player and stumbled across the site about a month ago. Finally ordered the 970HD, been using it for a week or so. Picture is much better than the old (and I must stress "free") Cyberhome doorstopper I had. It's hooked up to an Infocus X1, thus I needed Component progressive scan and couldn't go for the 971.

I have a couple of anime series encoded in Divx, they play back very nicely, load fast, sharp image, no complaints at all in that department.

What I have noticed is that when I start up the player there seems to be ripples or waves running in the display output. Sometimes it is better, sometimes it is worse. It's especially noticeable when the Oppo loading screen first comes up, before the disc loads. It's not the projector or my cable run, as my Gamecube uses 480p as well and I don't see it at all there. Has anyone come across something like this?

Incidentally, I'm projecting approximately 70" full screen, sitting about 10ft back. When I get a chance I'm going to backup a movie and try upscaling it to see if the ripples are still there, although as I am typing this I realise I can still switch it up without a movie in there to see how the load screen looks :-)

Thanks in advance if you are able to help!

I have not had problems with the Verbatim, Fuji, and Memorex DL media I have used.

Dear Neuromancer,

May I ask you other 2 questions:

1) Have you tried to read VCD and SVCD medias on 970 ?

2) Which software have you been using to burn DVD+R DL media ? Cause I read somewhere that NERO recorded CD media wasn't read by 970.

Thanks

VCD and SVCD play without a problem.

I use DVD-Decrypter for my DVD+R DL media. Nero works find for Data backups (MP3, DivX, S/VCD and Video-DVD) but is not good for DL film backups.

Audioholics DV-970HD Review (http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/OppoDV-970HDDVDp1.php) has been posted.

VCD and SVCD play without a problem.

I use DVD-Decrypter for my DVD+R DL media. Nero works find for Data backups (MP3, DivX, S/VCD and Video-DVD) but is not good for DL film backups.

OK Neromancer it's very kind of you to answer *ALL* my questions. Thank you !

If I have another question I will post it.

Thanks

The USB 1.1 interface is FAT only. That is, you will not beable to use external HDDs which have a partition larger than 2.0 GIG. It is primarily a Flash interface.

Hmm weird - i have the oppo conencted to an external HDD with a 32GB Fat32 primary partition and it's working fine.

With a FAT32 drive you may run into errors accessing files which are further in the partition (FAT16 has a 2GIG partition limit).

Another problem is that the display is only 8.3 characters, which makes for a lot of redundent naming schemes for your files.

Im using the 970HD with HDMI and Panny 900, should I be on Y Cb Cr on the plyer od RGB and why? If its Y Cb Cr what should the Panny 900 be on please?

many thanks :confused:

You probably won't see a difference between the two (after a possible recalibration), but YCbCr is used in encoding the DVD and video processing. If the 970HD output 10bit video, then you'd have to use YCbCr to get 10bit output via HDMI.

larry

First off, fantastic thread and site. I was looking for a new dvd player and stumbled across the site about a month ago. Finally ordered the 970HD, been using it for a week or so. Picture is much better than the old (and I must stress "free") Cyberhome doorstopper I had. It's hooked up to an Infocus X1, thus I needed Component progressive scan and couldn't go for the 971.

I have a couple of anime series encoded in Divx, they play back very nicely, load fast, sharp image, no complaints at all in that department.

What I have noticed is that when I start up the player there seems to be ripples or waves running in the display output. Sometimes it is better, sometimes it is worse. It's especially noticeable when the Oppo loading screen first comes up, before the disc loads. It's not the projector or my cable run, as my Gamecube uses 480p as well and I don't see it at all there. Has anyone come across something like this?

Incidentally, I'm projecting approximately 70" full screen, sitting about 10ft back. When I get a chance I'm going to backup a movie and try upscaling it to see if the ripples are still there, although as I am typing this I realise I can still switch it up without a movie in there to see how the load screen looks :-)

Thanks in advance if you are able to help!


Narrowed it down a little bit, the waves or ripples running through the display only seems to happen in 480p, when I bumped it up to 720p or 1080i it looked clean. Any ideas anyone?

Thanks

Are you using the HDMI or the Component outputs?

Are you using the HDMI or the Component outputs?

Component, unfortunately that's all my X1 has.

Could be caused by bad wiring. One thing you can do is re-run the wiring and keep it away from any other electrical sources or stop the wiring from major bending and crimping.

Could be caused by bad wiring. One thing you can do is re-run the wiring and keep it away from any other electrical sources or stop the wiring from major bending and crimping.

It's all buried in the wall and ceiling, uses the same run for my GC which doesn't have the issue in 480p, but I've got an extra 3ft set so I can probably balance the player on my head long enough to at least try that and see how it looks. :)

Thanks!

I just received my 970 and I immediately connected it to the DVDO VP30 scaler via HDMI.............. but as I use a old crt projector, not HDCP compliant, I can't get an image via HDMI!

I bought this player for this use :-(

I know that on similar dvd players based on same chipset (Mediatek) it's possible to turn hdcp off. Do someone know how to do that on this player?

There are no known hacks for HDCP removal at this time.

Audioholics DV-970HD Review (http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/OppoDV-970HDDVDp1.php) has been posted.
Another good review by Clint DeBoer at Audioholics.

The quality problem he found in HDMI audio is disappointing to me because the transmission of all audio formats, including DVD-A/SACD hi-rez audio, via HDMI is the most attractive buying factor. I hope this can be fixed via firmware (although I doubt).

Has anyone else noticed the quality degradation of the 970HD's HDMI PCM output (from Redbook CDs) compared to its S/DPIF PCM or analog output?

Another good review by Clint DeBoer at Audioholics.

The quality problem he found in HDMI audio is disappointing to me because the transmission of all audio formats, including DVD-A/SACD hi-rez audio, via HDMI is the most attractive buying factor. I hope this can be fixed via firmware (although I doubt).



This has caused me to halt my order. I hope that it can be fixed with a fw upgrade, or that the replacement for the 971 will adress this issue. Or even better, maybe Audioholics will come out and say that they were wrong ;)

I see a mention of the HDCP and macrovision in the Oppo 970 beta firmware, but I will track down if they can be disabled via remote, Since I see no menu's to disable it like the Region Free menu.

This has caused me to halt my order. I hope that it can be fixed with a fw upgrade, or that the replacement for the 971 will adress this issue. Or even better, maybe Audioholics will come out and say that they were wrong ;)
As Clint DeBoer said, if the SQ degradation of HDMI audio is NOT subtle, then it can easily be tested and confirmed by any 970 user who uses the player via HDMI 1.1 connection to a compatible receiver (e.g., Denon, Yamaha, or Pioneer Elite). An AB test can be done by switching between HDMI and other digital (or analog) audio connections from the 970.

Anyone?

I am in the market for a DVD player after I purchased a Samsung HL-S5088W DLP, I currently use a modded Xbox!?!

I have done tons of looking around and am trying to decide between a Oppo 970 and a 971. I am leanning towards the 970 currently (mainly for the price) but am worried about any potential problems I may encounter with my set.

Im no A/V guy really but this site has been a huge help in deciding my potential purchases. The $50 difference isn't a deal breaker but if I end up saving some money on a DVD player, it would encourage me to buy a HD-DVD or BluRay a little faster. I cannot justify that now though.

Thanks for your help, sorry for being a total n00b

Hello,

I'm a newbie and have just pre-ordered the new Sony 60" A2000 SXRD RPTV. I've read this whole thread now and keep going back and forth between the 971 and 970.

Given the fact that I will have the SXRD TV that's 60" and very highly anticipated based on the SXRD XBR line's performance, is it a safer bet to go with the 971? If so, is it likely that I will experience the marco blocking issue found on Faroudja chips?

Thanks,

James

I see a mention of the HDCP and macrovision in the Oppo 970 beta firmware, but I will track down if they can be disabled via remote, Since I see no menu's to disable it like the Region Free menu.

The ability to turn Off Macrovision and HDCP was in the pre-production firmware only. The secret menu's and codes are not in the production or current beta firmware.

Given the fact that I will have the SXRD TV that's 60" and very highly anticipated based on the SXRD XBR line's performance, is it a safer bet to go with the 971? If so, is it likely that I will experience the marco blocking issue found on Faroudja chips?

When I tested a 60" Sony SXRD (sorry don't remember the model number) I noticed extreme resolution loss when using the internal scaler on the DV-970HD. I would personally spend a little more and go with the OPDV971H, as your television is not prone to macroblocking errors, and the OPDV971H has the superior de-interlacer and upscaling chipset.

From what I've read, many have used the current SXRDs with the 971 without any macroblocking (especially if the display is calibrated at all).

I'd spring for the 971 myself.

Could be caused by bad wiring. One thing you can do is re-run the wiring and keep it away from any other electrical sources or stop the wiring from major bending and crimping.

Thank You Neuromancer!

I got home last night and took another look at everything and promptly slapped my forehead (well, not really, but I felt like doing that). Problem was with my switch box, or more accurately with the connection of my coaxial digital line to the switch box. Started swapping cables, connections, etc, turns out I was getting some interference or cross talk as long as the audio cable was connected. Since I only have one device that needs it at this time, just plugged it straight into the receiver and voila!

Popped in Batman Begins, watched the "Will to Act" scene with the sword fight on the lake, beautiful.

Thanks so much!

Audioholics DV-970HD Review (http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/OppoDV-970HDDVDp1.php) has been posted.


Interesting. Has anyone else taken the time to compare HDMI to the other outputs on the unit for hi-res audio?

Does anyone know of this issue with audio over HDMI being truncated (as audioholics put it)?

I'm curious, did audioholics try the 970 beta firmware Oppo has? It seems to list several fixes directly related to HDMI audio output.

Hi Neuromancer (or anyone else),
Quick question - I have a 34" Panasonic direct view CRT HDTV. Would this display be best suited for the 970 or the 971? Or is the display small enough that either would be excellent? Not sure if this display suffers from macroblocking.
Thanks.

for CRTs I would say the DV-970HD, as it is likely to produce the sharper image.

My Oppo 971-H has started to do some wired things. It has started to produced vertical green lines accross the picture. Sometimes it's so thick you can't see the picture, sometimes you can make the picture out behind the green lines. It has also stopped and started a few times at the beginning of the movie and rereads the "DVD-video", but seems to after it gets stopped and started a few minutes in to it works (I also can get rid of the green lines by turning off and on the player, at least sometimes). I've done a firmware upgrade and yet the vertical green lines have happened once since I did the upgrade. Any ideas? TIA

I'm curious, did audioholics try the 970 beta firmware Oppo has? It seems to list several fixes directly related to HDMI audio output.We used the latest release firmware when writing the review. I'll see about updating it and checking it out.

Hi Neuromancer (or anyone else),
Quick question - I have a 34" Panasonic direct view CRT HDTV. Would this display be best suited for the 970 or the 971? Or is the display small enough that either would be excellent? Not sure if this display suffers from macroblocking.
Thanks.

This may help a bit, but I'll be comparing my 971 to the 970 once it arrives (tonight or tomorrow night). I have a CRT RPTV. See the 971 vs 970 thread.

Thanks guys for your feedback, you just helped me decide to order the 971 model. I've placed the order this morning. I will let you all know how it turns out after it arrives. I'll try to test it in a variety of configurations.

Thanks,

James

My Oppo 971-H has started to do some wired things. It has started to produced vertical green lines accross the picture. Sometimes it's so thick you can't see the picture, sometimes you can make the picture out behind the green lines. It has also stopped and started a few times at the beginning of the movie and rereads the "DVD-video", but seems to after it gets stopped and started a few minutes in to it works (I also can get rid of the green lines by turning off and on the player, at least sometimes). I've done a firmware upgrade and yet the vertical green lines have happened once since I did the upgrade. Any ideas? TIA

I would try another pair of DVI/HDMI cables (if available) or another digital display device (such as a LCD PC monitor) for further diagnostics.

PS. You may want to add this question to the OPDV971H Brain Dump/FAQ.

We used the latest release firmware when writing the review. I'll see about updating it and checking it out.

I also noticed on my D1 that it offers the option to remap audio channels for DVD-A over HDMI 1.1 since apparently there is no standard mapping. Is it possible the channles were off at all maybe L/R reversed? I'm thinking its possible because SACD is converted to essentially DVD-A in this player and that could have ended up slightly off at the other end... Just a hopeful thought.

Incidentally, i'm having a heck of a time getting multichannel DVD-A over HDMI to my D2. Ive got both latest firmware revisions. When i change the res to SD resolutions i get NO audio over HDMI. When i change it to HD reoslutions (720/1080) i only get 2 channel. Anyone see this before?

I use my Oppo 970 together with a DVDO VP30 and two displays: a projector using the VP30 HDMI output and a flat panel using the VP30 analog RGBHV output.

The Oppo is connected as an input to a VP30 HDMI port, and the Oppo setup menu is set to output 480i/576i.

The problem is that the VP30 blocks all Oppo output from the the VP30 analog RGBHV port, including non-HDCP standard definition movie DVDs, unprotected test DVDs, even the Oppo setup menu when there is no disc loaded! Apparently, the Oppo tells the VP30 that all material transmitted over HDMI is HDCP protected.

We discussed this problem on the AVS Forum VP30 thread and an Australian posted the following:

"The issue is with the OPPO, or rather the Intel HDMI chipset that they use. I believe it could be programmed so that 480i/576i would not have HDCP on it, but the easy way out is just to leave it ON all the time. Most of the HDMI HD tuners we have here in Australia have the HDCP signal disabled even for 720p/1080i broadcasts, so it's possible to program it (the Intel HDMI chipset) to be disabled for all output resolutions. The same comments apply to the VP30 HDMI outputs."

I understand that Dazog is trying to track down a means of disabling HDCP and Macrovision by remote. In addition, couldn't we ask Oppo for a firmware upgrade that will avoid flagging 480i/576i as HDCP (or ideally that would not flag anything as HDCP except for content that is legally required to be flagged).

I didn't get good results with a search of this thread.

Has anyone had luck with DVD-R DL discs with this player. I have used DVD+R DL without issue. Just tried a DVD-R DL and it recognized it as DVD-Video, started to load it but then stopped without ever giving any video or audio output.

When i change the res to SD resolutions i get NO audio over HDMI. When i change it to HD reoslutions (720/1080) i only get 2 channel. Anyone see this before?

Have you tried the 1A-0613 Beta Firmware (http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd-firmware-1a-0613.html)?

I didn't get good results with a search of this thread.

Has anyone had luck with DVD-R DL discs with this player. I have used DVD+R DL without issue. Just tried a DVD-R DL and it recognized it as DVD-Video, started to load it but then stopped without ever giving any video or audio output.

I have not tried any DVD-R DL media, but if they are anything like DVD-R media, then you may be out of luck with this support. DVD-R discs are very problematic on the OPPO products at this time.

Have you tried the 1A-0613 Beta Firmware (http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd-firmware-1a-0613.html)?

Yep, this is really stumping me. I also unplugged the unit for several minutes, reset to default settings, reset all the multichannel and downmix settings, etc

I was able to get 6ch 96/24 just now from my HDA1 so its not like the D2 is broken where it cant receive such a signal.

Anyone try pairing the Oppo 970 with an external DAC? Results? I am looking to purchase a modified DIYEDEN from Pacific Valve and Electric but my question is the inputs for many of these DAC only use coaxial and optical. I believe the Oppo only provides the DVD-A and SACD outputs via the RCA analog outputs or HDMI outputs. Can these external DACS also help the hi-rez audio portion of the Oppo as well? And how would it be connected? Saw the Reference Audio Mod solution on their website but it is much too expensive for what they do and having heard some of their products in the past, I wasn't impressed for the money charged. Thanks for the help in advance.

I use my Oppo 970 together with a DVDO VP30 and two displays: a projector using the VP30 HDMI output and a flat panel using the VP30 analog RGBHV output.

The Oppo is connected as an input to a VP30 HDMI port, and the Oppo setup menu is set to output 480i/576i.

The problem is that the VP30 blocks all Oppo output from the the VP30 analog RGBHV port, including non-HDCP standard definition movie DVDs, unprotected test DVDs, even the Oppo setup menu when there is no disc loaded! Apparently, the Oppo tells the VP30 that all material transmitted over HDMI is HDCP protected.

We discussed this problem on the AVS Forum VP30 thread and an Australian posted the following:

"The issue is with the OPPO, or rather the Intel HDMI chipset that they use. I believe it could be programmed so that 480i/576i would not have HDCP on it, but the easy way out is just to leave it ON all the time. Most of the HDMI HD tuners we have here in Australia have the HDCP signal disabled even for 720p/1080i broadcasts, so it's possible to program it (the Intel HDMI chipset) to be disabled for all output resolutions. The same comments apply to the VP30 HDMI outputs."

Could we ask Oppo for a firmware upgrade that will avoid flagging 480i/576i as HDCP (or ideally that would not flag anything as HDCP except for content that is legally required to be flagged)?

Here's what Oppo North American tech support said:

"The HDMI transmitter, in theory, can be programmed to enable/disable HDCP, however that requires a cold boot after the change. It is not possible to change on the fly, however.

I will forward your bug report to the engineers about the possibility of changing HDCP rights, however, it is unlikely that such a feature will be added, as it opens up the possibility of abuse and HDCP infringement."

I have been trying for over a week to get this question answered....

Does the Oppo 970 properly play PAL discs on NTSC via HDMI?

So far, nobody has been able to provide a definitive answer to that, nor
can the company. All they tell me is that BOTH players will do it -- but there
have been reports on the Internet that this may or may not be true.

In any event, I ordered the Oppo 971 simply because, according to the
company's specs, it does have 2:3 cadence support (which the 970 does not).

Anybody here have the 971 and tried playing PAL discs on their player? If
there is no answer, hopefully I should be able to provide one in a week when
my new display and Oppo 971 arrives.

Thanks in advance!

Incidentally, i'm having a heck of a time getting multichannel DVD-A over HDMI to my D2. Ive got both latest firmware revisions. When i change the res to SD resolutions i get NO audio over HDMI. When i change it to HD reoslutions (720/1080) i only get 2 channel. Anyone see this before?

I had reported this problem in this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7995990&&#post7995990

and the AVM-50 thread with no responses

After I upgraded to AVM-50 to 1.06 firmware, I only get 2 channels. Anthem confirmed the problem and said OPPO has to fix and they have been informed as to what they need to do.

However OPPO tells me that no one else has reported the problem.

Neuromancer, could you help raise this issue with OPPO ?

I have been trying for over a week to get this question answered....

Does the Oppo 970 properly play PAL discs on NTSC via HDMI?

So far, nobody has been able to provide a definitive answer to that, nor
can the company. All they tell me is that BOTH players will do it -- but there
have been reports on the Internet that this may or may not be true.

In any event, I ordered the Oppo 971 simply because, according to the
company's specs, it does have 2:3 cadence support (which the 970 does not).

Anybody here have the 971 and tried playing PAL discs on their player? If
there is no answer, hopefully I should be able to provide one in a week when
my new display and Oppo 971 arrives.

Thanks in advance!

it plays both 480i and 576i .... you need a display which can handle both 480i and 576i ..... in terms of deinterlacing, the 971 does a better job with PAL then the 970 ....

So, to those of you who have stated you prefer the 970 over the 971, does this mean that, to your eyes, the 3:3 duplication of Pioneer's APC processing, along with the PDP's scaler, is superior to the almost perfect scaling and de-interlacing of the 971, fed to the display as a progressive signal.

So, to those of you who have stated you prefer the 970 over the 971, does this mean that, to your eyes, the 3:3 duplication of Pioneer's APC processing, along with the PDP's scaler, is superior to the almost perfect scaling and de-interlacing of the 971, fed to the display as a progressive signal.

While I haven't compared the 970 to a 971, to my uncalibrated eyes, feeding 480i from the 970 to the PRO1130HD and allowing the Pio do the scaling results in PQ that, IMHO, would be hard to improve. Perhaps I don't know what I'm missing....!

Does the Oppo 970 properly play PAL discs on NTSC via HDMI?

So far, nobody has been able to provide a definitive answer to that, nor
can the company. All they tell me is that BOTH players will do it -- but there
have been reports on the Internet that this may or may not be true.

Yes, both units will do PAL to PAL and PAL to NTSC. What differentiates the two units is their 2:2 Cadence support. The OPDV971H has native Film 2:2: Cadence support, which the DV-970HD does not. For this reason, discs which are PAL mastered will look proper on the OPDV971H, but may have interlacing and aliasing artifacts on the DV-970HD.

Anybody here have the 971 and tried playing PAL discs on their player? If
there is no answer, hopefully I should be able to provide one in a week when
my new display and Oppo 971 arrives.

You will want to look at the 971H FAQ/Brain Dump about current support, or the UK AVS Forums.

After I upgraded to AVM-50 to 1.06 firmware, I only get 2 channels. Anthem confirmed the problem and said OPPO has to fix and they have been informed as to what they need to do.

OPPO is still actively finding solutions to many of the problems with the HDMI interface. Because they have not experienced the problem does not mean it does not exist. If Anthem is claiming that they have contacted OPPO and have told them exactly what is the problem, then that information is sent well beyond the heads of the CSRs, who will have no knowledge of this communication.

Yes, both units will do PAL to PAL and PAL to NTSC. What differentiates the two units is their 2:2 Cadence support. The OPDV971H has native Film 2:2: Cadence support, which the DV-970HD does not. For this reason, discs which are PAL mastered will look proper on the OPDV971H, but may have interlacing and aliasing artifacts on the DV-970HD.


Excellent! Finally an answer! Looks like I did the right thing by
choosing the 971 over the 970.

Thanks!

I had reported this problem in this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7995990&&#post7995990

and the AVM-50 thread with no responses

After I upgraded to AVM-50 to 1.06 firmware, I only get 2 channels. Anthem confirmed the problem and said OPPO has to fix and they have been informed as to what they need to do.

However OPPO tells me that no one else has reported the problem.

Neuromancer, could you help raise this issue with OPPO ?

Ok, apparently the fix is this (and another user pointed out that this is in the release notes for the BETA firmware )...

Set the HDMI Audio setting to SPDIF
Set the SPDIF setting to RAW

This should fix the issue though i havent been home to test it yet. (You still need to change resolutions to 720p 1080i to get multichannel.)

These steps are listed in the beta firmware release notes but its hidden in 1 line on the whole web page and is a completely non-intuitive way to configure this. Also, HDMI should still work properly, even if you set it to "multichannel" instead of "SPDIF" imo.

Anyway, if this works i'll forget all this griping. :)

last night i ran the 970 at 480i and 1080i to see the "difference" i could hardly tell any. but my TV is still in break-in mode so... question: if my PDP-4270 has a better scaler then i should i run the DVD at 480i? and if i do then what is the difference between my OPPO and a regular DVD player for 59 bucks?

also can someone please chime in on which OPPO the 970 or 971 is better with the PDP-4270 and at which mode. i am still in my 30 day window and would like to get this resolved.

thanks in advance.

Neuromancer,

Thanks for the reply. I certainly hope its gone beyond the CSR's.

Expletive,

I tried SPDIF/RAW combo too and it did not work for me. It worked earlier with 1.04. I tried all combinations of the 6 channel map, recycling the OPPO for each map and that did not work either.

If it works for you let me know.

At this point I will just wait to see if OPPO fixes it in the next firmware release.

sorry i posted in the wrong thread

last night i ran the 970 at 480i and 1080i to see the "difference" i could hardly tell any. but my TV is still in break-in mode so... question: if my PDP-4270 has a better scaler then i should i run the DVD at 480i? and if i do then what is the difference between my OPPO and a regular DVD player for 59 bucks?

thanks in advance.

My take is that you should run in the mode that appears best to you. As previously posted, I'm quite happy with the 970 at 480i on my Pioneer 1130. I'm not sure if the $59 player you mention would do SACD, DVD-A, HDMI, etc. I also appreciated the ability to try several scaling options to confirm that the 1130 is doing a pretty good job. Oppo support, I believe, is way beyond anything else you will find. I'm confident that I could see a difference when comparing the 970 to a high-end player costing more than a kilobuck, but there would be no point, since I'm not about to buy one. My bottom line: I'm not running an A/V lab; I watch movies and I'm pleased with the quality and performance of the 970. It should do until the HD/Blue Ray wars shake out.

Does anyone know the status of a firmware fix for the SACD-CD issues? i.e. gaps, no track names, etc. Are they even wokring on it yet? I have emailed, but the CSRs don't seem to really know what is happening on the development end. Thanks :-)

I have a couple of questions on using the Oppo 970 with SACDs. I thought I had it all straight, but reading different threads led me to more confusion than answers.

1. As I now understand it, the Oppo
's conversion of DSD to LPCM is not lossless. I have seen conflicting reasons for this posted on various threads and forums. So, is it just an implementation issue or is it that only HDMI 1.3 will have the bandwidth to carry a lossless conversion of DSD to LPCM?

2. Realistically, how much loss is there? I have extremely sensitive hearing, but if I get a 970 it will be because I have gone with a Pansonic digital receiver instead of the Denon 2807 whenever I finally get to upgrade. I am wondering if the pure digital path plus my planned speaker upgrades will negate any perception of the loss.

I read the Audioholics review of the 970, and while it added to my reservations, it did not put me off. I mean, this player only costs $150! It is just that I have become a little obsessive since the concept of high resolution audio with a completely digital path got into my head. *_*

Thanks,

Chris

1. As I now understand it, the Oppo
's conversion of DSD to LPCM is not lossless. I have seen conflicting reasons for this posted on various threads and forums. So, is it just an implementation issue or is it that only HDMI 1.3 will have the bandwidth to carry a lossless conversion of DSD to LPCM?


DSD to PCM conversion will always lose you something, but whether you can hear it or not depends on many things. It doesn't depend on what kind of HDMI you're using, because the conversion is done by the player.

--Andre

Any news whether the top/bottom cropping issue @ 720p/1080i will be fixed soon?

Any news whether the top/bottom cropping issue @ 720p/1080i will be fixed soon?


I contacted them recently and they said it is definitely coming, but there is still no ETA.

I have a couple of questions on using the Oppo 970 with SACDs. I thought I had it all straight, but reading different threads led me to more confusion than answers.

1. As I now understand it, the Oppo
's conversion of DSD to LPCM is not lossless. I have seen conflicting reasons for this posted on various threads and forums. So, is it just an implementation issue or is it that only HDMI 1.3 will have the bandwidth to carry a lossless conversion of DSD to LPCM?

2. Realistically, how much loss is there? I have extremely sensitive hearing, but if I get a 970 it will be because I have gone with a Pansonic digital receiver instead of the Denon 2807 whenever I finally get to upgrade. I am wondering if the pure digital path plus my planned speaker upgrades will negate any perception of the loss.

I read the Audioholics review of the 970, and while it added to my reservations, it did not put me off. I mean, this player only costs $150! It is just that I have become a little obsessive since the concept of high resolution audio with a completely digital path got into my head. *_*

Thanks,

Chris

I think the loss (if any) is really dependent on the implementation of the design. I recently heard a modified Esoteric UX-1 player that was outputing DVD-A and SACD through PCM. Most people would think not having a full digital stream would decrease the sound quality but after hearing this Esoteric unit, PCM is the way to go. For the Oppo 970 which I have, I listen via multi-channel using my Magnepan IIIa system and noticed that the sparkle, detail and midrange sounded veiled to me when compared to my modded universal player or Sony CD player. I changed out the interconnects from MIT Terminator 4s to Synergistic Research while adding EMI/RF filters found at your local Radio Shack to the interconnects and the detachable AC cord. Surprisingly, this add probably two notches in performance to the Oppo's audio section. Much more sparkle, detail and a more forward midrange was the results. Now it sounds better than my Sony CD player and is not too far behind my modded universal player. My next step with the Oppo is to add an external DAC which I ordered just today to see how much more I can add to the audio performance to this unit. Will give everyone an update once the unit arrives. Nothing else touches this Oppo at it's price point and with my recent tweaks, I suspect nothing from 2-4 times the amount can touch it as well.

Does anyone know the status of a firmware fix for the SACD-CD issues? i.e. gaps, no track names, etc. Are they even wokring on it yet? I have emailed, but the CSRs don't seem to really know what is happening on the development end. Thanks :-)

Seemless tracks are still being investigated, but no headway has been made.

Track names will not be displayed (outside of Track01, Track02, so forth) because there is no CDDB. Unless there is another way of extracting tracking information, this may never be addressed.

And yes, I gleemed this all from a single CSR.

Seemless tracks are still being investigated, but no headway has been made.

Track names will not be displayed (outside of Track01, Track02, so forth) because there is no CDDB. Unless there is another way of extracting tracking information, this may never be addressed.

And yes, I gleemed this all from a single CSR.

I think what most people are referring to when mentioning showing track names is CD-Text, the technology that allows track names along with the album name and artist name to be encoded on the CD itself. It's been an extension of the Redbook spec for a while but hasn't been used much until recently with the advent of more advanced displays (such as my Prius's MFD). Many newer discs, such as the Dylan CD/SACD hybrids, have this information.

I thought Redbook only applied to CD and not SACD (pure), which is why CDDB would be the only way of obtaining the disc information. if CD-Text is part of SACD, then I stand corrected.

Hello.

I read this thread until page 8 but I'm french and it is very difficult for me to understand all the posts.

I'm looking for a DVD player ables to output [ 480 i / 576 i ] through HDMI with a very good MPEG decompression (without video filters) because I have an external scaler (vantage HD).

I think that oppo 970H is the best choice for me (with a low price).

What is your feeling about my choice ?

My configuration will be :

DVD player (oppo 970h ? or other) in 480i/576i HDMI -> vantage HD (720p HDMI output) -> LCD 32" 720p

Thank you.

Regards
Alexandre

Alex_t - your selection is a good one, as proven by the number of posts to this thread dealing exactly with your type of setup.

And, there's no need to apologize for your English. It is certainly better than the French most of us can speak (or write).

Alex_t - your selection is a good one, as proven by the number of posts to this thread dealing exactly with your type of setup.

And, there's no need to apologize for your English. It is certainly better than the French most of us can speak (or write).

Thank you very much for your reply. I continue to read this thread but it is not easy for me to understand all the posts (but I improve my english ;) ).

This player is a good solution for my configuration. Moreover, OPPO Customer Service seems to be very good.

I'm going to buy it probably in september.

Alexandre

I have not tried any DVD-R DL media, but if they are anything like DVD-R media, then you may be out of luck with this support. DVD-R discs are very problematic on the OPPO products at this time.

Thank you for the information. It corresponds with what I have found also with DVD-R and DVD-R DL so far. Furthermore, I'm not liking the DVD-R DL on the burning side of things either - way too many coasters and having to burn at 2.4x even though they are 4x and the burner could burn them at 4x. Could just be the RiData brand but they play fine in my Pioneer DV-588A. I normally only get DVD+R DL discs anyway but my local Wal-Mart stopped selling them. So I'm going to find some more DVD+R DL discs online because +Rs work in ALL my players (when book typed as DVD-ROM that is).

Track names will not be displayed (outside of Track01, Track02, so forth) because there is no CDDB. Unless there is another way of extracting tracking information, this may never be addressed.
.

Thanks for the update, I was not as lucky when I communicated with someone there.

Hmm, most CD/SACD players show the track info without CDDB. On most CDs it is embedded in the track info on the disc. As I said in an earlier post, my Samsung HD-941 shows all the track info fine and plays seemless for SACD and CD (and it allows me to change from multi ch audio to 2 ch audio without ejecting the disk).

The problem with the 941 is the picture is not as good as the 970 and no DivX support.

From POST : 1475
“”I changed out the interconnects from MIT Terminator 4s to Synergistic Research while adding EMI/RF filters found at your local Radio Shack to the interconnects and the detachable AC cord. Surprisingly, this add probably two notches in performance to the Oppo's audio section
>>Oppo is to add an external DAC which.””

Slbenz, can you go over this with me? {I have a Sony Mod CE775 SACD player &--Oppo970}. I was hoping the 970 would give at least, a close sound fidelity as the modce775.- but not yet. I have a very acoustically changed room, so pure fidelity is not going to happen. Some of your modes I did not understand, could you give a us a little more clarification of what/why you did those Mods to the 970 for SACD.
* The Oppo970 SACD has a nice sound –for those who have never had this in their system, they should be happy, It just doesn’t (currently) have the same fidelity as a $600 player-& so what!) . I have been getting close to placing all the EQ to a closet except fro the DVD/SACD player.

Dadbart,

As stated in another reply:

"I thought Redbook only applied to CD and not SACD (pure), which is why CDDB would be the only way of obtaining the disc information. if CD-Text is part of SACD, then I stand corrected."

Thank you very much for your reply. I continue to read this thread but it is not easy for me to understand all the posts (but I improve my english ;) ).

This player is a good solution for my configuration. Moreover, OPPO Customer Service seems to be very good.

I'm going to buy it probably in september.

Alexandre


Hi Alexandre,

You may not notice too much improvement with your external scaler because of your 32" LCD. On larger TVs (42" and larger) you may see more benefit.

I changed out the interconnects from MIT Terminator 4s to Synergistic Research while adding EMI/RF filters found at your local Radio Shack to the interconnects and the detachable AC cord. Surprisingly, this add probably two notches in performance to the Oppo's audio section.
I don't believe in cable tweaking. I think I have very sensitive ears to SQ and I played with cables a LOT of times before I came to the following conclusion. All GOOD quality interconnects (good 22AWG or thicker conductor and good double or higher braid shielding, whether they are $10 or $300) do NOT IMPROVE SQ over other good quality interconnects. Yes, I totally agree that they can sound DIFFERENT because of their little different physical properties such as capacitance and inductance below acceptable levels, and that some sensitive people can like the sound of one while others can like the sound of another. But this does NOT mean that an interconnect can dramatically IMPROVE the SQ over another.
Don't be deceived by consumer audio merchants who want to sell snake oil. I completely agree with many Audioholics' good articles in this regard, which are consistent with my experience. Today's audio hobby can be much more objective and reasonable than yesterday's, thanks to good information available in internet communities.

I don't believe in cable tweaking. I think I have very sensitive ears to SQ and I played with cables a LOT of times before I came to the following conclusion. All GOOD quality interconnects (good 22AWG or thicker conductor and good double or higher braid shielding, whether they are $10 or $300) do NOT IMPROVE SQ over other good quality interconnects. Yes, I totally agree that they can sound DIFFERENT because of their little different physical properties such as capacitance and inductance below acceptable levels, and that some sensitive people can like the sound of one while others can like the sound of another. But this does NOT mean that an interconnect can dramatically IMPROVE the SQ over another.
Don't be deceived by consumer audio merchants who want to sell snake oil. I completely agree with many Audioholics' good articles in this regard, which are consistent with my experience. Today's audio hobby can be much more objective and reasonable than yesterday's, thanks to good information available in internet communities.

Jay_WJ,

Not trying to get into a cabling discussion. We all have seen many flaming posts on this topic. What I was trying to say that with the interconnect change and addition of the filters, I heard a change that at least for me was a change for the better. I do agree with you that interconnect changes can sound different, mostly subtle changes, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and nothing as dramatic as a speaker change. I wouldn't be surprised that most of the sound change I heard was from the addition of the EMI/RF filters. I have quite a few cables, cords, etc. tangled up together because of limited entry/exit points in my stereo cabinet. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject matter. I hope with the additional use of a high-quality external DAC that I have on order, it will elevate the sound of the Oppo towards the high-end status.

Slbenz

Just got my 970. I have an older 65" MIts that doesn't have hdmi - only component. According to the setup guide (the Advanced one I think), it says the unit will upconvert from 480i to 480p to ... with the hdmi. Does this mean that it will only do 480i over component? With my last player, 480p looked better than 480i. I can not find anything in the menus that says what is being output or how to select i or p.

Did I purchase the wrong unit?

BYW, the display on the TV says 480p. I could not find anything in the TV menu to select input type either.

notice this over at the OPPO website: Career OPPOtunities (https://www.oppodigital.com/careers.html)

Looks like they are looking for Customer Service Representatives to fill their ranks.

Thank you for the information. It corresponds with what I have found also with DVD-R and DVD-R DL so far. .

I have used DVD-R (single layer) exclusively and they work perfectly in my OPPO 970 and EVERY dvd player I have had in the house and given to hundreds and hundreds of students... The brand can be very important. I have stuck with Verbatim 16X and burn at about 6-8 time speed. I have probably made more than 2000 copies and have had no coasters. I make my music video lessons on DVD's for my students and some personal backup copies of movies. NO PROBLEMS, NONE. OPPO 970 plays all them.

So if you are having problems then I would try a different brand or have your burner checked out. It's impossible that I could just be lucky with the quantity of discs that I use. We have Macs and I use an external LaCie. I did clean it once about a year ago.

Aloha ... brad (at pan-flute.com)

Just got back from vacation and my kids reported a problem with my 970HD that I noticed before I left, but thought was due to a defective DVD.

Sound sporadically drops out for several seconds at a time while watching a movie. From day one, I've been using an S/PDIF coax connection to my Yamaha receiver. Apparently, when the movie is backed-up to replay the muted scenes, the sound sometimes plays in places it didn't play before. I plan to move my cabinet and re-check my cable connections tomorrow, but I don't think that's the problem. I'm using a high quality, gold-tipped audio cable that hasn't moved since I installed the player, which has worked flawlessly from an audio standpoint with this setup over the first dozen or so movies we watched on it.

Anyone experience anything similar? Or have any thoughts on what might be causing this? Thx.

/steve

I'm more of a music/audio guy and am using the Oppo 970HD in a system at a second home, where it will be in a 2 channel music system with a Panny plasma. I haven't had a chance to play with the Oppo yet, but it looks like with HDMI connections that DSD is converted to PCM (apparently 24-bit/88.2 KHz). Is there any way to convert SACD/DSD to hi res PCM and output that via the coax/Toslink connectors? I have a Tact 2 channel digital amp, and if possible I'd like to avoid converting DSD to analog and then doing a A/D conversion at the Tact. Also, will the Oppo's digital outputs pass 24/96 content? I've heard some DVD players won't output anything more than 48KHz via their digital outs; they'll downsample any content with a higher sampling rate. It's not a huge deal, but I do have some 24/96 DVD discs from Chesky & Classic Records, and there are some DVD-Audio discs that have high res tracks in the DVD-Video zone.

P.S. The Scarlet Book (i.e. SACD) standard supports both SACD-Text & CD-Text. Not sure why the Oppo doesn't support it though--most other SACD players do.

Has anyone found that when playing raw .VOB files ripped off of dvd's that should be 4:3 they are instead stretched? Regular 4:3 DVDs pillarbox just fine. Is it because the .ISO files are missing? And my TV doesn't support pillarboxing anything but 480i, and 480i just isn't an option.

Just got back from vacation and my kids reported a problem with my 970HD that I noticed before I left, but thought was due to a defective DVD.

Sound sporadically drops out for several seconds at a time while watching a movie. From day one, I've been using an S/PDIF coax connection to my Yamaha receiver. Apparently, when the movie is backed-up to replay the muted scenes, the sound sometimes plays in places it didn't play before. I plan to move my cabinet and re-check my cable connections tomorrow, but I don't think that's the problem. I'm using a high quality, gold-tipped audio cable that hasn't moved since I installed the player, which has worked flawlessly from an audio standpoint with this setup over the first dozen or so movies we watched on it.

Anyone experience anything similar? Or have any thoughts on what might be causing this? Thx.

After some tinkering, I thought the problem might be a handshaking issue with my Yamaha receiver, because when I lowered the LPCM rate to 48khz, I apparently cured the dropout problem.

However, I've since raised the LPCM rate back to 96khz in an effort to try to reliably recreate the problem for Oppo Service, and I am no longer experiencing the dropouts!

Whatever issue I'm having seems to be intermittent, making it very hard to diagnose. I'll just have to monitor it for a while until I can be certain what the issue is. I plan upgrading my receiver in the next week or so, so that should take it as the cause out of the equation.

/steve

From POST : 1475
“”I changed out the interconnects from MIT Terminator 4s to Synergistic Research while adding EMI/RF filters found at your local Radio Shack to the interconnects and the detachable AC cord. Surprisingly, this add probably two notches in performance to the Oppo's audio section
>>Oppo is to add an external DAC which.””

Slbenz, can you go over this with me? {I have a Sony Mod CE775 SACD player &--Oppo970}. I was hoping the 970 would give at least, a close sound fidelity as the modce775.- but not yet. I have a very acoustically changed room, so pure fidelity is not going to happen. Some of your modes I did not understand, could you give a us a little more clarification of what/why you did those Mods to the 970 for SACD.
* The Oppo970 SACD has a nice sound –for those who have never had this in their system, they should be happy, It just doesn’t (currently) have the same fidelity as a $600 player-& so what!) . I have been getting close to placing all the EQ to a closet except fro the DVD/SACD player.

DAB,

As I said in my previous post, I swapped out the interconnects and added EMI/RF filters that you can find at your local Radio Shack and attached them to the interconnects at the preamp and another one attached to the stock AC cord where it attaches to the Oppo. The filters helped to smooth out the digital harshness while helping the mids to come more forward. Hope I was more clear this time.

Slbenz

P.S. Still waiting for the modded DAC to see if it will make a difference with the Oppo.

DAB,

As I said in my previous post, I swapped out the interconnects and added EMI/RF filters that you can find at your local Radio Shack and attached them to the interconnects at the preamp and another one attached to the stock AC cord where it attaches to the Oppo. The filters helped to smooth out the digital harshness while helping the mids to come more forward.


Can you post the Radio Shack part#s please?

I don't believe in cable tweaking. I think I have very sensitive ears to SQ and I played with cables a LOT of times before I came to the following conclusion. All GOOD quality interconnects (good 22AWG or thicker conductor and good double or higher braid shielding, whether they are $10 or $300) do NOT IMPROVE SQ over other good quality interconnects. Yes, I totally agree that they can sound DIFFERENT because of their little different physical properties such as capacitance and inductance below acceptable levels, and that some sensitive people can like the sound of one while others can like the sound of another. But this does NOT mean that an interconnect can dramatically IMPROVE the SQ over another.
Don't be deceived by consumer audio merchants who want to sell snake oil. I completely agree with many Audioholics' good articles in this regard, which are consistent with my experience. Today's audio hobby can be much more objective and reasonable than yesterday's, thanks to good information available in internet communities.Amen! I agree. Subtle differences in sound, caused by "upgraded" interconnects, do not necessarily mean that the sound quality has improved. True, maybe that subtle difference sounds better to one person, but what about the rest? Of course, you would need a high-end acoustically-treated room to hear such subtle differences anyway. Clever marketing dupes many people... and makes LOTS of money at it!

Can you post the Radio Shack part#s please?


The Radio Shack part number is 273-105. It is a ferrite choke core that snaps onto interconnects and AC cords to eliminate RF/EMI.

slbenz, These are just; Snap-Together Ferrite Choke Core - right. What did you do with the ferrite chokes that came with your NECxr5. ( mine are still in the box), my HDMI cable came w/ FChoke inplace. could we use these??
db