Has anyone compared the three? The Oppo is slightly more expensive, but I don't mind if the image quality is superior. The player will be used with a 42" Panasonic 720P plasma (77U).

I actually already have the Sony, which I am less than impressed with, but I am not sure if any of these will be any better. I am still within the return period.

Oppo all the way since it is best for plasma displays.

That's a poor answer. I assume your "best for plasma" comment comes from the fact that the Oppo 981 is a poor choice with some plasma's (although it's an excellent choice for TV's without the macroblocking issues) as people who like the Oppo's usually recommend the 980 so that they avoid the macro-blocking issues that come with the 981 on some displays. I'm not knocking the Oppo's as they are great players with a great company behind them.

That being said, the 980 uses the same chipset as the Sony, Pioneer, and Philips 5982(Mediatek MT1389EE) so it really is a performanc/value question that has been covered much better than I can explain throughout each of these players forums. There were also some picture comparisons posted comparing the Sony/Philips/Toshiba-HD players at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10658142#post10658142.

I had the Oppo DV-980H and I returned earlier this week because of some issues that I had with it. Today I picked up the Pioneer DV-400VK to compare it to my Sony DVP-NS77H that I bought a few days ago. Here is my brief comparison on all three units.

Oppo DV-980H
Excellent picture at 1080i, but a few issues that really affected my movie watching. Here are the issues:
1. When I put in a audio cd or dvd, after it finishes loading them and starts playing them, the 980h does not pickup audio right away with HDMI.
2. There is a flim jitter issue, for example it skips movie frames.
3. The annoying feature is that there is no way to disable the multi-disc auto resume.

Sony DVP-NS77H
Excellent picture quality at 1080i. So far I notice no issues with it. The picture quality is as good as the Oppo DV-980H.

Pioneer DV-400VK
Picture quality at 1080i is soft and not as good as the Sony or the Oppo. There is one issue with it. The issue is that when it plays a dvd or audio cd, it makes a whinning sound through the entire movie or audio cd. I will return this player tomorrow on my lunch break. Lately, Pioneer is going downhill with their dvd players according to the Secrets dvd benchmark tests, and they don't have the quality of workmanship anymore on their products.

Conclusion
I recommend the Sony DVP-NS77H and the Oppo DV-980H over the Pioneer DV-400VK. My preference is the Sony DVP-NS77H, because I had issues with the Oppo that I returned. If I did not have those issues that I mention, I will still pick the Sony because I don't have any use of the extra features on the Oppo has and the picture quality is about the same.

Oppo all the way since it is best for plasma displays.
Most dvd players can look good on Plasma. The only dvd players that look terrible on plasmas are the ones with Faroudja 2300 series chipset.

While I have never tried the Pioneer, like Kage, I too returned the Oppo 980 in favor of the Sony and agree that the 1080i PQ is comparable between the two. I had a bizarre compatability issue between the Oppo and my display resulting in a "black screen" bug. BTW, if you are considering buying the Sony from Crutchfield and have a Visa card, make sure to take advantage of the $20 off $100 discount link on the main Visa USA site.

Kage - I'm glad to hear you tried out the Pioneer and prefer the Sony. Now I have no reason to second guess not trying the Pioneer. :)

I have Pioneer DV-400VK and I'm not experiencing any issues with my unit such as Kage described. Very nice picture quality and works quite with DVD-Video and Audio CDs. I do not hear any "whinning sound".
And one of my HDTV is 42" Panasonic. I recently tested out a few other DVD/DivX players and I finally decided to go with Pioneer. Whatever "Secrets dvd benchmark test" says I prefer to trust my own experience. I also tested Sony DVP-NS77. I personally feel nothing special about that player. IMHO

Oppo DV-980H
Excellent picture at 1080i, but a few issues that really affected my movie watching. Here are the issues:
1. When I put in a audio cd or dvd, after it finishes loading them and starts playing them, the 980h does not pickup audio right away with HDMI.
2. There is a flim jitter issue, for example it skips movie frames.
3. The annoying feature is that there is no way to disable the multi-disc auto resume.


Can you elaborate on issue 3?

Are 1 and 2 common issues or did you have a defective unit?

Can you elaborate on issue 3?

Are 1 and 2 common issues or did you have a defective unit?

For issue 3, there is no way to disable the multidisc playback memory feature.
For issues 1 and 2, I think that there is a compatabilty issue when I connected the Oppo DV-980H to my Sony STR-DG1000 HDMI receiver. With my Sony DVP-NS77H, there is no issues when I connect it to my receiver.

Does the Sony use the Mediatek MT1389EE chip for scaling and deinterlacing?
Or the Genesis/Faroudja?

For issue 3, there is no way to disable the multidisc playback memory feature.
For issues 1 and 2, I think that there is a compatabilty issue when I connected the Oppo DV-980H to my Sony STR-DG1000 HDMI receiver. With my Sony DVP-NS77H, there is no issues when I connect it to my receiver.
Why would you want to disable the multidisc resume feature? I have 2 dvd players that don't have that feature and find it to be most irritating.

Why would you want to disable the multidisc resume feature? I have 2 dvd players that don't have that feature and find it to be most irritating.
Its a nice option to have. Also the DVP-NS77H has postion memory for one disc after I press stop on the remote and power off the unit.

That's one big reason that I like my Sony DVP-NC85H-I don't have to remember where I stopped the disc-it does it for me.

Why would you want to disable the multidisc resume feature? I have 2 dvd players that don't have that feature and find it to be most irritating.Because it requires me to make extra button pushes to begin the disc at the beginning (or elsewhere). I rarely ever want to resume where I lost interest.