Official OPPO DV-983H w/ ABT VRS FAQ/Dump - Page 110

Absolutely, 100%, not even close.

I was piping multichannel DTS thru the coax from the Skyworth into the Yamaha and the sound quality I was getting is not even comparable to that of the 5.1 analog from the Oppo into the Yamaha.

That statement is about the sound quality is valid for pretty much all sources - Redbook CDs, DTS multichannel CDs, DTS DVDs, etc.

In my post I was comparing Oppo's 5.1 analog outputs into the Yamaha DSP-A1 to Skyworth coax (digital) output into the DSP-A1 on a DTS Pulp Fiction DTS soundtrack.

The former is so much better that there is really no comparison - sorry if I confused the decoders in my excitement.

That's fascinating; I'd pretty much assumed that a digital connection to my venerable, but excellent Yamaha would easily outclass the analog sound from the Oppo - my 983 arrives imminently and it looks like I'll have to think again. Thanks for that.

Right. That makes sense.

Gary

Ah, but the DSP-A1 is a rather old amp/processor. I remember years ago when I replaced my DSP-A1s with RX-V1s how much better the V1s sounded. Of course the RX-Z1 did better than that, then there was the Z9 and now the Z11.

Really, not a good comparison. How about as compared to something not quite so obsolete? (You're 4 generations back with the A1)

My 983 arrived last night. I'm really looking forward to getting it installed in the rack and testing it out. Incidentally, even the packaging speaks of quality. I've never seen a component wrapped in a cloth sleeve before. Nice touch.

Can I just confirm that a calibration DVD comes with the unit? If I am going to use the on board decoder of the Oppo and connect to the receiver (Denon AVR-3805) what sort of RCA leads should I be looking for (short lengths, molded together, gold plated, etc)? Additionally is the HDMI cable 1.3? Thanks

I cannot disagree with you, bwillcox, regarding the comparison. :-)))

The A1 as a processor *is* quite obsolete. But the 983 still sounds very good via its analog 5.1 with the A1 as just an amp (no processing). I did have a Sony DVP-NS755V DVD/SACD player connected via analog 5.1 to the Yamaha and the Oppo does sound better.

Are you telling me that my system would sound even better if I used coax or HDMI out of the 983 into a NEW amp/processor?

Any suggestions regarding the above? ;-)

Thanks!

Fired up my new 983 today, replacing the 980. Difference in PQ is very noticeable, though not huge. But the quality image processing is very apparent.

Good to note that it does not have the finicky behavior towards 8x +RW that the 980 has. I fed it some really crappy 8x +RW discs and it ate them right up. So unless it develops an attitude, that issue is solved.

I'll admit that I got so involved in the films I was watching that I failed to properly gage the PQ. I guess that's a good sign.

No. The DVD that comes with the unit is not a calibration disk... its a test disk, containing particularly challenging video/film clips that show up less capable players. It does have a section for basic calibration of brightness and contrast.

Gary

Thanks for the clarification on the disc.

As far as I know there is no physical difference between HDMI cables for different versions, it is a matter of compliance testing. See http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articl...c-versions.htm.

I don't know if the Oppo-supplied cables have a compliance rating. DVD players don't use any 1.3 features. Or any 1.2 features, apart from DSD on the 980.

-Bill

I can't say for sure, however I will say that I noticed a marked improvement over the years as I went from one Yamaha flagship amp/receiver to the next. I noticed the biggest difference when I replaced the Z1 with a Z9. Going from the Z9 to my current Z11 wasn't as big of difference in terms of surround decoding, but having the multi-channel lossless digital audio over the HDMI was a significant step up (when playing Blu-ray discs) and was the principle driving force for me to upgrade (I wanted support for the lossless codecs in the receiver to eliminate any need for unnecessary A/D conversion when adding DSP modes).

Is there any way I can let my projector do the upscaling bit when connecting the 983H via HDMI?

Why would you want to? That's the whole point of the 983 is it's stellar upconversion and deinterlacing. You could do 480p out... or you could just get a DV-980H which has 480i out via HDMI feature.

You could sent the projector 480p over HDMI and get a great image assuming you r projector has a good scaler.

I know, I was just curious and wanted to see how good the gennum scaler in my projector is. I´ll try 480p and see what it does, thanks.

Got it . Please post back your findings.

Got my 983 in at noon and have been doing some comparing of different players. I did not see much difference between the 983 and xa2, pretty close to each other. I did put the test disk in my a30 which has the same scaler but different di chip and the 983 on the rotating line jaggies test blew the a30 away. The 983 compared to my other players is superior. I had trouble with some image retention on dark scenes with my 981 that are not there with the 983. So far i am pleased with the 983 picture at times it looks near hd in quality. Picture details are excellent.

I received my 983 a couple of days ago and have been comparing it to my memories of my XA2 which was recently sold on eBay. As far as I can tell, the picture is about the same as the XA2 with 2 notable exceptions:

- Bright points of light would get a blue halo around them with the XA2, not so with the 983 . . . I think this is called the chroma effect?

- There is a sharpness control on the 983 which was missing on the XA2. By setting this control at +1 the picture is crisper (more crisp?) than the XA2.

So I'm definitely happy I got the 983 and have no regrets getting rid of the XA2, although I regret that HD-DVD lost the format war!

BTW - my wife normally can't tell HD from SD and really doesn't care, but the first SD DVD we upconverted to 1080p got a big WOW from her . . . I believe that's proof positive that the 983 is an impressive unit!

I've read the manual cover to cover and have tested every feature. The only question I have remaining is: How can I tell what version firmware I have on the 983?

20 minutes later . . . I figured it out, according to the first post in this thread you just have to press the OSD button. I had done this 100 times, but always with a disc playing. Pressing OSD with an no disk in the drawer showed me that I had:

MVER: 05.00.01.07
Batch: DV983H-08-0709

I have no idea what the MVER line is telling me, but the 2nd line says that as of today I have the latest/greatest version loaded in the player!

I was editing my message as you were typing the above quote! Do you have any idea what an MVER is?

Dana,
I just want to express my thanks to you for posting this information. I was greatly frustrated with the 983 when it came to viewing non-anamorphic PAL discs. The zoom feature was worse than useless, as it only distorted the picture. The problem was bad enough to cause me to consider returning what is in all other ways a superb player. Without your posting, I would never have stumbled upon the solution.
Thanks again,
Greg

What do you guys think about the problem with horizontal lines sometimes appearing through the subtitles? If this really is a mediatek chipset problem, shouldn't other players also display the problem? I think it's annoying to see those lines, even if they only appear once or twice during a movie.

Is Oppo aware of the problem? How can I report it back to them, do they have a special email or something for their technical department?

Me? I think it is a minor issue.


Is it an Oppo-specific problem? I don't follow other player threads so I really don't know.

-Bill

As shown on the main web page: Service@oppodigital.com. Let us know what they say.

-Bill

I have sent an email to Oppo. I'll let you know what they answer.

I read somewhere how to use the test disk that comes with the 983. I can not find it now, does anyone know what post it was?

jerry,
this should help you:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post13363146

Peter