The Official Pioneer 9G Elite KURO Owner's Discussion Thread - Page 250

Thanks.

So how would you describe the difference in the 151's upscaling and your 95FD's?

^^ The Panny BD30 does an excellent job also. Just like progprog said above, some SD dvds almost look HD...

I find the same to be true with the 151. I just sampled Star Wars Ep. II on DVD (for another thread concerning an issue with the Pio 51 BD player) and was quite surprised by the picture quality. I bet if I had friends over and told them it was HD, they wouldn't have questioned it. Monsters Inc. is another title that looked HD.

So it leaves me wondering if an upconverting player like the Oppo 983h will really give much better results.

The Denon DVD1740 is also one to be considered. It does a GREAT job.

Personally, I have 2 PS3's, and to my eyes, do a very good job.

Edit: Sorry I mixed up the model number with the BD player.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have to admit I'm a little leary about buying a Denon player after some reliablility issues I've had with a couple Denon products in the past. Of course the issues didn't surface until after the warranty expired.

It is amazing the number of people who are not watching HD on their HDTVs when they can go out and get a cheap OTA antenna (even if they have standard cable).

There is a lot to complain about with respect to Direct TV, but the number of HD channels is not one of them. Their implementation of HD provides more HD channels than just about anyone (for $10 additonal per month) even excluding stretch-o-vision ones. And in the world of sports, no one is even close (with MLB, NFL, NBA packages in dual HD game feeds & NFL, tennis, Versus, Golf, soon MLB HD channels).

I know that if you trade that SD box in for an HD one, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Yes, SD sucks on these large sets and likely always will, but as an HD DTV user, I can say that I am very pleased with most of the HD programming and the number of HD channels to chose from. From what I've read, more HD programming is on the way. Just wondering, why would you spend thousands on a great HD set and not expect to spend a few extra bucks a month on HD programming?

I have not compared with my own eyes, but in the AVS community there is a consensus that Oppo is visibly better than everything else in upconversion

It seems Fios will be the way to go in the future.

Way in the future. The coverage maps of Direct TV and FIOS will converge ... well not before ... hell freezes over

LOL! FiOS will remain fairly limited as a Verizon-only service. There will only be broad availability when other companies lay their own fiber optic lines as well, and in the economy we're facing, that should be in about....when was it hell was going to freeze over?

Umm....that's a pretty broad statement! I'd bet that most in the AVS community have not actually owned an Oppo nor had a chance to make comparisons to other players. While I'm sure they are excellent players, I think their fabled upconversion is as much urban legend as anything else. Why do I say that? Because so many statements that make that claim start just like yours- "I have not compared with my own eyes...."

Every time this question comes up, a number of players are mentioned. I suspect SD upcoversion in better players has reached a point where you can't really go wrong with any of them.

Apparently Hades became icy in 1994, for the Eagles reunited at that time.

However, I agree that FIOS covers such a minuscule percentage of homes.

Do you get FiOS, Wabo?

No, it's not offered in my area. I have DirecTV.

Pio 111 or 6020
Futureshop here has special on 6020 this week that makes it only 500$ more than the 111 which I have been eyeing for a while. Any recommedations?
My viewing distance is about 8 ft. I know the prestige and customisation of Elite is above all but since its a smaller panel I would liek to know what would the experts here recommend.

I wouldn't say "their fabled upconversion" is an urban legend. Take a look at the Secrets benchmark for the 983, first ever 100, for some data. I just recently started using the Edge processor and I'm very impressed with the results thus far. Source Direct from my Pio BDP-51 to the Edge does a better job with SD DVD than either my Kuro or my XA2/805. Also, SD broadcasts are improved over using either the TivoHD or the Kuro for upscaling/de-interlacing. Overall, I'm extremely impressed with Anchor Bay's scaling/de-interlacing technologies.

You're right - I just checked their lineup. I'll have to reconsider them vs FIOS.



I've had DirecTV for about 5 years, and when I checked their HD lineup a couple of years ago, it wan't very impressive. There weren't many HD channels, and the ones they had were just either showing SD in pillars, or just stretching SD. The other HD channels were pretty much just showing flowers, bugs and cityscapes, which I didn't really find all that appealing. I also would have to get a new DVR and antenna. I didn't like the idea of using lossy compression on an HD signal, then expanding it back out and still calling it HD. Also, I had heard that DirecTV did HD-Lite. Lastly, I had a philosophical problem with the business model of charging people extra for something (HD) that is now standard. So I wrote them off and decided to wait for FIOS, since at least they wouldn't compress the signal or feed me HD-Lite.

Unfortunately, FIOS arrived and it seems to be a bit more expensive, though I do like the multi-room DVR. My wife loves the Tivo, but I hear the FIOS DVR is kind of buggy and has a mediocre interface. They're just now getting features that Tivo's had forever. I sure don't need WAF problems, right now...

Interestingly, the 151 unpscales and deinterlaces the video from my very old Pioneer DVD player very, very well. It's actually quite nice to look at. A little soft, but not too bad at all. It also does a very good job with the OTA digital SD channels, although on some channels, the source material is just hopeless. Only the DirecTV Tivo ouput is really hard on the eyes.

After looking at the DirecTV HD lineup again, I think I'll reconsider DirecTV HD. The extra $10/month is well worth 100 or so HD channels, even with HD-Lite and compression artifacts. The problem is I'll always wonder what FIOS would look like, and the multi-room HD streaming capability really sounds sweet...

A friend of mine recently brought his Oppo 983 over and we compared its SD upconversion performance vs. my Oppo 981 on my 151FD KURO; the 983 is by far the better player of the two! Am still scratching my head...

-THTS

Better chip in the 983 plain and simple. Although i still hear it fails the layer change. How can it be the best if it pauses layer changes? The original XBOX passed layer change seamless. So did the first toshiba HDa1 player.
I guess the pause is acceptable performance.

I'm not dissing the Oppo, so perhaps I chose the wrong words. I'm sure it's a great player. I just think there a many players that do great SD-DVD upconversion.

Great feedback on the Edge! When you use it for your TV signals, is it as fast as your TiVo in adjusting to resolution changes? (I.e., you don't see it adjusting at all....) If so, it sounds like an ideal solution for anybody needing improved processing for their SD broadcasts. This is definitely a weakness in the Kuro itself, so I would think many owners will find your impressions of the Edge processor very useful.

Your information is incorrect. The 983 passed the layer change test at under .25 seconds, faster than both players mentioned in your post.

I haven't had a great deal of time to test the changes, but so far it is quicker to change than the Kuro. It is definitely longer than the TiVo, which is quite amazing in terms of resolution changes. However, I'll take the improved image quality over instantaneous resolution changes. I've never been really annoyed by the resolution changes.

Agreed, I have the 983 and I believe it used to be far better than my ps3 and toshiba hd-dvd players and htpc in terms of upconversion....it really is that good. And the layer change thing, I have never noticed a pause of any kind during any dvd viewing and have also read reviews where the layer change passes the tests just fine. Nowadays though, with ps3's new firmwares, I think the upconversion is getting fairly close to the oppo.

Quote from Kris Derring.

The 983H also has a very short layer change. While almost undetectable (roughly a quarter of a second), it is not the seamless performance offered by a few other Oppo designs. Oppo Digital states this is a limitation of the Mediatek chip and something they are aware of.


So NO, it's not seamless. Xbox and Hda1 were seamless, undetectable pause.

No they weren't. Go check the readings. The 360, which had a better layer change time than the original Xbox, was under .5 seconds. Close to .25, but just over. The Hd-A1 had a 1 second layer change: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...1%20(Component).

I never said it was seamless, but you did provide a great deal of un-researched mis-information, which is your MO around these threads. Start getting your facts straight before you post stuff please, we'd all appreciate it.

Funny, but the xbox was seamless. I don't care where you dig up your info. You can't do better than zero undectable pause. It's either seamless or it's not. It's no big deal. I know your pio is not seamless, neither is my sony.

I'm not an expert, but my opinion is to go for the 111.

How is the 95FD as a CD player? I may go Blu-ray when the dust settles next year, but there's only so much room in my equipment racks. And only so much in my checking account.

Can you tell me how the Oppo 983's upconversion compared to the 151's upconversion? Specifically, what differences did you see? I'm anxious to hear from those who have used the Oppo 983 and the 151 Kuro.

Right now I'm using my Pioneer 51 BD player in source direct mode to view DVDs on my 151 Kuro and am wondering what kind of improvement the Oppo 983 may offer for DVD viewing.