Oppo DV-981HD coming real soon now

Must be the 971 replacement.

How did you figure that ?

Tough choice for me.
Get this or spend a touch extra and get Toshiba HDA2 for a little more and get some HD DVD. I can always rent untill they figure things out.

The title of this thread should have been:

Oppo DV-981HD coming Real Soon Now

I believe that came from 14, Sep, 2006 OPPO will launch DV-981HD in USA
although that link seems dead now.

I wouldn't count on that being totally accurate because:

• It's from 14 Sep and probably was too premature to be accurate
• That info doesn't seem accessable via front door of Oppo web sites
• The link seems to have become a dead link (for me) in the last couple of hours
• The reference seems to have been removed from Yahoo search in the last couple of hours
• Google only finds a reference to the title which is seems no longer accessible.

I'm skeptical about the October date (probably slipped or we'd have heard more by now), and skeptical about being 1080p (since we had previously seen feedback from Oppo support indicating that the 971 can't just be tweaked to do that without burning out components, and we had other feedback saying the new model is minor change that just adds SACD & HDMI & blank paint).

I do believe the DV-981HD model number, the addition of SACD, and availability soon (as soon as they can get the bugs worked out & the manufacturing & inventory geared up).

The reason I didn't post a direct link was the forum five post rule (this is my second I can't even quote your link...), but more than that, that site seemed to have undergone some sort of makeover to give it a more 'modern' look, but at the same time it rendered it almost unusable.

They have reverted to the 'old' style right now; I wouldn't argue that the mid-October date is probably wrong, but I think simple web design errors are the reason the link is dead.

Okay, I thought someone saw, in person, the 971 replacement in a box over at Oppo, and it was the 972. I wonder if the 981 is something different? That could be very interesting...

Somebody did mention seeing a "972" on a desk at Oppo's office, but Neuromancer chimed in and said that the 972 was an early production sample that had been floating around their offices since the winter or spring - presumably they elected to change the model number somewhere along the way from then to now.

Ahhh, I missed that apparently. Thanks.

I hope it adds more than just SACD and DVD-A support or it ain't worth a buy.

Add a USB port and that'll be something.

USB + Faroudja = bought

Based on the magazine advertisement, it apparently offers 1080p as well.

Well that's nice. Oh yeah!

Pop that USB on there and keep that DivX/XviD support and that's a winner.

What are you referring to? If you mean the one mentioned at the beginning of this thread, there were no details in the advertisement.

There was a premature statement on an Oppo.se web site which mentioned 1080p, but that appears to have been pulled & could be wrong.

I'll give you a hint: Sound and Vision*

*Yes, I know all the details about the 981 project, but I am going to stick to the NDA this time around.

I think it's too bad Oppo isn't using another high performance chip solution which is "macroblock enhance free." But, I guess Faroudja is still the best bang for the buck these days, no?

They should allow you to turn Faroudja on and off like Yamaha does on a player.
Maybe thi can be enabled thru firmware, I am not sure.?

Then what would you use in the player to deinterlace and upscale?

I wonder how many of us are going to borders or barnes & noble's this week to paw through WR and S&V now.....

The problem with this is if OPPO designed this player like the OPDV971H. That is, they designed it around 1 mainboard and 2 daughter boards, as to isolate errors and allow it to be easily fixed.

In this setup, the HDMI output will be its own daughter board, which means that if you turn off the Faroudja chipset (likely as a means to use the player as a digital transport) you will effectively be turning off the HDMI output.

The Silicon Optix ReonVX is pretty darn cheap, entirely feasible for a <$250 DVD player. A Silicon Optix representative has said to expect additional ReonVX -based players at CES in January.

If the Oppo 981HD is the same product formerly known as the 972, then the design is almost a year old. The ReonVX is relatively new. Redesigning the player around the ReonVX would not only delay the product, but would require a costly redesign after they've already spent plenty on the existing one.

The 971 delivered industry-leading price/performance for almost two years, but its time atop the charts is probably coming to an end. Nor would I expect the 981HD to remain atop the charts for long if it uses Faroudja processing. Few would argue that that Genesis chips with Faroudja technology are competitive with the latest solutions from Genuum and Silicon Optix. If the 981HD uses Faroudja processing, expect another manufacturer with a ReonVX-based player to replace Oppo as the source of the best price/performance DVD products in less than six months.

Reference DVD player designs using the Realta chips with the latest firmware pass all tests on the HQV test disk, i.e. score 100/100 on the Secrets DVD benchmark with no macroblocking and superior scaling to 1080p.

If the 981HD is announced to use Faroudja technology and offer 1080p output, then it would probably use the Genesis FLI8548. AFAIK, this is the same chip used by Samsung in the DVD-HD960, which suffers from extensive macroblocking. Oppo is as good as anyone at extracting the maximum possible performance from their hardware, but completely eliminating that Faroudja design flaw is not something they can do in firmware.

bfdtv,

Very good information. I will wait for what SD DVD players are announced with the Realta and Reon chips with reasonable MSRP prices.

I take that Faroudja isn't the top notch chip designer it used to be since Genesis took over? I can't believe they haven't fixed macroblocking. I've had it with the green tint! (I don't have an Oppo. Zenith/LG 318 and 418)

Sad, but true.

Faroudja was excellent in its day, but under Genesis ownership they've stagnated and perhaps even taken a step backward, while the competition (Gennum and Silicon Optix) accelerated their rate of product improvement / development.

Do you mean the HQV Benchmark disc? I don't think "Secrets" has their own benchmark DVD although they use HQV as part of their overall evaluation. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct. Edited the above post for clarity.

You will not see a low cost Gennum/Silicon Optix/DVDO solution anytime, as they are a bitch and a half to code for at the current moment.

And if you look at the new unit, it is designed to be an updated OPDV971H, not a revolutionary new product.

Hardware and software implementation of the Realta/ReonVX isn't nearly as difficult as it used to be. And I have already received confirmation from Silicon Optix that we'll see more DVD players based on the low-cost ReonVX in January. These products may or may not show up in stores within the next six months, but they are coming.

With their ReonVX-based DVD2930C ($849 MSRP, $750 mail order), Denon certainly had the advantage of prior experience with the Realta in the 5910, but not everyone needs Denon Link, 12-bit 216-MHz video DACs for component output, Burr-Brown PCM1796 DACs across all channels, a dedicated DSP for AL24 processing, etc. Indeed, the 971H offers none of those features.

I just bought the November edition of Sound & Vision magazine and on page 9 there is a whole page from OPPO which shows the one of the following:

DV-981HD

Built upon legendary OPDV971H technology
DCDI by Faroudja video processing
Updated with HDMI, true 1080p and SACD playback

There is no mention of price or release date.

If it is not within 6 months, then that is not soon to me. I know of several manufacturers looking at Silicon Optix Reon VX, but none of them are supposed to drop until the summer at the earliest.

6 months out sounds about right given past history of players announced at CES until they were generally available.