OPPO Digital Presents: DV-980H (1080p, SACD DSD, 7.1 Surround, USB 2.0) - Page 200

A/C is Alternating Current. The "polarity" alternates, or reverses, 60 times per second. You do not need to reverse your plug, because the power grid reverses it for you.

Just be warned that if you try to reverse the AC power on a component that has a grounded chassis, you will be in for a shocking experience. Your chassis will be LIVE...

• Touch the case, and you fry.
• Connect that component to another, and your equipment fries! (One chassis is Live, the other is Neutral, and the two short out with a BANG through your HDMI/coax cables).

Either way, you'll hear the difference, all right.

Gary

I have heard the diff when reversing the plug orientation of NON-POLARISED two-prong plugs. This is a well-known audio tweak. I would NEVER reverse the polarity on a polarised 2-prong plug, especially when multiple devices with such plugs are interconnected. I'm not saying it couldn't sound/look better, but I'm uncomfortable with doing it (yes, I used to work in the power biz, so have some respect for it...).

I would not say there is a hole in my logic. My point was simply that something can absolutely exist, but one can never experience it because they have already determined it does not exist and will not put out the proper cause. The proper cause in this instance would be listening with an open mind and with equipment of decent enough caliber for it to be readily audible.

I would not say the reverse is equally true. Yes, you can have a bias, but if your intention is truly to find the truth, eventually you will. My whole point is to have a truly open mind.

I have expected and hoped for certain outcomes and not achieved them. I tried a power cord that sounded better than the stock one on my integrated, and it sounded worse on the 980H than the stock one. Now I THINK in this case it was because the stock one is unshielded two conductor and the other one was three conductor (though the ground pin was removed) and the 980H is not high current, where the integrated is.

Point being, I wanted this extra cord that I researched, sought out, and paid money for and which did sound better on another component to sound better, but it did not. So I had expectations, but they did not prevent me from hearing the truth because I was truly seeking the truth.

Here is the more engineer explanation, although I have found components that sound better with higher potential on the chassis: http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/acpolarity.html

They seem ok. If you ever lose the controller though, email oppo as solutionav will rip you off on a replacement controller.

Yes, it is 1 year warranty - if you dont wish to go through the retailer then go through Oppo as their warranty includes shipping both ways.

Just dont expect your 980H to play many divx file properly without freezing up. The 980H simply isnt much of a compatible xvid or divx player. I havent seen them fix any of the divx problems or updated the codec in their player in years.

OK, I get it. IOW, if it's YOU doing the listening the results are correct. If it's anyone else the results are incorrect.

My understanding is the polarized plugs exist for these reasons:

"For many years, audio equipment was manufactured with two wire plugs as
well, up to the early 90's, in some cases. The manner of construction of
most of this equipment is identical to equipment specified for three wire
safety ground operation. Internally, there is no difference at all in the
safety considerations of the transformers for these devices. Since the early
90's, all this two-wire equipment has had polarized plugs. There is a reason
for this. One is that it is desirable that the on-off switch must break the
hot side of the circuit. The other is to take advantage of the fact that one
of the two prongs on the power cord is actually at ground potential. When a
transformer is wound, one terminus of the winding is at the iron core. The
other is on the outside. When the inner winding termination is connected to
neutral, this provides protection against a transformer short. Even if the
inside of winding shorts to the frame, which is extremely unlikely, it will
not elevate the potential of the amplifier chassis above neutral, which is
actually at ground potential."


I am curious if proper polarization as far as the transformer goes always results in less potential on the chassis? My NAD stuff has higher potential on the chassis with the stock polarized plug orientation. Does that mean it is wired incorrectly from the factory?

I do appreciate the safety issues being pointed out.

I will repeat:

My point was simply that something can absolutely exist, but one can never experience it because they have already determined it does not exist and will not put out the proper cause.

This is a concept. I did not make any comparisons. Do you disagree with my statement that something can absolutely exist, yet not be experienced?

Anyway, I know this debate can go on and on. I enjoy that so many things affect the sound of a system and many of them cost little to nothing. I am glad that the safety issues were pointed out. I should have said something myself.

I was thinking some more, and remembered the 980H has a switching power supply that AFAIK does not have a input transformer, so the above does not apply. I do understand the safety advantage to having any circuit interruption on the line side, which swapping the polarity defeats.

The entire power supply is on standoffs with insulating sheets above and below. Even if there is some type of EMI filter (transformer), it is isolated from the chassis. Not that having this transformer polarized would not further increase safety. Just thinking out loud.

So I am curious in this case, what difference does the polarity make as far as safety?

Thanks for the tip. This has bothered me for a long time when playing DVDs that have a stereo PCM track. But when I change to 5.1 downmix I don't notice any sound difference. If my receiver is picking up MCH PCM 5.0 is the audio affected in any way? Am I losing quality by leaving the downmix on 7.1? And what about 6.1 tracks like DTS ES? If I leave the downmix on 5.1 will I not get the discrete rear channel?

So I read OPPO is sold out of all their SD-DVD players and will manufacture no more. Concentrating solely on Blu-ray players (going forward). Interesting.

http://www.oppodigital.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DV980H

Still in stock if you want one.

Is this player a good upconverting unit?I have a huge sd dvd library and need a new player for my new Samsung 8500 LED tv.The screen price has exhausted my funds thus I cant get an oppo83 right now.Since I dont have any blu-ray discs or an hdmi receiver I will be using optical out for sound.Will this player give me reults in upconversion close to what the 83 would with sd dvds? Thanks

It produces a nice sharp image. I think the 983H and BDP-83 produce a more film-like picture, but the differences tend to fade away when I am actually watching a movie.

It depends on the viewing angle (how close you sit and the size of the screen) and how much effort you put into calibration.

If you are using 480i output from the player, then the display is doing all the deinterlacing and scaling and the 980H and BDP-83 will be equivalent for DVD.

-Bill

I would really push for a BDP83.
Or maybe a used 983.

I have 3 980's (no 983's) and I love my BDP83.

Good luck,

Mike

So Mike am I reading too much into your post or are you saying your 3 980 oppo players dont cut it for you?I have an old 970 that I feed 480i to a pioneer plasma and the pq is great on sd dvds.

They are great, but attached to small TVs.
My 83 is for a 128" screen.
I actually use source direct out to a Lumagen RadianceXE on that.
I know that 980's are on their way out (at least in Europe) and the future is the 83.
The menu/user interface is very nice and the 83 is nearly as fast as the 980.
My 980's are in locations where I have slow BR players (Sam 1500 and 2550).
I actually have a 980 and 83 in my HT rack -- I keep music in the 980 for the kids to "dance party" it up with on short notice.

The 980 is a great deal but if you can push it the 83 is still a high value.

Mike

Thanks Mike,my screen will be the 55inch samsung led 8500 thus I assume a 980 might be fine.

If you've been happy with 480i from the 970 then the 980 should be the same.

-Bill

Yep.

Mike

If you're feeding the display with 480i only, it makes little difference what player you use. If you indend to use the scaling in the player, (and you should), then a 55" screen is capable of displaying the differences between the players. (assuming it is correctly calibrated). A used 983 would be great if you can find one. A 980 is prolly slightly better at scaling and de-interlacing than your display.

So nobody has gotten 96khz/24bit 5.1 MLP-files to play correctly through 980's USB-port, right?

2.0-standard USB-port should be sufficient to be able to read multichannel high-frequency high bitrate MLPs but it looks like 980's USB-port just isn't although it should be 2.0.

I mean I've tried to play 96/24 MLP's through 3 different USB-devices (flash, self-powered hd and externally-powered hd, all USB 2.0-capable) but while all MLPs up to 5.1 48/24 work (upto ~5-6 Mb/s) fine, 96/24 (upto ~10 Mb/s) don't. (sound will be stuttered).

If I burn same 5.1 96/24 MLPs on a DVD-r, Oppo plays them fine. So it looks like 980's USB-port is the bottle neck here.

Any ideas? This is something that can't be fixed thru a firmware update I guess?

I doubt that the port is at fault, because I am able to play Superbit DVD vobs with 5.1 DTS tracks through the USB port just fine, and they are in the 10Mbps range.

I don't know enough about the way the 980's decoder accesses and plays media from USB. It may be different from DVD, and it may be a known limitation.

Obviously, the USB drive must be able to sustain 10Mbps plus the overhead processing required. Many of my flash drives cannot. Externally powered HDD drives usually can, but you should check your specs very carefully.

Gary

I tested my flash drive and externally-powered HD with a program called HD_Speed and flash's continuous read speed was ~18Mb/s and HD's ~30Mb/s.
So it's either 980's usb-port or the way it decodes from USB media then I guess.
All 5.1 96/24 MLPs play fine for the first few seconds and then the sound gets distorted.
Anyone got them to play flawlessly?

Looks like all they are selling on the U.S. Oppo site are refurbished units now. Guess its true.

I went to their website earlier today to purchase a DVD player, only to see that they were out of stock.

I emailed them to ask about it, and they replied "The DV-980H is no longer going to be produced or carried. This unit will be replaced by a Blu-ray player in the near future."

As they already produce the BDP-83 blu-ray, I wonder if this means that they're going to release another player, perhaps not as high-end?

Personally, I was looking for a DVD player that could go all-region, as I already have a blu-ray player, and that capability and the superior up-conversion of the DV-980H were the reasons I was going to purchase it. Guess I'll be looking elsewhere....

I bought one a few months ago, refurb'd for $135 with a 12 month warranty. Works great, and a great deal. Can't tell it's not brand new. Used units pop up once in a while on the forums for as low as $80. I use mine as a hi rez music player for SACD and DVD-Audio. Couldn't be happier.

I wish they would continue to make/sell it. This lower priced Blu-Ray player they're saying is replacing it will most likely be $300+ and probably not able to do all this dedicated SD DVD unit can.

The 980 is officially discontinued. They are still easily found on ebay, and Oppo may have refurbs around from time to time.

The BDP-83 that replaced the DV-983H, does all that the dvd player did, and much more.... more/better audio features, codec support, and stellar Blu-ray playback... better GUI, tweakability, and options.