OPPO Digital Presents: DV-980H (1080p, SACD DSD, 7.1 Surround, USB 2.0) - Page 206

They will repair it for you I'm sure. Call them on Monday and they will give you an RMA number.

I would also try updating the firmware to the latest version first. It can't hurt and it might just solve the problem.

VAS-377,

Look here for the firmware latest.

http://oppodigital.com/dv980h/dv980h...e-21-1031.html

Also, try an e-mail to service@oppodigital.com right now. Sometimes one of those folks checks up on things over the weekend and is quite nice about helping customer. Positively un-american in attitude that way...

BTW, how long have you had it? And how much use do you think it underwent? Just curious.

As you know, the Dv-980h has quite a following for its unique capabilities. If you can find one used, it'll still run well north of $100. As of Thursday, one available west of the Rockies, in Palm Springs Craigslist: $150.

Best of luck.

Mkard

Our DV-980 was bought back in Sep 2008 for $170. off of Amazon.

The batch # is DV980-19-0722

I see there is a Batch: DV980-21-1031 available on the internet.

But were not sure if we should try to update it.

Won't that void the warrenty, and if we call tech support and tell them we have updated the firmware, won't they refuse to fix it?

By the way, a big THANK YOU to all who replied!

Vas377

Please note the "internet" firmware batch as you say, is a beta update from the OPPO website. Directly.
Also, the unit is long past warranty. This will not prevent Oppo from being willing to service unit, it just means that you are going to have to come to terms with them over how much they can charge you. Try the firmware update process. Couldn't hurt at this point. :/
Also, please describe how "used" the unit it since you acquired it? Movies per week, month or whatever you'd like. Thanks. I've had mine since 2008, and would like some timeline for when I should plan for its demise.

Mkard

Well we did the firmware update but it did not fix the problem.

I did make a mistake in saying that it says "no disc". What it really says is "UNKNOWN DISC". Not sure if that makes a difference.

As for use, we probably play 3 or 4 DVD's a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sorry but don't have a more definitive answer on the usage.

Now about the firmware update.

Everything went pretty much like the Oppo site says, EXCEPT, that the TV screen said something about the tray opening during or after the installation, but ours never opened. Not sure what the significance of that was.

Well, not a big surprise that update didn't take.

Try a CD and see if you get anything new. If CD reads, I'd do a shut down, unplug, replug and power up, and immediately follow the update instructions again. Might get lucky.

If not, put together information re ser# model, current FW and description of problem. Send e-mail to OPPO as described above with contact information and a request that they suggest your actions from here. They'll be nice.

Again, good luck.

MKard

You mention the update not taking, yet when we check the update, it shows the new numbers, so it appears as if the update worked.

Are you saying that if the tray did not open by itself, that something is wrong?

By the way, we have tried CD's, DVD's, and a Laser disc cleaner, and all of them make it say "UNKNOWN DISC". The only thing that works, is playing a movie off of a flash drive.

No. I didn't say that you did anything wrong.

You indicated that your instructions told you to wait for the disk tray to open, and that it never did, and that that would have completed the update. It has been awhile, so I assumed that the update was unsuccessful. If your front display now gives you a current FW version, my bad.

You also indicated that it made no difference, that you got "unknown disc" on the display. I asked if you had tried a CD and gotten a different result. Have you?

If so, a "hard reboot" might be beneficial. Or, it might not. Regardless, send an e-mail to OPPO. Or if you prefer call them Monday AM Pacific Time.

Good luck.

Mkard

Just call them. If it is out of warranty they will repair it for a flat fee plus shipping. You'll find the fee to be more than reasonable.

Try a hard reset by disconnecting power and leave it for a few minutes (at least).

Otherwise ring or email Oppo, their customer service is second to none.

Good luck
blairy

Ugh......another DVD-A title to add to the list;" Mannheim Steamroller, Fresh Aire 8". This means nearly half of my small DVD-A collection exhibits this behavior.

I forwarded this information to Oppo. I also asked them if I am just wasting my (and Oppo's) time sending them this information and if the chip manufacturer is working on a fix or not. Hopefully I'll get an honest answer that will give me some insight into this. Speaking of which, I also asked the same about the SACD "pop" issue on the 83 and 80 since I'm considering replacing my Pioneer 51/Oppo 980H combo with an 83.

So when can we expect that perfect player?

We got an email from Oppo service with a list of things to try. None of them helped, so we are going to send it in for service.

We have a question though. They showed us a URL to go to for "Out of Warranty Repair Service for DV-980H". The URL is http://oppodigital.com/proddetail.asp?prod=RSDV980H but on that page it says to enter our RMA number. In the email that they sent us, there was no RMA number. Does that mean we still need to phone them first?

Has anyone gone through this????

Seems logical to me that you should be asking those questions directly to OPPO.

Oppo wants me to continue to send them title information as I come across problem titles. They did say they are relying on the chip manufacturer for a fix and have no idea when or if this will be fixed. Oppo also mentioned this is true for the SACD "pop" issue on the 80 and 83.

Hey, gang..newbie question on my 980H..please be kind..

SD PQ on the 980H (over Component, with CSS protected content no less which means only 480P out) seems noticeably better than my new Dune Prime 3.0 Media Player pushing out 720P, and I can't figure out why.

PJ is an ancient Sony VPL-VW10HT (no HDMI in available), running at 720P.

"Better" PQ in this case is a bit sharper/crisp, with slightly bolder colors.

What features of the 980H are coming in to play here that results in the better PQ than the Dune? Since I'm limited to Component out, there's no upscaling on the 980. And the 980 doesn't do NR, etc. So, any idea what gives?

Thx..

The biggest factor in DVD image quality is deinterlacing. Different players are going to use different solutions and produce different results. There are some standard tests; it would be interesting to run them on both players and see how they look.

DVD video has to be chroma upsampled which may produce differences in the fine detail, although the eye is not very sensitive to that.

Color and grayscale: theoretically all players should do about as well, although there is always the possibility of bugs or bad implementations. I would look at selection of color space and calibration of the display inputs first.

-Bill

Thanks, Bill.

So, sounds like the 980H is doing a better job deinterlacing than the Prime 3.0..

If I want to test this out, could I just send 480i from both players to the PJ? Would that mean that neither is doing the deinterlacing and the PJ would have to handle it? In theory, running 480i out from both should produce identical images except for colorspace (since player deinterlacing gets taken out of the equation in that case), right?

At the risk of oversimplifying and/or being totally wrong here, are all "p" resolutions deinterlaced by the player and all "i" resolutions sent non-interlaced to the display device (10HT in this case)?

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I never did really understand exactly where in the chain what gets done..

Right, with 480i the display is doing the deinterlacing and scaling. With 480p the player is deinterlacing and the display is scaling.

Thinking about this again, I'm actually not sure how much control over color space you have with component.

And I suppose D->A conversion may make a difference between players, but I don't know how much difference it makes in the results.

Finally, are you using a calibration disc? And honest comparison would require adjusting the display for each input device. It makes A/B switching difficult, of course.

-Bill

Thanks..no calibration done so far with either player..

I'm wondering if there isn't a colorspace issue here..there are reports about a bug in the Sigma chip in the Dune with (bear with me here - not sure this is right) BT.601 and BT.709 that results in colorspace issues..if I understand right, BT.709 'should' only apply to "HD" but what wasn't clear was if they were talking about anything above 480p, as BT.601 apparently applies only to SD?

Sorry for the thread drift off of the 980H main topic, but potentially interesting..I need to chase this down some more on MPC Club.

Net net, the PQ out of the 980H is indeed a 'bit' better than the Dune Prime 3.0, which is interesting. Must be primarily because of deinterlacing as you suggested - maybe the 980 is just better at it than the Dune..

Rec 601 and 709 are slightly different color standards used in YCbCr color space.

Ideally, when producing standard def (480i or 480p) the player should use 601, and when producing anything else (720p, 1080i, 1080p) it should convert to 709.

All the OPPO players have always done this correctly, but I have heard that some other models don't. I don't know about the Dune.

The display is supposed to understand this convention also; if it were not doing it correctly we would have problems on that end too.

-Bill

I have a 980H and was thinking of going the Oppo 80 route but am thinking maybe instead keeping the 980H and getting one of the newer base model Blue Ray players e.g. Sony 370 to go along with it. If I did so, would the Oppo have an advantage in DVD upscaling or are even the lower end new BR players competitive now in that regard? I have an Onkyo HTRC180 receiver and a Samsung LED DLP 60" TV. I also use the Oppo for DVD-A and SACD playback.

Answers to your questions available here - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1219906 - there are two reviews on the front page which discuss DVD upscaling with the 80.

and here - http://watershade.net/wmcclain/BDP-80-faq.html

Hard to beat the PS3 at $299. Does it all, faster than most any other player, and has auto-updating if connected to the net. Oh, and you can play games, too.

How is DVD upscaling on the PS3 compared to the Oppo DV980 which he already has? Or to the Oppo BDP80 that he's considering? Unless he has the original 60GB launch console, will the PS3 give him DVD-A and SACD playback?

I've heard upscaling is comparable, but others may disagree. Seems like the consensus is that for the Oppos, the 983 has better upscaling and the 980 is better for audio. I have a 980 and cannot tell a difference between it and the PS3 through component ports. (I am a CRT guy.)

Only the original 60 and 80Gb PS3's support SACD (the ones that are PS2 compatible and have four USB ports.) No PS3's support DVD-A, which was the competing format to Sony's SACD format. Look here: http://www.ps3sacd.com/faq.html#_Toc180147566 for the specifics on what each PS3 model will and won't do.

I own a post-compatible 40GB PS3 with a larger 500GB drive installed and use it for BD playback and gaming. I use a DV-980H as a universal audio player, since it will do SACD, DSD and DVD-A along with DVD playback.

I looked at purchase of a used PS2/SACD compatible PS3, but three things kept me from pulling the trigger. First, it will not play DVD-A discs, and I own several. Second, the street price was higher than buying both a new PS3 and a refurbed DV-980H with a one year warranty. Third, the early PS3's are known to be loud, generate a lot of heat, and have had reliability issues. I didn't want to be stuck with a $500 brick.

That all said, the new slim PS3's at $299 are a heck of a deal, and the OP may find that he enjoys some of the available games, like I did. (Warhawk rules!!)

Also, I cannot help but think that the PS3 will hold more of its value than a stand-alone player (for those of us with upgrade-itis.)

My understanding is that the new Oppo 80 performs well at upscaling and is better in that regard than an entry level BR player would be and better than my 980H. But it is considerably more outlay than say the Sony 370 ($149 at Fry's B&M this week.) My question is more how the upscaling of my 980H stacks up against newer entry level BR players like the Sony S370. Have the major brands' upscaling improved lately or will the 980H still outperform them? I need DVDA and SACD both so I'll be sticking with one of the Oppo's not going to a PS. I use HDMI for connecting my 980 if that makes any difference.

If you are still going to use the 980, then what difference does it make what an added BD player does with dvds.
You can just use the 980 for dvds, and the BD player for BDs.
(btw, what's a "PS"?)

I think the OP wants to know if there's a newer BD player (Sony, Panny etc) which offers DVD upscaling superior to that of the 980 but which is cheaper than the 80. In which case, he'd use the 980 primarily for SACD/DVD-A and the BD player for upscaling.

Exactly! And PS=Play Station; I just left off the 2/3 modifier. DVDA is a must have and games are of no interest so the Play Station is not much use to me. A newer Blu Ray player like the S370 also offers streaming which I suppose might be nice to have.

That said, the last 3 980h's to sell on eBay went for more than $200. Wow!

Precisely, and if DVD scaling is of importance to you, sell your 980 and buy the BDP-83. It's the best of both worlds. But even the BDP-80 will equal or best all the "competition" for DVD scaling. How often do you have the opportunity to sell a player for near what you paid for it?