[AVBill]

As some of you may be aware the PS3 just had a 1.8 firmware update with enables DVD upscaling all the way to 1080p. I tested this out last night, and I feel it is a step up from the 480p up-scaling my A2000 offers.

http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Network/Updates


I've tested an Oppo 970 before (at 1080i), and I also felt that it was a step up from my A2000's scaling routine. I did not do an A/B comparison, but I think the PS3's new routine looks a little cleaner than what I remember the Oppo 970 delivering. However, I've never viewed an Oppo 981 outputting at 1080p. Is there anyone out there with a PS3 and an Oppo 981 willing to make a dvd upscale comparison for us (even just a subjective one)?


I'm less familiar with the Xbox 360 Elites DVD upscaling capability over HDMI. I have read that the 360 has some pretty poor DVD deinterlacing capabilities, so I am somewhat sceptical that it will best either the PS3 or any Oppos in its upscale ability.


Thank you for any information you can provide.

 

[Wesley Hester]

Never cared for the DVD playback of the Xbox 360 or 360 Elite that much. Always perferred my Oppo 970 even at 1080i. Wanted to get a Oppo 981 very, very much but was afraid of Faroudja and my DLP HDTV getting together again.

Now with the PS3's 1080p DVD playback, I have my new main DVD player with 1080p and no macroblocking or color banding (potential issues with Faroudja and my HDTV) and it looks even better than the Oppo 970 to my eyes.

 

[Naveed148]

I'll take you up on that offer!


Here's my equipment-


PS3, Oppo 981 obviously

Panny 900 projector (720 native)

dirt cheap DaLite screen, "high contrast grey" something or other

Sony 8 megapix dig cam


prob won't be able to get around to this till Sunday or even monday, what with work, classes etc. In the meantime, i'd appreciate any suggestions for the comparisons:


theater room completely dark? camera flash on or off???

use the same calibrated pre-set on my panny for both inputs? even though i calibrated my oppo w/ an avia disc, and the PS3 w/ a blu-ray test pattern?

any movies/ scenes specifically you would like to see in the comparison? (i have over 400 sd dvds, anything you can think of should be viable)

etc


Hopefully i should have an update soon

 

[UWisconsin97]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Naveed148 /forum/post/0


I'll take you up on that offer!


Here's my equipment-


PS3, Oppo 981 obviously

Panny 900 projector (720 native)

dirt cheap DaLite screen, "high contrast grey" something or other

Sony 8 megapix dig cam


prob won't be able to get around to this till Sunday or even monday, what with work, classes etc. In the meantime, i'd appreciate any suggestions for the comparisons:


theater room completely dark? camera flash on or off???

use the same calibrated pre-set on my panny for both inputs? even though i calibrated my oppo w/ an avia disc, and the PS3 w/ a blu-ray test pattern?

any movies/ scenes specifically you would like to see in the comparison? (i have over 400 sd dvds, anything you can think of should be viable)

etc


Hopefully i should have an update soon

Fantastic! I'd like to possibly get the 981 down the road, and a PS3 for sure, but if the PS3's up scaling capabilities are that the same of the 981, I guess there's no need for me to purchase one!

I don't know a lot about A/B testing, so I will leave that up to others to answer, but if you could tell us your initial thought/opinion of the PS3 up scaling capabilities, that would be cool.





Thanks,



-Nick

 

[AVBill]

For bright scenes, I usually use the Fellowship of the Rings "The Shire" chapter (near the beginning of the disc) for upscaling comparisons. The lush forest (with the blades of grass and what not) as well as Gandalf's beard give some details to look at. By no means is this the perfect scene to use, it is just one I've used in the past.


I don't really have any scene suggestions for darker scenes.


I'm not sure that test patterns are quite as good given how uniform they often are (clean lines for example). Actual source materiel gives more variation for the upscaling algorithms to flex their power.


Nick,


I haven't seen the Oppo 981 in action, but I can tell you I'm very pleased with the new PS3 upscaling.

 

[AVBill]

Here's one Oppo-971 owner who feels that the PS3's new upscale is better than his Oppo at 1080i.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...post10628844

 

[Cucuy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Naveed148 /forum/post/0


In the meantime, i'd appreciate any suggestions for the comparisons:


theater room completely dark? camera flash on or off???

While I'm no photo expert these are the things I have gathered from reading posts around here on taking pictures of tv images with digital cameras


1. pause the picture. Even when pausing the picture try to pause frames that have little motion

2. If possible compare the same frame

3. turn your flash off

4. experiment with exposure time if you can manually change it on your camera. if you can't change it try changing the iso value which should forces the camera to adjust the shutter speed

5. use a tripod and a timer. Don't trust your hands as any shaking even minute might impact the pic quality. If you don't have a tripod set the camera on something stable and use the timer

6. experiment with different camera distances from the tv. starting point should be your tv viewing distance

7. if you don't have manual settings use night mode if you have it in your camera. otherwise try to use manual settings so that you have control and can experiment



Enjoy and let us know how your pics come up.

 

[Naveed148]

Well guys, as a small update, I've got to give the edge to the PS3 so far. It has a "crisper" quality I'm just not getting from the Oppo. I'll post some pics tommorrow after I get my photography skills up to par.


As a side note, I was even heavily biased against the PS3 going into this. For the longest time, I had the PS2 as my sole DVD player, and when I finally upgraded to a stand-alone I really abhorred the pic I was getting from the PS2. I figured the PS3 would be the same story...

 

[sabt]

Those OPPOs are overrated. I had the 981 and returned it. Not much better than my $75 Sony NS75. Even the 970HD is too much money. I wish I had taken pics but the Oppo was only slightly better. Benchmark scores are not everything. You could've bought an HD-DVD player yesterday from Amazon for $10 more than the 981. And that HD-DVD player is on par in terms of PQ with the OPPO 981 for SD-DVDs without the stupid macroblocking plus, more importantly, it plays HD-DVDs!!!

 

[ckhusker]

I did a side by side using two Westinghouse LVM-37w3 displays, identical LOTR EE disks, (my buddy and I both bought the same display and both have EE sets of LOTR), running same-scene comparisons of:


1) PS3 vs. OPPO 981

2) PS3 vs. Toshiba HD-XA2

3) OPPO 981 vs. Toshiba HD-XA2


My buddy, his wife, and myself all watched and compared notes.


Our observations:


- the most "3D" looking picture was the XA2, followed closely by the OPPO and then the PS3. We tried to quantify using an "index", with the best video component being 100. For picture sharpness/clarity, the XA2 was 100, the OPPO 95, the PS3 90. Note that all of them looked great, though.


- the PS3 was the most grainy...almost like looking at a pristine picture with a layer of grain in front of it. Neither the OPPO or the XA2 had excessive grain.


- the XA2 had this weird artifact when displaying rocks and rock-like textures (e.g. mountains). It was really weird. Very "blocky", for lack of a better term. This may end up tipping the scales for me.


- the PS3 seemed the most saturated, followed by the OPPO & then the XA2. I have no idea which was the most accurate.


The XA2 won overall, followed very closely by the OPPO and then the PS3. I'm undecided as to which component(s) I'm going to keep. Honestly, my first choice would be to keep only the PS3 and buy a noise reduction component like the Algolith Flea. However, I sometimes like to play games on the Westinghouse while watching something on my Plasma or Projector. I'm trying to decide now whether to keep the XA2 or the OPPO. I think Blu-ray will win in the long run, but the XA2 did have a little more pop to it and it effectively becomes, incrementally, a cheap HD-DVD component.


There's my 2 cents.

 

[Naveed148]

k here's a first comparison, i tried to keep as many variables as constant as possible. At least my poor photo skills were constant. oppo is on the top and PS3 on the bottom.

 

[Bruuce]

Red X my friend. Try again.

 

[UWisconsin97]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruuce /forum/post/0


Red X my friend. Try again.

Yep, says there's an error..

 

[mvaarani]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Cucuy /forum/post/0


1. pause the picture. Even when pausing the picture try to pause frames that have little motion

Pausing the picture and comparing those between different palyers might be misleading. Some players show incomplete - interlaced - frames instead of the progressive freezed frame when on pause. And as result you might be comparing a nice looking progressive against blocky interlaced one. I think Oppo 981 is one of these players.

 

[Naveed148]

Sorry, here's another go at it.

if this doesn't work, I'd be happy to send the jpg to someone so they can post


Thanks

 

[sabt]

Still a red X. Why not trying Photobucket.com hyperlinking the photo. It's free and AVS members don't have to bother downloading the photo to see it.

 

[Naveed148]

k, here's a photobucket link:

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...oPS3bottom.jpg


If this works well, I'll post more comparisons in similar fashion


Thanks

 

[UWisconsin97]

Errors..

 

[AVBill]

Thanks for the reviews, Naveed148 and ckhusker!


For some reason I'm also getting the errors on the pictures (even the photobucket link).

 

[jyzz]

hi.

try to uploading your pics again at
www.geekimages.com


it has a preview and also a convinent vBB code for forum posting