Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Oppo DV-970 vs DV-981

Good day

I am looking at purchasing an upscaling DVD player. I currently have a Panasonic PT-AU900 fed via component cables. Here is the question. Is the 981 through HDMI that much better than the 970 through componnet. In order for me to get the 981 which doesn't support upscaling through component it requires me to purchase a 15' HDMI cable and run it though a finished ceiling to my audio closet. Not a huge heatache, but only want to go through the pain if there is a real differance. Screen size is 120" and seating is about 14' feet back to the first row. Has anybody tested them?

I highly recommend going to AVSforum and reading up on both of these players as they have subtle differences and chipsets that are designed for certain types of displays. Going to the Oppodigital site and calling or emailing their techs will also help greatly as they can tell you which will be the right choice for your equipment. Personally I have the 971 which is discontinued but it the best upconverting DVD player I have ever seen. So I'm sure that if you get the right one you will not be dissapointed!

I’ve got all three Oppo’s.

The 970 is the only player that has the “capability” to route HD content over Component. However, unless you know how to hack through the HDMI compliant handshaking, all you will get through component is 480P. I’m not certain, but I believe some crafty hackers have figured out how to do this.

The 970 also does a fairly good job at sending 1080i and 720P to a display devise via HDMI. The 970 does a VERY good job at sending 480i over HMDI, and is one of a very small crop of players to do this. This is an important feature to videophiles who use external video processors or have display devices with excellent internal video processors.

The 981 does a very good job at sending up converted 1080P to a display device via HDMI. The 981 also has one of the best MPEG decoders available, but unless you know how to modify this player with a SDI card and have an external video processor with the SDI input, you’ll never see the difference. I haven't looked, but I do not think the 981 has component outputs. (not sure why I haven't noticed that, maybe because I don't care)

If you do not want to pull HDMI to your projector, go with the 970. If you want a better picture, you’ll have to pull HDMI and go with the 981. If you can figure out how to hack the 970 to send 720P or 1080i via component, that might be the best option. And if you do figure out how, send me a PM with instructions because I have big screen TV that will display 720P, but it has no HDMI or DVI inputs.

If you have an external video processor or a display with a great VP, I would pick up the 970 and output 480i to that VP or display device.

And as a side note on just how good the 970 does with HDMI 480i, I have a SDI modified 981 and external VP (DVDO VP-50) with a SDI module (at a cost of around $900 for the SDI mod and module). I have it and the 970 going into the VP. I have tried over and over again to see if there is an improvement with the SDI mod by switching back and forth between the two, playing the same DVD (I have two copies of several different DVDs - long story involving booze and my nemisis, Amazon). I can not tell a difference. Oppo has done a very good job with the 970. It’s one hell of a player and probably the best value in Video right now.

Try this link:

http://www.lament.us/oppo/

I have the DV-981 connected to the same projector that you have via HDMI. I previously used a Momitsu with component cable and both players were set to 720p for projection to a 102" screen at 14-15 feet away. Momitsu is one of a handful of players that can disable Macrovision copyright protection through a secret menu and can output up to 1080i/720p over component. I was not able to discern a a noticeable difference between the two players in HDMI versus component. I suspect that component from 970 versus HDMI from 981 will be equally undiscernible.

John

If you plan on using the analog inputs, read this.

Why oh why did I read this thread?

I'm trying to make a decision on getting a CD player for my 2 channel system. One option is move my Denon 2200 to 2 channel (which is very good IMHO). Then I can get an Oppo for DVDs. The only question is how good is the audio portion of the Oppo players? I know video is very good but I'm wondering if the DVDA and SACD will be on par w/ my Denon. Close would be good enough, seeing as I only use multichannel sparinly.

I should note that I also have a PS3 for Blu Ray use so I've got an option for higher res DVDs. I just don't want to use their funky interface everytime I pull up a DVD.

I have a Denon 2200 that I use in the bedroom and have always been very impressed with the DVD picture quality and sound, I always thought even without upscaling it was a match for my old 3910, it uses the Silicon Image PureProgressive (SiL504) Decoding Engine that was supposed to be superior to the DCDi by Faroudja. From what I've read it never got widely used due to compatability issues and cost.
That said, I'm not sure you would get a better picture from the Oppo, but it certainly is a bargain.

I was going to get the 981HD, but now that I see the 980H I have questions. I'm going to run video over HDMI into a Denon AVR3808CI for the video side of things to my rear projection 1080p TV (Sony KDS55A2020). For the audio I was going to run digital coax out to the AVR. Now I wonder if the 980H would be better for me than the 981HD? Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually.

-Todd...

Cesar, video questions abound, but reproduction of the audio material on digital disc media long ago reached essential(i.e. audible)perfection even on modest-cost players. You shouldn't have any audio worries if you make a change because of video considerations.

Todd,

If video quality is more important to you than sound, the 981 has a slight edge over the 980, but only IF you are going to use the player’s video processor. If your receiver has a better video processor than the 981, then your best option would be to go with the 980 and output 480i / HDMI to the receiver.

Only time will tell how well the 3808 performs with video processing. Pure speculation on my part, but I doubt the 3808 will do better than the 981.

Sound quality is also dependant on other variables. The most obvious, is the user’s audio processor. If your processor is HDMI v1.2 or 1.3 and can process that audio stream, then the 980 will be your best choice. In addition to the 980’s SEVEN channel analogue outputs (which is a rarity in itself), the 980 is the only SACD player besides a Pioneer SACD player (that is only available in Japan) that can output raw DSD via HDMI to an audio processor with HDMI 1.2a or 1.3 (that can also process DSD audio streams). To explain this in a different way, seeing how you are a photographer; consider DSD as a RAW image file and PCM as a JPEG. Until this 980, all SACD players that have HDMI output would convert the DSD (Raw) information pulled off the disk to PCM (Jpeg) and send it to the audio processor. With the 980, your getting the whole data stream to the processor, so in theory, there should be a significant improvement is sound quality. Not having heard one myself, I can not confirm this, but there’s a large group of audiophiles that are pretty excited over this.

I know this has taken a bit of a different direction with 980 discussion, but I've owned both the 981 and the 970. A previous poster noted display types as being important; an assessment I wholeheartedly agree with. I have a Samsung 1080p DLP and first purchased the 981. I was pretty dissatisfied with the upscaled PQ and resultant macroblocking from the Faroudja chip. I traded it for a 970 and haven't looked back since. YMMV depending on the type of display you own. I now use a Toshiba HD-XA2 for most DVD viewing, however the 970 does hold its own, especially considering the price point. The clean 480i output is another thing I wanted in a player as I am considering a VP at some point.

A general quality I enjoy about the 970 is the wealth of formats it will handle.

Just my .02

Ditto with my Sammy.