Well,
I got home Thursday night and the Oppo was here waiting for me! I was able to put it through some of it's paces yesterday, and here is what I thought. Keep in mind, I had a Denon 2930ci before, and for may disc I was using the Xbox360 because they would not play at all on my Denon (which had very bad tracking issues).
Initial Impressions - Even though this was a factory refurbished unit, it looked brand new. The box it came in looked new too, and had all the accessories wrapped in plastic. The unit itself comes in a fabric bag that is closed with velcro tabs! It was a very nice touch. The unit itself is sleek and has a very nice build quality feel to it. Although the Denon seems to weigh twice as much and is easily twice the size, this unit seems sleek (low-profile) and tight.
Setting Up - Couldn't have been any easier. Pulled out my old Denon, unplugged the power cord, HDMI cable, optical cable, and Denon link cable from the old unit, and plugged all of them (except the Denon Link Cable) to the new unit. Went into the receiver's menu (Denon AVR-3806) and changed the DVD's audio output from Denon Link to HDMI. In the Oppo menu, I set the video output to 720P (the native res of my projector). After reading the VERY well written manual, I also went into the Dolby Downsample menu on the DVD player and changed it from 2-channel to 5.1 (since I have a surround setup). That was all I had to change.
Firing it up: I decided to start with a CD that would not even play on the Denon. Weird Al's "Straight Outta Lynwood". This is one of those DualDisc CDs (CD on one side, DVD on the other) and the Denon would not even bring up the menu. The Oppo had it fired up in seconds! This is a disc I could only play on the Xbox360, so I had a lot of jaggies on the 126" screen. I played the "Close But No Cigar" video, and all of the jaggies were gone. The picture looked like what I would have imagined it would have looked like if I could have played it on the Denon. But, this is when the first surprise really kicked in... The sound. I did not expect ANY sound improvement at all since digital is digital, and my receiver is doing all of the decoding. There was however a VAST sound improvement, so much so that my wife noticed it right away before I even said anything. She asked if I had tweaked the speakers again because this sounded so much more "real". It may have been because my sound was going through Denon Link before (although I had never played this disc specifically on the Denon), and now it was going through HDMI, or it may be associated with the tracking issues I was having, or it may have been because this was the first time I actually played this disc on a real player instead of the XBox360, but it definitely sounded better. Tighter bass, more channel separation, clearer highs. I decided to play real CDs that I was able to play on the Denon next for a sound comparison. I asked my wife to stay for a song or two to get her input.
I played Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" next, and I thought I was listening to a different system than I had. I could hear many more of the nuances I could not hear before, almost like I could hear things that were going on in the background (it's hard to put in words). Then I played They Might Be Giants' "Brain Problem Situation", which is a more energetic song, and very well recorded. Again, the output was tighter and there was MUCH more channel separation, especially front to back. So much so that my kids, who had come into the room at this point to dance, kept looking to the back of the room whenever a part of the song came up that got output to the surrounds. My wife and I both agreed that the new player was definitely producing better sound. Again, keep in mind that this may have been because my Denon was broken from the start.
Some Video Upscale Tests - I put in a "Across the Universe" (again, since this one had a very hard time playing on the Denon, but was able to play) and compared it to the Denon. Well, again it booted up in seconds and changed chapters instantly (I know this should not be a big deal, but living with a player with tracking issues for 2 years will do this to you) I would say the picture quality was just as good as the Denon, but I could not say it was vastly better. I asked my wife what she thought, and she said it pretty much looked the same. There were scenes that did appear a bit sharper, but nothing that jumped out at us. What did jump out at us was the sound again... Much, much, better.
Next, I put in "Yellow Submarine", then "My Fair Lady". Again, they looked just as good as the Denon they were replacing. So for video upscaling, I would say this unit is every bit as good (and probably better) than the Denon DVD-2930ci.
DVD-A and SACD - Next, I put in a DVD-Audio Disc, Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly" and (I hate to sound like a broken record) it just sounded better with much better channel separation. The surround sound recording of "New Frontier" was just stunning. Again the Oppo recognized it as a DVD-A immediately, and my receiver was receiving "MULTI CH" data the the HDMI connection. I tried an SACD next and played "William Tell - 1812 Overture". What I liked about the Oppo was that it came up with an info screen for this disc (title of the album, artist, etc) and showed me an on screen directory structure of the disc (no titles, but at least an icon for each song). It made navigating a bit easier. The sound (again) was better than what I was used to.
Conclusion - I can not say enough good things about this unit. At $319 (refurbished), I can honestly say it is the best DVD player I have ever owned. If you are not interested in Blu-Ray just yet, and want a unit that will play just about all other formats, I really think this is your unit. I'm sold on Oppo at this point, and will definitely be buying their Blu-Ray player some time next year.
