Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New Oppo DVD player announced

This could prove rather interesting. $149 for an up-converting, universal DVD player with HDMI. Audioholics promises a full review soon.

That is very interesting, looks very promising for anyone looking for a new DVD and universal player, I almost wish I needed it.

Hmm. That's almost worth getting a single disc player... Hmm...

Yeah, right, like I'm ever going to buy a new CD/DVD player/changer.

I have the Oppo 971 and have been very happy with it. But, it has DVI output (not HDMI), only plays DVD-A (no SACD), doesn't have a few other features the 970 does, and costs $50 more. Like Michael, I almost wish I needed a new player. Looking forward to what Audioholics has to say about it.

I am not sold on the need for HDMI. There are format and compatability problems with and between the various brands of gear. I understand that there is also a new version of HDMI on the horizon.

Yep, HDMI 1.2a is just around the bend, with 1.3 waiting beyond. Hopefully, since 1.2a includes a Compliance Test Specification, interoperability will no longer be an issue (well, for new equipment anyway). Not, I suspect, that it will really matter in the end. The industry still hasn't really settled on anything. VESA is muddying the waters with DisplayPort.

If a single-disc player is acceptable(I'd never seriously consider one again)this is a good buy. The advertising is however misleading at best, if not flatly untrue. Players that scale up DVD output to fill HD displays with a full picture can't "...upconvert(s) standard DVDs to HD quality". If the player doesn't do it the HDTV has to do the scaling to show a complete picture. Either the TV or the player might scale better, or there may be no visible difference, but in no case is it actually "HD quality".

I have this player as well and discovered yet another HDMI wrinkle. HDMI is backward compatible with DVI but of course DVI doesn't pass the audio. My Pioneer A/V has HDMI in, but if you select HDMI in as a video source it also assumes that's where the audio comes from too! So I can't use HDMI in on the receiver - it ignores the optical or coax audio. So, HDMI to plasma, optical to A/V.

-Brian n8wrl

wow that seems strange. since only a very few receivers at this point have hdmi that player would be useless to most. prob a firmware udate can\will fix it.

It's amazing to me how many things have this issue, when almost nothing uses the audio signal on HDMI. Haven't the manufacturers taken this into account?