So the other day, I had trouble ejecting a disc and noticed that the digital display was all messed up, so I unplugged it and re-plugged it. It booted up and everything was OK for a day or so. Today my wife says it's making funny clicking noises. So I took a look and the power switch was red and blue oscillating and the display was freaking out. So I tried the power cord thing again and no go... dead.

I've got an email out to Oppo, but I'm well past the 1 yr warranty. I wonder if it's just a power supply gone bad. We'll see what they say.

Scott

If Oppo still has the parts, they'll repair it at a very reasonable cost.

Reasonable, indeed! $49 covers any repair required! Waiting for an RMA now.

Scott

Hi a401,

Well, that's good to hear. My Oppo stopped reading DVDs, but it will still play SACDs and CDs. I switched it out for an older Samsung player that's still working fine but its upscaling isn't as good as the Oppo's. I kind of figured I'd abandon the Oppo as I figured getting it repaired wouldn't be cost effective.

Plus I got annoyed that it had failed after a just a few years. It's worth getting it repaired for $49.

Regards,
Alan

Thanks for posting this. If my 981 had gone out I probably would have just chucked it had I not known this.

Here's the link they sent me. Ignore the RMA until they contact you back. Just click +buy and fill in all the info.

Considering the Oppo is my go-to player for std DVD I will spend the $50 to get it fixed. The upconversion is superior to either my Toshiba HD-DVD or Panny BD players.

Scott

My 981 is still my music player and also my test bed for all the DVDs I burn. I’ve inserted and chaptered through over 1,500 disks on my 981 so far and keep expecting the disk carriage at lest to go out.

IMO the BDP-83 is slightly (only very slightly) better at up-converting standard DVDs so I use it for most watching.

I probably should have bought a cheapo DVD player at Wally-World to test my burns but I’m not burning more than about a disk a week anymore.

Glad to hear you are getting the Oppo fixed for a reasonable cost Scott, seems like the 981 only went for $179 or maybe $199 to begin with?

I'm glad you guys brought up the SD upconversion differences between the Panasonic and the Oppo, I've never directly compared any SD DVDs between our BD-85 and the 981 ... that will give me something to do whenever I play around with the system.

I happened to come across a receipt for mine..paid 229.00 back in 12/06.

I recently disable the upconvertion processing of my BDP-80 and uses the Onkyo 808 to do the up scaling job, which IMHO yields better results than the Oppo, so my BDP-80 is act as an transporter only now.

That may be the case, the BDP-80 has nothing special in the way of a scaler. Nearly all the price increase from the 80 to the 83 is to cover the scaler chip, which is one if the best made today.

I got UPS notification this morning that Oppo received my 981. I just got notification tonight via FedEx that it has been repaired and is en rout back to me. Now that's fast!!

Scott

It would be interesting if you still have the serial number or some other way of identifying it to see if you actually get the original back or if it’s one that was already repaired. As long as I got a working machine back I would care how they did it, just that it seems like a very fast turnaround.

Unless the laws are very different in the US than in Canada, they would be allowed to send a different repaired unit. They could send a new one, but not a used one.

That was my thought as well. As long as it works...

It would seem most companies simply send out a repaired unit to shorten down time, look at the gaming consoles for example. I received a repaired Wii when mine developed a VERY noisy drive and all the Xbox's that have been sent in for repairs.

Actually, you'll find that most of the terms you agree to when you sign up on a site or buy something relative to warranty/repair/etc. allows for the OEM to repair, replace or refund at their option. Unless the unit dies in the first 30-60 days, replacement usually means you will get a unit back that has been refurbished and is in generally the same condition/useage area/age of the unit you sent in.

That's the simple letter of the law, so to speak. The smart guys send something back that won't upset you because they value you, want your future business, understand good input by users is much better than bad - pick the one you like. Oppo seems to be on the plus side of the equation.

I got my 981 back on Wednesday and unpacked it today (the power cord was at work). To my surprise, they repaired and returned MY player - s/n's match!! They also returned a disc that I didn't even know was in the player and they updated the software. Complete with a 90 day warranty.

I connected all the cables and it runs like new!

Super impressed with with the c/s.

OPPO does seem to be on the ball. I forget what issue I had, but when I emailed them, they responded very promptly and with the right answer. Granted, that's just one experience and not a big picture, but it still felt very weird to get effective service without more of a dialogue. Ha ha.

I scared myself and thought I would need to contact OPPO support again. Last night the video crapped out on me. I thought I'd checked both ends of the connection, but I couldn't get the picture back last night. Today, I turned it on and there was a picture, but then when I put a CD in to play, the video and audio kept going away until finally it was black and silent. I eventually double-checked the connections and found that the HDMI cable had, in fact, pulled out of the player. Whew. I avoided having to get good customer service.