Well, my nice Onkyo 804 receiver arrived yesterday, and I spend all evening hooking it up to my 43" Samsung 720p DLP, PS3 and cable box, and Rotel CDP. Everything works fine through my M60s, while still waiting for my surrounds and center to be shipped from Axiom. I am especially pleased with HDMI (video and audio) capabilities of my new receiver, as I was very nervous they would not work for a reason. Have you ever got that feeling with brand new equipment and technology? Fortunately everything went smoothly on:
1 - PS to Onkyo 804 to TV (HDMI and HDMI)
2 - Cox HD DVR to Onkyo 804 to TV (Component Video, Optical Audio to receiver and HDMI again from receiver to TV).
Have not yet tried my Rotel RB-1080 2X200 watts at Onkyo's preouts.
I have been itching to have a DVD-Audio player (I actually own 3 DVD-A discs, with no player!!!) and have seen several interesting titles for sale. Unfortunately, PS3 does SACD and NOT DVD-A. I also want to try an upscaling player with standard DVDs, knowing that my TV can do that, but why not trying to see the difference. Certainly OPPO comes to mind, reading all forum posts, reviews etc. I have also contacted their excellent customer service with questions on my specific setup. They suggested
970 due to my tv being DLP and problems that Farudja chip in their other two model has had. They also said that audio performance is best at 970. Do you guys agree? Any other brands come to mind? I can't just buy without your opinion. Thanks!
thyname, I have a similar TV as yours, samsung 61 with 1080p. I also have the Oppo 981 player that works very well with regular DVDs. Video performance is amazing for this price range. As far as SACD and 2 channel performance, its DAC is not that good (see below).
I bought it for its video rather than audio performance.
Disclaimers:
1. I have only 1 SACD (Dianna Krall), so very limited.
2. 2-channel performance was compared with Marantz DAC and Musiland DAC.
Here is a discussion on the AVS Forum of the relative merits of the 970 and 981.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=785398From the AVS Forum posted by Bislander:
Quote:
The internal DAC on the DV-981HD and the DV-970HD are the same Cyrus
Logic chipset. They are rated at 192Khz/24-bit. Bass management is
non-user adjustable. If you set the speakers to Small, all information
80Hz and lower will be sent to the subwoofer. Large will bypass the
subwoofer all together.
Both players convert DSD to PCM for multi-channel analog and HDMI
connections.
The DV-970HD is better designed for audio performance as it is a single,
4-layer PCB board which has the possibility of removing noise and other
interference artifacts. The DV-981HD is designed around 3 daughter
boards connected by ribbons. This lack of shielding can cause a loss of
audio fidelity.
Our DV-970HD has been favored over other DVD players for its price
point, and has been likened to players several times its cost for
DVD-Audio and SACD audio playback quality. The DV-981HD has similar
audio performance, with higher quality video de-interlacing and
scaling.
The video DAC in the DV-970HD is a MTK solution. We do not generally
recommend the use of the component output, for the simple reason that
they are protected by CSS. If a disc is CSS encrypted, then we will be
forced to 480p only. We generally prefer the HDMI output of the
DV-981HD for plasma displays.
On our Panasonic TH-42PX50U we have macroblocking errors with the
DV-981HD, but they are infrequent and only a minor inconvenience.
Best Regards,
Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.
I also have a Samsung DLP using an Oppo 981 and have only noticed macroblocking once in about 50 movies and uncounted hours of SD and HD TV viewing. The only time I’ve seen it is in one brief cut near the beginning of “Master and Commander” where the ships boats are pulling the ship into the fogbank.
Thank you for the link to AVS forum, very informative. It looks like I'll be fine with 970 for audio, since it is about $80 cheaper. Considering the above description and price I would go w/ 970, but I do have two questionmarks:
1 - Superiority of Farudja chip at 981 in terms of upscaling
2 - Futureproof. I have a 720p tv right now, but I may have a 1080p in a year or two.
Any other brands? It seems like Oppo is the only one out there. I would not mind paying more than for Oppo.
Everyone talks about the Oppo because it is the "sleeper" of the industry right now. It's inexpensive, slightly ugly, and performs WAY out of proportion to its price, especially the ones with the Faroujda processors.
Personally, if there were any chance of you using this as your primary video player I would go with the 981. It's the Faroujda processing that catapults the Oppos from middle of the pack to the head of the pack.
The Panasonic S97 and similar are probably next best in terms of high quality video for the $$, but I don't think they do DVD-A and SACD. The Pioneer 587 (which I have) was the best DVD-A/SACD player for the $$ but ranked much lower on the video performance scale.
There is a humongous list which ranks the video performance of about 150 players, does anyone have a link handy ? It's worth reading just to see how "out of place" the Faroujda-based Oppo is on that list.
Quote:
There is a humongous list which ranks the video performance of about 150 players, does anyone have a link handy ?
Is this it? Secrets
Thanks John for your post. I am going to use my existing Rotel RCD-1072 dedicated CD player for red book CDs, and my Playstation 3 for Blu-Ray and SACDs. The new upscaling, universal DVD player would be for standard DVDs (which I mostly rent from Netflix) as well as for DVD-Audio. My decision had to be made between Oppo 981 (superior video) and 970 (superior audio, inferior video - no Faroudja chip and $80 less expensive). Unless I really find something interesting on your Pioneer, or through that list that you mention.
Is the 971 better than the 981 for audio? Is it similar to the 970?
Thanks.
Ravi, there doesn't appear to be any good reason(including the AVS post)why the 970, 971, or 981 would differ audibly; any differences would relate to video.
971 doesn't do SACD
Quote:
Is the 971 better than the 981 for audio? Is it similar to the 970?
Thanks.
Quote:
971 doesn't do SACD
Quote:
Is the 971 better than the 981 for audio? Is it similar to the 970?
Thanks.
I know, my PS3 does SACD via HDMI, so I am not concerned about it.
Ravi,
The Oppo 970, which I've been using for about six months is outstanding for DVD-A and SACD. It sounds as good as any player that I've heard at any price. While its video processor does not have the Faroudja circuit, its DVD de-interlacing and upscaling via HDMI is excellent.
I've done comparisons of the DVD version of "Flight of the Phoenix" (the remake) through the Oppo 970 upscaled to 720p via HDMI with an HD version stored on my DVR, with both versions synced up. While the HD version is visibly superior--after all, it is HD-- the DVD version from the Oppo 970 upscaled to 720p via HDMI, is extremely close, so close that without the comparison it's easy to forget you're not watching HD.
Subtle video artifacts and differences between players can be spotted with test DVDs, but I tend to find some of the comparisons made at other sites of DVD player video quality are exaggerated or overblown in part because they are based on test DVDs. In day-to-day use, I seldom if ever notice any video artifacts from the Oppo 970. By comparison to earlier generations of low-cost universal upconverting DVD players (Pioneer, Samsung, etc.), the Oppo 970's performance is astonishingly good.
I don't get Bridgman's comment that it's ugly. It's very thin and streamlined looking, only 1.5 inches thick. It's silent in operation and its on-screen menus are easy to use. Compared to my clunky old 1st-generation Sony DVD player, circa 1997, which of course didn't play DVD-A or SACD and which cost about four times as much as the Oppo, the 970 is a spaceship.
Regards,
Hey Alan,
In case you didn’t get the memo, Oppo just released a firmware update a couple weeks ago for the 970. If you didn’t notice, SACD playback via HDMI would sorta pause between tracks. The firmware took care of that, plus some other minor tweaks.
I agree with Alan with these Oppo’s. It’s hard to believe they do what they do for what they cost…..say that ten times real fast. Plus, their customer support is outstanding.
I think one of these Oppo players is going to be my next purchase.
Alan,
thanks for the info. I'm debating now between 970 and 981, leaving towards 981 though due to video performance. Could the 981 be THAT much worst than the 970 for SACD and DVD Audio? I wonder.. Have you heard the 981?
970 it is!! Can't pass it up with Alan's endorsment.
Report back on how you like it, I am looking at this one too.
I'm interested between 3 Oppos as well, I only care about video performance only since I do not own any dvd-audio or sacd disks and will be using the DACs in my Rotel prepro. The tv for this will be Toshiba 50hdx82 rear projection HDTV. I hear Faroudja is best chip but also I hear it has macroblocking and other issues. So which is player for video only?
This place is evil. I ordered the 970 a couple of days ago because of this thread, and it arrived today. I get to go hook it up soon.
>>I don't get Bridgman's comment that it's ugly. It's very thin and streamlined looking, only 1.5 inches thick.
Sorry, I was thinking of the remote -- and, in fairness, it was the combination of Sony, Oppo and Sherwood remotes together on the table that looked ugly as a set.
Agree that the player itself looks very sleek.
My dim understanding is that the 971 was the original, the 970 added superior audio (SACD etc...) but dropped the Faroujda processor, and the 981 combined the better audio from the 970 with the Faroujda video from the 971 but dropped a couple of output connectors.
Does this sound about right ?
I found a used Oppo 981 (no, really, I did), so I'm picking it up tomorrow.
It will be replacing my 2 year old Samsung HD841, which is decent, but not high end.
I'll let you guys know how much better the Oppo turns out.