Checked out the Oppo website last night and noticed the new 983 dvd player is now up for sale. It looks like a hog, and apparently scored 100 on the Secrets dvd benchmark, but I'm thinking $400 bucks is getting a bit steep for a standard dvd player now that blu-ray is the goto format.

The audio specs look pretty good...probably not enough for me to upgrade from the 981.


http://www.oppodigital.com/dv983h/default.asp

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My next upgrade will be to the Oppo Blu-Ray player whenever it comes out. I'll do the wait ... Early Stages.

way too expensive for standard def.

later.

I too am going to take a look at the Blu-Ray player when its out.

....and it won't pass SACD in digital DSD format like the 980. I think they missed the mark with this one.

Agreed, if I am going to perform bass management, I would prefer to do it outside the player.

Oppo's 983 will also not do 1080p/24. An insider from Oppo mentioned that the 983 will be equally as good as the Toshiba's XA2 in upconversion, and to his eyes, 983 was perhaps slightly better. For those of us who already have the XA2 and an older Oppo player for SACD and DVD-A, I am not sure it makes sense to buy the 983 at $400.

Sony's BDP-550 BR player is expected to cost $450-500 when it comes out this fall and will be able to do 1080p/24, internally decode and bitstream all four formats (DD+, True-HD, DTS-HR, DTS-MA), will have profile 2.0, and offer 7.1 analog output among other features.

Oppo's BR player is expected to come out in '09, and I am sure it will offer outstanding value consistent with its prior offerings.

john

I agree for owners of existing Oppo's. It makes sense to wait, especially if the BDP-550 and/or Oppo's BR player will handle SACD and DVD-A.

This is perfect timing for the flagship Oppo to come out for me. Having purchased a new HDTV I am now in the market for a good upscaling player. I didn't know a week ago that I could get the best that is offered for only $400. Previously the the best was the $1500 Denon which is far too much money to spend (The best within reason, since you can buy a $30,000 DVD player still that will only be a small fraction better in performance). The reason that I would like to get this player is because I own about 650 dvd's and over 100 seasons of different television shows on DVD. I would like to make those look as good as I possibly can on my new TV. Also, I have a little over 100 dvd's (out of the 650) that aren't region 1 and some of those are PAL rather than NTSC. The Oppo is region free and will correctly convert PAL to NTSC. So the Oppo 983 would be perfect for me.

My only hesitation with purchasing this player is if Oppo offers a blu ray player (coming next year) that has the same chip as this model to do upconversions. If this is the case then I may hold off and get the Oppo blu ray player next year. Does anyone know the answer to this? I know the Oppo blu ray is in the early development stages and even if I contact them directly they may not know yet.

- Nick

Nick,

You should be able to find a used 981, great unit. Very pleased with it.

If you want a really nice upscaler to hold you over until a good Bluray choice, you should be able to find a Toshiba HD player for next to nothing these days, $75 and under even. It has an Excellent upscaling engine and there are still lots of HD movies to be had out there and they are all going on sale.

As long as you can get over the funny looks when they think you are a sucker for buying one. Just explain that under $75 is a steal for a really good upscaler even if the format is dead.

Some people claim that the upcaling engine on the low end Toshiba HD players is not that good. I personally have not compaired them.

I already have a PS3 but I was thinking that the new Oppo's upscaler would do a much better job that the PS3 with my large library of dvd's.

- Nick

Most any review I have read has been positive. However, that could be coincidental. The only side by side comparison I can give you is that my own A2 (lower end model) does a FANTASTIC job of upscaling my regular DVDs to 1080i compared to the job done by my Denon receiver. Even my wife commented on the difference and she normally couldn't care less how things look or sound.

Murph,

I would love to do a side by side comparision, Toshiba HD ver the Oppoe 981. No one I know has a HD player. To bad your in PEI, a little far from me.

Anyone in the Montreal area interested in performing this comparision test? I'll provide the Oppo 981 player.

I have the Oppo 981, Toshiba HD-A2 as well as the HD-XA2. I thought the A2 was noticeably better than the 981 in SD-DVD upconversion. I then bought the XA2 and it was even better than the A2 so I returned the A2.

John

I already have a region 1 upconverting player since I have the PS3 so the HDDVD player is not needed. What I want is a good upconverting player that plays all the different region encoded dvd's and pal ones as well. This leads me to the Oppo. For an extra $200 over the Oppo 981 I can get probably the best dvd player that will ever be made.

I don't see why everyone is having such a hard time wanting to pay $400 for a dvd player that is probably as good as the $1500 Denon. Lets face it DVD's aren't going anywhere any time soon. I would love if any movie that I wanted I could just get a Blu Ray version of but that isn't an option. I don't think that even in 5 years that will be an option since there are still plenty of people that only have a 32" tv or less. These people won't be able to see the difference from a dvd and a blu ray disc on their tv. Then there are people like my father-in-law who has had a 50" HDTV for a while now and only has basic (non-digital and non-HD) cable and thinks that he is watching high def. I have tried to explain to him how to hook his television up correctly several times but he just doesn't believe me. He is also has his dvd player hooked up with composite cables.

- Nick

This is good news between this and what you were saying earlier.

"An insider from Oppo mentioned that the 983 will be equally as good as the Toshiba's XA2 in upconversion, and to his eyes, 983 was perhaps slightly better."

I might just have to pick up one of these. I noticed that over at HKflix.com you can get 2 free dvd's with a purchase of one of these players. Heck the Oppo even comes with a HDMI cable too. Sounds like a good buy to me.

- Nick

nickboros - I've owned the same sources that ihifi mentioned, with the exception that I had the Oppo 970, and I agree with his comments. However, if region free is a requirement then Oppo is probably the way to go.

Many people have put the A2 and 981 about the same...

...everyone agrees that Reon is better

...everyone agrees that Realta is better (but you can only find that in Denon/Marantz $2K DVD players, or some projectors)

With Oppo having chosen the new Anchor Bay chip one would trust that it is better than Reon (as it was a design-in choice) and cheaper than Realta (hopefully better in some respects too).

I'm hoping it will be this year that Oppo releases their Blu-ray player as it is certain to have great upconversion too.

I’ve had the 971, have the 981 and the 970, had the X1, A2 and have the A35, PS3, BD-30. The 981 is modified for SDI output, but I’ve ran it using the HDMI and SDI and can safely rank its performance using both. All my sources go into a DVDO VP50Pro, but I’ve also ran them all around the Pro, so again, I can rank their performance without the help of the Pro.

In order of what my eyes find more pleasing without the aid of the VP50Pro….

1 - 981 (clear winner, no doubt)
2 – 971
3 – 970 (audio is notably better with this player than the 981 or 971)
4 – A35
5 - A2
6 - PS3 (I prefer the audio of the PS3 over the 970)
7 – BD30

When using the Pro, the line up changes significantly as the Pro does best with a clean 480i input.

If we're only talking about SD upconversion, I rank my 4 players the following:

1- BD30
2- A30 (is actually pretty close to BD30, except when playing 4:3)
3- LG 531
4- Oppo 980

WOW

More important than me, my wife/family sees an obvious difference in upconversion between the A35 and BD30 (heads to the A35). IMHO, the A35 rocks the BD 30 in upconversion no issue.

Subject change:

Hmm and I paid less than the new Oppo,
Hmm, and I am buying HD-DVD discs for close to (sometimes less, sometimes more) than DvDs

my is it that is Oppo is it?

SACD/DVDA?

Can't get it undisturbed via HDMI from it. Can from my Pio48.

Actually I have about the same amount into my A35 and Pio48 as what the Oppo costs.
And did it 6 months ago.