Well,

After about a year of my Denon DVD-2930ci slowly dying (tracking issues on many discs), I got the okay from the boss for a new DVD player. I ordered the Oppo DV-983H the other day, and it's on it's way. If anyone is interested, they are selling factory reconditioned ones on their site for $319 ($80 off) with the full 1 year warranty.

I'll post my opinions on the video upscaling vs. the Denon when I get back home next week.

Hmmm, why not buy a Blu-ray at that price? The upscaling should be good enough and you get BR capabilities.

Hansang,

I wanted DVD-A and SACD support, as well as a great upscaler for normal DVDs. I already have a HD-DVD player (Xbox360) and I'm not ready for a new format at this point. When I'm ready for BR, I'll probably go with the PS3. What I needed was a great CD player, normal DVD upscaler, and something that could play DVD-A and SACD. There is no other player in this price range except this one.

Prior to the introduction of the Panasonic BD-55 which I purchased last month, the general consensus among reviewers was that pretty well all the BD players weren't particular good at handling standard DVD's. I already had an Oppo 980 on my rack(which also has SACD and DVD Audio) and I found the set-up(contrast, brightness, color, etc.), to be quite different between Blu-Ray and regular DVD's. In that way, rather than have to adjust the Panasonic for each type of disc, I play the standard DVD's on the Oppo and Blu-Ray on the BD-55. Even though the BD-55 is equally adept at handling standard DVD's, this way each player is set up for optimum performance and I don't have to make any adjustments.

SRoode,

I am very interested in how the Oppo stacks up the Denon. I've been eying the Oppo for quite some time now. I already have a PS3 that I play blu-ray's on. But, I have a very large dvd collection that I would like to make look as good as possible. The Oppo at close to $300 sounds tempting.

- Nick

For the record, you might want to check out the review that "Secrets" did on the 983 back a few months ago when it was first released. It was the only player to that point that passed "ALL" of the video tests thrown at it and that was even those players on the list in the $6-7000 range. That should tell you something.

The 983, if I recall, will not pass SACD / DSD via HDMI.....correct??

I remember wondering why they failed to include that, whereas the 980 does support DSD.

Yep, your right about that. I am not exactly sure why they excluded that feature as opposed to the 980, but the 983 does convert SACD to PCM via HDMI and although I have never had any opportunity to compare the two(DSD vs.PCM), I have heard it said on a number of occasions the differences are inconsequential. You might want to check with Oppo technical support and ask. From my experience, they are very quick to respond to any questions about their product line.

Yes mdrew, that is true. The Denon only passes it through as PCM also, so it won't be any different than what I have now (except hopefully it will actually PLAY the discs instead of trying to track them for minutes on end).

What I am really interested in the the Anchor Bay upscaling. I have a lot of regular DVDs, and when I tried playing them on the Xbox360, there was a noticeable quality difference between that and the Denon. I'm hoping the Oppo does an even better job!

I'll be interested in your thoughts Steve, I have a Denon 2910 as well as an Oppo 980H and don't remember seeing that much of a difference whenever I had them side by side eight or so months back. I've been thinking about dragging the Oppo out of the bedroom setup and using it for the main listening area because the Oppo has 7.1 analog output whereas the Dennon has 5.1, I also like the slim design of the Oppo.

I got you. Boy, that BDP-83 sure looks sweet! I really hope they don't price themselves out of the market.

What is the difference in buying a refurbished unit as opposed to a new one?

- Nick

Hi Nick,

In theory, a refurbished unit might be more reliable in the long term because the manufacturer has changed parts suppliers and replaced some troublesome part with a more reliable item.

Manufacturers sometimes find that when a unit is out in the field with owners, certain problems show up after time. A refurbished unit would have those problems corrected with new parts substitutions.

Regards,
Alan

Never thought of it that way... good point!

This may sound like a love-in for Oppo but one can't deny the way they conduct their business. Even though I already have a BD player, in addition to having a 980 I am strongly considering buying their upcoming Blu-Ray player not only because of their quality and price points but also their service and attention to detail is off the chart. For eg: the 980 has had two firmware updates and a third now in a beta test not necessarily to correct any problems of any consequence but to actually "IMPROVE" the operation of the player! The beta test being done for later release is because they found two particular SACD's that weren't playing at top efficiency in the player. I didn't want to be bothered burning a CD to do the updates so I e-mailed Oppo, they replied within an hour and said a firmware update CD was in the mail. I got it a week later, threw it in the machine and in less than two minutes the update was done with the new onscreen menus! What mainstream company would come close to providing that kind of back-up service to its customers? Even if the BDP-83 is a little more expensive, considering the whole package Oppo provides, I am sure it will be well worth it.

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.

Thanks for the write-up!

Nice write-up. It's nice to see companies still focusing on producing good DVD players in the growing era of Blu-Ray.

Thanks for posting!

Jason

Wow, nice review, Steve! Thanks for sharing with us. I've always wanted to try an Oppo because of all the nice reviews I've come across. Glad you got a unit that is meeting your expectations.

Thanks for the review. I'm not in the market for a non-Blu-ray player, but it gives me hope that their Blu-ray player will be up to snuff. Here's hoping the general performance of their Blu-ray player will at least compare to the PS3. It would be nice to have a quality (near-)universal player.

I just signed up for the info on the BR Player. I will buy it next year in the spring, and move the DV-983H to the family room.

More kudos on the review Steve!! I've been on the fence between an Oppo DVD player, or their new Blu-ray player. Blu-ray is quite possibly the future, but I've been held back by purchasing said player firstly from what I've read regarding Sony, and also because I'm still on a SD television. Seeing that Oppo's players are touted for their audio and video (I don't think I'll notice much difference with my SD set) it's probably more viable for me right now until I get a HD TV, and I can at least enjoy the audio quality which I'm sure will be a vast improvement over my approximately 8-year-old Sony 5 disc DVD carousel.

My pocket will probably be lighter shortly after the holidays are over thanks to your review.