OPPO the good, the bad, the ugly?
Mar 7, 2008 at 10:35 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 21

Listen2this1

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I have thought if buying a OPPO DV-980H. Since I have said it to a friend he said that they have been having quality control issues. So, any thoughts.

Are they good players, are they bad?

Pros and Cons?
 
Mar 8, 2008 at 7:29 AM Post #3 of 21
Quote:

Originally Posted by cconnaker /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I'm all for good products at good prices, but I think OPPO has been getting a lot of unwarranted good press. Everyone seems to be going crazy over their products, but I believe this is just because of the price.


Well, I wouldn't say people are going crazy. Oppo makes a good product for that pricepoint, and hits quite well against other players. Really good value. I have a 980H and am quite satisfied by it.
biggrin.gif


Bang for the buck, really.
 
Mar 8, 2008 at 10:50 PM Post #4 of 21
if i didn't buy the cheapy helios, i would have bought the oppo. but right now i'm more interested in 1080p harddrive player that support h264, but i have to wait for their price to go down and improvements.

obviously the hollywood corps don't want these player to exist, if it will output 1080p signal to connection other than encrypted hdmi.
 
Mar 8, 2008 at 11:16 PM Post #5 of 21
I have one of the original upsampling DVD players with the Faroudja chip that I bought a couple of years ago. It's been okay. There have been a few freezes with the screen saver, ghosting issues with the smoothing filters, and an annoying menu error where you have to go in and manually turn off the camera angle notifications whenever I'm watching something by Funimation. Also of note is that the resume play function never seems to work for me. Image quality is nice because it has a nice smooth output that isn't hard on the eyes. Digital out is also pretty nice sounding. I wouldn't mind getting another one in the future, but I can see room for improvement.
 
Mar 8, 2008 at 11:18 PM Post #6 of 21
They are coming out with a 983 model this year something and it will be almost twice the price of what they are selling today. Big improvements in many areas from what I read.
 
Mar 8, 2008 at 11:41 PM Post #7 of 21
The OPPO 980 is a very good overall performer, at its price point, and IMO at two times that price, you will be hard press to find a good player for around 250-300 stock, that will perform at the level of the 980, in video, audio, and in versatility...it plays literally all formats I have thrown at it, an very good...
 
Mar 9, 2008 at 12:09 AM Post #8 of 21
My old 971 still has a great picture and sounds sweet as honey. I once had a problem with some artifacts on some movies, but proper set up and it mostly goes away, it's a Faroudja problem I believe. First class customer service too. Plenty of firmware updates, and when mine developed a fault, it was replaced with a new (not refurbished) one within a week.
 
Mar 15, 2008 at 5:57 PM Post #9 of 21
Quote:

Originally Posted by slwiser /img/forum/go_quote.gif
They are coming out with a 983 model this year something and it will be almost twice the price of what they are selling today. Big improvements in many areas from what I read.


Looks like the 983 is available to buy @ $399 with deinterlacing VRS by Anchor Bay rather than Faroudja. My interests are piqued... but $399 is a lot of money for a player without Bluray imho.
 
Mar 15, 2008 at 6:13 PM Post #10 of 21
Quote:

Originally Posted by HiGHFLYiN9 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Looks like the 983 is available to buy @ $399 with deinterlacing VRS by Anchor Bay rather than Faroudja. My interests are piqued... but $399 is a lot of money for a player without Bluray imho.


It's kind of a Catch-22. Most of the current BD players have frankly lousy DVD upscaling and de-interlacing capabilities, so they're not really a good one-box solution if you have a big collection of standard def media. But, as you pointed out, it hurts to be shelling out yet another $400 for a separate CD player. Oppo has announced they are starting to develop their first Blu-ray universal player, but that won't hit until 2009 at the earliest.

One solution, if you have the coin, is to get an A/V receiver with a decent video processing chip, like the Silicon Optix Reon, which will clean up raw 480i DVD output from any player to the same nice 1080p quality as the Oppo.
 
Mar 15, 2008 at 9:18 PM Post #11 of 21
I should of told my situation. I have a Denon 4806ci that is being used as the hub for all of my equiptment. I have a Denon Dvd5900, but I am using it on my headphone rig (the other room). I am going to wait a couple of months before I go for the new Denon blu-ray player. I am looking for a player that I can use in the living room for now and then move it into the bedroom. I really like how the OPPO plays everything. I just don't know if they are what people say they are when it comes to performance.
 
Mar 16, 2008 at 6:58 AM Post #12 of 21
Well, I think your best bet is to buy one and see and listen for yourself. Oppo has a 30 day money back guarantee with no restocking fees. I think that's pretty cool.

On the other side of it, they way most people (and likely nobody on a dedicated forum like this) go about audio and video is just so wrong. They want super duper performanace, but it's gotta be cheap and it has to be available at the local Best Buy. Never mind that if they waited, saved, and spent double what their budget was they could find a unit that would really blow them away for years.

So back to oppo, give it a try. I am considering one myself and will also consider it taking a trip to EVS for a few tweaks first. I had some emails to a few of the mod companies asking about the quality of oppos. Due to the price, they seem like they would be cheap plastic parts that would all need replacing too fast. The replies said that the parts were above average and did not reflect the price point. So I ask myself, how do they do it?!!

Also, go read some reviews online and look for trouble spots. Stereopile had a review in a recent issue and while the review was generally good, there were some legitimate gripes about it. Just read and see if those are things that would bother you.
 
Mar 16, 2008 at 6:14 PM Post #13 of 21
I wanted one because of its ability to play DVD-A and SACD formats over one HDMI cable. It is a great pairing with my Denon 3808CI and it enabled me to get rid of the ton of cables I was using in the past for the same function. I did not buy it for its video functionality, but I have played a couple of DVDs on it and have no compliants. I am not real sure how you can get a better all around performer for less money.
 
Mar 16, 2008 at 6:31 PM Post #14 of 21
I've got two 981HDs, one for universal audio and the other for upscaling DVDs. I've had no trouble on either front. As a universal 2-channel it makes you question paying thousands for a CDP.

I was going to have my 2-channel modded by Ric Schultz, but decided to buy a Pioneer Elite 58AD and have Ric mod that. That's my reference digital rig now, but Ric and I were just talking about upgrading the Oppo to a new 32-bit DAC he's trying out. We'll see...

When the Pioneer is fully burned in I'll write a review.

Dave
 

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