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I had done my research previously and I knew what OPPO was all about before purchasing the OPPO DV-981HD DVD player. I have been needing a player from them a long time mostly because I am an electronics geek and an electrical engineer by trade. Before buying a Blu-Ray player from them, however, I first just wanted a simple DVD player that up-scaled the signal through HDMI to my 1080P Samsung HDTV, had the ability to play a lot of disc types, had specialized processing of video (Faroudja), and its exceptional audio output was flexible enough to give an output for optical or fiber. This used (this model is not built anymore, darn) excellent condition DVD player fit the bill perfectly. Although it was a little more money than some, the quality build of this DVD player is second to none in today's mass manufactured world. While holding it, it just feels like it is well engineered - solidly built with precise button controls. The video is a bit softer than my Sony PlayStation 3 DVD output and similar to an older higher end Panasonic that I had from about the 2008 time period (it also had Faroudja video processing), but I believe this can be changed in the OPPO DV-981HD DVD player if you want. However, I believe the softer video produces more life-like scenes. It plays real quiet and there are plenty of features on the remote to get things done. Although I have not had a real need to tweak the picture and the player's functionality, it does have plenty of settings. I am very pleased and will look for a Blu-Ray player from them in the near future. I may never go back to the others! Ever! Nice job OPPO!Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Let's be honest here... HD on a 1080P television is incredible. SD on HDTV is not so much. However, with the right source, SD becomes watchable.The Oppo makes SD watchable on LCD. It does it very well, better than most and definately better than anything in it's price class. If for no other reason, this player is worth it for the de-interlacing alone. Amazing! My tv it turns out, does horrible de-interlacing. I thought it did fine, but Oppo reminded me that it does not, indeed, deinterlace all that well. Picture quality... Very nice for SD. As good as it gets, actually. Upscaling quality is dependent on source material, for example you can upscale a compressed, burned copy of <insert movie title here> and all you will get is a 1080P display of garbage. Throw in say, Star Wars and wow... Not HD but still, extremely nice. The sound is excellent, I would recommend users check the volume setting on their DVD players. This one actually has volume controls, they may have been set low for some reason. Macroblocking is a known issue with the Faroudja chipset, I have decided to just deal with it I guess. Some movies it is more obvious, and again it is somewhat dependent on source material. Animated movies such as "Simpsons" experience a lot of macro-blocking. YMMV. All in all, a very decent performer at a great price.Read full review
This Oppo player is a non-Blu-Ray, but just about everything else player it does SACD's which most other DVD and other stuff players won't do. It also effectively doubles your on screen resolution through the use of: upscaling. One problem with the Oppo players in general is they are built to a price-point. In other words, they have a fixed cost for the "expensive" chips used in the circuitry, and to comply with the penny-pinching middle-management types as they tend to skimp on anything which doesn't show. If you compare the DV-981HD (list price $229.) inside with the Oppo BDP-83 (list price $500.) the DV-981HD power supply is much simpler. The DV-981HD uses one 3-terminal regulator and several cheap under-rated zener diodes, while the BDP-83 is chock full of 3 terminal regulators, five or six of them mounted on heat sinks. Another place where Oppo tends to go cheap is the Capacitors and Op-Amps in both the Power Supply, and in the audio section. This means that the DV-981HD and other similar older Oppo products (DV-970, DV-980, etc.) will start to fail after about one, or two years past the warranty period. In the Audio section, I noted that the input and output caps for the six audio channels were all capacitors of the same value, voltage and type. I thought this extremely odd, as usually a typical value for the input cap of an IC Op-Amp would be between 1uF. and 10uF. and the output cap going to the outside world, typically would be: 100uF or maybe 220uF. Well Oppo uses 12 caps of 47uF./16 Volts for all the audio sections, which I'm sure compromises the Bass Response in both of the Stereo Channels and the Subwoofer on the 5.1 channel outputs. The same thing is seen in the Power Supply, not the best caps, but some cheap caps - seen in several places. So Oppo saved a few pennies on caps for sure! All the Output dual Op Amps in the DV-981HD are Fairchild 4558's, a decent but rather cheap Op Amp, used on cheap consumer equipment, and costing well under 20 cents each in large quantities. Since the near-best of the best dual Op Amps are around $1.20 in production quantities, even with mediocre caps, the sound could have been the best it could be -- if Oppo had spent another two dollars, making those two of the three parts used top-notch. There are also mechanical shortcuts, the three motors used in the disc loader and DVD mechanism, seem to be similar and from the same supplier. That might be fine for the disc load and slide motors which get relatively little use, but the spindle motor which likely approaches spinning a half a million times a day - tends to wear out, according to Oppo Technical Support. So, the DV-981HD is a nice sounding, above average video-wise all disc player (except Blu-ray) but which won't sound quite as good as the higher priced Oppo's or anything not made to a stingy price point. Bearing in mind that the DV-970HD, DV-980HD, and DV-981HD tend to wear out after about 3 years use, those who know are currently selling them before the sets start to exhibit symptoms. Considering that these were primarily manufactured in 2006 and 2007, around 100% of sets soon will be dying, either now, or later in 2011 from both electrical and mechanical problems. Definitely worth considering at prices UNDER fifty bucks, as Oppo will repair it for a flat fee of $50. plus bothways shipping (figure ~$90. total) and then you have an above average DVD/SACD/CD player which should be running good for another three or four years.Read full review
There are a lot of DVD players on the market and no good way to decide which is the right one. You can spend $500, and it still end-up a slow, clunky, jittery, POS. I have been looking for a good up-convert for awhile now, unfortunately my search goes on. The reviews for the DV-981HD, have been almost all positive, and the reason i picked it up. It works fairly well, but its not without flaw. The menu and interactive system is a choppy. The player has a slow boot time, a disc load and tray lag. Performance is good, however there are times of noticeable video jitter, typical of many cheap and expensive 1080p, HDMI players. The player has a color correction processes that sometimes lags as well, mainly noticeable with facial colors. I picked up the player for $129.99, so worst come to worse i'll put it in my kids play room, if and when my search finally comes to an end.Read full review
Very good performance at a reasonable price. It took about 10 minutes to hook up and another 15 or so to check and apply the various settings. Performance is noticeably better than my four year old Panasonic player. One minor problem: when playing double-density DVDs, Mr Oppo seems to get the hiccups. It stops to load and then continues playing every few minutes or so. I'm hoping this may pass with use because it doesn't do this with standard DVDs. In any case, the performance is so much better! Although it is not up to Blu-Ray standards, it definitely puts my collection of older DVDs at a new level of performance. And now I have a much greater menu and range of prices to consider when I shop.
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