Toshiba HD-A30 vs. OPPO DV-981HD - Which should I keep?

[SilverMK3]

I picked up an HD-A30 this morning for $198CAD, but I have an OPPO DV-981HD at home. Both were approximately the same price but I can only keep one... Any suggestions on which I should keep?

- I'm at work right now so I can't compare the upscaling performance first hand. From what I've read they OPPO only barely edges out the HD-A30's performance on SD content.

- The OPPO's DivX support is not a factor as my XBMC box handles all my downloaded content

- Is it too late to jump on the HD-DVD bandwagon? I honestly feel dirty supporting SONY's format but do I really have a choice anymore?

Help! :(

[j_garcia]

I have the A2 and the upscaling is about dead even between it and my 980, so unless there are movies that you REALLY want that are exclusive to it, I would return the A30.

YES, it is a bit too late to jump into HD DVD, at least long term anyway IMO.

[jliedeka]

I would also keep the Oppo for the DVD-A and SACD capabilities. I'm thinking of going Blue down the road but I'll keep the Oppo connected at least for hi-def audio. Plus, you never know when you may need the region free capability. The PAL to NTSC conversion is nice although I only have one disc that needs it. The Oppo is the best DVD player I have ever owned. I've had some discs that behaved weirdly on my other two, a mid-line Sony and a Taiwanese region free player. The Oppo played them with no problem. An example of that is a few discs from Buffy season 7, especially the beginning of the final episode. I was unable to watch it in its entirety until I bought the Oppo 981.

Also, I don't know if this is still true but I thought the next-gen players were dog slow to start up. A good upscaling DVD player my be nice to have around for SD discs.

Jim

[j_garcia]

My A2 is pretty slow to boot and that is before it even has to read a disc. We're talking 20-30 seconds before it even opens the tray. Depending on the disc, it can take some time once it starts to read as well. With SD discs it handles them about the same as a regular DVD player though, compared to somewhat slower reaction time with HD DVDs (menu actions, stop, pause, etc...). I already have a nice player for SACD and DVD-A, so the Oppo isn't of use to me at the moment, but I am keeping it for now also.

[SilverMK3]

Okay, I just finished doing a couple of quick comparisons between the two.

Here are my initial reactions:

1) Tested the A30's video quality with The Bourne Identity and 300. Despite setting it up to display 1080P/24 I don't think either of these movies are good examples of what HD Video can look like, though I like what I'm seeing so far. The interactive menus are nice and fairly responsive. Boot time was a little slow but I was expecting it (friend has a first gen Blu Ray player that takes >1min to boot). Picture In Picture commentaries were a little gimmicky but the wife will love them.

2) Tested the A30's upscaling performance first with The Incredibles, then with Stardust. The Incredibles showed a little more aliasing than I was used to with my OPPO DV-981HD but it wasn't unbearable. There were no Moire artifacts on the henchmens' uniforms, which were apparent on my older Pioneer DV-588A set to 480i and using the TV's own upscaling engine.

Stardust seems to be over-compressed to begin with so I didn't have high hopes for this disc. The upscaling was as good as could be expected under the circumstances, but I was surprised to come across an issue with the DVD's root menu: There was no cursor on the main menu to see which option I'd selected (Play Movie, Scene Selection, Special Features, etc.) I had to blindly navigate that menu though the submenus did not seem to share the problem. Has anyone else seen this issue with the Toshiba HD-A30? I haven't hooked it up to my router yet to see if there are any firmware updates available.

I'm still not sure which one I want to keep :(

[Seth=L]

I would keep the Oppo if you don't have too many HD DVDs, and I would sell what little HD DVDs you have before everyone realizes they aren't worth much.;)

[GlocksRock]

I would keep the HD-A30, but that's just me.

[Buckeye_Nut]

I picked up an HD-A30 this morning for $198CAD, but I have an OPPO DV-981HD at home. Both were approximately the same price but I can only keep one... Any suggestions on which I should keep?

Comparing a low definition player like the Oppo to a high definition A30 is apples to oranges. Both upscale inferior DVDs, but the end result is still a lousy low definition image. Both upscale so it's a wash as it relates to DVD, but with the A30 you have the opportunity to watch HD-DVD's which are 10 times better. (you could always rent them) To answer your question directly, my advice would be to dump the Oppo and keep the A30.

I personally would get rid of both and buy a Blu-ray player.

[GlocksRock]

Comparing a low definition player like the Oppo to a high definition A30 is apples to oranges. Both upscale inferior DVDs, but the end result is still a lousy low definition image. Both upscale so it's a wash as it relates to DVD, but with the A30 you have the opportunity to watch HD-DVD's which are 10 times better. (you could always rent them) To answer your question directly, my advice would be to dump the Oppo and keep the A30.

I personally would get rid of both and buy a Blu-ray player.

My feelings exactly. Both will be equally easy to update, with the advantage going to the A30 if you have it properly connected to a LAN.

[j_garcia]

I personally would get rid of both and buy a Blu-ray player.

That wasn't one of the choices :p But if it were, I would have to agree 100%.

[tn001d]

If you want to watch movies i would keep the HD-DVD player.

Or you can get this below!!
http://buy.audiogon.com/cgia/cls.pl?homevdeo&1205441382

[Seth=L]

If you want to watch movies i would keep the HD-DVD player.

Or you can get this below!!
http://buy.audiogon.com/cgia/cls.pl?homevdeo&1205441382
Your tactics, while they where entertaining, are getting less and less admirable.:cool:

Just put it on Ebay and let the auction do the work for you.

[obscbyclouds]

OP, you never actually said; do you use the Oppo for anything other than SD DVD's? i.e DVD-A, SACD, PAL movies, DivX, etc.?

If so, then I'd keep the Oppo, if not, for the reasons others have gone into, I'd keep the Tosh.

[SilverMK3]

OP, you never actually said; do you use the Oppo for anything other than SD DVD's? i.e DVD-A, SACD, PAL movies, DivX, etc.?

If so, then I'd keep the Oppo, if not, for the reasons others have gone into, I'd keep the Tosh.


I have a collection of 600+ DVD titles that will need to look good on my new 1080P display so upscaling of SD content is quite important to me. As far as other formats go, my XBMC box handles almost any format the internet has to offer as long as its not in HD. And I don't have any DVD-A's or SACDs (I have a couple of DTS CDs but they'll play pretty much everywhere).

I really want to get into the HD game but $450+ is way too much to spend on a Blu Ray player that will be obsolete in a few months when Profile 2.0 becomes the standard. The HD-A30 is a great deal for $200, if you ignore the fact that the format looks like its about to die :(

[j_garcia]

Profile 2.0 is NOT a requirement, only 1.1 is since it is the "final" standard for all base features, and it does not mean an older player will be obsolete, the movie will still play; you just won't be able to use the features that are compatible with 2.0. Web enabled features really don't interest me much at this point and AFAIK, there is only one Profile 2.0 movie scheduled right now. So, you will miss out on certain features that may not even be important, but not the movie itself or any of the "normal" content that matters. I mean seriously, other than novelty, how many people even watch most or any of the special features? I watch outtakes and deleted scenes normally and that's it, which is why the "additional" features are not deal breakers for me. Of course, I have a PS3, so I can be updated....but I intend to pick up an additional stand alone player now.

Just because you don't currently own any SACDs or DVD-As doesn't mean that you might not find that interest down the road does it? Those seem to be well on their way to niche-dom vinyl type relegation, however there are a lot of great discs out there. It depends on what you listen to and whether or not this sort of thing interests you. If you have no interest in them or other things mentioned by obscbyclouds, then the Oppo may not be necessary.

[SilverMK3]

So I just finished updating the player to Firmware ver. 1.3. It didn't seem to help the glitchy handling of DVD menus (Stardust) and the upscaling performance is just not up to par with the OPPO.

I think I'm going to be returning the HD-A30 tomorrow. I'll wait for the Blu Ray players to mature a little bit and hopefully come down from the stratosphere price-wise... Maybe something with the Silicon Optix Rheon VX will pop up at a reasonable price. Hopefully Media prices will come down too when the studios don't have to support two HD formats, though Sony isn't known for its altruism with pricing when they are not in desperate competition.

[j_garcia]

The clunky response and the slow reaction time of the A2 are my main complaints too. My Oppo has worked flawlessly, and if I have a problem with it, their office is 5 minutes from me....

[allargon]

You likely already returned the A30. The A30 has some deinterlacing issues. If you set the A30 to 1080i vs. the Oppo at 1080i, you might prefer the A30.

[obscbyclouds]

You likely already returned the A30. The A30 has some deinterlacing issues. If you set the A30 to 1080i vs. the Oppo at 1080i, you might prefer the A30.

Why would he want to set the Oppo to any resolution other than his TV's native?

[SilverMK3]

Yes, I returned the A30 over the weekend. If I hadn't seen the OPPO's 1080P performance prior to buying the A30 I don't think I would have had any issues with the way it upscales. Running the A30 at 1080i would have been a waste of money for me, I might as well have picked up the A3 for $150.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be replacing my DVD collection any time soon and the only affordable HD format looks like its about to die on us. I think I can wait a few months for BD players to come down in price. No sense paying the "early adopter tax" this late in the game.

[SilverMK3]

Hopefully Media prices will come down too when the studios don't have to support two HD formats, though Sony isn't known for its altruism with pricing when they are not in desperate competition.

Let me be the first to say "I told me so! (http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/12/lack-of-competition-sends-blu-ray-player-prices-upward/)" :(

[allargon]

Yes, I returned the A30 over the weekend. If I hadn't seen the OPPO's 1080P performance prior to buying the A30 I don't think I would have had any issues with the way it upscales. Running the A30 at 1080i would have been a waste of money for me, I might as well have picked up the A3 for $150.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be replacing my DVD collection any time soon and the only affordable HD format looks like its about to die on us. I think I can wait a few months for BD players to come down in price. No sense paying the "early adopter tax" this late in the game.

The A30 has an Anchor Bay scaling chip whereas the A3 does not. Guess who's using AnchorBay now? Yep. Oppo with the 983H.

No worries. HD DVD is dead. Enjoy your Oppo. Honestly, unless you want the audio upgrades (err... :o ), upscaling is good enough for displays less than 42" with normal viewing distances.

[Johnd]

My $0.02?

Sell everything like some of the others posted, and be prepared to shell out over $2k for a decent player and a small library of movies.

Or, keep the A30 and have a large library for under 1k...and it's not remotely "dead" as long as your discs are playable (both HD and SD...the A30 is a great upconverter).

Case in point? I have two A35's and an A3 (may sell one of them) and about 70 discs (including all the freebies)...and I have only spent about $880. And my library of about 150 SD movies is not "dead" either...they play just fine thank you, upscaled at 1080p/24Hz on a 120" glass bead screen. :D

Which brings me to my final point. A 42" screen is fine. But HD (imho) needs to be enjoyed on a large screen before one can make a truly well-informed decision. It's no wonder you detected no appreciable between the A30 and 981...a 42" screen is somewhat...limited. I'm not remotely suggesting you sell it, or even consider buying a larger display. A 42" screen at whatever distance you prefer is fine if you so decide. No wonder you can't detect an appreciable difference between upscaled SD and HD...no wonder.

Make no mistake: HD has a lot of information (bits) that are not present in SD. And 300 is not the best gauge (imho) for HD pq...at least not on a 42" screen. Either you like it or you don't. But watch 300 via an A35 at 1080p on a 120" glass bead screen, and compare it to an upconverted SD 300 on the same screen...absolutely no competition. Finally, as there are some 750 titles in HD (US and foreign), only you can decide if there is enough selection from which to choose.

One can make no excuses for lack of bits. :D

[SilverMK3]

Dude, I wasn't saying I couldn't tell the difference between SD and HD. I was saying that the 981's upscaling performance was better than the A-30's upscaling performance. I returned the A-30 in favor of a PS3, then later bought the HD-DVD attachment for my XBOX for $50.

Yes I'm now one of 'those guys' with consoles for HD movie players, but I still watch my large 700+ DVD library using the OPPO - its upscaling performance beats the PS3 and 360's upscaling as well.

[Johnd]

Dude, I wasn't saying I couldn't tell the difference between SD and HD. I was saying that the 981's upscaling performance was better than the A-30's upscaling performance. I returned the A-30 in favor of a PS3, then later bought the HD-DVD attachment for my XBOX for $50.

Yes I'm now one of 'those guys' with consoles for HD movie players, but I still watch my large 700+ DVD library using the OPPO - its upscaling performance beats the PS3 and 360's upscaling as well.

I understand that SilverMK3 (if you're referring to my post...and btw, I'm not a "dude" ;)).

What I wrote was I understand why "you detected no appreciable difference between the A30 and the 981...on a 42" screen" between upconverted SD and HD. Big difference between the two statements. That's all. There's absolutely no inference that you don't know what your seeing (or talking about) or that you have a crappy setup. None whatsoever. Cheers, John