I'd heard some rumours about Oppo 981 so I checked with them before I made my purchase and they came back to me:
"We are working on a new DVD product called the DV-981HD. It will be
Faroudja based, support HDMI and SACD audio, and upconvert to 1080p. We
hope to release it later this month with a MSRP around the same price of
the OPDV971H, if not a little higher."
I guess I have to wait a couple more weeks!!