New Oppo DVD player finally available for preorder.

[Pyrrho]

Take a look at:

http://www.oppodigital.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DV983H

Given its price of $399, it is the about the same as buying one of each of the other two Oppo players, so it better be something special or it is not the bargain usually associated with Oppo.

But then, it seems it may be something special:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-dvd-player-product-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player---a-secrets-dvd-benchmark-review.html

 

[Davidt1]

The future is HD and it's here already. I am not sure I would spend $400 on a sd dvd player regardless of how good it is.

 

[Audioholics]

I have one in for review now. I had no idea they were asking this much for it. Oppo fell in love with Secrets after the first benchmark showed that a cheap DVD player with DCDi could do very well. My guess is they designed/built this player to pass their tests (and nothing wrong with that).

HDMI is making the high-end DVD player obsolete.

Good player no doubt, but this certainly doesn't bode well for a reasonably-priced Oppo BD player in the near future.

I'll have my own findings next week.

 

[majorloser]

There is just no way I can see paying $400 for an upconverting DVD player.
My DV-981HD does just fine.

 

[Pyrrho]

I have one in for review now. I had no idea they were asking this much for it. Oppo fell in love with Secrets after the first benchmark showed that a cheap DVD player with DCDi could do very well. My guess is they designed/built this player to pass their tests (and nothing wrong with that).

HDMI is making the high-end DVD player obsolete.

Good player no doubt, but this certainly doesn't bode well for a reasonably-priced Oppo BD player in the near future.

I'll have my own findings next week.

I look forward to reading what you will have to say about it. I am trying to decide whether I want to buy one, or buy the older Oppo DV-981HD instead. I'll decide after next week, so I can see what you have to say about the new model.

I would just buy a Blu-Ray player, but they don't seem to be the best at upconverting DVDs, and there are too many glitches and problems people seem to be having with them. And the Blu-Ray "standard" seems to still be evolving:

http://consumerist.com/344116/buyers-beware-current-blu+ray-dvd-players-wont-correctly-play-future-discs

Reading the reviews of Blu-Ray players at Amazon, even when the reviewers give the player 4 or 5 stars, is enough to keep me away. I would rather watch an upconverted DVD than a Blu-Ray player with the problems people have, no matter how good it looked during the parts that actually played.

 

[j_garcia]

LOL, they sort of priced themselves out of the market by first introducing excellent value players for a great price. Hopefully they will maintain at least one inexpensive model.

 

[jcPanny]

Oppo DVD

There are a lot of people with a large catalog of SD DVDs and the new Oppo performed better than the $4k Denon DVD player in the Secrets benchmark. It is definately a niche market, but it makes $400 sound pretty reasonable.

A dedicated BluRay player would not need the same upscaling and deinterlacing features as the flagship Oppo DVD player so it will be interesting to see what type of features and pricing they come up with.

 

[j_garcia]

It doesn't really matter if it is the best SD player ever built, it still won't be true high def. The point being, for the same price or less, you can get a Blu-ray player that already has superior picture quality and which will also upscale SD DVDs, just not as well. So it isn't like you will be somehow "losing" your current collection, though it is pretty much a given that I will not go back and watch the SD versions again...except maybe to compare.

 

[majorloser]

It doesn't really matter if it is the best SD player ever built, it still won't be true high def. The point being, for the same price or less, you can get a Blu-ray player that already has superior picture quality and which will also upscale SD DVDs, just not as well. So it isn't like you will be somehow "losing" your current collection, though it is pretty much a given that I will not go back and watch the SD versions again...except maybe to compare.

But will the Bluray play SACD's or DVD-A's? Not that it really matters to most.
Though I do agree, it's not worth paying twice as much as the lower end OPPO's for not much gain.

 

[j_garcia]

No, no BD players do SACD that I have seen. At least one does DVD-A though (BD-10)

Those of us who have been enjoying SACD thus far can just keep one or more of the current players for that right? I have 3 SACD players right now, I don't really need another one

 

[allargon]

No, no BD players do SACD that I have seen. At least one does DVD-A though (BD-10)

Those of us who have been enjoying SACD thus far can just keep one or more of the current players for that right? I have 3 SACD players right now, I don't really need another one

I hope you mean no standalone Blu-Ray players. The 60GB PS3 plays SACD. I believe it was you even that mentioned it in another post.

 

[j_garcia]

I hope you mean no standalone Blu-Ray players. The 60GB PS3 plays SACD. I believe it was you even that mentioned it in another post.

Sorry, you are correct; aside from the PS3, I haven't heard of any that play SACD. The 80G also plays them, but not the 40G. You must use HDMI and have a compatible receiver to handle multichannel SACD though.

 

[Davidt1]

Now that I have had sometimes to think about it. $400 isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of av things, especially if this player turns out to be one of the best ever made. And if it upconverts better than my A35, then it would give my small collection of SD dvds new life again. That might be worth the premium. Still I think $300 is the right price for this thing.

 

[j_garcia]

I haven't been using my 980 recently, but with the demise if HD DVD and the fact that my A2 doesn't seem to handle 4:3 material well, I may switch back to the 980. I don't think it is a bad price for what you are going to get from this machine, but is it really worth it for SD? For me, I just want a good player for SD at this point, not a great one, because I am more than satisfied with Blu-ray.

 

[dilznoofus]

It is now officially listed on their main web page, but it shows as out of stock.

 

[gus6464]

No, no BD players do SACD that I have seen. At least one does DVD-A though (BD-10)

Those of us who have been enjoying SACD thus far can just keep one or more of the current players for that right? I have 3 SACD players right now, I don't really need another one

PS3 80/60/20GB can do SACD

 

[mike c]

after all the talk about HD DVD and BD players being great upscalers. I was reminded the other day on WHY I always keep my trusty SD DVD players around.

I moved my PS3 from my HT into my bedroom (while there's no BD movie to watch, my orders haven't arrived yet) so I can play with the media server. since my TV only has 1 HDMI input, I disconnected my DVD player and connected the PS3. great.

but when I was about to watch my US bought SD DVD (region 1), my asian PS3 would not play it. so I had to disconnect and reconnect everything.

my point is, it looks like my trusty SD DVD players (upscaling as well) are here to stay.

 

[aberkowitz]

Now that I have had sometimes to think about it. $400 isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of av things, especially if this player turns out to be one of the best ever made. And if it upconverts better than my A35, then it would give my small collection of SD dvds new life again. That might be worth the premium. Still I think $300 is the right price for this thing.

I think it's just a matter of how they want to position themselves in the market. Is the incremental benefit of upconverting that large that it warrants spending $400 on an SD DVD player?? I would personally argue no b/c I think the upconverting job done by my PS3 is above average. If you're a consumer who will never enter the HD market then maybe this is $400 well spent, but from the way I've heard people speak about the 981 (I never got around to purchasing one) then maybe a purchase of that machine for ~$200 is a better buy and using the leftover money to go out and buy 15-20 movies.

 

[joltdudeuc]

LOL


For a forum called Audioholics you guys sure worry about PQ a lot.

Every wonder how this $400 player might SOUND? Analog outputs, it's pretty damn good. I bet that the audio reviews for this unit, especially in the 2-channels realm, will be extremely favorable.

 

[aberkowitz]

LOL


For a forum called Audioholics you guys sure worry about PQ a lot.

Every wonder how this $400 player might SOUND? Analog outputs, it's pretty damn good. I bet that the audio reviews for this unit, especially in the 2-channels realm, will be extremely favorable.

Why wouldn't we worry about PQ- one of the key functions is as a DVD player . I'm not as familiar with the Oppo products, but from everything I've heard they're known for their picture quality- specifically their upconverting abilities.

Since the unity's main function is as a DVD player, I'm not quite sure how important 2-channel sound is going to be. If I were to pay $400 for an SD player, which at this point I wouldn't do, I would be most concerned with how it A) upconverted PQ, and B) passed 5.1 channel sound.