I bought an Oppo DV-983H. It is as good as the hype about it. I think those who say it isn't worth $400 for a DVD player have probably never seen it in action. Here are links to a couple of reviews:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-dvd-player-product-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player---a-secrets-dvd-benchmark-review.html
http://hometheater.about.com/od/dvdproductreviews/ig/OPPO-DV-983H-HQV-Test-Results/
The page at the second link contains many screen shots (be sure to read the text, as some blurriness is a result of camera issues, not the performance of the Oppo).
It is a nice step up from my Yamaha DVD-C750 upconverted via my Yamaha RX-V2700 for my Toshiba 42HL67U.
The Oppo makes regular DVDs look
almost as good as HD. (For those of you who might need that explained, "almost as good as" means that it isn't as good as. But it almost is as good as.) And it looks better than some of the things I have seen broadcast as an HD signal that were evidently upconverted by the TV station. I cannot say that this player does a better job at upconverting than professional equipment, though, because I don't know what format the sources have been that I have seen upconverted for broadcast. But it
seems that way.
It does a great job with PAL DVDs, and is easy to make region free. All one has to do is:
Press Setup.
Press "9210" in quick succession. A new window will appear.
Press "0". Your region is now multi-region.
Press Setup to Exit.
Unfortunately, I have no experience with any of the other Oppo players, so I can't tell you how much of a step up it is over them. I decided on this Oppo because I wanted to get the best performance out of my DVDs that I possibly could, and I am very happy with the results.
I think I may be spending some quality time with my new player, so I may not be back here for a while. It is fantastic. If you get a chance to see one, it is definitely worth checking out. Or, if $400 isn't a lot of money to you, just buy it. I doubt you will regret it.