Looking for a good std def DVD player

[Janik]

I have hundreds of standard def DVD's in my collection and am looking for a decent std def DVD player to play them. I have no intention of buying a Blu-ray player for at least a year.

Before you jump to conclusions here, let me explain. Several months ago I finally upgraded my home theatre, with the centerpiece being the Onkyo TX-905 receiver driving 1080p video into my 60" HDTV.

It is my intention to use the Onkyo receiver as the video hub for upscaling/converting all video inputs. Right now, my DVD player is the Philips DVP5982 player, but I would like to know if there is a better choice of std DVD player that would output a good clean 480i video signal. (No upconverting or massaging of the video signal by the player!)

Any suggestions??

 

[j_garcia]

The Oppo 980 outputs 480i over HDMI and is considered to be a very good player for just $169. Note that upscaling will get you to near true HD levels but it will never look as good as actual (quality) 1080p material.

 

[Janik]

Good 480i DVD transport

Thanks,

Everybody's so into the built-in DVD upconverting that it's hard to get good info on simply choosing a DVD player as the transport to the receiver, which will do all the converting.

Oppo seems to be a good name for what I want, which is only the 480i DVD transport, most likey over HDMI. I Assume HDMI would be better than component???

 

[j_garcia]

I can't say for sure if it will be better for 480i, but since they made it a point to tout the fact that this was one of the few players that can do it, I would presume it is a good thing

 

[markw]

All HDTV's do upconversion internally to their best native format. Let's just hope that your receiver does better job than the TV itself. If not, you're just chasing your tail.

Every upconverting DVD player I've seen* only does upconversion through HDMI, but 480i via component can look pretty durn nice when fed to a HDTV doing it's own internal upconversion, at least it does on my Toshiba.

* There may be exceptions.

 

[itschris]

I've got the 980 hooked up via HDMI to my Elite 94. I've hooked it up just about every which way you can with both HDMI and Component. My personal experience was that older DVD's such as Armegeddon looked noticably better when using HDMI and letting the OPPO do the conversion. I didn't notice any difference between hooking it direct to the TV vs the 94. The only thing you may need is a better HDMI cable. I had issues with dropouts at first and after troubleshooting, determined the cable was crap. I replaced it with a Belkin PURE AV cable I was able to pick up that night at SAM's Club and all was well.

 

[Janik]

Thanks for the comments, I most likely will be ordering the Oppo-980 player for the 480i output.

As it makes life easier, and especially more convenient, my strategy has always been to make the receiver the upconversion hub of my home theatre setup. It was for this reason that I shelled out the extra bucks for Onkyo Tx-905.. it has the Reon upconverting chip, which should be superior to most DVD players.. not sure on the tv's, but I suspect the Reon is superior to the upconverting capabilities of my HDtv (61" Samsung DLP)
From what I've read, only the Realta chip is better, and you have to spend some serious money for that level.

I do intend to play around and compare picture quality between upconverting on the DVD player, the receiver, and the HDtv. As far as cables are concerned, I only use BlueJean's flagship cables. Speaking of BlueJeans, 4 months ago, a 7 foot HDMI cable cost around $30. Now, the same cable is listed for less than $20!! What gives??

 

[j_garcia]

The 983 is supposed to be one of the best players ever tested by Secrets and it can be had for $400 (if they have them available...sold out quite often). It is apparently on-par with those expensive Realta players.

 

[jamie2112]

The 983 is supposed to be one of the best players ever tested by Secrets and it can be had for $400 (if they have them available...sold out quite often). It is apparently on-par with those expensive Realta players.

Thats right the 983 is an amazing player for 400 and if you look online you can get it from 369. I would go with the OPPO for sure Janik....buy the best and you won't be sorry later on....

 

[amnesiac]

The thing about the 983 is that the Faroujda (sp?) video processors are known to cause macroblocking on some DLPs. OP didn't specify what kind of HDTV he had, but I assume that at 60" it's DLP. Oppo suggests the 980 for DLPs to avoid the macroblocking issue. I was leaning towards the 980 also for its superior audio processing but I actually ended up with a Philips 5990/5992 for $60 from Wal Mart. The Philips upconverts perfectly with all the discs i've tested, handles all my video files off an external and it cost me less than an Oppo. I was also able to make it region free so it handles all of my SD work. I'm sure the Oppo will have better video processing, but from the viewing distance I have in my setup (10ft on a 56" screen) everything looks great and clearer than with my previous progressive scan samsung. For the money and its availability (wal mart, best buy, costco, etc) it can't hurt to at least pick one up and try it, and if it isn't satisfactory you can just return it and go for the Oppo.

 

[j_garcia]

The 983 doesn't use Faroudja, it uses VRS - Anchor Bay; it is an all new player. The 981 is Faroudja and is only $199. Note I don't think either the 981 or 983 can do 480i over HDMI.

 

[Janik]

Yeah, I'm waivering a bit here between the 983 and 980, and probably will pick the 980.. for perhaps the wrong reason, not sure. Before buying any component of my home theatre at the beginning of this year, I did a whack of googling & forum reading, and came to the conclusion, perhaps for convenience, that the AV receiver should be the hub of my system.

So I bought the Onkyo TX-905, which uses the Reon HQV video processing chip. Everything I've read about this chip suggests that it has superior video rendering qualities to the older Faroujda chip. So this rules the OPPO 981 out.

If I choose to stick to my strategy of using the receiver to upconvert, the OPPO 980 choice is a no-brainer. But to shell out $400 for the 983 for the Anchor Bay technology.. need to do some research here.
j_garcia, can you tell me where you got your information that said this chip is on par with Realta? Realta is darn good!

I currently have the Phillips DVD5982 dvd player, got it for free when I bought my KEF KHT2005 surround speakers, and my original intent of this discussion was to see if a better DVD player existed on the market to send 480i non-upconverted bitstream data to my receiver. To this end, it seems like the OPPO 980 is worthy of closer scrutiny. Thanks