New Oppo DV-983H is here!

[Owen Bartley]

I didn't see this posted anywhere yet, so I thought I'd share. I came across this on AVS, and apparently Oppo has been working on their next upconverting player for a while now. This one will be similar to the 980, But will use an ABT 102 deinterlacing chip and ABT 1010 scaling engine (getting rid of the Faroudja). Theoretically, there should be no macroblocking issues with this chipset, and interlacing, de-interlacing, scaling, and aliasing should be improved.

Early price estimates are about $300-349, and I think the last I saw it may be available as soon as the end of March.

More info (including beta test comments) here.

[tonyvdb]

Oppo has a great product but right now getting a Toshiba HD DVD player as they will be liquidating them in the next few weeks would be a far better and cheaper option. The A3 AX2 and even the A2 are even better upconverters than any Oppo I have seen.

[eugovector]

Kudos to Oppo for making their exceptional player even better, but $300 is starting to get away from the bang-for-the-buck Oppo we all love.

[maikeldepotter]

tonyvdb wrote:

Oppo has a great product but right now getting a Toshiba HD DVD player as they will be liquidating them in the next few weeks would be a far better and cheaper option. The A3 AX2 and even the A2 are even better upconverters than any Oppo I have seen.

Tony,

Did you come to this conclusion after a side-to-side comparison? That would certainly have my interest. Because I could not see a difference in upconverting capability when I returned my Toshiba HD player (because of lip sync problem with the analog output that I used at that time) for a Oppo 981. They both gave an incredible good result with standard DVDs through my Panasonic PTAE-2000. Now I am relativey new to the HT field so it could be that my judgement is lacking precision.

Also this benchmark shows hardly any quality difference between Oppo and Toshiba:


Maikel.

[eugovector]

I have an A2 and a 981. The HQV disc shows de-interlacing problems with the A2 that the Oppo doesn't have. Yes these were apparent with "normal" viewing, one of the nice things about HQV disc is that it's not all patterns, they use mostly real program material.

The A2 was a disappointing upscaler for me, being used to the Oppo, but the XA2 should be even with the Oppo, and not have macroblocking issue.

In summary, the A2 is certainly not on par with the Oppo 981.

[tonyvdb]

The Oppo is a great player as I said I personally have not owned one but I have a friend who does and I cant see any improvement over the A2 so for the price of an HD DVD player (around ($120) you cant go wrong. The AX2 has the Reon chip that is regarded to be the best around The Oppo doesn't use it.

[maikeldepotter]

eugovector wrote:

I have an A2 and a 981. The HQV disc shows de-interlacing problems with the A2 that the Oppo doesn't have. Yes these were apparent with "normal" viewing, one of the nice things about HQV disc is that it's not all patterns, they use mostly real program material.

The A2 was a disappointing upscaler for me, being used to the Oppo, but the XA2 should be even with the Oppo, and not have macroblocking issue.

In summary, the A2 is certainly not on par with the Oppo 981.

The Toshiba I had prior to the Oppo 981 was the XE1 which is I belive the European version of the XA2. With my Panasonic PT-AE2000 projector (>80 hours) I have yet not seen any macroblocking with the Oppo 981, so I guess I am lucky

[Blaser]

tonyvdb wrote:

The Oppo is a great player as I said I personally have not owned one but I have a friend who does and I cant see any improvement over the A2 so for the price of an HD DVD player (around ($120) you cant go wrong. The AX2 has the Reon chip that is regarded to be the best around The Oppo doesn't use it.

The Oppo 983H uses ABT 1018 (Owen, it is not 1010 as far as I understand) scaling engine and an ABT 102 deinterlacing chip, it is on par with the reon chip on the AX2, and far supperior to the A2.

[Owen Bartley]

blaser, I might have misquoted, or it might have been incorrect where I first read it, but I trust you since I haven't verified.

It is getting a little expensive for a standard def player, but for people with extensive SD libraries it would probably be worth getting the best player they can find.

[Blaser]

Hi Owen, Both chips are the same as processors but I believe the 1018 will have few more feature (software part) or so. Indeed I should receive the Epson TW-2000 FP (Epson 1080 UB) within 2 weeks but I am still using a poor Samsung player (HD 870). I am only having SD DVDs (about 150) and I am also looking for something great (at least better than the FP processing), but it is too hard to decide!
Technology advances like an arrow and everyday there are new things. The 981H was good for its price, but now the 983H is even better but at a BD player price. The question is how better is it for SD DVDs? Also the other advantage is to be region free (which indeed makes me hold as far as BD is concerned as I buy many DVDs form region 1 and 2 simultaneously.

Only the XA2 matches the upconverting qualities of the 983H and it has the advantage of playing HD DVDs, but costs a lot more if I am not mistaken....

Sony introduces in summer the S350 which will propably do everything including streaming both DTS HD formats forthe price of the 983H, and later on comes the S550 to add 1 Gb hard drive + bitstreaming and decoding of the a.m formats for 100 grants more...

I simply can't decide...can you?

[Blaser]

By the way Tony...I like your signature and specially the "my wife" part

[Owen Bartley]

You're right blaser, there's always something newer and better just around the corner, and it's a lot of fun to watch technology advance like it has been in the last decade or two. It might be an antiquated belief these days, but for some reason I still want my receiver or processor to do the decoding, rather than the player. Granted, that means for the new surround formats it will mean a big (and expensive) upgrade, but my receiver is getting up there in years anyway, and I think I can wait a bit for the brand new stuff (I still haven't even bought an HD display yet ).

I guess for me it just comes down to the fact that you buy when you're ready for something, unless you're about to see a significant change in the technology. I haven't gotten an HDTV because I'm waiting to buy a condo and see what will fit (and while I wait, prices keep dropping). When I do eventually get something, I'll probably get a nice upconverting player right away (quite possibly the Oppo, we'll see!) and eventually make my way to BD as well, and some new processing power.

[Owen Bartley]

Update:

Oppo wrote:

There will be no delay in the launch of the DVD player. However, the launch will be staggered. The main reason for this is that all units which are currently in our warehouse have to be manually updated to the latest firmware release. This process is time consuming, so not all product will be ready for release on Monday, March 10. Some accessories, such as the upgraded power cable and the User's Manual, also had manufacturing problems. The stock of these accessories and the total number or pre-orders are offset.

What this means is that only partial stock will be available on the March 10 date for shipment. More stock will be upgraded, tested, packed and released on a constant basis with all pre-orders expected to be shipped to customers within 2~3 days of the original ship date of March 10.

[Blaser]

Great news...but Isn't it worth waiting for the S550 BD player. I will do everything, but I don't know how good it may be for SD DVDs...

[Kal Rubinson]

blaser wrote:

Great news...but Isn't it worth waiting for the S550 BD player. I will do everything, but I don't know how good it may be for SD DVDs...

It won't do everything for me. No SACD.

Kal

[Owen Bartley]

I assume the new BD player will upconvert as well, does anyone know if it uses the same chip and scaling engine as the 983H? If it does, it would be a pretty easy decision to make, and would seemingly be a fantastic player to have. (except for the SACD, sorry Kal)

[crabkey]

Most Valuable Player of the century!

In addition to the marvellous Panasonic DMP-BD30 I have the wonderful Toshiba HD-XA2 and Samsung BD-UP5000 with their reon chips but none holds a candle to the Oppo 983 for upconverting standard DVDs. Not only has it made me rethink my original intention to gradually replace my (several thousand) DVDs as hi-def versions become available (except for extra special titles like 'Lawrence of Arabia' etc.) it has encouraged me to buy new titles on standard DVD instead of their Blu versions.
In addition to its astonishing upconverting capability, you get a region-free player (no more frustrations on coming across coveted movies available only in the PAL format), a player that, as with DVDs, breathes new life into standard CDs (this was a huge unexpected bonus) as well as, among other offerings, SACD and DVD-Audio. When these last two formats were introduced they cost around $2,000 EACH (and considered a bargain by reviewers at the time) so when I hear people complain (as on AVS) about its $400 tag being expensive for a 'regular dvd player' I want to give them a good kick in the nether region. There's nothing 'regular' about this brilliant unit which for all the above reasons is an unbelievable bargain.