89 replies to this topic

[Glen1]

As the title asks who's got one, what have you got and what do you think?

[The D-Train]

Glen

theres a ton of threads on these.  Check out the home theatre section for a massive thread on the 983.  In a nutshell they are very well priced and highly regarded.  

[Inego]

Glen

As I said in one of your other threads, I'm very happy with my 980H at the price point. Filmic PQ with no blocking issues on my Hitachi. Haven't tried DiVX etc, but everything else seems to work....

Kent

[Wing Nut]

I was so happy with a 971H I bought some years ago that I bought a 981HD a couple of years later when a good excuse for a second player came up. If I could get it past Mrs Wing Nut again I'd get the latest model in a flash. Both these older models handle DivX/XviD with ease - something that apart from upscaling was important to me.

Besides cost and performance, delivery from the US can be inside 4 days door to door and after-sales email technical enquiries are answered so quick it's more like a chat. Add to that their commitment to old models with firmware updates for even my old 971H going on for a couple of years or more, well after the next models came out. I couldn't recommend a better brand of DVD player for the price nor a better company to deal with.

[kwarrior]

The D-train, on Jul 8 2008, 11:35 PM, said:

Glen

theres a ton of threads on these. Check out the home theatre section for a massive thread on the 983. In a nutshell they are very well priced and highly regarded.

Glen...like D-T above, I used the Oppo Owners thread to make the decision on buying my Oppo.....It is a fantastic DVD player for its price...have a look at the Oppo thread ....tons of info there....

Good Luck..

[Glen1]

I can now answer my own question.
I borrowed a 981HD player and watched a few dvd looking for macroblocking and drop outs over hdmi/dvi.   None of the above so I've just ordered one from Merlin.  I reckon that on SD dvd's upscaling was better than my xe1 although I'll qualify that by saying that this was on memory as my xe1 has a new home now.

[samurie]

Glen1, on Jul 13 2008, 11:00 AM, said:

I can now answer my own question.
I borrowed a 981HD player and watched a few dvd looking for macroblocking and drop outs over hdmi/dvi.   None of the above so I've just ordered one from Merlin.  I reckon that on SD dvd's upscaling was better than my xe1 although I'll qualify that by saying that this was on memory as my xe1 has a new home now.

got one for sale, $200 which is a great price for a dvd player that upscales beautifully and outputs dvi to dvi without hdcp
I use it on a fujitsu that does not have a hdmi input so that I can still get 1080i from a dvd.
email me at samurie@internode.on.net if intrested..

[yorac]

samurie, on Jul 25 2008, 02:42 AM, said:

got one for sale, $200 which is a great price for a dvd player that upscales beautifully and outputs dvi to dvi without hdcp
I use it on a fujitsu that does not have a hdmi input so that I can still get 1080i from a dvd.
email me at samurie@internode.on.net if intrested..

model number might attract more interest mate

[samurie]

woops its a oppo 971h  

[Munter]

Have both the Oppo 971H and the new 983H models.  The later superseeded the original Oppo in my system.  Although the 971H was great 3.5yrs ago, but the 983H is just a near perfect SD dvd player.

DVD's have never looked so good on my 52inch Sony full hd LCD.  The upscaling abilities of this player is great, have not had any macroblocking issues plagued with the 971H (Faroudja scaler/deinterlacer).  If you can afford it, the $450 asking price is well worth it if u have a ton of dvd's.

Although bluray is out and gaining popularity, the cost of discs and lack of a mid-priced player in the market (not talking about the PS3 here), i'll wait till Oppo releases its bluray player before i bite the bullet.

[nexus7]

Glen1, on Jul 8 2008, 11:11 PM, said:

As the title asks who's got one, what have you got and what do you think?

Yep - Got one  - a 983  - it's brilliant.
Region Free, also plays PAL and NTSC
Also plays DVD Audio and SACD
Haven't tried frisbees or pizzas yet.
Upscaling is absolutely brilliant.  The picture is as good as it gets for standard definition.
Sound is brilliant!
Build quality is first class.
The 'zoom' feature is handy.
This player is worth every penny of the $450.

[blairy]

I've got the 980...posted review a while ago

Blairys Oppo review

As well as buying direct from Merlin, most hifi dealers will contact Merlin and get one in for you.

blairy

[samurie]

so if anyone is intrested in buying a oppo 971h I'll sell it for $150
its region code free and also hdcp free threw dvi to dvi so that you can upscale to 1080i
send me a email to samurie@internode.on.net if you are intrested.

[venno]

Got my 983 yesterday, absolutely brilliant player. Will start buying dvd's again now and cut back on bluray purchases.

[Adelaideltpc]

venno, on Aug 6 2008, 08:01 PM, said:

Got my 983 yesterday, absolutely brilliant player. Will start buying dvd's again now and cut back on bluray purchases.

Is it that good?  On the scale of 1 to 10 - If Bluray is 10.  What do you rate the PQ of the 983?
Where did you get it? How much?
Merlin told me they have no stock and they think the 983 are not produced anymore!!!!

[venno]

Adelaideltpc, on Aug 8 2008, 12:55 PM, said:

Is it that good?  On the scale of 1 to 10 - If Bluray is 10.  What do you rate the PQ of the 983?
Where did you get it? How much?
Merlin told me they have no stock and they think the 983 are not produced anymore!!!!

For good quality dvd transfers its a 9, it really is that good I kid you not, I was a skeptical until I recal'd my HT display and tweaked the oppo. Bluray will always kill it though. I would not reccomend it if you don't have a dvd collection already or plan on only buying bluray. If you want to breathe new life into your collection or hired movies, or don't want to pay the bluray premium for titles then this is the only dvd player you will ever need.

I got it direct from oppo and paid US$469 delivered, seem to still be making em. Took 10 days to get here from placing order.

Mine is region free (well US and Aus anyway so I assume it will play all regions), tested with the discs I have. The zoom modes are really good for different aspect ratio's whilst not distorting the image too much.

[Kazz]

venno, on Aug 8 2008, 07:32 PM, said:

For good quality dvd transfers its a 9, it really is that good I kid you not, I was a skeptical until I recal'd my HT display and tweaked the oppo.

Actually the Oppo 983 really comes into it's own with poor quality transfers, some of my poorer SD discs have never looked so good.

The Oppo is one of the best additions to my HT setup.

[Adelaideltpc]

venno, on Aug 8 2008, 07:02 PM, said:

For good quality dvd transfers its a 9, it really is that good I kid you not, I was a skeptical until I recal'd my HT display and tweaked the oppo. Bluray will always kill it though. I would not reccomend it if you don't have a dvd collection already or plan on only buying bluray. If you want to breathe new life into your collection or hired movies, or don't want to pay the bluray premium for titles then this is the only dvd player you will ever need.

I got it direct from oppo and paid US$469 delivered, seem to still be making em. Took 10 days to get here from placing order.

Mine is region free (well US and Aus anyway so I assume it will play all regions), tested with the discs I have. The zoom modes are really good for different aspect ratio's whilst not distorting the image too much.

Thanks mate! :-)

[Adelaideltpc]

Kazz, on Aug 10 2008, 10:56 AM, said:

Actually the Oppo 983 really comes into it's own with poor quality transfers, some of my poorer SD discs have never looked so good.

The Oppo is one of the best additions to my HT setup.

Kazz,
Audio-wise, how does the Oppo 983 compare to your CA 640?
Thanks...

[Kazz]

Adelaideltpc, on Aug 10 2008, 05:55 PM, said:

Kazz,
Audio-wise, how does the Oppo 983 compare to your CA 640?
Thanks...

Actually I haven't compared them, I'll pop in a couple of cd's later and check.  

[momaw]

I know my 983 doesn't compare to my 540c so I would think it wouldn't come close to a 640..........

[Kazz]

momaw, on Aug 10 2008, 06:49 PM, said:

I know my 983 doesn't compare to my 540c so I would think it wouldn't come close to a 640..........

Sorry, due to an emergency last night I only just had the chance to compare the Oppo and the 640c.

Mo is 100% correct about this, I love my Oppo but for CD playback there is just no comparison between the Oppo and the 640c.

[larry]

with so many of the present avr's also doing video upscaling (eg denon 3808, 4308)
are there any avr models that do upscaling as good as the new oppo 983 ?

[momaw]

larry, on Aug 12 2008, 04:44 AM, said:

with so many of the present avr's also doing video upscaling (eg denon 3808, 4308)
are there any avr models that do upscaling as good as the new oppo 983 ?

nope.

Take the Yamaha AVR range for example.  They also uses the Anchor Bay scaling chip.  But they didn't include the deinterlacer and the scaling isn't fully implemented.  Upscaling by amps is purely a gimmick.  Better than no upscaling, but nowhere near a properly built player.

[larry]

hi momaw,
thanks for the reply !
it seems a bit strange that a $1500-3000 amp doesn't include as good a video scaling as the oppo 982, but i suppose the amp manufacturers make things to a budget, and somethings get compromised....

i found dortamurs comments about how the xbox running xbmc at 720p gave him the best pic of his options
so i suppose if one doesn't have a oppo 983, then the xbox/xbmc/720p option isn't too bad ?