OPPO OPDV971H Digital HD-Ready Up-Converting DVD Player
Great picture, and then some
I thought that my home-theater PC's upconverting of DVDs was as good as it could get. The OPDV971H proved me wrong. I decided to pick one up after reading so many glowing reviews (and being severely underwhelmed by the best Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD demos recently) to see what all the fuss was about. I'll tell you: on my Sony 30XS955 direct-view set, this player delivers a vibrant, noise-free, rock-steady picture that -- with the right source material -- looks better than currently available HD offerings. <br /> <br />Sure, the player's on-screen display isn't the most elegant, and you must connect it via DVI/HDMI to get 480p (I have it set to 720p, which delivers the best image quality on my set versus 1080i) but they're small complaints. <br /> <br />My player is running the latest final firmware (March 2006) and I have yet to encounter any of the audio sync problems reported by users with earlier firmware on any of the many discs I've tried. Of course, Oppo makes it easy to download the latest firmware from its web site, burn it to a CD-R, and update your player. <br /> <br />All in all, this has to be one of the best values in home theater components today. Don't let the lack of a big-brand name turn you away from this category-leading player!