OPPO OPDV971H Digital HD-Ready Up-Converting DVD Player
Unimpressive
This Oppo player is a dissapointment. Currently I have a progressive scan player connected to my 26\\" Toshiba HDTV. The TV takes the 480P signal and upconverts it to 1080i for display. The advantage of the Oppo, in theory, is that it uses the best upconversion available (supposedly better than the processor in most TVs) and then delivers the result over a DVI (or HDMI) cable to keep the signal digitally pure. In theory I should get a better picture on my TV.<br /><br />In practice the Oppo suffers from a variety of problems:<br /><br />1. The disc transport vibrates when reading the title and menu sections of several discs. These discs do not vibrate in my other DVD player. The vibration on the Oppo seems to go away when the movie is actually playing, but this does not speak well about the quality of the transport.<br /><br />2. The dark areas of movie scenes (e.g. view of the stars in Star Wars) show big blocky pixels of a very dark purple color. This is a know problem of the video processor used on the Oppo. This is a degradation of picture quality compared to my other DVD player (Bose 123 GS II operating in progressive scan mode).<br /><br />3. The overall picture quality is little different than my other DVD player (aside from the blocky pixels in the dark areas). A high quality DVD is very difficult to distinguish when played in the Oppo compared to a regular progressive scan DVD player.<br /><br />Also,<br /><br />the Oppo is slow to load discs<br /><br />the on-screen menus are amateurish and ugly<br /><br />the Oppo does not remember where you are on a disc when you turn it off<br /><br />the Oppo doesn't have a menu button on the player, so if the remote is misplaced you can't navigate<br /><br />And remember, the upconversion only works on the DVI output. If you don't have a DVI (or HDMI) input on your television then this player has little to offer compared to less expensive ones. And if you're like me, your TV may do as good a job at upconversion as the Oppo. The tests of these players in online magazine reviews do not necessarily translate into a visual difference.<br /><br />This player is over-hyped.e tests of these players in online magazine reviews do not necessarily translate into a visual difference. <br /> <br />This player is over-hyped.