OPPO DV-980H 1080p Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI and 7.1CH Audio

I really spent a lot of time looking at reviews of upconverting DVD players. I read a review of the new Toshiba upconverting DVD player that got me started. That is a fine looking machine but reviews of it indicated some initial flaws in its capabilities so I kept looking. Somehow I found OPPO while surfing the NET. Their Web site gives you a recommendation of which of their three machines would be best, based on your needs and current equipment. I was intrigued with their recommendation that their cheapest machine would be best for me. It was hard to pass up their most expensive DVD player which passes all the really tough video benchmark tests. I had to keep reminding myself that I could purchase two of the 980H's and still have some change left over from the price of the expensive machine.

I do have an audio streak but it's a little odd. The OPPO 980H has tremendous audio capabilities. I am not very demanding in that regard given that my speakers are the original Bose 901s - so I am only asking for stereo. I was enthralled by the sound of Simon and Garfunkel master-level CDs. The producers of these CDs spent three years tracking down the best they could find for each song. So to summarize audio capabilities, I have only tested stereo and have found that to be terrific.

My testing of video capabilities was a little more demanding. We have two HDTVs. The one downstairs where the speakers are hooked up is a Protron with a best video capability of 1080i. But we also have a Panasonic Versa with 1080p capability. So I had a lot of fun putting the Panasonic through its paces. I used The Kingdom of Heaven as my review DVD. Ridley Scott is my favorite director. I used his director's cut of this movie, which is very different from what was released in the theaters. He uses all kinds of video tricks in this movie so at least for me, I was able to see tremendous differences going from no upconversion to various levels of upconversion. I saw things in the movie that I had never seen before and saw fine degrees of things like fire and woodgrain that could not really be seen at all before. There is one critical scene near the beginning in which a man with crossbow appears for an instant. He was barely visible at 1080i upconversion and really visible at 1080p. I had never seen him before testing the OPPO.

I did encounter one unexpected problem with the OPPO. At first, when I tried 1080p, I would get a message that 1080p was not activated or something similar to that. The OPPO initially would not go past 1080i. There is one HDMI cable that comes with the OPPO. I had used that to connect it to the Panasonic Versa. I had also purchased two HDMI Cables To Go which are certified to run 1080p. So I had the bright idea of replacing the OPPO-supplied cable with one of the Cables To Go cables. And, voila, 1080p was activated. So it wasn't the DVD player or the HDTV, it was the cable. It's sort of an unexpected extra to receive an HDTV cable at all with an HD player. On the other hand, if one is supplied, then it should be one that will work at 1080p. I did not complain at all to OPPO, so if they read this review, this finding will be news to them. Otherwise, I would rate the OPPO DV-980H as a full five stars. I almost did that anyway.

If anyone out there is doubting the need for upconversion, put away your doubts. Join the party. The OPPO comes with the plus of outstanding audio capabilities that generally only are included with much more expensive players. Definitely visit the OPPO Web site to determine which of their DVD players fits your needs best. Then compare that machine to others available. You likely will purchase an OPPO.

I was trying to find a DVD player that I could use to preserve my collection of DVDs without having to move to the new Blu-ray standard. I have not tested a Blu-ray player. All the reviews that I read stated that upconversion of DVDs on Blu-ray players left something to be desired. Now I don't foresee the need to move to Blu-ray at all for a very long time.

Just got this DVD Player yesterday, I had a perfectly fine Toshiba DVD Player and up graded to this one. Man I can really tell the difference in sound and picture quality. Its pretty awesome. I have it hooked up to an old school TV not an LCD and using the PCM cables to connect it to the TV. I can just imagine if I used the HDMI output on a Sony XBR or a Samsung A650 or 750.. This is an awesome DVD player. The sound is powerful and some awesome preset sounds built in too I.E rock, live, club, movie dance etc. there are adjustment for pretty much every thing ,like sharpness, brightness, tone, gamma, etc etc all built into the DVD player. An awesome player for [..]. Hope you guys like the pics I uploaded, I upgraded the firm ware, with out any problems. Do not change the downloaded file name, let it be as 981. If you change it to 981.BIN the player will not recognize it. I used the USB input to update the firmware and it took about 3 min, and was pretty smooth.

This is a fantastic DVD player. Connected via HDMI to a 1080p plasma TV the DVDs look and sound great. I am seeing details I've never seen in movies. This is a finely packaged and engineered player. It includes an HDMI cable and an audio cable. There are several options you can select for picture and sound. The buttons on the remote glow in the dark but there are so many buttons and they are so small that you will need light to operate it. It takes several seconds for this player to boot up or load a DVD menu screen but I've gotten used to it. The DVD tray itself is a little flimsy. A red standby light stays on whenever the unit is off. The running light and readout are a nice blue color which can be dimmed. The best way to watch movies until Blu-ray starts to dominate . . .

Great unit! As many have said, its audio and video quality surpass most costing far more. The Customer Service for Oppo is fabulous. I heartily recommend the 980!

This is the best DVD Player I've owned. I will keep my eyes out for other Oppo products every time I upgrade my electronics in the future. I bought this player shortly after purchasing a PS3 and upgrading my TV to a 42" 1080p. My Blue Rays looked great, but neither the PS3 nor my old standard DVD player could make a decent picture out of regular DVDs. This Oppo Player solved that beautifully. There is little difference between an upconverted DVD and most Blue Rays, because most BDs are not shot with high-def cameras anyway. This equipment proves to me that DVD will continue to have a large market for many years to come, even in an HD environment, as a cheaper alternative to BD. PLEASE OPPO MAKE MORE PRODUCTS! These guys know quality electronics. Everything about the product is classy as hell. The only minor flaw I find is that the on-screen menus have a pretty rustic look to them, but they're effective and easy enough to navigate, and in EVERY other WAY THIS PRODUCT IS FREAKIN PERFECT. If you want a sweet Upscaling DVD Player, BUY THIS ONE!

Really high quality player - DVDs look great on my 720p screen. Haven't noticed any skips or pauses - seems to have good error correction, unlike the Philips upconverting piece of junk I got rid of.

It is a very good DVD player; however the upconverting is not exactly what you expect UNLESS you have HDMI. For component connectivity you do NOT get the upconverting benefits. You might as well have something less expensive OR you must have HDMI connectivity.

This DVD player was recommended by a sound-system-knowledgable friend and we now see and hear why! Images look more crisp, music sounds more clear. We are very pleased with this purchase.

This seems to be a nice player in general, but my experience with it is disappointing. I ordered it brand new from Amazon two months ago, watched about 10 commercial DVDs in total, and last week the player failed to recognize any DVD disc. I tried to pump air in to clean inside, upgrade firmware, disconnect the power and open the tray, ... nothing worked.

So I contacted OPPO's customer service, and shipped it back for repair. They quickly replaced the optical unit, and now it is working again, so far so good. I'm satisfied with their customer service, because the repair went fast. However, such a fragile optical unit is really disappointing.

So far so good! Very sleek compact model, 1080p upscaling, easy to configure for multi-region dvds AND both NTSC or PAL output. And for a great price. Does exactly what I wanted it to do.

I ordered this from Amazon with shipping to another country. THe package was well done with all the essential item in the box. The first impression from outside, finish was excellent. The audio and video performance is excellent. Using it as DVD-Audio player on multichannel output connected with Yamaha amplifier. Thrilled overall. You can check the specs so needless to mention here. Overall it is fantastic with plenty of features for formats and connectivity and lot of settings.

Further, I believe this is the only player to upscale the video on component outputs if the source is not copy protected. This feature alone make it stand and shine from others. Plus the cost is not high compared with others.

I am very much satisfied with this purchase. Go for it if you care for quality at reasonable price.

The Oppo 980 has the best cost/benefit relation that I could have in a DVD player.

In spite of this format is already considered "old", because of Blu-Ray, being this unit a Universal Player (including DVD-Audio and SACD compatibility) it is a worth buying.

The image is very good, specially the upscalling to 1080p, with little few visible artifacts.

The sound that goes from the analog outputs is nothing but amazing. It beats easilly my old Pioneer DV-563A sound.

Unfortunatelly, I could not test the DSD output via HDMI since my receiver does not support HDMI1.2a. But I think it will not disapoint me.

Im writing about this player but have the earlier model.I have the 970 which is a little different but still a fine player.our standard dvds will look like new again with the upconversion feature.It really makes a difference.THis player along with all oppo players has a secret code you can put into it and it will change the region code to anything you want.i have mine set to region 0 which allows it to play any dvd made in the world.It will play pal dvds also.You can buy a disk from england and it will play on the player.I just bought one from australia and it plays perfect.A lot of times a movie may only be available in another country and it wont play on your standard dvd.The hack is easy to find.Just search for oppo region code hack and you will find it.It is four numbers and then opens a secret area of the player and there you simply change to region 0.Its very simple.All you do is push setup on your remote and then enter 9210 and it displays a menu and you simply enter 0 to make it region free and it will play anything.After yu enter the 0 mine wouldnt do anything so i turned it off and on again and then it will be fine.If you need help email me-pennynleigh@msn.com.beleive me it works like a charm.Im not supposed to say this and amazon may pull my review,but maybe they wont.Lets hope for the best.

Although it is billed as a universal disc player, I bought the OPPO DV-980H solely for its audio abilities based on rave reviews elsewhere (including the recent Stereophile recommended components list). I haven't even tried it as a DVD player yet.
I let the deck play a CD nonstop for three days to burn in the circuits before I listened to it, and on first melodic tones I was sure this was something special for such a modest price. I could sense depth to the soundstage that I didn't experience from my old Yamaha player. While it doesn't have staggering low-end sound, there is some muscle behind the drum work on the classic jazz and ochestral music I most enjoy.
The only disappointment I found is that the OPPO doesn't provide SACD output to my receiver, because it is not equipped with an HDMI connection.
Still, the analog sound from redbook CDs is highly satisfactory, especially for the staggeringly low price.
I am sure there are better sounding audio components out there, but the price/performance ratio cannot be beat.

I upgraded from a somewhat generic progressive scan Toshiba DVD player which was running on my new 58" Samsung plasma and all I can say is: WOW! What a difference. Upscaling to 1080p works flawlessly and is gorgeous. I've seen a Samsung upscaling player and this Oppo blows it away in every way. I particularly like the USB port on the front of the player which lets me easily play my ripped, edited movies I have converted to divx (I edit for my kids so we can all watch).

I spent days and weeks agonizing over whether or not to purchase this player. I read probably 10 reviews across the web - all of which were good. If you wonder if this player is really worth the money, buy with confidence. You will not be disappointed!

The 980 produces a great picture and sound.
Oppo even replaced my remote FREE after I ruined
it by spilling coffe on it. THATS the way to run a company!!

...that's what your gonna say the first time you fire up this baby with your favorite standard-def DVD. This is not your average Big Box Mart or Big Buy DVD player. I did a fair amount of online research for upconverting DVD players and the OPPO DV-980H quickly rose to the top of the heap ...and I had never heard of this company 'til now. Here's some of my comments to add to all the other positive reviews.

This player is different from the moment you open the box, and even the box is a bit different: most consumer electronics are wrapped and taped in a white foam liner, this unit was encased in a custom fit, velcro fastened soft black envelope with "OPPO" printed across it. The unit is slim yet has a bit of heft to it. The DV-980H is a very sophisticated DVD player and has adjustments well beyond those of mere mortal players ...in short, READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL. If you're the type who "doesn't do instruction manuals" or is "technologically challenged", then maybe you should stick with the lesser fare DVD players. You can get a truely amazing picture by setting this unit up properly BEFORE you begin feeding it your DVD collection. The manual is quite thorough and the adjustments are really not hard to figure out.

Word of advice: if your TV/Monitor does not have an HDMI or DVI connection, don't waste your money on this DVD player. There are four ways to make video connections with this unit: HDMI,Component Video, S-Video and Composite Video. Upconverting of commercial DVD's occurs *ONLY* through the HDMI/DVI connection; in any other mode you are limited to standard definition (480i/480p) video. The only exception is home video/consumer-created DVD's which can be upconverted using the component video connections. DVI connections can be made using an HDMI to DVI adapter plug with no loss of visual or audio fidelity.

I have this unit feeding my hi-def Hitachi 51F59 50" wide screen RPTV; the difference in video quality from a standard DVD player is INCREDIBLE. The overall effect is that of a theater film ...three-gun RPTV's typically don't have the razor sharp picture most flat screens do but with this player I truely have a home cinema. With the DV-980 set for 1080i upconverting, my standard-def DVD's come across beautifully cinematic with zero artifacts from the upconversion that I've been able to see. Decoding surround sound (Dolby and DTS)can be done through the player with both 5.1 and 7.1 preamp channnel outputs or sent digitally "raw" (via optical or coaxial digital cables) to your reciever/amp for decoding.

If you have a large collection of standard-def DVD's and your TV/Monitor is able to accept the HDMI/DVI connections, then this is the player to get. It has a lot of adjustability and a wealth of video and audio connections and capabilities. What it won't do is play any type of hi-def DVD; but with as oustanding an image as you get from this player using standard definition DVD's, you really won't care.

A little history ... I used to have the OPPO DV-971H feeding my Optoma H31 480p projector over DVI. I was so happy with this setup that I stopped going to movie theaters ...for about 2 years! After upgrading to a Panasonic PT-AX200U 720p projector, I had to use a DVI/HDMI adapter and didn't like the way the assembly was "pulling" on the HDMI input of the projector, and also felt the picture wasn't was it used to be. So I went to a local store and bought the "highly reviewed and recommended" $ony DVPNS700H with HDMI out. The picture and sound quality were ok, by I didn't feel that my 720p upgrade was justified. During the past 4 months, I barely used the projector and started going to the theater more often! I bought a Blu-ray drive for my computer and must admit that the picture and sound were phenomenal, I just don't like to use a full size computer to watch movies ... and I'm not paying $400 for a standalone given today's movie selection.

Long story short ... enters the DV-980H. I got it 2 days ago, and I've already watched 6 full movies. If I didn't have to go to work during the day, I would have watched movies all night! Now I felt the 720p upgrade was justified! The picture is awesome (colors, dynamic, etc ...) and the sound is excellent! I had to turn down the volume on my receiver (and sub) and was still able to hear the dialogue (I had issues with the $ony were the dialogue would be muffled and I had to crank up the volume to hear anything!). Last night, I watched Apollo 13 and Transformers and realized that I won't be going back to movie theaters for a while!

How does it compare to Blu-ray? I watched the 1st Pirates of the Caribbean on BD and DVD back to back; there is definitely a difference. BD offers uncompressed audio and a 1080p/24 picture that is encoded more efficiently ... and DVD is just an older format! Nevertheless, the DV-980H gives me about 75% of the BD experience for less than 1/2 the admission price ... and I can still enjoy my full movie collection. Life is good again!

If it helps anyone, here's my setup: DV-980H (digital coax audio + HDMI video), D-link DSM-510 network media player (digital optical audio + HDMI video), Denon 787 receiver, Klipsch B3 / C2 / S2 / Sub-10, 92" gray Elite screen, PT-AX200U, audio and video computer calibrated ... and ALL wires from BlueJeans cable.

I heard about the OPPO and read some of the reviews before buying it for my Panny 42" Plasma.

I hadn't been able to view some of my CD\DVD purchases from the UK til now. Now I can and it's awesome.

I also found extra media content when I stuck in my "Lord of the rings" Extended DVD's, my old APEX player didn't.

I love my OPPO :)

Buy one, you can't lose.

Fantastic DVD player. My HD TV absolutely loves it. The picture is crystal clear and the sound is amazing.

We were thrilled to finally watch our Euro DVD's!! The Oppo is clear and simple to use. I would recommend the Oppo DVD to everyone!!

This is the one to get if you're not ready to invest in another format just yet. And for $169.00, this player is the perfect match with my Panisonic HD projector. Every DVD that I've played has looked and sounded great and near HD as your going to get. The company is very responsive to complaints and comments and updates the player's firmware(!) frequently, to fix bugs and improve features. Few other DVD player companies do that. I did not order through Amazon but ordered direct from OPPO. They are in California and I am on the east coast so Fedex took about five days. However, if you are closer to them in CA you can go to the factory and pick yours up!

ALL of the one star reviews issues have be resolved, and the rest are just haters or goobers who did not read that this does not play HD or Blu ray before they bought it.

Whacha waiting for?

Don't hesitate to add this quality player to your home entertainment system if you're looking to upconvert your standard dvd collection! The picture is absolutely stunning with additional detail and clarity. The the player itself is loaded with additional options. What works particularly well is the stretching of a 4:3 standard dvd to your 16:9 screen size, with little if any distortion. I have a 52" Samsung DLP system and the picture is almost as good as HD. Do not skip the instructions in the proper setup of the player, in that it has a lot to do with your final resolution! Blu Ray is still very expensive and has it's problems...this is a great stop-gap measure until the technology catches up!

What a great DVD Player. I have a very expensive Home Theater system in my home, and I can afford to buy expensive equipment. But this DVD is not only top of the line, but really very inexpensive to own.
I've had at least six different DVD players here and still use three of them, but this one is permanently hooked into my system, and will be until it quits working. It produces a great picture on my HD TV.

It's every bit as good as my buddies Blu-Ray player but the big advantage is Blu-Ray DVDs are very expensive. This player will take a rental or any of my +R and +RW DVDs, upgrade them through an HDMI cable and play them back at 1080i. A truly great player and value...

Easy to set up--easy to use and navigate--upscaling fine but not HD--best part is the increase in sound quality--had an older pioneer universal player that worked fine but wanted to get rid of wires (hdmi) and see how upscaling worked--the sound of the oppo is crisp, clear and full--am very happy I went with 980. Don't see any problem with the tray (mentioned by some) or with remote

Great upconverting DVD. Allows selection of resolution you want to send to your TV for optimal viewing (I tried different ones to arrive at what worked best with my TV). Overall nothing in this price range compares. Only issue was programming remote into universal, as universal did not have OPPO as a selection (JVC worked most of the controls).

Great Player! Coverts all my DVD's to an awesome resolution on my 52" LCD tv screen! LOVE IT! Great Buy! Definitely close to same quality as blu ray for an even better price! Highly recommend! OPPO is an awesome brand. Will seriously buy this brand name again!

I ordered the Oppo because I heard that divx/xvid content viewed on it looked better than on other players. What I discovered was that DVD content looks better too! Compared to my Pioneer (with Faroujda), the Oppo's custom Mediatek chip does a vastly superior job of deinterlacing, producing a much better picture.

An example of where the Oppo really cleans house is Chinese/Korean historical shows with thatch roofed dwellings. The thatch is sharp and well defined with the Oppo, where the Faroujda chip just couldn't cut it.

Excellent player! Video upscaling of standard DVDs are excellent. Audio playback quality for DVD Audio and SACDs are also excellent. Do yourself a favor and buy it!!

I did some research and found the OPPO dvd player to be the best reviewed up-converting dvd player out there. They were right! The picture is second only to Blue-Ray at less than half the cost. I have no problem recommending it to any of my family and friends. Can't say enough good things about this player. It makes my new 1080p HD tv look awsome.

I normally don't bother with writing reviews, but for this, I HAD to add my voice to the chorus of praise.

After getting this player, I bought the "Planet Earth" DVDs instead of waiting to buy a Blu-Ray player so I could watch the "HD" version of "Planet Earth," and I can't believe how good the Oppo's HD upscaling picture is on my 1080p LCD TV! I don't think I will buy a Blu-Ray player for some time, at least not until it comes down in price to about $100. Why should I? The Oppo turns all DVDs into HD-quality, or at least something good enough to fool me. Blu-Ray manufacturers must consider Oppo Enemy #1.

I bought this because everyone was giving it rave reviews for TV's 46" and below. My TV is a Samsung 46" LN46A650. Previously, I was using my PS3 to play all DVDs, including Blu-Rays. I decided to buy a standalone up-converting DVD player in hopes that my standard DVDs would be "enhanced" to a level fairly close to Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray discs look incredible! I realize the term "up-convert" means that the DVD player takes the DVD's native resolution and "smartly" blows it up to 1080p (or whatever resolution you so choose). But, people keep saying that there is no need for a Blu-Ray player because up-converted DVD's look just as good!

FYI: All HDMIs are connected direct to the TV, not through my audio receiver (which I find unnecessary considering it's an audio receiver and does nothing with video). I say this to clarify that there is no issue with my HDMI-switching receiver - I don't use that feature. Also, I'm using top-quality, and overpriced, Monster HDMI cables. (I doubt even the cheapest cable would make a real difference anyway so long as the gauge of wires are the same.)

I first started with a Pioneer unit for $89 because all my home theater equipment (except for the Samsung 46" TV) is Pioneer. The standard DVD playback at 1080p with it looked no better than when I played my DVDs through my PS3 and the picture actually looked darker and noisier, as if someone aged the picture in Photoshop. I spent an hour with different DVDs (e.g., Ronin, Kill Bill, American Gangster) attempting to notice a difference, especially one worth spending $89 for. I decided to return it to Abt.com.

I then typed in "Best Up-converting DVD Player" into Google and the Oppo line came up. I decided to go with the least expensive one because all of them were extremely expensive relative to the Pioneer I had. I figure just over double the price of the Pioneer I just had should get me an up-converting DVD player I'll be satisfied with. Boy was I wrong!

Just like the Pioneer, this thing doesn't up-convert any better than my PS3. It certainly up-converted better than the Pioneer, but not by much and certainly not enough to justify its price relative to the Pioneer. I consistently felt as if standard DVDs looked better coming through the PS3. I tested and tested and tested, same feeling. I also consistently felt that DVDs played through the Oppo had a subtle green hue where dark grays and browns were. Through the PS3, everything was natural and normal looking. Not to mention this weird issue: title credits and moving text would actually skip around or get all discombobulated for a quick second everyone once and a while. This never, ever happened with any DVD player connected to any TV I've ever had (including my PS3 and the Pioneer I tried first). My TV checks out fine.

I'm going to try, just because Amazon.com has a fair return policy, the more expensive Oppo 981HD with the Faroudja chipset and see if it will finally satisfy me. If my standard DVD's don't "enhance" to near Blu-Ray quality with the 981HD, I'll stick with using the PS3 and keep my money for something worth it. As far as I'm concerned, if standard DVD's don't look "better" by using this Oppo over a PS3, then it isn't worth two-cents.

Also, just so you know, when the laser eye is moving about the disc, this thing makes more noise than my dust buster, I swear. It sounds like Robocop moving. This isn't a quiet machine. I'm sure it's built well with high quality parts, but it's loudness doesn't reflect that. Plus, why the blue screen text? What home theater set-up uses blue text? Most are green or amber. Blue is hard to read in the dark because there are less blue receptors in the eye than other colors and therefore causes eye strain. (This is why I always wonder why VW still has that blue interior!)

Am I going to say don't buy this? No, because you may not have a PS3 or Blu-Ray player and/or Blu-Ray discs. Nor would you want to pay for either if you don't. (I rent Blu-Rays from Blockbuster Online!) I'm going to say, if you have a big 46"+ TV, I have a feeling you and I will be sticking with Blu-Ray discs only and skipping the whole "up-convert" thing because it just ain't good enough.

Bought mine last Christmas. The DVD is clearly superior to anything on the market of similar capabilities. And the price can not be beat. If you want the superior all around at this price range, stop, look no further. With new animation, for example Ratatouille, the 3D quality is amazing. My TV is a tube HD (e.g., 1080p, superior black depth, superior high speed motion) and it looked as good as a Blu-Ray disc played on a Sony player on a $1200 LCD at Circuit City.

It has style, and it works!
The Pros: Owning this for nearly a month, the Oppo DV-980H can only be described as near perfect. Outshining my previous Panasonic, Toshiba & Denon players the DV-980H video is near flawless, even on my 32" JVC with a 1024x768 CRT. There is no Chroma bug, jitter or flawed color pallete. Signal strength is awesome using the S-Video connection, preferred for CRT TV's. It correctly plays discs the other players I've had could not.
Audio is superb with excellent separation, range & response on either the TOS or discrete outputs. Signal strength is again excellent. Those with a SACD or DVD-Audio collection will appreciate the HDMI or Discrete outputs. Since I use the Discrete and TOS they are the only ones I can comment on, but I can say it is best described as "Opulent audio bliss!" through a Yamaha RX-V 740 with 6.1 surround. Performance surpasses the Yahama & Marantz CD player's I own.
The casing is matte black with a matching faceplate and blue VF Display. The front USB port allows HDD/Flash devices for audio playback of your music collection. The settings menu is VERY, VERY extensive for player configuration to match any TV/Monitor and Amplifier/Receiver type. The device itself runs cool tempratures even sandwiched between a Cable DVR & Power Correction Unit.
The Cons: The carriage is slightly noisy during transport but silent (yes, silent) during playback. The display is a bit small.
As an Electronics Specialist for a major retailer I see a lot of equipment pass by me, it is a shame we do not offer Oppo products as my DV-980H is the first to satisfy my extremely demanding nature. Rest assured I'm requesting Oppo be introduced to our product lineup.

Well I guess I must join the rest of the reviewers as being impressed with "Oppo". Who is Oppo? I hadn't heard of them until I came across them in Amazon. I had 4 dvd's that would not play in my old Denon 1500. One of them played for the first viewing and then later would not play. I decided to look at what was on Amazon and read the reviews. I was sort of thinking of a Sony and for some reason I saw the Oppo. Normally I wouldn't even bother with a brand I never heard of but I saw how many reviews there were and so many 5 stars I thought I better read about this one. Well after reading what others had said and the price was very reasonable I figured I couldn't go wrong. I received my Oppo this evening. I set it up following the easy step by step instructions and was blown away. I couldn't believe my dvd's could look better without buying an hdtv. I have a JVC AV-27D302. It's not an HD but it's a good TV. It's like I bought a step up in TV"s with the Oppo. I wonder how good an HDTV will look now. I'm waiting a while for the price to come down. This Oppo will keep me happy until then. Oh and the dvd's that didn't play on the old player all play on this one. I even had my neighbor try them in his dvd player and they would not work. I happen to be an Anime fan and I put "5 Centimeters per Second" on and was not able to stop watching. It was absolutely beautiful.
The unit is light and thin.Plenty of input and output connections. It comes with the cables you will need. You don't need to buy an HDMI cable if you have an HDTV. It has one with the unit. The instruction book is easily read and to understand. You can use the setup menu while a dvd is playing. You can see the results of your setup change right away. Not happy with your setup change you can go back and change it back or to another selection. Very easy. There is a red light that is on when the unit is off. Turn the power on and it goes to blue. I didn't realize it was not on and couldn't figure out why the remote wouldn't work. You have to push the power on button. Duh! Then the blue light comes on.
Believe me you can't go wrong with this Oppo. I would buy their HDTV if they made one. Highly recommended!
If you decide to buy one buy it from Amazon for $169. Why would they advertize one from Toyzz for $299? I don't get that.
One other feature I found was the fact that the player will remember where you left off if you stop a DVD, take it out and play another, then put it back in it will start from where you stopped. Unusual to me. Maybe other players do the same, I don't know.

The player has a serious bug when playing CDs. Tech support acknowledges the player skips a half note at the beginning of the first track. I say it skips on some but not all tracks. Still irritating. Also, when autoplay is set to off CD's still start automatically. SACDs do not. If Oppo could iron a few bugs out this would be a great player at a great price but for now I say you get what you pay for.

This is my third upconverting player. I had a Toshiba (which I gave to my Dad), a JVC (rates slightly above horrible), and now the Oppo. After reading magazine reviews and everyone praising this player I decided to buy one. Wish I would have bought an Oppo 2 years ago. The sound is superior to the others, picture clearer to my LG 1080i 42" LCD and everything plays perfectly. Plus I have an USB port on the front to play my Divx files. Saves time and money on burning tv episodes to a dvd or cd to view. So far no glitches, completely and utterly pleased. Highly recommend to anyone who might have doubts about this brand. Well packaged, free hdmi 6' cable, and very well made. This player ranks up there with machines twice its price.

I was a little sceptical after reading all the positive reviews on this unit but guess what, They were all true!! I really love this player.
If you are hesitant about how the picture will look, don't be. The quality of the upconverted picture through the HDMI cable is great!!

I owned the OPPO CV 970H before this one, and got this one mainly for the USB2.0 compatibility and the hope it would play movies and shows from my Harddisks.

While the videoquality playing regular DVDs is good, the sound seems weaker than compared with the previous model, although I use HDMI as before. The amplifier has to be turned up much more and an unpleasant humming becomes audible. This was not the case with the 970HD, and I tried all different audiosettings with both the Receiver (ONKYO TX-SR705 7.1 HD) and the DVD player, but unsucessful.

And as per the DIVX compatibility I want to mention that it takes about 5 minutes until the whole Harddisk is read (ok, its a 500 GB HD, quiet full), but this is not acceptable when you want to continue watching your shows and turn your HD and DVDplayer off over night. And it doesnt support subfolders, meaning when you have multiple seasons of shows the have to be all in one folder, and the name should be shorter than 12 letters else you wont be able to see which episode you are about to watch. This could have been solved better.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for a USB capable, upconverting DVD-player, I cannot recommend this DVD-Player anymore, unlike the previous model (which had the annoying limitation of only being USB1.1 compatible)

The PS3 is way superior to this player, and for only 200 USD more you get a bluerayplayer, upconverting DVD player and a high end console in addition.

Mine arrived with a couple glitches: coming out of screen saver, hitting Play does nothing. It doesn't respond and won't play. (Yes, I updated the firmware). So I called OPPO, and I'm not making this up, was told "Just press Eject and then re-insert the disc, and when it spins up you can start play from where you last left off. This doesn't fall under warranty because the player is known to do this and is otherwise performing to specs." Second glitch: Pause and then Frame Advance confuses the player and after 3-4 frames it just freezes and finally returns you to the Main Menu. OPPO's Customer Service response: "You're probably pressing the button too fast. I'll have to ask if the engineers if they've heard about this, but this isn't a reason we'd accept as a return." I think that's pretty lame.

Had not even heard of this company until about three weeks ago, but after reading various reviews I decided to give it a go as a companion to my new HDTV. The manual was refreshingly well written and the included HDMI cable is nice (like getting a $20 discount in a way). Had it set up in a few minutes, adjusted it to 1080p and popped in "Tora, Tora, Tora" since I'd watched that recently on my 32" Sony CRT. Wow, a whole different experience. I saw details I'd never noticed before, especially on the big Japanese battleship set. Flipping between this and a real HD signal I could see the difference, but other than that it was easy to forget it was up converted.

I then tried some episodes of "Firefly" and, again, very nice. Maybe a little less sharp than the movie DVD - hard to say, but it's reasonable that some content will scale better than others. (And "Firefly" was originally shot for TV, not widescreen theater projection.)

I can't say it does a better job than other upscaling players because this is the first I've owned and I never saw any demos of others. I'm more than satisfied with the results this one produces, though.

The whole experience exceeds expectation. The delivery was on time, the driver verified the condition of the TV. I set it up myself with no problems. The Panasonic itself is all that I read it would be. A month later I still surprisingly impressed. And I saved over $400 over retail got free shipping and no sales tax.

Apple should look at this product -- and OPPO should look at Apple's. OPPO has Apple's attention to detail, but could use some esthetic pointers, and Apple could use OPPOs recognition that the product will be integrated with components designed by other companies.

Everybody else has already said how great this box is, and they are absolutely correct. Try it with a recent film shot on high-def video (but not released on an HD DVD), and the integral video and sound enhancement widgetry will provide a remarkable experience.

Wow! This is the finest DVD player on the market today for the price.
I have a Sony rear projection HDTV made in 2002. With the DVI adapter this player really makes my old 480s look almost as good as a 1080i. The picture is sharper and smoother ...sound is beautiful. I don't know how they do it , I 'm just going to have plenty of popcorn on hand. I 've got hundreds of old dvds to watch again...This is the DVD player to buy. Amazon was great in delievery ..I will buy from them again..

I got this thing a set it up to my new TV. Then we tried playing a new DVD on it at 1080p upconversion. The thing jumped through the whole movie. When we changed it to the 1080i setting. That solved the problem. It's not much of a concern to me because you can get audio-video receivers now that will upconvert from a normal DVD player. The upconversion quality keeps getting better and better and it's also built into your TV. So buying this thing would probably be a complete waste of time if your TV comes with a really good upconverter or looking to upgrade your entire home theater anyway like I'm now looking to do.

I bought this model on Amazon because it's recommended for my 720p DLP set, and it's been incredible. The picture quality easily rivals the older $1000 Arcam it replaced. The upconverting is superb - AVI files played off a USB thumb drive (there's a handy USB jack on the front) look almost as good as commercially produced DVD's. I also have a Blu-Ray player & have to say the difference between a good quality DVD on the Oppo and a Blu-Ray disc is pretty minimal. A few months into using it, the player began to freeze up with higher bitrate AVI files. Oppo's communication in troubleshooting the problem (I sent them a disc) was fast and personal. They asked me to send the player back - emailed a prepaid label the same day, dropped it off at FedexTuesday, had a replacement Saturday (yep, they paid for Saturday delivery Fedex). Great product and great people to do business with. Watch out Sony & Samsung.

I bought this player because I thought that it could do it all - other than HD discs. Audio is very good playing all formats. The problem is with the video, it does not play video created on a computer. I was hoping this machine could do it all. Discs that play perfectly on my $80 pioneer and Sony dvd players, won't play here. If this doesn't matter to you then it's probably a good buy.

I purchased this unit primarily to play DVD Audio discs, and I am very pleased with the incredible fidelity delivered by the Oppo. I was also pleased with the improved video quality when playing standard DVD movies on my 5 year old sony Wega TV. They look much sharper. One feature I really appreciate is the volume control on the illuminated remote, as I'm using a vintage Technics SA 800 receiver. The wide variety of formats supported by this unit for a reasonable cost make me wonder why the big companies won't offer equally capable equipment. It is compact, attractively styled, easy to use, and appears to be solidly constructed. The packaging even includes a synthetic cloth bag to protect the unit if you should need to transport it. My only complaint is rather trivial: When the unit is off, a red light is displayed. I don't need a light to tell me it's off. I would not hesitate to buy Oppo, and I heartily endorse this product!

I use it mainly for playing Divx and Xvid MP4 video files. The USB interface allows me to play from my USB drive or a portable hard drive, without having to burn the files on a DVD or CD. That is a bless!!!! The srt and sub subtitles can be turn on and off. The picture quality is excellent, matching the quality of playing on a laptop. Currently, the player plays Divx and Xvid, but not H.264. I am expecting the next generation will add support for H.264 codec.

I only tried once with playing a DVD, the LOTR - return of the king. It is as good as any players out there, if not better. Since I don't have a blue ray, hence cannot compare how good the "upconvert" is. But remember, regular DVD has the 720x480 natively. The high definition is 1080. Therefore, it would be unrealistic to expect this player to match a HD or blue ray player.

Overall, it has been working as expected since it arrived 2 weeks ago. The on-screen menu is the only factor OPPO needs to improve in its next line of product. The menu fonts are ancient(80' style) and menu navigation is not intuitive.

I recieved the DVD player which was supposed to be new, but it arrived and it was very apparent that it was a returned item that has already been used. I have sent the item back for refund and will not buy from this seller again.