Entered CNET Catalog: 08/09/2005
SKU: OPDV971H
Manufacturer: OPPO Digital, Inc.
Manufacturer description
OPPO Digital is a leading maker of next-generation digital electronics, dedicated to enriching people's digital lifestyles with technology and innovation. The OPDV971H DVD Player features DVI (Digital Video Interface) output to eliminate flickers and to produce more clear pictures.User opinions
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User Rating: 
8/10
I've been converted Oppo Coming Out Party
Pros: Video Quality, Set ups Galore.
Cons: Manual is too generic; flimsy disc tray
OUT OF THE BOX-
Right off the bat, here comes a player wrapped in a black cloth "nice touch OPPO!" and then to add the player comes with a DVI cable and a DVI-HDMI cable.
CONNECTED-
Well here is where I knew that my "$199.00" were WELL spent. After a few tweaks I felt ready to load some DVDs that would test out the player to my plasma.
VIDEO- "The Incredibles" "The Matrix" "Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest"
The Incredibles looked "Incredibly" better!!! right away I saw a HUGE improvement on the colors reds,shadows, blues were like I've never seen before!! WOW!
I own a Yamaha RX-V model so Sound was already optimized.
I can now patiently wait until one of the new formats becomes the NORM...
Well, In a NUTSHELL....
This player is worth every penny and I am sure that the 981 model follows this great little company which now should DEMAND some R E S P E C T!
User Rating: 8/10
this on the oppo dv-981hd dvd player
Pros: 1080p hdmi output
Cons: no component output
User Rating: 
9/10
Great unit
Pros: Picture quality, sound, set up, looks
Cons: DVD tray a little flimsy
User Rating: 8/10
Better Than A Lot Of Higher Priced Players
Pros: Read Review
Cons: Read Review
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all
* webpage will take a while to load. A lot of info.
THIS IS AN UPDATE FROM A BENCHMARK REVIEW PUBLISHED IN THE SPRING OF 2005, BECAUSE THE PLAYER NOW HAS NEW FIRMWARE.
The 971H is the premier DVD player from a brand new company here in the US: Oppo Digital. The company is a spring off from the electronics giant, BBK Electronics. BBK has been in the business for a long time and is a world leader in the electronics field with total manufacturing output matching Sony and Matsushita. If the 971H is any indication, we have a lot to look forward to from Oppo Digital.
As you can see from the Benchmark scores, the 971H is an outstanding budget DVD player. But I must advise you that the scores only pertain to the DVI output. This player?s component outputs do not support progressive playback, only 480i, so we were not able to plot a video frequency response curve. I was quite surprised, because I?ve never seen this before. The DVI video board in the player houses the Genesis FLI-2310 video processing chip, so the component video connections cannot take advantage of it.
This is the second union of the FLI-2310 and a Mediatek MPEG decoder. Ever since I first tested the Mediatek chips, I?ve been hoping for their fusion with a high line de-interlacing solution. The first player that I tested with this was the Toshiba 593 DVD/VCR combo. Unfortunately, that player had inconsistent performance from unit to unit, and the implementations of the chips were not what they should have been. I left feedback with Toshiba on this, but they didn?t take advantage of the suggestions. When Oppo originally sent me their player, I found some problems that needed to be addressed, so I let them know, and they fixed them. I must say I was extremely impressed with how Oppo handled the issues I brought up, as well as the issues that I?ve seen raised on some of the Internet A/V forums. In fact, Oppo has been consistently releasing firmware updates since our original testing, and they added some new features to the player that would normally demand a whole new model from most manufacturers. This includes support for DVD-Audio playback, full control of the True Life features of the Faroudja video processing, and a brand new remote!
This player offers the standard upscaling resolutions of 480p, 720p and 1080i. The Faroudja chip seems to be set up appropriately, and they have updated the player to include processing for 2-2 based cadences with their Video 2 setting. This is a feature that is already implemented on newer players or is available as a simple firmware update for existing players. The Genesis chip has the same limitations as every other player using it. This includes somewhat sluggish transitions between film and video material and the unfortunate macroblocking issue. When I used my standard A Bug's Life test, the player did show signs of the macroblocking bug, but it isn?t as bad as some other players such as the Teac Esoteric UX-1 or Samsung HD-1000. This is really the only drawback I am finding with this player on my reference playback system.
The Mediatek chip is utilized to its fullest potential here. The player breezed through our chroma tests with no signs of banding or jaggies at all. The chip is also extremely fast with menu navigation and supports a seamless layer change.
User Rating: 9/10
If only every day had a bargain like the Oppo!
Pros: great upconversion. wonderful customer support.
Cons: wait, wait! the drawer will eventually open!
The Oppo has wonderful upconversion to 1080i, and I'd expect the same for 720p. Most of all, I went in expecting to spend 1-2K on a DVD player, which I really didn't want to do with Blu-ray and HD-DVD coming out. I ended up spending 200, and getting far more than I expected.
User Rating: 
10/10
Absolutely amazing.
Pros: HD quality, incredible price, fantastic sound & picture capability
Cons: After using it for 2 months, not a single "con" to list.
User Rating: 9/10
Good, solid product and great support
Pros: Feature filled, great video quality and solid audio
Cons: Not huge, but needs a bit of tweaking to get the most
User Rating: 9/10
What a difference this player made in picture quality.
Pros: Picture quality, out puts, controls in player instead of receiver or monitor
Cons: none that I can find so far
User Rating: 9/10
Upconverting dvd picture clarity is unequal.
Pros: DVI/HDMI cables included, value & connectivity
Cons: Component input picture clarity not as sharp
The new remote is easy to use and the buttons glows in the dark.
It has a sharp picture and outstanding surround sound, easy to set-up. I have been watching my DTS encoded dvd's again, really great sound! Easy video set up for sharpness, brightness and contrast.
It comes with DVI or HDMI-DVI cables, when buying from the Oppo website they will ask at first hand what is the connectivity of your display so that they can provide it for you. I wish they would also come out in black coz I need one for my family room ht set up (all in black). I have this unit for 2 weeks now and I still have not encountered any problem even with the use of my Harmony remotes.
CNET staf please, please, pretty please review this awesome DVD player. Help out those company that are just starting and coming out with great products such as this one.
User Rating: 
7/10
Not for the impatient.
Pros: DVI/HDMI digital ouput, perfect PAL/NTSC conversion.
Cons: Slow eject, slow load, and just plain slow.
But mostly you'll think the eject button is broken, because it works so slowly
.
User Rating: 9/10
Amazing Upconversion DVD Player!
Pros: Awesome upconversion, software upgrades, and new remote
Cons: None for the price
User Rating: 9/10
You've got to Go with the OPPO!!!
Pros: Super Low Price!! DVI-HDMI connections included!! Faroudja DCDi technology!!
Cons: I Wish it had Full HDMI connections.
User Rating: 9/10
Belive the Hype Well Worth A Try
Pros: Funtionality, Picture and ease of use and Great De-interlacing
Cons: Don't know of any yet
User Rating: 9/10
The dark horse is out of the gate
Pros: Superior De-interlacing, region-free, DTS decoder, 5.1DD and 5.1 analog out. Great upconversion capabilities and lets you turn off enhancements. 2 lasers mean no lull when switching layers.
Cons: Have to run DVI out to get 480p, 720p, 1080i. Component only delivers 480i.
Investigate before you buy. Some displays have macroblocking. Some displays show a near perfect HD image. Do your homework. I have a Sony RPLCD and the picture is flawlessly beautiful and the audio is (I don't know why) better and more full with this than my old Panny.
Plasma owners beware. Player underscans, but firware updates are prolific. Customer service is second to none. You will actually get a caring individual if you have a problem.
CNET - get with the program and review this machine. You won't be sorry.
