Customer Reviews

OPPO DV-970HD Up-Converting Universal DVD Player

5 star:		(173)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This machine played all regions right out of the box for six months until I put in a Chinese movie. Then a Hongkong Region 3 did not work but a Korean Region 3 did work. I had to find the hack from a review for the 971 model also sold by Amazon.

It took less than a minute and Oppo's record is back to perfect. Here is the relevant information from the other review:

There is also a multi region hack on videohelp which is:
Press Setup on remote control to access the setup page
* Enter 9210 on the remote
* A secret menu will pop up
* Select 0 to 6 in region code. 0 is multi region
* Press Setup on remote again to exit

One of the few players that I haven't wanted more from. As firmware upgrades are available they are easily installed. The player provides a great picture on a HDTV because of the upconverting circuity. For me the greatest advantage was the ability to bypass regional encoding. This allows one to buy and play discs made anywhere in the world that are in PAL or NTSC. Many DVDs that are popular elsewhere aren't to be found in the good ole USA. This player allows you to buy them and enjoy them wherever you are. It has a PAL to NTSC converter and vicea versa. So if I want to buy a disc that's only available in Britain, I can still enjoy it in my home in California. I am personally enjoying this feature at the moment and am quite happy. My only complaint is that I wish the remote was illuminated, but that is small potatoes.

Summary - top quality picture, snappy menus, comes with a HDMI cable, supports USB and many other kinds of media, but sub-par looks and build quality. Priced higher than most basic DVD players, but if you bought a HDTV to watch movies, this is IMO the cheapest way to get the most out of your set.

I read many reviews of this DVD player online before deciding to plce the order. I was delighted to find that they were headquartered practically in my own back yard (SF Bay area), and that if I needed to service/replace the unit, I could bring it in to their office. I got mine with a 6ft HDMI cable included in the price.

I bought it because I wanted the HDMI output and the ability to play .mpg and .avi files from my extensive library of, um, stuff. Previously I tried the Philips 5140 over component cables, Harman Kardon DVD47, and Sony DVP-NS975V both over HDMI. This player is the best of any that I have tried in terms of picture quality. The DVD47 does well in that regard, but I had some other problems with the unit that led me to return it. Oppo's player matches the DVD47 in DVD image clarity and also handles DivX movies like movie trailers and internet meme type garbage.

Software built into the player does something most others' fail at miserably: it responds instantly to your commands! Even the file browser to load .mpegs and still images is relatively snappy. Here is where Sony and Philips should take note - it is a critical part of the user experience.

The only bad things I would say about Oppo is that they neglect the intangibles to help deliver this player at the $150 price point. It looks more like the $50 players at Wal-Mart or Target. I don't really care about that but some might. When the DVD tray is extended, I am always worried that it's going to break if I put a disc in the wrong way. It feels flimsy. I don't know if it's worth a star off its rating to complain about that or not. The intangibles do matter to some people more than actual performance.

within a reasonable budget. I was willing to spend a lot more money on a quality DVD player than I paid for this unit. I don't feel like I comprimised a bit with my purchase. The picture quality on my 47" 1080p LCD tv via the SUPPLIED(!) HDMI cable is unmatched buy anything I've ever seen before. The audio via optical through my Yamaha receiver and my Polk speakers is crystal clear wether it's hard rock or hip hop/rap. These might be the things that are expected with even cheap DVD players, but I was overly surpirsed by some little things that can make or break a product review:

1) The unit is unbelievably quiet. I can't hear the disc spin even with my ear close to the player.

2) The supplied HDMI cable is THICK and looks to have gold connections. What I'm saying here is, they didn't throw in a cheap cable just for advertising.

3) The DVD tray doesn't look cheap, it looks cool!! It's clear and thin but rigid. It probably wouldn't hold up to a child dangling off the tray, but what player would?

4) There is a little delay when you stick in a CD or DVD, but it's half the time I've seen with other DVD players that have similar capibilities that this unit has.

5) The full function remote is awesome! Stick it under a light and the buttons glow in the dark for some time.

They didn't even skimp on the packaging of this player. When you open this unit, you'll see the player in a Oppo labeled, black bag instead of clear plastic.

Everyone has different tastes and needs, but this player inspired me to write my first product review EVER!!

This player is absolutely wonderful. Picture quality beats any player I've ever had before, exterior design is great and compatibility is flawless (btw, region-free hack is at videohelp dot com).

I am finally happy with my HD 50" Philips plasma, which I use almost exclusively for watching DVD movies (10-12 feet viewing distance, upconverted to 1080i, no HD or Blu-Ray DVDs yet). I have spent hours with Digital Video Essentials disc, trying to set up optimal picture (subjective), and was only able to get it with this player. The biggest problem was getting flesh tones to look realistic. Female faces, for some reason, always looked burnt-out, when everything else was optimized. Not so with this player!

I have tried the following upconverting players:
OPPO DV-971H (good, but not quite perfect; lacks HDMI, needs separate audio cable with DVI);
Toshiba SD-K860 (cheap, decent, far from perfect and too flaky);
Toshiba HD-A1 (excellent, but not perfect, flaky and unstable, expensive);
OPPO DV-970HD (perfect in every respect, so far, and 25% cheaper than 971H).

Great job, OPPO!

I got my new 32" Olevia 532H in January and finally got my new Oppo 970 DVD player off back-order from Amazon.com late February. I must say that this is the best player, for the price, I've ever seen. Using the (included in the price) HDMI connector gives such a spectacular up-converted picture that I marvel Sony or Toshiba are able to sell ANY hi-def players. Why re-invest a bunch of money in this fight when both formats will be insignificant in five years (when we're all downloading HD-quality movies) and you can watch your existing DVD's with such clarity you won't care. Yes, I will stipulate that a good BluRay or HD-DVD transfer is the best picture going but consider the price difference and I see no reason to jump into either one.

Paired with a Soundmatters Mainstage and Sennheiser RS140 wireless headphones (in case either the wife or I has a sleepless night), this is my bedroom setup and when I get the new CES-announced LED DLP TV from Samsung I will seriously have to consider an Oppo 981 for it in the theater room. It would be sad to move aside my Yamaha DVD-CX1 and I will give it a chance first but I can't see how the Yamaha player, using component connectors, can possibly keep up with an up-converting 981 using the (did I mention "included"?) HDMI connector.

A few tips:

Don't fear the reaper. Nope, that's not right, don't fear reports about the cheap tray. I looked around and it's no worse than any in the lower price range. It works just fine.

Do not ignore the brilliantly executed Advanced Setup Manual. This manual has been touted in earlier reviews and they were all correct: read it and use it!

One step not mentioned, or at least stressed enough, in either manual is the use of the HDMI button on the remote. This can NOT be overlooked! Repeated pushing of this button changes and sets the player's resolution output. You'll want to match the native resolution of your TV, in my case 720p. Failure to follow this step will put you in the category of Wondering What All The Big Deal About This Player Is as it will continue to output at 480i (Ick!).

The remote is OK despite reports to the contrary. Almost no thought has been put into button design but it does have some terrific features and many of the buttons are for setup and will probably not be used very often anyway. We all have to learn the remote on any new device we buy so it's just a matter of remembering which buttons you want in the dark. I now know where the Sleep Timer, Aspect Ratio, Source and Menu buttons are so I'm a happy camper. I should probably get another Harmony 880 Universal Remote for the bedroom and soon I will check to see if the MainStage is on their list of control-able devices. I'm sure the Oppo and the Olevia are and the 880's programmable soft buttons would be ideal for this player to eliminate the extraneous (at least in daily use) setup buttons.

Finally, do NOT invest/waste a bunch of money on an HDMI connector for any player. It is passing a digital signal and, as such, it either works or it doesn't. Period. Buy the cheapest you can or save a bunch of money and buy an Oppo 970HD player. It comes with one, in case you hadn't heard.

I am the proud (and guilty) owner of a new 37" Olevia HDTV (great TV, by the way). Although I'm still figuring this whole HD thing out, it took me all of ten minutes watching my old Yamaha DV-S5750 (an allegedly high-end remake of the Philips 642) through the progressive ins before I knew I was gonna need to immediately invest in some upsampling love-- nothing like a new HDTV to bring out all the ugly scars in your DVD collection. I tried an upsampling Philips DVD player before I found the Oppo. The picture quality was truly awful (it was definitely a step down from my 5750 on the analog progressive ins), and the thing crashed on me twice in the first two hours. I looked at all of the available alternatives @ retail and found nothing that looked the slightest bit more promising on store shelves, plus I really wanted DivX and the USB-drive feature that the Philips had (except working well this time). Nothing that I could find had this combination.

So I discovered and then took a chance on the Oppo 970. I was debating whether to go with the 981, but frankly the 970's picture looks plenty good enough for me. At 480p, the difference between this and my old Yamaha was immediately noticeable / like night and day. Although the documentation for the Oppo is pretty good in terms of English, it took me a while to figure out on my own how to actually get it to upsample (the disc must be stopped before you attempt it-- they shoulda made this a little more clear). Most of my DVDs look absolutely phenomenal on this thing, almost as if they were native 1080, when upsampled to 1080i. The rest, well, it's pretty clear even at 480p that they weren't exactly brilliant encodes in the first place, but the upsampling still makes a drastic improvement.

Add to this that the Oppo can play (and play well) from not only USB drives but SD cards, that it's by far the most quick and responsive DVD player I've owned since my Pioneer DV-333 back in the day, that they've actually provided a great remote and packed in a lot of features that true aficionados of well-designed electronics will GREATLY appreciate, that the audio quality is also stellar (and the thing handles both SACD and DVD-A), AND that all this sells at a price better than most of the questionable "mid-end" DVD players on your local store shelves AND comes with a free HDMI cable that CC/BB et al would happily charge you $100 to buy...

Basically, if you are in the market for a mainstream upsampling DVD player, you'd be wasting your time with any player besides this one. Oppo's product gives me faith that there IS some company out there that actually understands and insistently remembers the concerns of the consumer. I have not been really happy with a DVD player since my aforementioned DV-333, until now. I've owned or experienced semi-pricey Panasonics (two of which blew up for no reason after less than a year of moderate use), the Yamaha (which seemed great initially and had a good picture but had all the same operational flaws as the 642 at 3 times its price), and a good number of other lesser players. The DVD player of today is incredibly sluggish, questionable in interface, and-- most annoyingly-- turns off when you don't want it to (@#$#! Energy Star rating; it's been years since I had a DVD player that was happy being "always on," as it should be). The Oppo has none of these glaring problems and is great at its job.

What Oppo has achieved here is really remarkable and deserves to be rewarded; the same cannot be said for the electronics giants' DVD offerings of the last five years. My only complaint is, like everyone else, the iffy look of the player in the rack and especially the flimsy-ish-looking tray, but I suspect it will be totally fine, and from all reports, Oppo got your back if this should turn out to be a poor design choice.

No, I do not work for this company. I'm also very cynical and critical about most consumer electronics I buy. This should tell you something. I hope Oppo continues to expand their lineup gradually as time goes by, because I'd be interested in pretty much anything they have to sell me if it's up to this standard of design and value.

This unit is priced well for the amount of things it can do. The DV-970HD will play virtually anything you throw at it, (as long as it is on a 5.25 inch optical disk) but it does not play them as good as you might expect. I have this unit connected using HDMI to a 52-inch LCOS rear projection HDTV.

The construction of the unit is not as "cheap" as other reviews might have you believe. In fact, the chassis feels taught and very solid when you hold it in your hands and the unit is not as lightweight as most inexpensive universal players. Get all the preconceived notions about old APEX players out of your mind...this is much nicer. The clear disc tray also opens and closes quickly and without the "cheap" sound you might expect, but does feel flimsy.

I was especially amazed at the unique, high quality packaging that Oppo uses; the packaging is a little smaller and less bulky than most other manufacturers, and it looks great. The inside of the box includes a soft black cloth with the Oppo name printed on it which wraps the unit in lieu of the traditional Styrofoam wrap. They even include two instruction manuals, one for basic use and the other for advanced users! They really spared no expense on the packaging and instructions!

I was not too crazy about the remote at first but have learned to deal with it- it is well laid out and easy to use and definitely not as bad as other companies' remotes such as JVC. The on screen menu is simple and easy to use but is not as "pretty" as other more expensive players.

After using this product for a month now, I have seen it has some shortcommings such as USB 1.1, NOT 2.0 (very big issue), devices connected using the USB/card slots on the front must be formatted with the older FAT file system, not NTFS or other (even bigger issue- count out my iPod and flash drives!) and you cannot copy from disk to card or USB device (would be nice to have) It also will not read the XD-style picture cards and there is no adapter to do this (big issue as well, a lot of digital cameras, esp Fuji use these!) I also noticed that pausing and slow motion leave the picture with jagged edges around objects, my previous Marantz DV-7010 player did not. Oppo states this is an inherent characteristic of the Mediatek decoder chip they use and they have not ben able to fix this with firmware upgrades. I also noticed that when you scene select or episode select on a series disk that there is a 5 second audio delay. Oppo also states that this is an inherent design flaw that cannot be rectified. These are all major issues IMHO that a buyer should be aware of before purchasing this player. On a slightly less important level this player also takes a very long time to load discs and doesn't have too much sex appeal.

All in all I would recommend this unit for anyone on a budget due to the price and capability to play most formats on a 5.25" optical disk. However, it is no replacement for a good high end unit (spend the extra money) It certainly has it's limitations, but that comes with the price. When i bought my previous player (Marantz) 6 years ago, I paid almost $700.00 for it, and it can't play half the stuff this device can, but there's another side to that coin- you do get what you pay for in picture quality, load times, build quality, ease of operation and looks. That old player was easily 10 times faster loading disks and skipping tracks than the Oppo, the menu operation was easy to navigate and intuitive, and the picture was smooth and nothing short of amazing. The picture here is good, but could be much better. The bottom line is that there will always be tradeoffs that you must consider before buying a product.

No HDCP handshake issues as are often found on the Sony players

Detachable power cable, beats sony player.

Upgradable firmware, beats sony player.

Region coding, beats sony player.

The overall look and design build is not quite as good as the sony player, however it FUNCTIONs much better.

Basically if you are looking for a pretty DVD player w/ sub par functions get a sony.

If you want a fully functional upscaling DVD player that is future proof thanks to firmware upgrades, you can not go wrong for this price.

I agree with the consensus that this is a terrific buy, but I've got to warn those who use it to play SACDs that it has a firmware "feature" which is incredibly annoying with certain SACDs. Whenever it encounters a new track, the player pauses, I suppose, to ensure there is an adequate break between tracks. In certain sorts of classical music, this leads to really unhappy results. For example, in operas there are usually a lot of internal tracks which are there just to provide access to specific points in the music. The music itself is supposed to flow on without any break. But on the Oppo, it's rather like listening to a stack of old 78 rpm records on a changer. You get five or six minutes of music and then have to wait for the next record/track to start playing. They are working on a fix for this; in fact it's already available in beta, so I think you should still feel comfortable buying this unit, but don't freak out when odd silences punctuate what should be a seamless flow of music, and don't blame the SACD manufacturer as I initially did. It is the player's fault and will, I hope, soon be remedied.