Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(224)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Just to add my vote, this is an excellent DVD player. I use it with an older Sony LCD tv (XBR1, only goes to 1080i), and compared the picture, using a standard widescreen DVD, with my older Panasonic progressive scan Panasonic dvd player (480p output). The picture with this one is clearly superior.

As others have said, the whole thing reeks quality and attention to detail. A good quality HDMI cable is included, as well as standard video/audio cables in case you need them for troubleshooting. The packaging is a class above the industry.

If you want something for watching standard DVDs with a good HDTV, consider this one or the 981HD model.

Until the HD/Blu-Ray hi-def DVD format war is resolved and the prices of those hi-def players and discs become sane, the Oppo DV-980H is an excellent choice and the price $169 is most reasonable (good quality HDMI cable is included!) I purchased this player directly from Oppo in early August 2007 (Amazon wasn't offering it at the time, so I paid an additional $12 shipping charge.) The upconversion to 1080p is outstanding (HDMI connection required. Fortunately my Sony 40" HDTV has 2 HDMI inputs.) I would say that on a standard def 16:9 DVD the picture quality at 1080p is about 60-70% of what you would get in hi-def. It is NOT hi-def, but it is as close as you can get without paying outrageous prices. It also will play other Region coded DVDs (with an easy hack.) The only issue I have encountered is that some DVDs that are 16:9 letterbox are not upconverted to full screen (the letterbox is constrained to 4:3 pillar box.) Don't know why this is. This happens on older DVD versions of 2001 (menu is full screen, but not the film itself), Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and a 16:9 version of A&E's Nero Wolfe. Other older letterboxed DVDs display just fine. (Is there some coding on the DVD preventing upscaled display? One of Life's DVD Mysteries, I guess.) Completely unrelated to the player's performance is Oppo's impressive packaging of the player. Somebody really cared about quality from the packaging on up. This player performs as advertised (can't ask more than that.)

Addendum Jan 3, 2008:
I purchased new special edition of 2001 and it plays great. Don't know what the issue was with the older release.

Addendum Jan 5, 2008:
It appears the high-def DVD format war is drawing to a close with Warner announcing, conveniently timed to just after the holiday shopping season, exclusive support of Blu-ray. Of course, until Blu-ray hardware and software costs drop substantially, the Oppo is still a good buy.

I have a friend who just picked up this player and we watched a movie on it and it looks fantastic!!! I have an HD DVD player which does a great job of up-converting non-HD DVD movies to 1080p but this seemed a bit more sharp. I've seen cheaper players that do up-conversions but this one struck me as being much better. For me, the slight increase in sharpness isn't worth spending $200 for, but if you don't have anything to up-convert a DVD then this would be an excellent option at a decent price until you do pick up a high definition player.

I bought one of these for its DVD-A and SACD capability, at which it excels.
So I bought a second, and am impressed with the build quality, etc., of both.
Then I discover that it automatically does pal to ntsc conversion.
Excellant!
And today I find that it can be made to be 'region free'.
Click Setup on the remote.
Enter 9210
A menu comes up
Enter 0 to set 'region free'
Click Setup again to exit.
Voila.
Couldn't be happier, will probably be buying more as gifts for friends.

So much has already been said, so I'll try to be brief. I've owned the 980H Oppo for about three months now, and it continues to perform flawlessly across a variety of CD and DVD formats. There are a couple of quirks that merit some explanation and may be helpful to some of you.

Some reviewers have noted dissatisfaction with the lack of an Oppo remote code to enter into a universal remote control. I have an Onkyo SR605 amp (also purchased here on Amazon and also highly recommended) which comes with a pre-programmed universal remote. I entered the code for a Toshiba DVD Player (0503) into the Onkyo remote and it performs all major functions for the Oppo DVD Player quite well. If the 0503 code doesn't work well on your universal remote, I suggest you try other Toshiba DVD codes (there are several), as several other Toshiba DVD codes worked equally well for me on my Onkyo receiver universal remote.

In my configuration, I go HDMI out of the Oppo DVD player to my Onkyo amp, then HDMI out of the Onkyo amp to my 1080i HDTV (just two HDMI cables in the whole system plus I run a single coax audio cable out of my HDTV to my Onkyo amp so I can play regular cable TV audio thru my surround speakers. With this configuration, I have to turn on my amp and source it properly to the DVD player to hear any audio from a CD or DVD in the Oppo player. If you don't have an amp, you can hook up this Oppo player directly to your HDTV and play all audio thru your HDTV speakers.

The Oppo DVD player responds a bit better to reading a disk if you first set your HDTV to the proper source (for me, its the HDMI source) and your amp to the proper DVD source (the DVD source setting on my Onkyo amp) BEFORE you insert a CD or DVD in the Oppo player. If the Oppo player appears not to read a disk when you insert it, its likely because either your TV or your amp is not set to the proper source. Just make sure the TV and amp sources are first set to the DVD source, then eject and reinsert the disk; the blue Oppo welcome screen will then promptly appear, and it should then promptly read the disk.

Setting the LPCM Rate (which is found on the Oppo Audio Setup page) can be a bit tricky. Three sample rate options are available: 48K, 96K and 192K. The higher the sample rate you select, the better the audio, but not all amps will support the higher sample rates of 96K and/or 192K. My Onkyo SR605 does support the highest 192K sampling; however, this Oppo setting was preset to 48K and was ghosted out (it wouldn't let me change it). After some trial and error, I learned that you have to first set the HDMI Audio option (noted further down on the same Oppo Audio Setup page) to "off". Then the LPCM option is no longer ghosted out, so you can change it. Then I went back and reset the HDMI Audio option back to "auto".

As to setting Speaker Sizes on the Oppo Speaker setup page, make sure you read the manual (which is fairly thorough, well written in plain English, and fairly well indexed). I use Orb satellite speakers for a 5.1 surround system with an Orb powered subwoofer. Ordinarily, this would call for setting my front, center and rear speakers to a size of "small"; however, depending on the capabilities of your amp, you may have to disregard the actual size of your speakers when selecting speaker size settings. Since my Onkyo amp supports HDMI v1.3 with multi-channel PCM and DSD over HDMI, all my speaker sizes are set to "large" on the Oppo Speaker setup page. On the Oppo Audio setup page, Digital Output is set to "Raw", HDMI Audio is set to "Auto" and SACD Output is set to "DSD". The Oppo manual is very straight forward on this regard. Due to this and other setup anomalies, I strongly urge you to review the entire Oppo manual BEFORE attempting any of the setup process.

Another little quirk relates an unexplained resetting of several setup options for no apparent reason. A few weeks ago, I noticed a standard DVD wasn't playing audio or video to the same clarity I had previously seen on this particular DVD. I went in to look at the Oppo setup settings, and I noticed that several General, Speaker and Audio settings were reset incorrectly. I don't know how this happened, but it was easy to reset them. I may have unwittingly reset all options to the Oppo factory defaults (but I don't think I did that the normal way found in the Oppo Preference page options). In any event, it has only happened once, and it was easy to fix.

In summary, I strongly recommend this Oppo DV-980H DVD Player as the best price/feature set value on the market. Bear in mind, it comes with an excellent 6' HDMI cable (comparable in quality to a Monster HDMI cable valued at $30 or more) bringing the true player cost down to about $140. It is exceptionally well built, very stylish, excellent video up-conversion features, extensive / seamless audio format capabilities, and excellent customer support from Oppo if you need to call them. I called them twice, and they were a pleasure to deal with. They picked up quickly, were very knowledgeable, friendly and professional. They will send you updated firmware on a disk at no charge at your request.. really nice people. I might also add that I received excellent service from Amazon as well; with their speedy delivery, no shipping cost, and 30-day low price and/or full refund guarantee on damaged goods, you can't go wrong. Amazon rocks.

Since much has been written technically about this I will only add my subjective impression. This has to be about the best piece of electronics that I have ever had. It is nearly flawless and the quality is unsurpassed. Compared to this DVD player all others, including the likes of Sony, Panasonic, Denon, Philips, etc... are far, far behind in design, functionality and quality. I hope that others will discover Oppo. If only everything else were made like this! This should be industry standard. I hope that Oppo will thrive and begin to expand their product line.

I had troubles with my HD DVD Player and had to return it to Amazon. Now I have one of these Oppo players. All I can say is WOW. The quality of the piece is above par. The faceplate is clean and the buttons are flush. It is aesthetically pleasing. The upcoversion is easy all you do is hit the HDMI button on the remote and it kick up the conversion from 480-1080p. It has a USB port on the front, I was not expecting that and that is an added bonus. It can play from the USB port, Divx or whatever.

It fits with all of my other high end equipment.

I know it has been said before but the box is amazing. It comes tighly packed in a custom box. There is a silkscreen cloth cover for the player. The only company I have ever seen such attention to detail with a box is Apple. When you get an apple product you feel as if you are getting quality just from the box alone.

Oppo is no different. I am very pleased with this player.

Highly recommended.

SUMMARY: This DVD player is worth the excellent ratings it has gotten on several websites. The up conversion feature makes you want to pull out your older DVDs and appreciate them again. The $169 price is perfect and does not reflect the stunning picture quality produced with this component. The device is thin, sleek and unobtrusive. It fits neatly with other home theater systems. HDMI provides both video and 7.1 channel audio digital outputs to deliver the best picture and sound quality through one cable. The HDMI cable is included with the player. Component video outputs are also available for those who have not yet fully upgraded their systems to 100% digital format. To get sound when using the component video you must also connect either the digital (optical or coax) or the composite (RCA analog) audio outputs to your TV or stereo receiver.

PACKAGING/MANUAL/IMAGES: The packaging is well designed The player comes neatly packaged in a soft inner envelope suspended between foam in the box. The unboxing is equivalent to opening a computer from Apple. No excess foam is included. It is surprising just how thin the unit actually is when you open the box. The manual is straight forward and easy to follow. Detailed high definition images of the player are available at the manufacturer's website (oppodigital).

ALTERNATIVES: Oppo offers the OPPO DV-981HD DVD player for $229. Oppo DV-981HD Universal DVD Player with HDMI, 1080p Up-Converting, DivX & SACD Despite being $60 more expensive, this player does not offer component video output or 7.1 channel audio features.

Just finished hooking the 980H player up to my Sony 1080i rear projection with an HDMI to DVI converter cable and tried some DVDs. There is a very noticeable improvement in the picture quality. HD movies always looked better on cable than DVDs with my old player, but now the DVDs look as good as the HD. I tried the animated DVD "Cars" and the picture is fantastic. I can't imagine the picture being any better.
I also like the other goodies too such as multiple slow motion speeds and zoom.

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.