[bubba966]

Haven't looked at the Oppo stuff in a while as I've not need one myself (despite being quite impressed with them). Is the 970 any good for a "standard" player? Is it easily region hackable like the 971 was?

Reason being a friend's player is starting to crap out on her. And she doesn't need anything fancy or spendy. Just something basic with preferably component out, and ok analog 2 channel out. Would be great to have region selectability, and proper PAL transcoding would be excellent as well.

[John Casler]

I ordered a 981HD and a 980H yesterday, for a client.

Oppo said that they are no longer selling the 970.

Haven't looked at the Oppo stuff in a while as I've not need one myself (despite being quite impressed with them). Is the 970 any good for a "standard" player? Is it easily region hackable like the 971 was?

Reason being a friend's player is starting to crap out on her. And she doesn't need anything fancy or spendy. Just something basic with preferably component out, and ok analog 2 channel out. Would be great to have region selectability, and proper PAL transcoding would be excellent as well.

[bubba966]

No more 970 huh?

Alrighty then, any info from anyone on the 980? Or maybe some other player that does what I mentioned and doesn't suck?

[Toka]

The '980 is a step-up from the '970, no doubt about it. In the audio region, specifically. Probably the best bet for your friend, unless they have a really big display.

EDIT: Oh yea, you can "hack" it the same way for Region 0 capability...easy as pie.

[bubba966]

The '980 is a step-up from the '970, no doubt about it. In the audio region, specifically. Probably the best bet for your friend, unless they have a really big display.

Good to hear that the 980 is pretty decent. I've never played with a 970, but I got to play with a stock & heavily modded 971. And the analog audio out on the 971 was sorely lacking. Hopefully the 980 is better than the 971 in that area as well.

Oh, and the display as a 24" Toshiba Cinema Series 4:3 CRT. Decent little set, but it's still little.

EDIT: Oh yea, you can "hack" it the same way for Region 0 capability...easy as pie.

Also good to hear. I actually would've been quite surprised if they didn't still have that "feature"...