[PaulFolbrecht]

What's the better player for video quality?  Assume 1080p plasma.

If I have this right, the 980 is the newer of the two but has inferior upsampling??

Also - the 981 has burn-in issues according to some.  There is a user review on Amazon with the guy claiming it ruined his plasma.  That is scary - is it bogus?

[bpape]

Don't know about the burn-in.  Plasmas are sensitive to it no more than CRT's are.  If they're getting burn-in, they're doing silly things with it.

The 981 has ONLY HDMI outputs where the 980 has HDMI and component if that matters to you.  With the 981, you step up to the Faroudja scaling chipset.

I just purchased a 981.  Haven't hooked it up yet but have a couple friends who have them and love them.

Bryan

[Phil A]

From my understanding and reading (and I'm certainly not an expert), the issues with the 981 (and similar machines from other manufacturers using the same video processing) is macroblocking.  It mainly has been reported with DLPs but also plasmas.  My friend had the 971 (and a 56 inch DLP) with a macroblocking issue (do a Google search - but basically there will be some green blotchy artifacts from what I saw during dark scenes like Master and Commander in the beginning of the movie) and now has the 980 (and issues are gone).  Oppo use to have a warning at their site about the potential issues.  I also bought the 980, not that I was worried as it is for my bedroom TV which is only 42 inches and is an LCD but the 980 supposedly has a bit better audio quality.  So my take on it is the 981 is for large screens but not necessarily for DLPs or Plasma.

[zybar]

Don't know about the burn-in.  Plasmas are sensitive to it no more than CRT's are.  If they're getting burn-in, they're doing silly things with it.

The 981 has ONLY HDMI outputs where the 980 has HDMI and component if that matters to you.  With the 981, you step up to the Faroudja scaling chipset.

I just purchased a 981.  Haven't hooked it up yet but have a couple friends who have them and love them.

Bryan

My 981 should arrive tomorrow and goes right into the HT.   

I temporarliy moved my old Oppo 971 down there this weekend for movies.

George

[Toka]

Depending on your needs you may want to wait for the 983 (due, I hear, anytime from "real soon" to early 2008). It has the very latest in video processing...there is a thread over on AVS that has quite a few details.

[PaulFolbrecht]

Wow, this is a bit complicated.

Screen will be a 50 or (probably) 60" Pioneer 1080p plasma.

I am also considering blowing a wad on a Rotel 1093.  If things like a robust power supply and good quality parts make the kind of difference in video they do in audio, that might be a smart move.  Of course, I'd buy it used.  (I happen to have a Rotel processor as well.)

Cheers.

[Alwayswantmore]

Other than price, what would be the advantage of an Oppo compared to a Samsung BD-1200 (or what ever the latest model number is) which uses Silicon Optix's HQV chip for upscaling, plus plays Blu Ray?

ie, isn't worth the extra hundred or two to go to a true highres player with good upscaling capabilities?

[bpape]

If you want to deal with the hassles of Blu Ray and get involved in the format war - sure.  If you want to sit on the sidelines and watch standard DVD upscaled to 1080 until the combatants figure out who's going to win and make players that are actually user friendly, then stick with the Oppo.

Bryan

[Alwayswantmore]

If you want to deal with the hassles of Blu Ray and get involved in the format war - sure.  If you want to sit on the sidelines and watch standard DVD upscaled to 1080 until the combatants figure out who's going to win and make players that are actually user friendly, then stick with the Oppo.

Bryan

Thanks Bryan. I have not done much research on the Oppo, but will give it a closer look before pulling the trigger on a player. I love to rent movies, so I consider this a big part of the justification for going to an HD plasma screen. BTW: When my house is finally complete, I still plan to get with you on some bass traps for my listening room. As it turns out, I'm not going to finish off the basement in the near future, so my dedicated listening room will be a small bedroom. It will need all the help it can get.

[bpape]

On the room - will be glad to help get it into shape.

Bryan

[lifewithmusic]

There's lots of info about both of these Oppo upsampling DVD players at avsfurm dot com. 

[lcrim]

I installed the 980H in my bedroom system last night.  I had some trouble with my directv H20 HD receiver which was dropping HD stations and was cured by using component connections to the Olevia LCD TV.  I had been using those on my older dvd player.  So the HDMI cable, actually a DVI cable w/an HDMI adapter, was available and the Oppo arrived.  Its an elegant looking unit which has universal audio playback capabilities but anyone buying an upscaling DVD player to sit out the format wars should be aware that the benefits for video are marginal.  The scaler in the TV, and this is a fixed pixel unit, is going to have as much if not more effect on picture quality.  In my situation I needed a digital output and the video quality is very good but not as good as broadcast programming originally produced in HD.

[Woodsea]

The USB capability is awesome.  Listen to music and have it display your photos all off of one HDD!