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ANyone own the OPPO 971 DVD player? (1 Viewer)

Andrew Pratt

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Its got one of the better HDMI outputs available...but its component output isn't very good and its not going to win any build quality contests ;) Still if you only care about HDMI its a very good player.
 

Eric Alderson

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I got mine last week. Looks great on my Sony 42A10 through the DVI=HDMI cable. One thing I noticed is that the PQ depends on how well the DVD is mastered. My old Mallrats disc looked subpar while Oceans 11 and Collateral looked real good. And with is's region free option, I can play anything.
 

Ronn.W

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Dec 16, 2002
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I've had the Oppo since last spring, so almost a year now. It still works as good as the day I bought it. Oppo has continually supported the machine with firmware upgrades that have addressed all the major issues with the player, and they respond (and listen to) customer feedback.

Secrets of HT and HiFi recently put it as the #1 player when it comes to pic quality. It topped the Denon 5910 at many times the price.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...h&articles=all




Yep, and that is how it should be. DVI is going to be a straight digital signal, and if it's going into a digital TV, you are seeing it exactly as it was put on the disc (assuming you've callibrated your TV, etc.) This can be good, this can be bad. It's surprising how many bad looking discs there are out there, that rely on digital/analog conversion and other processing by the set to make it look good.
 

Andrew Pratt

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Oops you're right its DVI out not HDMI though its pretty simply to convert one to the other for the most part.
 

Rachael B

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I've had one since last summer and I've come to like it. I don't think the upconversion amounts to all that much, but then I'm HD spoil't these days. NTSC is stille NTSC-ish. The layer changes occasionally aren't as purr-fect as some other players with memory buffers. I like that it has a screen-saver. It's really annoyed the hell out of me that some really expensive players these past few years didn't even bother with savers.

The player has clearly shone on the better DVD's I've put in it. Too bad, the studios have generally gotten sloppy on so many DVD's lately, IMO. Don't laugh, but, the Trek Enterprise discs are some of the best looking DVD's I've watched on the Oppo lately....

For $200, it's a no-brainer, IMO.
 

Chris PC

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I think with DVI you are limited to 8-bit video output no matter what, but with an HDMI output, you can potentially output a 10-bit or even 12-bit video signal. Having said that, there are many DVI sources that look great. Since my Hitachi TX200 has HDMI, I would prefer an HDMI output if it offers any improvement, but then again, either way, there are still some lingering issues with the HDMI port of my Hitachi 200 anyhow. But I digress...

I still don't know if this player is the greatest thing ever, as the Panny S77 and S97 are comparable, but for the money, it sure is tempting.

Are there any nagging bugs that bother people with this player? What about audio-video sync issues? I wish it was a 5 disc carousel.
 

Chris PC

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...btw, the Oppo doesn't happen to do auto-pillar-boxing, does it?

You know, when you're watching extra's and the shots of the movie are regular 16:9 and then the 4:3 shots of the documentary parts get horizontally squeezed with pillars on the left and right? Not likely, but I was just wondering.

Does the OPPO allow for the aspect ratio adjustment in the zooming and/or stretching of non-anamorphic dvd's to fill the screen?
 

JeremyErwin

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a longer, more detailed htforum thread on the oppo 971h is here

And yes, it does do pillarboxing, but wide/sqz mode tends to reduce horizontal resolution...
 

JeremyErwin

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Yes. It's automatic, Note, however, that it applies the pillarboxes first, then scales, which can have undesirable results.
 

Chris PC

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Oh. The Panny F85 and F87 5 disc changers have auto-pillar-boxing which works well.

So there are some artifacts visible?
 

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