|  Oppo
Digital, Inc. located in Mountain View, CA has introduced their OPDV971H DVI-enabled
DVD player, which features the acclaimed Genesis/Faroudja FLI-2310 video processing
chip to handle deinterlacing and the DivX Certified™ Mediatek MT1389 MPEG
decoder chip. The OPDV971H low-profile chassis is stylish looking features a blue
fluorescence display. The thin tray compliments the low profile design. The few
buttons that occupy the front panel and include Power, Open/Close,
Play/Pause and Stop. The OPDV971H supports DVD Video, DVD Audio,
DivX®, XviD, Audio CD, HDCD, WMA, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, and Kodak Picture
formats. The unit has a built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoder along with a 3-D
virtual surround processor (Concert, Live, Dance, Techno, Classic, and Soft).
Karaoke fans will be happy to know that it works with karaoke discs as well. The
unit has the ability to load new firmware updates with the latest features and
bug fixes from the OPPO website.
 Cable
Ready
The OPDV971H comes well equipped with a variety of cables to help
make installation as smooth as possible. The box includes a 5-foot DVI-DVI-D cable
and a 6-foot DVI-HDMI cable, supporting both digital video configurations. Also
included is a set of analog A/V cables for two channel audio and composite video.
The IR remote comes with batteries and while it is a much better remote than what
shipped with the very first units, it still lacks true backlighting and instead
relies on glow-in-the-dark buttons.
 Consumer
have a huge selection of DVD players currently on the market, so of which are
very inexpensive. The important feature offered on the OPDV971H is the DVI digital
video output. This interface allows video to be sent to the display or projector
(in our case) completely in the digital domain. Unlike conventional DVD players
that only have analog outputs, the OPDV971H supports both type of outputs for
the maximum flexibility. For this review, we only focused on the DVI output and
not the analog video outputs.
The
OPDV971H DVD player can upscale the source to the standard resolutions of 480p,
720p and 1080i. Since the player is not HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
compliant, consumers that own non-compliant HDCP monitors will be able to enjoy
content used on this player. This does not prevent HDCP-compliant monitors from
using it. The
unit also has the usual coaxial and Toslink digital audio outputs, as well as
6-channel analog outputs for DVD-Audio discs or when using the player's built-in
Dolby Digital and DTS decoders. Full bass management and time alignment control
is available using the setup menu.  The
original remote included with the OPDV971H was nothing to write home about with
its small buttons and difficult to read labels. The navigation keys were easy
to use, but most of the others buttons took a fair amount of effort to use. Luckily,
Oppo has introduced a new remote with the unit we received and it is a much better
design. The buttons have a good feel and do glow in the dark. True backlighting
would have been preferred, but compared to the original remote, this new design
is significantly better. However, working in a dark environment can be a problem
even with this new design.
One
nice feature of this player is its ability to play PAL discs while also converting
the video to NTSC. The video performance was excellent considering the source
frame rate of 25/50 and there was no apparent judder in the scenes. The player
can also be commanded to ignore regional coding so that discs from other regions
can be played. Layer changing is exceptional on this player thanks to the video
memory buffer used to absorb the delay time during the layer switch. Performance
Our setup includes a Mitsubishi HC5000 1080p projector along with a 100-inch Stewart
FireHawk filmscreen. For the purpose of the review, we let the player upconvert
the video to 1080i. The OPDV971H has all the key ingredients that make a great
DVD player. The Genesis/Faroudja FLI-2310 video processor properly deinterlaces
video sources while minimizing objectionable artifacts such as jaggies. Using
several of our torturous source discs the player performed virtually flawlessly
on this material. We were also impressed with its ability to play virtually all
kinds of recordable media. Often home videos do not play reliably on many players,
but the OPDV971H had no problems playing back these discs. When
powering on the unit it takes several seconds before the player responds to the
eject button. This can be annoying at times even though it only takes a few seconds.
Pressing the DVI button on the remote sequences through 480p, 540p, 720p, and
1080i. Conclusion
The Oppo OPDV971H is an impressive DVD player for $199. It offers users a DVI
output for compatible displays with excellent picture quality. The Faroudja-based
processing is excellent and the scaling performance will put a smile on your face.
This is the only player I currently have that can play virtually any disc, including
most of the DVD recordable formats. There are few players that perform this well
with such superb video processing and a DVI output and certainly not at this low
price. -
Kevin Nakano | 
