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 Oppo
Digital, Inc. located in Mountain View, CA has introduced the OPDV981HD HDMI-enabled
DVD player, which is the successor to their highly regarded DV971H DVD player.
The new DV981H has the same Genesis/Faroudja FLI-2310 video processing chip to
handle deinterlacing along with the DivX Certified™ Mediatek MT1389 MPEG
decoder chip. The DV981H has an attractive black finish and features a stylish
low-profile chassis with a blue fluorescent display. The thin tray compliments
the low profile design. Few buttons occupy the front panel and include Power,
Open/Close, Play/Pause and Stop. The DV981H supports DVD-Video,
DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD (SACD), DivX®, XviD, Audio CD, HDCD, and Kodak Picture
CD formats. The unit has a built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoder along with a
Soundfield (Concert, Living Room, Hall, Bathroom, Cave, Arena, Church and Off)
and EQ (Rock, Pop, Live, Techno, Classic, Soft, and Off) processor. Karaoke fans
will be happy to know that the DV981H 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.
In
looking back at the earlier DV971H, the biggest strength of the unit was its ability
to play virtually any recordable disc. While this may be less of an issue nowadays
with so many players capable of playing recordable media, the DV971H did it without
any issues. This along with the exceptional deinterlacing and scaling made it
one of my favorite DVD players. Everything I admired with the DV971H is also on
the DV981H and some of the shortcoming found on the earlier unit have been addressed.
Pressing the front panel open/close button with the unit off would not do anything
on the earlier model. However, on the DV981H the same action turns the unit on
and ejects the tray. Also, pressing the power button with the tray open on the
DV971H would shut the unit off while leaving the tray out. This have been fixed
on the DV981H.  Connections
Unlike
its predecessor, the DV-981H does not include component video outputs. The intent
of this machine is to take advantage of the HDMI digital video outputs. Resolutions
for the HDMI output include 480p. 720p, 1080i and 1080p. While composite and s-video
output are included for convenience, OPPO felt there would be a limited need for
component video outputs so they eliminated them completely from the DV981H. As
a result, this player is not for those with non-HDMI HDTV displays. Full six channel
audio outputs are provided for Dolby Digital and DTS as well as a pair of mixed-down
audio outputs. Both optical (toslink) and coaxial digital outputs are also provided
for maximum flexibility.
 Remote
The
DV981H remote is similar in appearance to the other remotes offered by OPPO. The
buttons are small and are getting more difficult to read as my eyes get worse
with age. The navigation keys were easy to use, but most of the others buttons
took a fair amount of effort to see. Unortunately, the remote does not have backlighting,
but they do glow in the dark. True backlighting behind the keys would be an improvement
as using the remote in a dark environment can be a problem.
Performance
Video
tests were run on our Mitsubishi LT-52133 1080p LCD display with the included
HDMI cable. Several test discs including the Faroudja DVD, Silicon Optix HQV DVD,
and some of our favorite sample material, put the player through the ringer. The
player did an excellent job at deinterlacing and scaling. The flag waving test
on the Faroudja disc looked great as it should since this is a Faroudja-based
processor. Even the HQV tests did surprsingly well on this player with just a
few issues with some of the less common cadences. Some players while attempting
to scale a 480i material will actually make the picture look worse. Not the case
with the DV981H. The DCDi® (Directional Correlation Deinterlacing) video processing
on this player is excellent and the image resolution looked fantastic for DVD.
I say DVD because no one should think that the native resolution of the DVD source
material will ever look as detailed as Blu-ray or HD-DVD even though it is being
upconverted to 1080p. Conclusion
The Oppo DV981H is everything the earlier DV971H offered and more with the exception
of the analog component video outputs. The player supports an array of formats
including SACD, DVD-Audio and HDCD. The DVD player does an outstanding job deinterlacing
and scaling video to 1080p resulting in excellent video quality. The Faroudja
TrueLife™ enhancement and motion adaptive noise reduction works wonders on
real-world material and the results are seen on the screen. Even though many of
the new high-definition players support scaling of standard DVD resolution (720x480),
few look as good as the OPPO DV981H DVD player and certainly not at the price
of $229. OPPO sweetens the deal by including a 6-foot HDMI cable which is hard
to beat. -
Kevin Nakano |
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