Review:



The Mediatek chip is known for its chroma performance, including lack of chroma upsampling error, as well as its fast handling of layer changes. This player offers upscaled (720p, 1080i) output, but only through its DVI interface for all DVD sources. This player has an incredible list of features for its $199 list price. It will play a wide variety of video types, including XviD and DivX, it does PAL-to-NTSC conversion, can be made region-free, has built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoders and can play DVD Audio disks with full bass management. It has both optical and coaxial digital outputs and comes with a 5’ DVI cable or 6’ DVI to HDMI cable. About the only place it falls short in flexibility is that it will only output 480i over its component video outputs i.e.: no progressive scan output over component).

The player is low profile, silver with blue lighting of the front panel controls. Build quality is surprisingly good for a player in this price range. It has a nice metal case and smooth transport operation. You can get more information about features, as well as more photos at www.oppodigital.com

This player has been very favorably reviewed in the past, but it has had a number of firmware upgrades since then. Rather than repeat the various test data performed by Kris Deering in his Secrets review, I’ll focus on the firmware upgrades and audio performance. Let’s take a look.


Firmware Upgrades

There has been a lot of discussion about Oppo’s commitment to improving the performance of this player. There has been a number of firmware upgrades issued since the release of this player, fueled mostly by input from customers. The most recent upgrade (6-29-05) addressed the following:

1. Fixed shimmering that bothered certain percentage of the user population
2. Added Off option for Sharpness
3. Improved audio/video synchronization
4. Added five Audio Delay options to suit various receiver systems.
Options include 10ms, 20ms, 30ms, 40ms, and 50 ms.
5. Added On/Off options for Faroudja “CCS” (Cross Color Suppression)
6. Added On/Off options for Faroudja “TrueLife” enhancement
7. Added On/Off options for Angle icon
8. Added support for 540p DVI resolution

These updates correct most of the relatively minor issues that the player had with DVD playback. Macroblocking, a known issue with Faroudja-equipped players, can still be present with some displays, but it is much less noticeable than with some other players. Also, turning off the TrueLife enhancement currently also adversely affects the deinterlacing. This will be fixed in the next firmware update, but the implementation of TrueLife in this player is at such a minimal level, there’s no problem leaving it on.

I’ve had this player for some time now, so I’ve seen it quite a bit both with and without the firmware upgrades. Its picture was excellent before (see Kris’s review), but the upgrades have removed the issues that kept it from being even more enjoyable.

Oppo’s response to customer concerns has been exemplary for any consumer electronics product, much less one this inexpensive. Hopefully, this will continue as they grow and release new products.


DVD Viewing

First of all, I have to say that the Oppo, like most upscaling DVD players, looks best matched to a fixed pixel display (LCD, DLP or plasma) that has a native resolution that matches one of the player's upscaled output resolutions. While it will look great on other displays, it really shows its stuff with a matched resolution. Also, the 480p output doesn't seem quite as good as the upscaled, even matched with a 480p display, so that's something to consider as well.

I started by switching the resolution to 720p to match the native resolution of my Toshiba MT700 DLP projector, and then used the service menu to enable its region free mode. I then popped in my Avia Pro disk to check black and white level, as well as my current calibration settings on my projector. It has been noted that due to a glitch in the settings, the Oppo should be set at +5 on its Brightness setting so that the player's output matches the DVI Video signal standard. All other settings are left at the default. I popped in a few DVDs that I’m very familiar with, such as the Superbit versions of The Fifth Element and Spiderman 2 and checked out the picture. For comparison, I had my Faroudja-equipped Panasonic RP-82 connected via component and a Bravo D2 also connected via DVI through a Gefen switcher.

The Oppo has a very sharp picture and, at 720p, provides pixel-to-pixel mapping on my projector. This could be easily seen with the Avia Pro pixel mapping test panel. The picture wasn’t quite as sharp (or digital-looking) as the Bravo, but that’s not a bad thing as it provides a more film like look that I’ve been used to with RP-82, while adding the clarity and detail of a pixel-mapped, all-digital signal path.

This player’s layer changes are outstanding. They are virtually unnoticeable with any disk.

The player was also able to play any DivX or XviD disk I threw at it. For recordable DVDs, I haven’t tried anything but a DVD-R, which worked fine.

Overall, its video quality earns 4-1/2 paws.


Audio

DVDs and CDs output through the digital outputs sound the same as they do with most DVD players in the lower price range, since the receiver’s doing the digital-to-analog conversion. Switching over to a DVD-A, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how good it sounds through this player. It was easily superior to my RP-82 and the equal of any universal player in its price range or slightly above. While you wouldn’t buy this player strictly for its DVD-A playback, it’s nice to know that it provides such good sound, especially when it’s not even an advertised feature!
For a casual DVD-A listener like myself, it does just fine. If it had SACD playback as well, it would really be something.

While some people have mentioned audio delay problems with DVDs, I have to say that I have not experienced any such issues with any of the DVDs I’ve tried. It appears to be display dependent, much like the macroblocking issue. The recent firmware upgrade added a number of audio delay settings, which reduce this problem for those who experience it.

I'd give it 3-1/2 paws for audio.


Conclusion

The Oppo OPDV971H is a very impressive player at its price. Its video and audio quality are equal to or better than anything in its price range and its video surpasses many more expensive players as well. It has also been proven to be a very reliable player, as there are a very low percentage of returns for defect. The customer service provided by Oppo is a revelation at this price point and hopefully we can look forward to more great products from this company. For it's terrific video performance (which is the main reason to buy this player), I'd give it an overall rating of 4-1/2 paws.

As a footnote, I will be receiving a modified Oppo DVD player (improved video and audio sections by a third party that does these types of mods) in the near future and I’ll modify this review at that time to include my comments.

Features:
Hardware:

• RF AMP/Servo DSP/CD Decoder/DVD Decoder: MTK1389
• Memory (Flash): 8M(bit)/16M(bit)
• Memory (DRAM/SDRAM/SRAM): 32Mbit/64Mbit
• D/A Converter for Video: MTK1389 108MHz/12bit & CS4955 54MHz/12bit
• D/A Converter for Audio: CS4360 192KHz/24bit
• Loader: Sanyo Optics DV34S

• Updatable via CD-Rom

• Input Voltage/Frequency: 110-~240V 50/60Hz
• Power Consumption in Standby: <1 Watt
• Max Power Consumption in Operate: 14 Watt

• Video Amplitude VP-P (V): 1.0±0.2 (75 ohm)
• S-Video Amplitude VP-P (V): Y:1.0VP-P/75 ohm, C 0.286VP-P/75 ohm
• YCbCr: Y:1.0VP-P/75 ohm, Cb/Cr 0.7VP-P/75 ohm
• Resolution: 720X480X30/NTSC or 720X576X25/PAL
• Horizontal Resolution (TV Line): ≥ 450 lines
• DVI: 480p, 576p, 540p, 720p, 1080i

• Frequency: 20Hz~20KHz
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio: >90db
• Dynamic Range: ≥ 80 (1KHz)
• Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.01%

• W x D x H: 420mm X 270mm X 47mm
• Net Weight: 2.5Kg