May 14, 2005

OPDV971H DVD Player

I bought a new DVD player yesterday, the OPPO Digital OPDV971H. This player scored 94 on the DVD Benchmark, second only to the Denon DVD-5910. But the 5910 is over fifteen times the price. After hooking up the OPDV971H to my Hitachi PJTX100 via a DVI-D cable, I calibrated the picture and watched the Avia reference videos. The picture was a step-up, much like going from S-Video to component. I also tested the player's audio side with a DVD-Audio copy of In Blue from The Corrs. The audio was just as excellent as the video.

The OPDV971H allowed me to get an excellent level of sharpness. I was unable to reduce the sharpness enough on my previous player, the JVC XV-SA602SL. The edging on diagonals is much smoother. And the de-interlacing and upscaling to 720p features allow me to send a native image to my PJTX100.

The unit was packaged extremely well, and enclosed in a fabric bag. The front is slim, stylish, and minimalist. The LCD display is very clear and displays feedback for any button pressed on the remote. The back is well laid-out, all connections are clearly labeled, and there was absolutely no flexing as I pushed cables into it. The remote is just as slim as the player and has a brushed metal face. There is a remote button for just about every function the player provides. And the player provides an excellent number of features. More features than I would expect from any player at any price.

I actually picked up the player by driving to OPPO's office in Mountain View. This let me save on shipping, not have to wait for a delivery at home, and also to get the player right away. I spoke there with Sally Li, about the player, their products, and why I decided to purchase their DVD player. She was very friendly and helpful, and that was also a nice side-benefit of picking up the player in-person. OPPO is very responsive to feedback, and my interaction with Sally only made that even more clear to me.

I also asked them about the lack of support for 2-2 cadence, as tested by Kris for the benchmark. The other guy there informed me that the 2-2 cadence flag only applies to certain older PAL sources that have been converted to DVD. So I don't have to worry about it for watching NTSC 30fps video sources.

Posted by josuah at May 14, 2005 9:23 PM UTC+00:00

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