Discussion on user email from 1080i vs. 1080p to the Brady Bunch in high definition. Plus the top 10 most popular televisions (HDTVs, that is) at CNet and our review of two OPPO upconverting DVD players, the DV-970HD and the OPDV971H.
By now you know that the HT Guys have decided to sit out the next
generation DVD format war. But you say, "Hey I watch a lot of DVDs and
I want that in HD too!". Well we may have a compromise for you. We have
been evaluating two upconverting DVD players from Oppo Digital. The
OPDV971H (MSRP $199) and the
DV-970HD (MSRP $149) are two units that will improve the quality of standard DVDs and they do so much more. The 971 uses the
Faroudja
chip set for DCDI and scaling. The Faroudja chip set is the benchmark
in video scaling and is used in many video scalers. The 970 uses an
"All in one video processing" chip.
For he most part we tested the units out of the box without
any changes to the settings on the players. The one exception was to
set the output of the players to 720p. Note: The preference settings
are only accessible if the player is completely stopped. We used three
identical DVDs for all our tests. The Oppos were connected to an HDMI
switcher using the supplied HDMI and DVI cables. Including the cables
is a nice touch that will help a lot of people from being ripped off
buying a cable that costs almost as much as the player does. Another
note: the DV-970HD does not upconvert encrypted DVDs (pretty much all
commercial DVDs) over component cables. In fact all our tests were done
with digital signals.
Plain
and simple, both players improved the picture on our TVs right out of
the box. The 971 gave us a better picture than the 970. The difference
was more dramatic after we got into the menus and adjusted some
settings. The 970 does not have as many adjustments as the 971. Be
careful here, you can really make the picture look bad. In most cases
less is more. If your TV is calibrated you may want to recalibrate with
this DVD player on its default settings. The first TV we used includes
a Faroudja DCDi chip built in so we weren't expecting much in the way
of an improvement. To our surprise we were able to see an improvement
in sharpness and clarity. But where we did see nice improvement was in
the color. The skin tones looked better on both Oppo players than our
standard (Yamaha and Data I/O Linkplayer) DVD players. We also noticed
that there was decent detail in darker scenes. The 971 did much better
with scenes that had a lot of motion in them and the 971 cleaned up the
noise better than its lower priced cousin. If you don't have a TV with
a Faroudja chip you will notice a bigger improvement. On our LCD TV we
noticed a bigger difference when comparing a standard DVD player to the
Oppos. The picture looked the same as on our big DLP but the difference
was seen when we toggled between our standard DVD player and the Oppo.
A couple of points we want to make. One, if the DVD you are
using is not good to begin with this player will not turn it into
something you can compare with HD. Second if the DVD is already good
this player will make it much better. We saw this when we viewed
Starwars (ep1) and Rudy. While Rudy looked better than the standard DVD
player, its improvement was not a dramatic as Starwars was.
Bottom Line
At
these prices it does not make sense to buy another DVD player. No its
not as good as a dedicated scaler like the VP30 but then again it
doesn't cost $2000 either. When you consider all the formats that both
players support (DVD Video, DVD Audio, DivX, XviD, Audio CD, HDCD,
WMA, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, and Kodak Picture. The 970 also
supports SACD) for both audio and video it makes other players seem
basic. The players can be made region free by entering a code on the
remote control. Speaking of the remote, its pretty basic and has
buttons that glow in the dark. We don't have an opinion one way or the
other since we use a universal remote. Both units look great and are
solidly built. The 970 also supports 4-in-1 flash memory card reader
compatible with Memory Stick, Secure Digital, Multi-Media Card, and
SmartMedia as well as a USB interface for external hard drives. We did
not evaluate this feature.
So
which one is right for you. If you have a TV Screen with a size of 42
inches or less get the 970. It will be harder to see the difference at
a normal viewing distance. If you have a projector or large rear
projection TV the 971 will fit the bill.
