OPPO dv-980h discontinued, OPPO hints at new lower priced BD player...

[discking]

OPPO has officially discontinued the OPPO DV-980h DVD player, they are out of stock and sold out everywhere I looked today, 11/6/09.

OPPO is hinting in response to queries about the DV-980h that it will soon be replaced with a BD player at a similar price point, or at least priced lower than the BDP-83

[Jwilly019]

A sub $200 BD player from Oppo would be awesome if they could keep the functionality of the BDP-83. I wonder if taking out SACD/DVD-A playback while preserving the rest of the 83 would allow them to get the price down that low. Probably not, but consider it wishful thinking.

[discking]

Originally Posted by Jwilly019

A sub $200 BD player from Oppo would be awesome if they could keep the functionality of the BDP-83. I wonder if taking out SACD/DVD-A playback while preserving the rest of the 83 would allow them to get the price down that low. Probably not, but consider it wishful thinking.

I would imagine that it would follow a formula similar to the 980H, with a more modest chip set but still with SACD, which is one of OPPO's selling points. Panasonics BD players at $150 on Amazon pretty much kill players over $250 for buyers not into status and bragging rights.

As much as the OPPO fanboys and devotees swear that a BDP-83 at $500 + $100 for a region free hack ($600) is "cheap", I will not consider a OPPO BD player until I can get into it for under $300, including a region free mod.

I was a very early adopter on the first OPPO DVD player, still have three of them, and promoted the company endlessly to other people for a long time. But the value of the early OPPO DVD players was that they were very affordable high quality players being sold at only a slight premium but with the same basic technology - Genesis at the time -- that Denon was charging a fortune for.

The BDP-83 stood that Denon killing formula on its head. But I would consider OPPO again if they brought out something more reasonable and in line with the way the company started.

[Oddiophile]

Originally Posted by discking

OPPO has officially discontinued the OPPO DV-980h DVD player, they are out of stock and sold out everywhere I looked today, 11/6/09.

OPPO is hinting in response to queries about the DV-980h that it will soon be replaced with a BD player at a similar price point, or at least priced lower than the BDP-83

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=117998

[chas]

Here's what Oppo told me today:

"We will be replacing this player with a Blu-ray player. We will be making a product announcement in several weeks."

[Clark Kent]

The new BD player has little chance of being released before 2010. Speculation would likely see this newer, cheaper player mainly as a digital transport. Eliminating the analog outputs alone would shave a significant amount of money off the cost of the BD-83.

[discking]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

The new BD player has little chance of being released before 2010. Speculation would likely see this newer, cheaper player mainly as a digital transport. Eliminating the analog outputs alone would shave a significant amount of money off the cost of the BD-83.

Either way, if it can be delivered with a BD/DVD region free mod for under $300 then count me in...

[gonk]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

The new BD player has little chance of being released before 2010. Speculation would likely see this newer, cheaper player mainly as a digital transport. Eliminating the analog outputs alone would shave a significant amount of money off the cost of the BD-83.

Little chance, but it's not impossible. Remember, the 980H was announced only when they had the first production run sitting in a warehouse in California. If they have spun something off of the BDP-83 platform, that could make for a rapid development time. That announcement "in a few weeks" could just be a notification of what is to come, or it could be an invitation to actually buy something.

[eric oc]

I shot an email to oppo last week this is what i got in response.

We are replacing our 980H DVD Player with a bluray version of that player. I believe analog outs, SACD and DVD-A is retained.

We don't have pricing finalized, and we don't have other specifics yet. We should have information about the player on our website within the next few weeks.


Hope it is fast. I want another oppo with out the higher price for my bedroom.

[Sunnyboy]

When I e-mailed OPPO about issuing a transport version of BD player few weeks back, they told me that OPPO will not consider that route...

Their new BDP-83SE will be a good news to lots of audiophiles/videophiles!

[Blue Bull]

So what do you guys think the price would be if they take out SACD and analog out?
Personally, I wouldn't use both of those features. I just want the best playback of blu ray possible! If the have $300 version with the rep AQ/PQ intact, I would be all over it.

[gonk]

Taking SACD and DVD-Audio out would reduce the cost by $0.01 at most (the cost of the silk screen on the front) - the capability is tied to the Mediatek chip they're using and the firmware that's been written to support those capabilities. There's no logical reason to remove those features.

If they removed the analog section entirely, there would be a fair bit of savings, but I have no idea how much. I do think that whatever Blu-ray they produce to replace the 980H will be aimed at a price point that's noticeably lower than the BDP-83's $500. $300 would seem like a logical target for them.

[Johnny Vinyl]

I'm just very glad that I bought my OPPO DV-980H player earlier this year. It has been a wonderful SA-CD player, CD Player and DVD upconverter for me. I wanted to take the load off of the PS3, and it has certainly done that. I use this player about 10 times more than I do the PS3.

Hopefully for those who missed out on this player, I wish that the new BD placement unit will maintain its SA-CD capability.

John

[naturephoto1]

Originally Posted by gonk

Taking SACD and DVD-Audio out would reduce the cost by $0.01 at most (the cost of the silk screen on the front) - the capability is tied to the Mediatek chip they're using and the firmware that's been written to support those capabilities. There's no logical reason to remove those features.

If they removed the analog section entirely, there would be a fair bit of savings, but I have no idea how much. I do think that whatever Blu-ray they produce to replace the 980H will be aimed at a price point that's noticeably lower than the BDP-83's $500. $300 would seem like a logical target for them.

Unless I am mistaken, there may be some licensing costs involved with including or not including SACD and DVD-A in the replacement player.

Rich

[chas]

Anyone heard any updates on the new replacement for the 980?

[gonk]

Haven't heard anything.

[chas]

I just checked in with Oppo again today...here's their reply:

We are working on a Blu-ray equivalent of the DV-980H, but no release date or price is available. Expect something around CES time.

[gonk]

CES is approaching pretty rapidly at this point...

[Oddiophile]

Originally Posted by gonk

CES is approaching pretty rapidly at this point...

Yep, just a few weeks away.

[chas]

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3948