Front Projection and the Oppo-983

[AlaskaDon]

I've been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks, and finally I'm getting to it. Recently I purchased Oppo's new 983H upconverting DVD player. Let me first state, the reason I'm posting this here rather than in another section of the forum, is because I believe that we front projector enthusiasts are possibly the only people that will see the benefits of this exceptional piece of gear. Is it Blu-ray quality? No way, but it does improve the picture.

I decided to take the plunge and try the 983 out because I have a lot of older titles that may be years coming to Blu-ray. I figured that if it could make these titles look at least adequate, then it would probably be worth the $400 asking price. If you look at Oppo's website, they kind of hint that the projector crowd will be the audience that will benefit most from the 983. I imagine that they don't really want to make that statement as it would hurt sales to flat panel users. I feel that that is really the case though. I have tried upconversion using my Panny BD-30, my PS3, and now the 983. Oppo wins it hands down. Why is this important for people using projectors? The answer is, I can barely see the difference in PQ on any of the 3 players when connected to the 55" plasma display in my living room. Viewed on the projector the results become very obvious.

As an example, a few months ago Commanche Moon (prequel to Lonesome Dove) was on TV. After watching that miniseries I realized that it had been a while since I last watched Lonesome Dove. I dug out my old DVD set and figured I would see how it looked on the big screen. The result was so bad as to be completely unwatchable. Massive amounts of noise, compression artifacts, and jaggies galore. I had never noticed how bad it was when viewed on my plasma, and that got me thinking about the need for a better upconverter. After receiving the Oppo, the first thing I threw at it was Lonesome Dove. I figured if it could make that look good then I had a success. The results were mixed. While the picture still didn't look great, there was a noticeable improvement. My feeling was that it took the PQ from completely unwatchable, up to what I would describe as still ugly, but you could live with it. I'm still very thankful that Lonesome Dove is coming out on Blu in a couple of weeks

Next I tried out some of my old Hammer Horror. Dracula fared quite a bit better. Christopher Lee looked sharper than he ever has off my old DVDs.. I also gave Aliens a try. That title looked ok to begin with when played using the BD-30, but I wanted to see if I could perceive any improvement using the Oppo. Sure enough I felt that there was an improvement in fine detail as well as a reduction in visible macroblocking.

The bottom line that I wanted to share here, is that I think the benefit of having this high-priced upconverter really only becomes apparent to us projector people. So if you find yourself still watching a lot of DVDs and when the PQ starts to get on your nerves as it eventually will, then the Oppo 983H may be worth looking into.

[Brain Sturgeon]

Thanks for the great review Alaska!

When debating about a new standalone BD player, I was originally thinking about the Denon 3800BD, primarily for the internal decoding of the HD codecs. However, to most owners, it appeared that the most compelling thing about that unit was the Realta DVD upconversion. BD performance seemed largely the same. I ended up not getting it for this reason as I mainly wanted a player to focus on BD A/V performance. With the Denon (and the near identical Marantz) as much as it is, it may make more sense to get a quality BD player for less that will have similar BD performance but may have poorer DVD upscaling performance, and then get this Oppo for your DVD viewing.

Anyways, just thinking aloud.

I ended up getting the Panasonic DMP-BD50 yesterday, and I think I'm going to be very happy with it. I may still have to demo the BD performance of the Denon or Marantz to be sure.

Cheers mate!

[gandley]

got a 983H as well and it is a cracking dvd player, last one you will ever need. the scaling and deinterlacing quality is first rate. dont know of anything better to be honest. and for the price its a steal.