Oppo's DV-983H universal player gets reviewed

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 18th 2008 at 1:11PM

When Oppo decided to exit the DVD deck business with a bang, it actually did precisely that. According to a recent review of the firm's last DVD spinner over at CNET, the DV-983H was summed up as practically the "ultimate standard-def disc player," with excellent image quality on DVDs, great upconverting abilities, included DVD-Audio / SACD support and 7.1-channel analog outs to boot. Reviewers were even able to make the unit region-free courtesy of a simple remote code hack, and it was said to have handled PAL discs like a champ. On the downside, the exorbitantly high price tag ($399) really makes it unattractive to most everyone, but the impeccable feature set still enabled it to net a solid 8.4 out of 10 rating. In all actuality, there's a slim chance you'll be picking this up before a serious price drop, but if you're not quite ready to go Blu, this here is apparently the player to own.

Filed under: Reviews, Other formats, Players, Others

Tags: DV-983H, dvd-a, dvd-audio, oppo, review, reviewed, sacd, universal player, UniversalPlayer, upconvert, upconverting, upscaling

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

dj496 @ Apr 18th 2008 2:42PM

You must be talking to your alter egos.

Neutral

shawnmos @ Apr 18th 2008 2:05PM

Who in their right mind would buy this over a blu-ray player?

Highly Ranked

andy @ Apr 18th 2008 2:39PM

Or over one of Toshiba's HDDVD players even? (assuming you're just looking for the best DVD player)

It's pretty much the same feature set, but the Toshiba players cost about 1/4 as much.

Neutral

LiqwidZero @ Apr 18th 2008 3:02PM

I wouldn't even buy Oppo's BD player. More than likely, it'll cost $599.

Neutral

ChrisH @ Apr 18th 2008 3:04PM

The person that is buying this probably already has a BluRay player, and an HD-DVD player, and a nice display, and just wants the absolute best image they can get for their (presumably quite large) DVD collection.

Neutral

DrXym @ Apr 18th 2008 3:56PM

The Oppo has a good reputation but I doubt most people would notice any difference between its output and a PS3. You may as well get a PS3 and benefit from all the other things it does. Even if you are only into SD content, the PS3 makes a superb multimedia jukebox, but of course can be used for HD content too.

Neutral

mcrexx @ Apr 18th 2008 2:19PM

I'd like to buy this as my primary up converting player but $399... come on.

Neutral

Matt @ Apr 18th 2008 3:06PM

Well, somebody has to be buying them, because they've been sold out at their site since they went on sale, and they still are not available on Amazon (I assume because Oppo hasn't been able to supply them with any). Perhaps Oppo just didn't produce a huge supply, but whatever the case, demand has thus far exceeded it.

The market for this high-end machine is most likely somebody who has a Blu-Ray player and wants a better upscaler for their large DVD libraries. Most BD players do a decent job, but their primary purpose is not SD DVDs, and the Oppo is (supposed) to be an improvement. The question is whether or not it's a $400 improvement.

Highest Ranked

Jeremy @ Apr 18th 2008 4:59PM

I bought one of these because it was the best choice given what I watch. I have lots of Region 1 DVDs and a non-trivial number of Region 2 DVDs (Japanese music videos, anime shows that haven't been translated into English, etc.); a Blu-ray player purchased in the US wouldn't play the Japanese DVDs (and vice versa). Also, the 983 has a better deinterlacer even than Blu-ray and HD DVD players which are particularly good at SD DVD playback (including the PS3); this doesn't matter in the slightest if you watch primarily movies and recent live action TV shows, but becomes very important for animated TV shows (anime again). The deinterlacing and scaling hardware in this player is the same as what's used in a $2500 DVDO VP30 external video processor with optional deinterlacer upgrade.

Also, Blu-ray players still tend to be relatively slow to power on, load discs, and power off; this player doesn't suffer from that. Oppo also took care to use top-notch audio circuitry; this is probably the best player for CD, SACD, and DVD-Audio that you can get without spending hundreds of dollars more. Again, the difference is subtle and can only be noticed if the rest of your audio system is top-notch, but it is a factor in the player's favor.

Basically, this player isn't worth the money for most people...but for certain types of material and certain levels of A/V snobbiness, it's the best option out there.

Neutral

shawnmos @ Apr 18th 2008 7:24PM

My Samsung BD-P1200 has a Reon which does an amazing job of upscaling. So amazing in fact, that I don't want to replace it even though it's a 1.0 player with no high def audio codec support.

Neutral

Grahame @ Apr 18th 2008 5:00PM

I am in the queue.

Tell me a Blu Ray or HD DVD player that will playback my SACD's and HDCD's

Neutral

mike @ Apr 19th 2008 2:12PM

that whould be the PS3 i belive

Highly Ranked

Peetah @ Apr 18th 2008 5:08PM

People who buy the Oppo DV-983H are the people who love their home theatre and want to preserve and watch their SD DVD collection in the best possible conversion possible.

This is not the player for the casual DVD renter, it's the player for a home theatre enthusiast. The PS3 doesn't currently offer the same feature or quality for SD DVD as the 983.

It seems to me that it's pretty obvious that a SD DVD Player at this price is aimed at the enthusiast crowd and not at the $49.99 croppola player crowd. Essentially it's the last DVD player you'll buy and if you have a large collection of stand definition dvd's, then it's a sensible purchase.

Neutral

Rick @ Apr 18th 2008 9:08PM

As a HD programming viewer, BRD owner and still have several HDVDs, I watched my first SD DVD a few days ago. WOW does that blow. I will never go back to watching SD DVDs, it's just not worth it to me.

Neutral

JBDragon @ Apr 19th 2008 12:45AM

I'm waiting for the price to drop down and then I plan to buy one. I won't have anything to do with Blu-Ray!

Neutral

grider @ Apr 19th 2008 10:19AM

Ha ha.... "I'm having nothing to do with blu-ray".

Are'nt you pissed off at this whole moving picture thing taking over from books? Screw it.... I'm taking a pass on electricity period.

btw. $100 says blu-ray is in your future.

Neutral

Simon @ Apr 19th 2008 4:38PM

$399 Really doesn't seem like THAT much to me for a great DVD player. Just two years ago Denon's and Pioneer's Elite DVD players sold for over $1,000. I have Pioneer's DV59-AVI DVD player and it's amazing. It's one of the best upconverting DVD players I have used, much better than dedicated BD players.

Neutral

Achilles @ Apr 21st 2008 6:55PM

Are you kidding?? For $399 I could get a BluRay, what were they thinking????????

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