Oppo Digital is back with yet another in its line of DVD upscalers, the DV-981HD. New in this edition is upscaling all the way to 1080p, courtesy of the included Faroudja DCDi video processor. Successor to the highly regarded DV971H, the new unit includes such features as DVD-Audio and SACD support and DivX compatibility, among other digital media. One thing this player doesn't bring to the table however, is component video outputs. If your display doesn't support HDMI or DVI with HDCP, you'll be falling back to the dark ages of S-Video or even composite connections. Besides the HDMI 1.1 port ((HDMI cable included, hear that Sony?), there are also analog 5.1, optical and coaxial audio outputs powered by a 24-bit/192kHz d/a converter. MSRP is $229 and it's available now, if digital video is a part of your setup and DVD upscaling is more appealing than current HD DVD or Blu-ray offerings, this should be an excellent buy. Continue on for larger images and a shot of the back.

With all the fuss over HD optical discs, sometimes we forget that there are some nice low cost solutions to tide our HD cravings over till the next-gen format players drop in price. NeoDigits' latest offering into the crowded market of DVD upscalers -- the widely versatile H4000 -- is a great example. This player not only supports DVD, SVCD, VCD, CD, HDCD, MP3, WMA, MPEG 4, and DivX but also allows users to output nearly any resolution over its three high-def outputs. Say for instance a person wants to output 1080p over component, this player can do that (just like its older brother) or perhaps a higher-end A/V owner wants to output the signal to an external video processor at 480i via HDMI, that's kosher too. All in all there are eleven different resolutions the H4000 can output over the composite, S-Vid, component, HDMI and VGA jacks. We hear ya if the whole HD DVD/Blu-ray battle is just to scary right now to jump feet first into at least a $500 investment, but maybe the $169 tag on the H4000 will be a tad easier to swallow when the player is released on October 17.

DVD players with 1080i scalers are becoming a dime a dozen these days. Most of them only output the higher resolution through DVI/HDMI cables though, and what if your TV doesn't have one of those ports. What is a HDTV nut to do? This DVD player from Momitsu can output the higher resolutions through the same component cables that your progressive scan DVD player can. Cool huh?

Sure, this is not the first one to do this and lets hope its not the last.

If you look at the back panel you might notice a "new" connection. The SCART connection is a relic from the old days of audio/video. Think of it as a predecessor of HDMI. It carries both analog audio and video including S-Video. It was developed in the 70's as a unified standard and became very popular in Europe. It is still used there but since the connection cannot do anything with digital signals it is on its way out. But even still, it is nice to see a manufacture still supporting older connection types.


via Digg