New Oppo DV-981HD UpConvert DVD Players on Woot
 

The Oppo DV-981HD UpConvert DVD Player is pretty much one of the greatest DVD players ever made. They've been selling for $220 and I've never seen them on sale before tonight - Woot.com is selling them for $99.99 :banana:

Great deal! Thanks for the post.
Here are some links for those of you interested:
http://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/
http://reviews.cnet.com/video-player...-32327927.html

Oppo's supposed to be coming out with a Blu-Ray player soon. That might be the one I end up getting, since I don't want to have a separate upconverting machine for region-coded DVDs.

just an FYI for those (like me) with a DLP TV set:

From Oppo Customer Service:

"DLP technology is traditionally susceptible to macroblocking due to the low bit-depth, contrast and brightness ratios. DLP displays primarily use 8-bit processing and an 8-bit PWM scheme on the DMD mirrors, and out of box, most DLPs do not fully utilize their entire range of digital bits (steps between black and white). For this reason, without proper calibration using professional grade calibration discs such as AVIA or DVE, DLP displays will enhance macroblocking and false-contouring errors.

Because DLP displays are macroblock enhancing, we would not recommend the use of the OPDV971H or DV-981HD on DLP displays, as the OPDV971H and DV-981HD will macroblock enhance as well. We would recommend the DV-970HD and DV-980H for DLP displays as they will produce the cleanest, most macroblock free picture on your large screen display."

Thanks! Placed an order, but...it's still 'processing' from woot so it's still up in the air whether I'll actually successfully complete an order for one. Glad I saw this though as I don't usually check woot.com on a daily basis.

is woot.com reliable? have not heard about them before?

thanks.

Are oppo's all region players?

You can hack it to make it region free.... and by this I mean just pushing a set of keys on the remote and choosing 0 as the Region.

Super56K:
I waited for about an hour and eventually gave up waiting for confirmation from their site. Just got an email saying the order went through so you don't necessarily have to wait for it to finish up.

They're a giant

...and their sold out :)

Thanks djskyler. I just happened to up late on the Left Coast and saw your post. I noted that the Woot server was getting pounded and after an hour of waiting, hit the sack. I woke up this morning to the happy e-mail confirming my purchase. I've been looking for a great up-converting player, since Blue Ray is a couple of years in our future both DVD and player-wise at our household. It's been a long time since I've attended a woot-off, and I rarely check their site out. Thanks again.

I had to wait until this morning to get my confirmation also.

Thanks OP!

Thank you very much for the post. I have a DLP TV and have been thinking about ordering an Oppo in the next month or so. I'll definitely have to keep this in mind.

Have you used a professional-grade calibration disc? I'm not sure if I would even know where to begin!

Thanks! ordered one...

that's a very good deal. these are hardly ever available below MSRP.

Managed to snag one early this morning and finally got my confirmation!

Wonderful price for something I've wanted for a long time. Thank you djskyler!

man, if I had known it was easily hackable to be all region earlier I would have jumped on this

yeah, i read that review and it mentions the "hack" that you can do. The good review coupled with trusted DVD Talk member's recommendations convinced me to go ahead and buy it.

Far and away the best DVD player for any non-DLP TV. Unlocking the region lock is laughable about how easy it is, and I have never seen such an intuitive menu. Plus it pretty much plays everything other then HD DVDs and BR. I used to rock two in my house (one for the HT and one for the main TV) but sold one for an awesome price.

I'm glad I didn't see this because I may not have been able to resist, however good this deal may be.

Wow. That was a great deal. I should have checked the forums earlier.

Awesome deal. I've had a 971 for over 3 years now and it get's so much use, I bought this as a backup! Plus i might be getting a 1080P display soon, so that'll warrant an upgrade right there.

There is 1 other known issue with the Oppo's, which Oppo refreshingly admits to: They are said to have some motion jitter issues with discs burned on standalone set top dvd recorders.

I have several Phillips 727's which have a similar issue. On standalone authored discs, motion will intermittently & very BRIEFLY start & stop. It's quite quick (I don't perceive a full stop, just jittery motion), but it's really annoying.

Here's the actual quote from Oppo:

"Compatibility with user-encoded contents or user-created discs is on a best effort basis with no guarantee due to the variation of media, software and techniques used. For example, Discs recorded on some stand-alone DVD recorders or DVD camcorders may not exhibit smooth playback."

A couple years back I emailed oppo & they confirmed that this is indeed an issue with their products.

That's why I chose a Pioneer universal player rather then the Oppo. My understanding is that if you NEVER play set top burned discs (or if you don't mind the motion issues) the Oppo is superior in all other ways to the Pioneer (which is quite good).

Question about region free DVDs: I have a couple DVDs from the UK, and bought a cheapie DVD player at Target because you could make it region free. The UK discs play, but really poor quality (blurring, random stops). Is this to be expected? Or if I was to buy an Oppo, would they play just like they would if I bought them in the US, with no discernible downgrade in quality? Thanks.

Hmmm, that's interesting. I've got a 61" LED DLP that I use with a DV-981 and it transmits a near-HD experience (depending on the source material). I've got (3) other upconverting players and none of them even comes close to the Oppo. It seriously rivals BluRay (which I also have). The region-free ability is a nice bonus, too.