OPPO DVD player - WOOT $99 sale!

[hjames]

Don't know if anyone is familiar with WOOT - one item is on closeout sale each day, when its gone its gone, but today they have the OPPO upscaling DVD player (HDMI only) - regular sells for 229, Woot's selling it for 99.
New, not a refurb. does Dolby and DTS, XVID and SACD and HDCD and all of that ...

http://www.woot.com/

tried to delete this but can't ..

Sale is up - SOLD OUT at 10AM

[grumpy]

...and... gone. stuff like that sells out quickly.

[Titanium Dome]

I buy things on Woot! from time to time, and check it almost every day.

The Oppo 980HD is a very nice player that has especially good audio, and the 981HD has especially good video. I bought a 980HD a few months back off ebay as a refurb direct from Oppo. It went direct into the Performance Series 5.1 MC audio system and has done a magnificent job of keeping our DVD-A, SACD, DTS, and DD music alive. The video feeds direct into the LCD screen on the front of the FAP T1 pre/pro, so I can navigate menus when needed w/o needing a monitor or TV screen.

I paid $125 for that, which was very attractive compared to $299 for the 981HD. The old Zenith (LG) DVB318 upscaling player stayed in the HT.

So the other night I check Woot! and there''s the 981HD for under $100, and NOT refurbed. Woot! indeed. I jumped on it pronto. However, when I clicked the final purchase button, the sever would not confirm my order. Twenty minutes late, still no confirmation, so I knew I'd missed it and went to bed.

When I got up at 5:00 AM I checked my Woot! account, and voilà, there it was in my order history! so, it's on its way. :yes:

What a great price on one of the top upscaling machines!

[hjames]

The Oppo disc player arrived last week - my Philips 34" CRT HDTV does 1080i but not 1080p. Its preferred output for the 'upconverted' video is HDMI - and my Philips just has one HDMI port, previously used by the Apple TV. So - I put an order into Monoprice.com to get a pair of short HDMI cables and a cheap HDMI switch (due today!). But in the meantime I connected the Oppo!

That said, the images have REALLY improved with the Oppo 981HD.
various DivX files I have gotten off the net are definately improved when playing through this unit.
Coincidentally, I flipped on my HK 8380 Changer in that room and found it has died - just hunts for a disc forever. A pity, it was HDCD capable!

The Oppo says it will do HDCD as well, so - I pulled the Left & Right RCA cables from the HK, and connected them to the Audio out Left and Right ports on the Oppo. It sounds quite nice!

I haven't had a chance to try an SACD disc yet, but so far I am VERY impressed. (tho the disc tray is might slim and cheesy).


Don't know if anyone is familiar with WOOT - one item is on closeout sale each day, when its gone its gone, but today they have the OPPO upscaling DVD player (HDMI only) - regular sells for 229, Woot's selling it for 99.
New, not a refurb. does Dolby and DTS, XVID and SACD and HDCD and all of that ...

http://www.woot.com/

tried to delete this but can't ..

Sale is up - SOLD OUT at 10AM

[Titanium Dome]

I got mine late last week. It came double boxed (thanks, Woot!) and arrived in fine shape.

Despite it being so close in model number to my Oppo 980H, the 981HD is quite a different machine. It'll be some time before I explore all its features and functions. At $99 it was one of the great Woot!s of all time, especially considering you get the HDMI cable in the box.

I expected to see the 981HD disappear from Oppo's Web site after it had been Woot!ed, but it's still there. Those of you who'd like one can can still pay $229 for one. :biting: :p

[hjames]

yeah, we forgot to mention inside the boxes the player came packed in a black burlap-like bag! Quite cool!


I got mine late last week. It came double boxed (thanks, Woot!) and arrived in fine shape.

Despite it being so close in model number to my Oppo 980H, the 981HD is quite a different machine. It'll be some time before I explore all its features and functions. At $99 it was one of the great Woot!s of all time, especially considering you get the HDMI cable in the box.
:p

[rek50]

Does the Oppo have CVC? If so, you may try these instead of the HDMI.

I know HDMI is SUPPOSED to be the best.........BUT, it IS a cable...

I have a Sony XBR 50". I first tried HDMI. Then, I added the component video connections on another video input. This provided instant A/B
"Testing"

The Component connection looked as good, if not better.
I DID try three HDMI cables....cheap to not so cheap. It wasn't a matter of a "Bad" HDMI cable.......they all looked the same.

[hjames]

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/dv981hd_image.html

In terms of higher quality video outputs, it has HDMI only, no RGB Component Video Connectors,

tho it does have an S-Video and an Video out (rca) port

I did get a 2 port HDMI switcher from Monoprice.com yesterday, seems to work fairly well.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=3047&seq=1&format=2


Does the Oppo have CVC? If so, you may try these instead of the HDMI.

I know HDMI is SUPPOSED to be the best.........BUT, it IS a cable...

I have a Sony XBR 50". I first tried HDMI. Then, I added the component video connections on another video input. This provided instant A/B
"Testing"

The Component connection looked as good, if not better.
I DID try three HDMI cables....cheap to not so cheap. It wasn't a matter of a "Bad" HDMI cable.......they all looked the same.

[hjames]

Another improvement ...
I have an SACD of Roxy Music Avalon ... I'm a big fan of Bryan Ferry and the band, but never played this disc because I never had an SACD player before, and didn't know it would ONLY play on an SACD capable machine when I got it.
Anyway, I played it tonight and it was ok - playing through the R-all and L-all analog outs.
Well, "Fred Sanford" popped in briefly this evening, en route between north and south places, and while we listened he said I needed to connect the "Direct6" connectors on the Oppo unit to the Direct6 ports on the Harman Kardon so I could get the full DSD (Digital Surround Disc) effects from the recording. After he left I had a chance to pull the rack and do the connects.
Woh-ho! A definate improvement for this recording.
Apparently SACD spec says thats how it has to be to get the surround.

Very nice! (thanks Fred!)

[hjames]

Moved this part of a thread to the OPPO thread.

I current have 3 audio feeds between the OPPO and the HK AVR 335.
One is the optical cable to the DVD audio in, one is the L & R analog lines (rca pair) to the CD player in, one is the 6 CH Direct lines (6 rca lines) for the 6 CH Direct input. The OPPO website provides updated firmware for the unit, so I downloaded the latest release, burned it to an ISO CD, and updated the machine with the July 7, 2008 version.

DVD Audio - I tried with both Sting: Nothing Like the Sun, and the Beatles: Love. All 3 inputs were live, but the best sound for them seemed to be on the optical signal and let the HK decode it. I don't see the Audio setup menu on the LOVE disc that I got when I played it on my old JVC DVD player - if memory serves it allowed me to choose between Dolby or DTS - it just defaults to Dolby with no option.

DVD - We then watched Chronicles of Riddick - very over the top SciFi thing was very deep bass and almost game-like CGI visuals. Looked exceptionally good and sounded best through the optical feed. Tried one of the MadMen DVDs - that looks great too.

SACD - so far I only have Avalon, but it sounded best using the 6 Ch Direct inputs, but I'll probably get a few more next month - the sound is quite impressive

As I get more time I'll try more regular CDs to really check its performance.
Also, although the Oppop doesn't have an HDCD indicator like the HK changer did, they advertise it can decode the HDCD discs properly..
I have a number of HDCDs (the whole Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music catalog and most of the King Crimson remastered discs too, I think) - I let you know how they sound ...


Don't know that player, there may be an OPPO menu setting for activating the analog outs with DTS/DD modes- worth a look in the manual.

Enjoy- I'm almost unpacked & inventoried! When I dig up that SACD sampler I have I'll mail it on to you.

je


Sure - nice to have you, and thanks for poppin' by! Once you left I pulled the rack out and ran 6 rca cables from the OPPO to the HK receiver, selected when I choose Direct6.
I still have the R-all and L-all analog feeds for non-surround stereo CDs, and the optical digital for DVD to use the receiver's DTS or Dolby decoders for movies in surround.
Of course, I will try the Direct 6 next time we watch a movie and see what happens.
The DVD video signal is directly fed via HDMI to the TV, and unaffected by the setting of the HK.

I also haven't had a chance to try any of the DVD Audio discs (Sting, or the Beatles LOVE)

[Fred Sanford]

Sounds good- dunno if my point was clear, but I'd figure that the OPPO will always put 5.1 analog out of the individual RCAs for an SACD, but there's a chance it might not have them active if you've chosen the DD or DTS mix on a DVD. Worth a look.

Have fun!

je