Why You Can Trust CNET Oppo DV-981HD review: Oppo DV-981HD
If you're sick of the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray battle and just want to play your existing film collection, the Oppo DV-981HD may provide the cure. DVDs look and sound so good on this player that you might forget you're not watching an HD DVD. Make an appointment to see the difference
If you have a big DVD collection -- or you simply can't be bothered with the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray battle that's sending some movie fans potty -- then why not wait and enjoy your existing film collection for a bit longer without worrying about becoming obsolete?
Oppo DV-981HD
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
For around £175, the Oppo DV-981HD aims to get the very best possible picture quality out of your current DVDs, plus adding more handy features into the mix that should keep you happy for a while longer.
Design
First of all, we're impressed by the packaging the Oppo comes in. You get an outer, brown cardboard box that protects an inner box. The DVD player itself sits within a dust-repelling fabric sleeve within the box. This might sound like an environmental catastrophe, but the chances are you won't throw this packaging away, using it to move the player around when need be.
However you look at it, the Oppo must get points for presentation. This is a premium player, so it's not unreasonable for the company to do a good job with the boxes.
When you get the DVD player out, you'll notice that it's sturdy, stylish and compact. The front panel has a simple display, slimline disc tray and a few controls such as disc eject, play/pause and stop.
We were also thrilled to discover that the Oppo comes with an HDMI cable, and what's more, it's one of the nicest and sturdiest 'free' cables we're ever laid eyes on. Oppo should be congratulated for this, as it's a great addition the package.
To the rear you've got the outputs -- there are HDMI, composite and S-video outputs but component is conspicuously absent. You'll also find 5.1 analogue audio outputs, and both coaxial and optical digital out.
The supplied remote control is fairly ugly, but does glow in the dark quite enthusiastically, which is helpful for the home theatre buffs. There's only one problem -- some of the buttons have their functions written above them, not on the key, which means you can't see what those controls do in the dark. Not a major issue, but a shame nonetheless.
Features
As you might expect for a modern DVD player, the 981HD is happy playing DivX and MPEG-4 encoded material. This is a nice bonus that we always like to see on DVD players. We tested a number of files, and all played without any hassle.
The Oppo will also play both high definition audio formats, SACD and DVD-A. So if you want to take advantage of very high quality music, then this is no doubt a welcome addition.
The menu system that drives the 981HD is comprehensive, if a little ugly. It's quite obvious they've spent considerably less time working on the menus than the exterior of the player and the packaging. That said, you probably won't spend huge amounts of time using the menus anyway.
Performance
We tested DVD playback on two televisions, a
Pioneer plasma and an LG. On both, we found the picture quality to be
excellent. The Pioneer in particular seemed to love the Oppo and made
our Blade 2 DVD look almost like it was a high definition disc.
Our other test discs, MI:II and Twister, both looked impressive, too. There were times that you can forget you're watching a DVD and think you're playing an HD DVD. The only time you tend to remember is when there is a long shot, which in HD would have loads of detail, but on DVD looks significantly less detailed.
Although we didn't notice any picture problems on DVD material, we were slightly less impressed by the DivX and MPEG-4 picture quality. We noticed that these videos were not deinterlaced properly, leaving this job up to your TV. This is fine, in theory, because all TVs should be able to do a good job of deinterlacing, but we aren't sure why the Oppo doesn't do a better job of it.
Sound performance was great, via our TV speakers. Obviously far better performance can be had by hooking the player up to a 5.1 system, either via the digital outputs or even the analogue RCA jacks.
Conclusion
The Oppo DV-981HD isn't the cheapest DVD
player on the market but it is certainly a decent one. It's possible to
spend a chunk of money on the humble but versatile disc players from
companies like Denon and Arcam, but the Oppo certainly adds a little
something to your movie viewing and is certainly a distinct improvement
over a standard definition player.
If you are after a great upscaling HDMI DVD player, then this might very well be the machine for you, although you could consider the cheaper Samsung DVD-HD860, which we also rated highly.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday