Mar 11, 2008 11:00 AM
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The Gadget: Oppo's follow-up to the fantastic DV-981HD up-converting DVD player with 1080p and Anchor Bay's VRS video tech (AutoCue, Precision Video Scaling, Progressive Cadence Detection and Precision Deinterlacing) and 7.1 audio with Dolby Digital Surround EX, DTS Digital Surround, Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro-Logic II.
The Price: $399
The Verdict: Video quality is as least as good if not better than the previous Oppo 981HD we reviewed, which also does 1080p over HDMI. Even better than the 981, this DV-983H adds in a USB port in the back so you can play back DivX/XviD files off of a USB drive directly, without having to burn movies/TV Shows onto a disc first.
We watched several DVDs and were impressed with the quality, and the AV nerds on avsforum seem to prefer Anchor Bay's ABT1018 and ABT102 upconverting/de-interlacting magic chips to Faroudja's. On the audio side, we only have a 5.1 setup, but what we heard sounded great as well.
At $399, it's a player we'd recommend if you have a gigantic DVD library that you want to keep even when faced with the impending Blu-ray transition. After all, there's no sense in buying a movie again if you can get a somewhat reasonable upscaler (and Oppo's is much more than just somewhat reasonable). It's their new flagship model, so you know this is quality DVD playback. It's also the last upconverting DVD player Oppo will ever make, so you might want to get in on this latest generation before it goes out of style. [Oppo]
Send an email to Jason Chen, the author of this post, at jchen@gizmodo.com.
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