bubuli

Lizard_King

imTheKing

You left out 720p, which still accounts for a majority of the HDTV's currently in the market.

"The result of that conversation is the quality of the upscaling. However, it does not change the fact that you are still looking at a 480p source. Yes, the resolution was changed, and yes, it might do a nice job of interpreting the missing pixels, but the fact is that it is still 480p."

This is EXACTLY the point. How well does it interpret those missing pixels? How well does it fill in the gaps? That is where good upscalers shine. Sure, it's never going to be as good as "true" HD content but that is NOT THE POINT! The point is how good can I make my current collection of DVD's look? With the PS3, not so good. With the Oppo (even an older one with the Faroudja scaler,) much more so.

"I have to agree with the folks saying that your money is better spent on a PS3. Maybe the upscaling is not quite as good (although Sony can and has improved that), but then you will have a forward-thinking player that may eventually upscale as good or better."

That's your opinion and you're welcome to it but why would I want to buy an upscaler that, in your words, "is not quite as good" when I can buy a "good" one now? Because the PS3 might get better in the future? And what about the Oppo or other players? Are they stuck at their current level of "goodness" or are they going to get better as well? I can still get a "good" upscaler cheaper than I can buy a PS3. And if you say "games!" I say, "I don't play consoles...but I do watch DVD's." And I actually have a buddy with all 3 consoles and a 1080p Pioneer plasma. He doesn't play the PS3 much, just the Wii and the Xbox. He has been buying HD-DVD's to this point and he's a little bent about the fact that they are going away. He's actually been eyeing the PS3 saying that he's going to have to finally clean the dust off it, but he's not happy about it. He's also looking to get a "good" upscaler because he hasn't been happy with either the PS3 or the Xbox and he actually cares about how good it looks now. Not when Sony gets around to improving the PS3 upscaler.

ninjamurf

gatorengineer64

Yes, as a matter of fact I still have many VHS tapes laying around. I don't play them much but they're there. I do, however, have access to hundreds of DVD's. Your solution for me is to buy...a PS3? AND BluRay replacements for hundreds of DVD's? AND a 1080p TV? What exactly are you smoking? And it will be some time before DVD's are "obsolete".

Another thing most people are forgetting is the fact that 1080p TV's still have an extremely low market penetration. There just aren't that many out there right now. It's only been in the last year or so that 1080p sets have come to the forefront or have been reasonably priced for any but the "early adopter" crowd. Even now a 720p or 1080i set is still cheaper and they are selling more units probably based on that fact alone. I've actually heard salesmen tell customers, "well, this is the NEXT generation so you'll be ready." Ready for what? Just BluRay. That's it. Broadcasters aren't transmitting in 1080p. There are no plans for broadcasters to transmit in 1080p. It's not even on their radar. So the ONLY way to currently get 1080p content is with BluRay (or HD-DVD or downloaded content...good luck selling THAT to the public at large.) The fact of the matter is that a HUGE percentage of the public don't necessarily want or need 1080p content. It would be nice, however, if they can make their DVD's, which already look pretty good, look even better on their current HDTV's. For that this Oppo (or even its predecessor) is perfect.

Understand that the people on Giz are going to own 1080p TV's in a MUCH higher percentage than the general public. They are also going to care about 1080p content MUCH more than the general public. Most people out there today are perfectly happy with good old fashioned standard HD. They watch CSI:Miami and go "ooo, pretty!" They turn on Discovery HD and think, "damn that looks amazing!" To step up to 1080p or BluRay or PS3's is unnecessary in their eyes. But making their current DVD collection look even better? Now that's a niche worth filling at the moment.

ninjamurf

@DrXym: After using some dud monoprice cables, I'd go for the $30 Monster cables too.

Lizard_King

DrXym

As for the upscaling, the PS3 has fine upscaling. But just like all upscaling it can't magic detail out of thin air. It interpolates the image just like any other upscaler would. Any differences between the Oppo and PS3 are likely to be minimal.

The Oppo does sound like a good player but its price puts it squarely into Blu Ray / PS3 territory. Therefore I think its perfectly valid to question why anyone would buy one over a BD device. After all, if HD is your concern, it seems more sensible to be buying a proper HD player.

DrXym

The PS3 is a fine product - it's just not a great component in an A/V system.

Lizard_King

Once I get a decent collection of blu ray movies I'm not going to be using my PS3 to watch them. Also, I have over 500 DVDs...I kinda wanna watch them in the best quality possible.

That all being said...get the 981 instead of the 983. It's a much better value.

..and lastly to all those people that are pissing and moaning about just getting a blu ray player, Oppo makes an amazing product. Why can't you all just respect it for what it does. It's not trying to compete with blu ray.

LastAndLeast

csmith75

By the way dickwad, PS3 can update via ethernet to the final spec. Now go hang yourself.

imTheKing

Kered

steelwurm

Lizard_King

C4L3

Canoehead

In my eyes [opinion], my 981 upscales better than my PS3 does.

And while 983's features sound great, but the jump in price inspires feelings of "meh"- even a fantastic upscaler shouldn't creep into that price range. It's also not region free, which is a bit of a downer as well.

Posthaus

Nintenboy01

I have to agree with the folks saying that your money is better spent on a PS3. Maybe the upscaling is not quite as good (although Sony can and has improved that), but then you will have a forward-thinking player that may eventually upscale as good or better.

Monty

flynboarder07

rayguns

And to all the other: I bought my OPPO because it's the dream machine for me: it upscale amazingly normal dvds as well as DIVX (try to even find an known brand upscaler DVD which do that for this format) and because It's region Free (with a little easy code), I bought mine for 200 buck, I don't regret it one second... my DVDs play with perfect details on my 37' HDTV and I'm very happy with it...

Dude27

@bubuli: You'r smoking crack if you think the PS3 upscaler is anywhere near the Oppo's. Upscaling does make a difference. A big one actually. If it was as "automatic" as you would like to believe why do companies continue to work on their upscalers? The first one out of the box should have been just fine right? Well...no. The Faroujda upscaler has been blowing the doors off the competition for years in the past. It's interesting to see that this new Oppo is supposed to have a better upscaler than it's previous Faroujda based machines.

ninjamurf

Yes, IR is better than Bluetooth. IR can be used with Universal remotes (like Logitech's Harmony - god-awful software and all, or my choice is the Niles Intellicontrol). In some cases, those remotes are RF (like Bluetooth) but allow control of other devices that are IR.

Sony could 1-up the whole process by making a bluetooth universal remote with IR-eyes for IR devices, and no adapter needed for the PS3 or RF native devices.

Lizard_King

Granted, I don't have any of the same movies on both DVD & Blu Ray, but there is a definite difference between Spiderman & Spiderman 2 on DVD & Spidey 3 on Blu Ray. BRD feels almost 3D to me.

I can't imagine plunking down $400 for an upscaler, when for the same price, I can keep my DVD collection, start adding in Blu Ray & on top of that, Madden, MLB The Show, COD4 all in 1080p!!

jasahl

Absent Blue

@Lizard_King: IR is better than BT? are you serious? if you said RF is bettern BT, then maybe that's a better argument...but IR?

bubuli

primetime4

jzulli

And the best thing is that you can play PAL DVDs and have them convert to play on your NTSC TV on the fly...!

Windhawk

ninjamurf

imTheKing

I just bought a Denon 2845 for the HT setup, and while I didn't have the unit when I had the PS3, I know that this is on par with the HD-A2 for DVD playback (and adds needed SACD and DVD-Audio).

Blu Ray is only good if you are replacing your collection....I am not. This unit is for playback of DVDs, it is not even comparable.

Lizard_King

med

MrBlahBlah

k-dawg2bad4u

It does not. Its not even close. My wife can tell the difference with ease.

Get a ps3/blu ray and get over yourself...put the oppo on your kids tv where it belongs now.

i used to have $1500 DENON dvd player...ebayd it. Oppo made a good upconverting player a few years ago...but its a 2nd room player now and so is this.

Oh and buy a true 1080p high def tv while you are at it and hook up the right cables...the yellow one isnt the right one FYI.

twylight

If nothing else, most things don't need 1080p of Blu-Ray - high-def blurry is still blurry, after all. You just have more pixels to represent the blurriness in greater clarity. (For a large majority of movies, the director's use of such cinematic effects (soft focus, depth-of-view control, etc) render the extra resolution useless, like 12MP digital point and shoot cameras.

Of course, there are a few (like Transformers) that are really just CGI fests, and do need 1080p to view properly, but still, for things like drama and action flicks, you're probably going to have a hard time telling the difference between the two.

Also why they use movies like Transformers to show why Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is better than DVD... (I see it in the combo player displays) but that's a marketing thing.

Worf

Besides which, if you're going to splash out $399 on a play, you may as well buy a Blu Ray player. The PS3 has excellent upscaling capabilities that are frequently cited as some of the best around.

DrXym

Cross-eyedCyclops

It's funny to see the people looking at pricing - you find me a BluRay that does better upscaling than this.

Lizard_King

Dude27

Sloth

yelp

ViperBorg

BigDogues

Dude27

Dude27

Dude27

Dude27

Kiamat

aphex

graffiksguru

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icepick314