Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just got this player thru Amazon, and ran two region1 DVD disks: LOTR Return of the King Platinum and Dying Young. The short review: The wife is so impressed with the Oppo's picture quality (that's probably the most important consideration when buying anything like this). I was expecting the quality, since I was able to demo a Samsung earlier that could do DCDI/Faroudja/upconvertion. ADDED: I also tried Star Wars DVD. WOW!! The picture quality really blew me away. I can see details in the movie I have never seen before on a TV. Our Oppo/HT setup: Panasonic AE700 widescreen lcd projector hdmi, ht=61" x wd=108" diy "blackout" screen (viewing distance=3.5meters), Yamaha RXV2095 receiver, Pioneer DV515 (old non-progressive dvd player via 12meter sVideo, 1.5meter fiber optic audio), Oppo DV971H (via dvi-to-hdmi adapter, 5meter hdmi cable, 3.7meter 75ohm component video cable, 10meter 75ohm coax audio), Speakers: Wharfedale Diamond 8.4 L/R/C and Bose AM10 L/R/C/Surr, Wiring AWG12. Home Theater PC setup (6meter VGA output, 1.5 meter fiber optic audio, Asus Pentium 4-2.67GHz notebook, ATI Radeon 9000-64MB, 512MB, 40GB HDD, ZoomPlayer, FFDShow, PowerStrip, WinDVD6, PowerDVD6). (1meter = 3.28ft) I have observed a significant video improvement over our old pioneer DVD player. I also tried a 1970's movie (I won't mention the title) that was so poorly transferred to DVD (region3), and I noticed a significant improvement in the video playback over the old player. The noise artifacts were minimized, and the sharpness had a significant improvement. I guess that was the DCDI/Faroudja chip doing its work. I've tried the 480p,720p,1080i upconvertion using the "dvi" button on the remote and although I couldn't really notice the difference in quality between the three modes even on such a large screen, the lcd projector saw the difference and reported the corresponding "input source signal". I may have to observe some more and change the projector's picture mode, we usually leave it at "Cinema1 mode". ADDED: okay, I've now looked A LOT closer using Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon region3 DVD. Basically, as I move up the DVI resolution from 480p to 720p to 1080i, I did noticed that less and less horizontal lines were becoming visible (a good thing). BUT, since our projector uses hdmi, the picture does suffer from hdmi cropping issues (varies with the resolution being used). Using component/analog gives the largest picture that can occupy the screen (unfortunately there is no upconversion using component, only the Oppo's DVI output has the upconversion). At the projector side: Using hdmi input, the picture appears cropped (black bars at the left and right, sometimes at the top and bottom, sometimes a combination of both). I also cannot change aspect ratio using hdmi, while you can using component/analog inputs of the projector. ADDED: The Oppo I have can play DVD-Audio, something not stated in the manuals or the unit's array of logos. The DVD-Audio sampler disc I used came from Creative Lab's Audigy 2 for the PC. ADDED: I also compaired the Oppo's component output vs. the dvi-to-hdmi output, basically, there's a big difference in the picture quality, you should connect using the dvi output if possible. I also noticed that the subtitles on the movies are much easier to read now when compaired to the old dvd player, but on one brief moment the subtitles on Dying Young were garbled -that's never happened before on the Pioneer. ADDED: Okay, this has now happened to a bunch of other DVDs, sometimes it garbles one single line of subtitle per entire single dvd I watched. That is still an acceptable problem to me. I also heard no apparent difference in audio quality between the Oppo and the old Pioneer despite the length of the coax. Naturally I set all audio sound effects to off when compairing audio CDs. I also compaired the Oppo to our HTPC. Basically, the HTPC could output better video than the old Pioneer, but when compairing with Oppo, I prefer the Oppo. I don't want the hassle the HTPC is giving me. I saw no significant video quality difference between the HTPC and the Oppo. So my take on this is if you're happy with your HTPC, stick to it. If you want convenience then Oppo is something to look at. If you can't demo an Oppo, try looking at anything with DCDI/Faroudja. Bottom line: I am happy with the purchase. Good value for the money. It's region free and can upconvert, and that's what's important to me. I chose Oppo vs. Momitsu V880 because I prefer Faroudja over Sigma Designs. BUT, BUT, here are my Oppo gripes.... 1. I don't like the remote's key layout, it also seems flimsy, it could use a backlight. 2. I don't like the el-cheapo plastic disc tray. It looks like it will break easily. It's weird having to insert a disc if the tray doesn't comeout 100% all the way. I just hope this is the design, not a defect. 3. I don't like the bright blue light which is distracting in a completely dark home theater room. 4. The player's buttons are a little hard to press, well, maybe because it's still new. As with other players, not all remote functions can be found on the unit itself. So take care of the remote. 5. I wish the unit was color black instead of silver. 6. I don't like the OSD font, could use a better readable font. 7. The setup menu could be more descriptive, the manual helps but not enough... 8. I wish it was HDMI rather than DVI, but the adapter solved that issue. ADDED: 9. Subtitle display is sometimes garbled (sometimes happens once on a single line per DVD watched). ADDED 05/28: Okay, after 3 months and almost 200 hrs of use, I am still happy with this purchase. However, not all DVD titles appeared fantastic thru the DVI upconversion output (hdmi input on our projector), such as Top Gun r1. I had to watch it thru the component output. It appeared too visually noisy via DVI. Eric Gutierrez Manila, Philippines