Pioneer DV-400v vs. Oppo DV-983H....

[i am x]

I'm curious about something. I currently own the Pioneer DV 400v "upscaling" DVD player. I have an Akai 32 inch HDTV that goes up to 1080i. Now, I see that Oppo has recently released their DV-983H upscaling player. I'm a stickler for quality and like to get the best I can for what I can afford, and would be willing to spend more if the quality is there. I payed $99.00 for the Pioneer. The price for the new Oppo is $399.00. Is Oppo's quality really THAT GOOD to the point where if I payed $399.00 for their new player, I'd notice THAT MUCH of a difference in quality from the Pioneer that I currently own? I have over 3,000 movies on DVD, and I'd be willing to pay the $399 IF Oppo's video upscaling ability was that much better than Pioneer's player, but it would really be annoying to spend that much more money, only to have a SLIGHTLY noticeable difference in quality. Considering it's $200.00 MORE than my Pioneer, the quality would have to give standard DVD's the appearance of being 100% similar to an HD or Blu Ray DVD for that price to make any sense. Is there anyone out there that has the new Oppo, or ANY Oppo that would stand by the price difference between these machines vs. other decent quality machines?

[Jim44]

First, you can check out AVS Forum - there are threads for each of those players (in some cases, HUGE threads ).

I recently bought the Pioneer, but returned it for the Oppo 980H. This was for use as a "second" player with the 27" LCD. I had been debating between the two, and what finally made my decision was the fact that only the Oppo passed all the "jaggies" tests on the HQV test disc.

As for the 983, everything I've read (AVS Forum & elsewhere) indicate that it's performance is on par with high-end players costing 5X as much. The one "issue" you might have is that you might not notice a considerable difference on teh 32" display (again from what I've read).

I would say do a bit of reading, and if you're so inclined, get on the notification list for the 983 at Oppo (they're dealing with more demand than they have units, and are putting people on a first-come-first-serve list). They have a 30-day return policy, so worst case is you can try it out, compare it to what you have, and return it if need be.

AVS Forum 983 thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1001832
(The first post has links to the reviews).

Happy reading

[MJA]

$399.00 is too much.you can get a PS3

[Krispy Kritter]

I was under the impression that DVD playback (upscaling) was only average on a PS3. It is one of the few "issues" most users have with it.