Help with choosing DVD player and what is with 576I/P

[ThomasGore3rd]

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Hello All:
In the market for a new Standard Def DVD player. Was thinking of getting Upconverting Player, but have heard about many problems such as Color Bleeding, and picture distortion when combing these with projection TV's (CRT projection with HD) My Panasonic S35 is on its last leg, and I really need some feeback on a good, solid player for under 200 bucks. I am not interested in Toshiba, Panasonic, Samsung, or any other cheapo players. Was heading more in the direction of Denon or Pioneer. I dont want to spend a ridiculous amount on this player (under 200 bucks) and I dont believe that you have to pay top dollar to get quality. I am picky when it comes to picture and sound, but not to the extreme where I am manually adjusting my projection TV (thats what Magic Focus is for) I have a 51 Hitachi CRT projecton TV. I need DVD with following features:
Progressive Scan, Optical Audio, Picture tuning, and DVD-R playing. Any suggestions would be appricated. I also have a question about some players which I have seen, that have the ability to play at 576I or 576P. I know that 480i and P are still standard def, and I am assuiming so is 576, since high def starts in the 700's (I think) Does anyone have a player with 576 capability, and does it make a difference on picture quality. Thanks to all!

[guns1inger]

Progressive output of a PAL signal. 576 lines is PAL standard for DVD. P is progressive.

[FulciLives]

One of the very best DVD players on the market now is the OPPO DIGITAL OPDV971H

This DVD player is fairly inexpensive for what it offers (the price is about $200 US Dollars).

What makes this DVD player so special?

Well for one it uses the much acclaimed DCDi Faroudja chipset. Generally speaking only very expensive DVD players use that and many consider the DCDi Faroudja chipset to be "the bomb" when it comes to DVD players.

This allows the DVD player to exhibit quality behind that found in other DVD players. It also handles PAL material extremely well and does very nearly flawless PAL DVD to NTSC output conversion. A nice plus is that it is easily made region free.

It is also an up-converting DVD player with the ability to not only do 480i and 480p but also 720p and 1080i which makes it a great choice for a HDTV.

To top it off the player also features the ability to play back DivX and XviD MPEG-4 AVI files and also supports the DVD Audio format as well as HDCD and WMA (but no SACD support).

I should also point out that the hometheaterhifi.com website did a DVD player benchmark test on a wide variety of DVD players including some very expensive models (a few of which also used the DCDi Faroudja chipset) and guess what? The OPPO DIGITAL OPDV971H had the highest rating!

One thing I would like to point out though is that some people feel that the DCDi Faroudja chipset produces "macroblocks" that some find annoying. Now OPPO DIGITAL has released several firmware upgrades since the OPDV971H first came out to deal with that issue and with proper tweaking the "macroblock" issue is not that big of a deal but some (I would say a small minority) still don't like the whole "macroblock" issue.

Another thing to point out is that OPPO DIGITAL recently came out with a new DVD player ... the DV-970HD model. This model does not use the DCDi Faroudja chipset so there is no "macroblock" issues and in fact this model has some refinements in other areas such as improved DivX/XviD MPEG-4 capabilities and support for SACD to name a couple. The real difference though boils down to your personal like or dis-like for the DCDi Faroudja chipset. As I said some dislike the "macroblck" issue. Also some feel that the DCDi chipset softens the image a bit whereas the chipset used by the DV-970HD tends to give a sharper image (the DV-970HD uses a MediaTek chipset). However there is no doubt that DCDi handles certain types of DVD discs better especially those that have some manufacturing issues like incorrect progressive flagging (happens more than it should). Also if PAL playback is a concern the MediaTek chipset used by the DV-970HD does not properly handle 2:2 pulldown and as a result you will get a "jaggy" look (subtle yes but still noticeable) from PAL to NTSC covnersion ... even just straight PAL DVD playback will suffer (if you have a display capable of PAL video). So if PAL DVD playback is important you definately want the OPDV971H instead of the DV-970HD.

I have embedded some links through-out the text above but here is the website for OPPO DIGITAL:
http://www.oppodigital.com/

Here is the website for the AVS FORUM where you will find massive threads for both of the OPPO DIGITAL DVD players I have mentioned here:
http://www.avsforum.com/

It can be a tough call as to which one to go with especially since there is a $50 US Dollar difference between the two models.

I would only go with the DV-970HD model if PAL was not a concern but even then the OPDV971H with it's DCDi Faroudja chipset will still benefit certain NTSC discs.

One last note to make things even more confusing LOL

OPPO DIGITAL has said that they will be soon replacing the OPDV971H model with a new model that will be "updated" in certain ways but will still use the DCDi Faroudja chipset. Last I heard this would be out by the end of this year but I think it has already been delayed more than once so at this point it's probably anyone's guess as to when it will be out.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Krispy Kritter]

I have the Oppo 971 with a Mitsubishi 55" CRT HD and I am very pleased with the playback quality. Excellent player.