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REVIEW: Oppo DV980H

Category: Home Theater

I am now three years into a long and twisting road toward assembling a "permanent" home entertainment system including decent H/T as well as 2-channel audio. And along that road I've had pleasant surprises and I've had unpleasant surprises -- but I've never been as shocked and stupefied by the disconnect between what other people are saying, and the experience I had, as with the Oppo DV980H. The player (and the company) for which nearly everyone has only praise and nary a whimper of complaint was, in my experience, just about the most single overrated piece of consumer tripe, this side of the New Coke.

To begin with, the Oppo doesn't work properly even by its own standards without a dizzying assembly-line of firmware upgrades. (Note to self: Never again buy a piece of electronics that touts how easy it is to upgrade with a front-end USB port. If it didn't work when it left the factory, don't buy it.) Break point insertions either do- or do not happen from disc to disc, with the same set of keystrokes, audio decoding either works or it doesn't with no apparent rhyme or reason, and most personal DVD backups of old VHS tapes either don't spin up at all, or return perhaps one frame in every twelve to the screen, making every old recording in your collection look like it was made with clay-mation.

Picture quality is lackluster at best, with lots and lots and lots of false contouring, and the audio is peppered with so much midrange breakup at even moderate output levels that for weeks I thought I'd somehow managed to blow up both of my front-channel speakers. It took me three solid days of experimentation to figure out how to make DTS content play to all six channels including the subwoofer, and then when I changed to a second DTS-encoded disc the same switch-settings no longer worked.

Along the way I also learned that the company apparently staffs a team of thinly disguised schills, trolling the discussion forums under the guise of helpful enthusiasts who immediately close down all discussions of their products that aren't favorable. As soon as it became apparent in a different forum that the helpful suggestions I was getting were self-contradictory and ignored my previous posts, my ostensible hobbyist friend posted one more time to say that next time I should read my manual, and then had the thread closed.

Finally I just threw up my hands and bought a Marantz DV7001 and -- WOW! -- it's so much better, from picture quality to audio reproduction to user interface to support, that I just can't see how anyone on earth should patronize Oppo and their second-rate products, whatsoever. Granted, the Marantz will cost a bit more money, but these days it's not really that much more, and besides: in the words of one famous movie character, you *WILL* know where that extra money went.

Send an e-mail to author "at" escapeclause "dot" net, if you'd like more details.
dog_or_man
dog_or_man OP
68 posts
 
Hey, DC-Step, good to hear from you! Usually we interact over on the S'Phile boards, no? Same person?

I had no complaint with the Oppo that couldn't eventually have been worked around or gotten used to, except that it wouldn't consistently play personal backups -- which in my particular application is a bit like saying, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"

It's also worth noting that the Marantz that I switched to was MSRP'd at almost three times as much dough -- though I didn't pay anything close to MSRP for mine. Apparently it also uses a slightly older-generation chipset, which would mean more to some folks than it does to me.

Right now I'm using it as both a DVD player and a CD player, and it's holding its own against my Arcam FMJ DC23, which I thought I'd never get rid of....
reubent
3,587 posts
 
Dog or man,

I'm glad you've found a reasonably inexpensive unit that works well for your specific needs. I'm sure the Marantz is a decent player and it should be considering it list about $800 I believe.

BTW, I own an Oppo970H and it has worked flawlessly for me since I've owned it. It's never failed a single time to perform exactly as expected. However, I typically only play store bought CDs, DVDs, SACD, Dual Disk, etc. I have a couple of ripped CDs that work just fine in the Oppo too. I've never had a need or desire to download newer firmware if there is even any available for my model.

Your comments did entice me to ask a question. Have you typically had any issues with playing DVD copies ripped from your Video Tape collection on any other players? I'm considering the purchase of a dvd recorder/VRC combo player for making DVD copies of my old VSH tapes. Does this typically work OK for you? I've read lots of post in various forums where folks have had issues with copying or playing DVD copied of "protected" VHS Tapes. So far these comments have made me think twice about investing $300 on a combo player considering it might not work for my intended purpose.

Thanks and Enjoy,

TIC
dog_or_man OP
68 posts
 
In my experience, a combo player will generally not make a personal DVD backup of a commercially produced VHS tape. I don't know how the VHS tapes are protected, exactly, but they are.

There are methods of accomplishing this goal using a PC with a DVD writer, but the one with which I'm most familiar requires a card with a coaxial input -- and then you'd be dealing with a lot of signal loss through the VHS coaxial output line.
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Hey Dog_or_man, yes, I'm one and the same Dcstep.

I think that Marantz is clearly one of the best values for the money. At $360 street price, the Pioneer Elite DV-58AV is also a great value with a much slicker user interface than the Oppo.

Dave
ponnie
233 posts
 
Hi My oppo 980H bested my Pioneer DV563 SACD/DA player. I have been using mine as a transport and I tried to listen to the unit's DACS but My tube DAC simply sounded more solid in the soundstage and more refined. I also tried it on a 32" LCD and a 26" LCD and the picture was awesome. I used HDMI connection for the video. I like the OPPO and I have been searching for over 3 months to find something better under $1000 but I haven't yet. I increased it to $2000 and now there seem to be some DACs out there that may offer better performance but I haven't found a player that gives you as much performance for under $1000. I'm still open to suggestions for something better.
You must have had a defective unit! Why didn't you send it
back for a replacement? I will give the Marantz and Pioneer a chance in the near future.
I have had my Oppo for almost 10 months.
Happy Listening
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