Oppo DV-980H 1080p Upscaling DVD Player

Note: the version of the Oppo DV-980H reviewed here had the latest firmware loaded for review. I've personally been communicating with Oppo over the last few months to assist them in refining the video processing in this player. As a result of Oppo's work, the latest firmware update signficantly enhances the DV-980H's performance. New players purchased from OppoShop will come with this new version pre-loaded. Older versions can be upgraded with a downloadable update which can be fed to the player on either CD-R or a USB memory stick: download and instructions here.

Although the average British shopper might not (yet) recognise their name, Oppo are making inroads – and rightly so. Their attention to fine-tuning and improving their products even after they've left the factory has set them apart from other manufacturers of Progressive Scan/Upscaling DVD players.

Oppo are a shining example for other companies who ship products and grudgingly note criticisms, and (perhaps!) incorporate improvements into next year's upgraded model, as they continue to improve their DVD players with freely downloadable firmware updates after release. This typically brings their quality far beyond comparable players, and probably far beyond their original specifications. As such, an Oppo DVD player is a high quality, safe investment.

Once you know about the company's history of improving products, the story of the DV-980H probably won't be too surprising. At about £150 (delivered), this is Oppo's most affordable DVD player. If that seems expensive compared to £49 "upscaling" players you can find elsewhere, then remember that these will typically do an equally unthrilling (or worse!) job compared with the chip in the back of your TV, so are generally speaking, a waste of money. Only a properly refined and tweaked player like one of Oppo's will show you a real improvement.

Oppo vs Oppo

Based off this reputation, a lot of people are looking into Oppo DVD players already, so it's first of all worth comparing the DV-980H to their other current model, the DV-981HD, which is slightly more expensive but performs differently and has a different set of features. The most notable difference between these two Oppo players is related to how they handle video. The DV-980H performs all of its video-related operations on a single chip, which is used to decode the compressed MPEG-2 video from the disc, Deinterlace this video, and then Upscale it. The more expensive 981 model includes this same chip, but only uses its MPEG-2 decoding function, thereafter sending the decoded signal onto a more specialised separate chip for deinterlacing, scaling, and other optional trickery. You might think that the lack of a dedicated video processing chip will markedly hurt this player's performance - and that is normally the case - but Oppo's engineers have outdone themselves and as a result, the 980H is actually superior in some ways to the more silicon-heavy 981HD.

Sure, if you were to look at Benchmark ratings, the 980H would rank lower than the more expensive player (Oppo themselves mention this fact), because the 981HD can do a better job of dealing with trickier content, like Interlaced TV shows. That, however, isn't the whole story. The 980H excels in areas which statistics alone don't pay attention to, meaning that some may fail to notice that both players have their own strengths and weaknesses, despite the limitations imposed by the 980H's one-chip design. That alone speaks volumes for the ability of Oppo's technicians. Notably, it includes cleaner scaling than the 981HD, which results in a clearer picture with less ringing around edges.

Additionally, there are several audio and functionality differences, in which this cheaper player unquestionably comes out on top. The DV-980H boasts a USB 2.0 socket on the front, from which you can play DivX and Xvid encoded movies, as well as High Definition JPEG slide-shows (you can also use it to feed firmware updates to the player from a USB hard disk or pen drive). On the audio side, it can also play DVD Audio and SACD discs, and unlike the 981, it can output the DSD audio stream stored on SACDs directly to a capable AV receiver, instead of it being converted to PCM format first, which is sure to please audiophiles. Also, the DV-980H is capable of 7.1 audio output, for discs which are encoded to take advantage of this feature.

It's a sleek-looking unit, with a slim, boxy design. When closed, the disc drawer is more or less invisible and blends in with the rest of the front panel. I was also pleased to see that the USB 2.0 port is covered with a rubber cover when not in use, which is attached to the front panel so that you don't lose it. (By contrast, some of the latest comparable Pioneer players leave the port exposed, which isn't too attractive).

The DV-980H can output over any connection you like – HDMI, Component Video, S-Video, Composite, and on the European version, RGB SCART. The HDMI output was used for this review, connected to a 1080p HDTV. Appropriately enough, the player was set to output 1080p.

Picture Tweaks and Setup

As usual with Oppo's players, the 980H comes almost entirely correctly set up, without any white or black crush (some players require tweaking to bring out the full tonal range). Also, the Sharpness setting comes set to "Off" which results in untampered-with images with maximum detail. The only necessary user tweak is the "TV Type" setting on the rightmost Setup page. This should be set to AUTO rather than the default PAL setting, which preserves the native scan-rate of the video without attempting to convert 60hz NTSC discs to 50hz PAL or vice versa (this causes all sorts of nasty motion artefacts and we don't need to use it in Europe because our TVs natively support both).


The final important option is for "De-interlacing mode", which is actually here because I suggested Oppo add it (this is what we mean when we say they're receptive of ideas). A full explanation follows later in the review.

The DV-980H does not feature any Noise Reduction or Detail Enhancement options. That's no loss, because even if I recommended using them (I don't), your HDTV or Projector will likely have similar options anyway.

Deinterlacing Performance: PAL Film Playback

This could be a whole article in itself, but I'll try and keep this brief. Most one-chip (cheaper) DVD players like this one struggle to play PAL film-based DVDs properly, rendering their motion jagged and throwing away precious vertical resolution in the process, because they do not pick up on the tricky PAL 2-2 film cadence correctly. Chances are, your HDTV's own video processor will also suffer from this problem.

The DVD format actually allows disc authors to set flags during the encoding stage, which are pointers embedded in the video data. These flags have the side-effect of describing the video type and thus giving DVD players a helping hand in rendering motion correctly. At the time of writing, almost no studios are mastering their PAL discs with this flag correctly set, so DVD players must analyse the video and have a stab at picking the optimal mode (either Film or Video) by themselves. If the DVD player (or TV) is using Video mode to play back Films, then you'll be able to spot jagged diagonals and a loss of detail, when you should really be seeing a lossless recreation of what's on the disc.

A DVD player that can compensate for the disc authoring houses' "oversight" (term used politely) and play PAL Films back in Film mode is a must for getting the best from your Region 2 (or 4) DVD collection. Typically, cheaper DVD players fall short of this task. After months and months of Oppo tweaking, the DV-980H now gets it right.

Yes, the DV-980H detects PAL Film content and properly compensates for the 2-2 Pulldown mechanism, meaning that PAL films play back losslessly with no deterioration of motion, and appear filmic and natural. This is very surprising given this player's single-chip innards. On a lesser player – and indeed on any other player using parts similar to this one – the same discs would appear jagged and video-like. This is a huge achievement on the part of the engineers (at both Oppo and chip manufacturer Mediatek) who saw to all my requests and helped refine this player!


The original version of this player that I was shown took a little longer to correctly engage Film mode than more expensive players, but with the latest firmware, Oppo have shaved plenty more seconds off of this time, so you'll only have to suffer a few seconds of jaggies at most. Even when the DV-980H has not managed to auto-detect that it's playing Film content (which, thankfully, is rare), Oppo have come to the rescue again, as they have acted on my request and implemented a manual control (called "De-interlacing mode" in the video menu). This means that you can force the player into Film mode if the player hasn't detected that this is the correct one on its own. I've almost never had to use this feature, except when chapter-jumping to scrolling end credits, but it's here if you need it. (Remember that this Film Mode force is intended for PAL discs - it'll make NTSC discs, which are properly taken care of by the "Auto" setting already, look odd).


There is only one quirk here worth noting, and that's that if you're using the DV-980H's aspect ratio control to avoid stretching 4:3 PAL Film material, then the 2-2 detection will not work (and in fact sometimes in our tests, presented completely corrupted motion, with the entire screen combing, until we selected the Video mode). This is, apparently, an unsolvable limitation of the hardware. Remember though that comparable players generally don't even attempt Film Mode, so don't run into this kink. Also remember that a large number of 4:3 PAL discs are likely to be video-based television shows anyway, which wouldn't be able to be processed in Film Mode in the first place. To work around this, you'll either need to control the aspect ratio on your HDTV if it allows you to, or select the "Video" option in the easily accessible menu and put up with decent motion quality rather than flawless motion quality (or, just watch the 4:3 content stretched, if you don't mind that).

If the occasional manual change of the "De-interlacing mode" sounds like a lot of work, then you can always forego the extra quality that Oppo have offered and simply leave the player in "Video" mode. Even in this case, the quality is better than several other comparably priced players thanks to the Diagonal Interpolation used to smooth Interlaced Video content (more on this later).

Deinterlacing Performance: NTSC Film Playback

Like almost every video product around, the DV-980H can detect the 3-2 cadence and thus play just about any NTSC film correctly – no surprises here. NTSC discs authored with Progressive Flags (just about all of them) will play happily.

Surprisingly, even the rare 30fps film material was correctly handled ("Oklahoma" is one famous example of a film shot using this peculiar method). Some of the much rarer camcorder-derived cadences (2-2-2-4) were also correctly displayed, which is very surprising.

The rarer NTSC film discs authored without Progressive Flags (known in the biz as "hard telecined") currently play back in Video mode, with small jaggies. These discs are rare and typically only include older releases from low-budget labels, but it'd be good if Oppo could fix this all the same.


All in all, the NTSC performance of this player isn't perfect, but it ticks the most vital boxes.

Deinterlacing Performance: Video (50i/60i)

Even when the player is operating in Video mode (that is, it's not detected the Film cadence properly, or it's being used to play content that's Video-based to start with), the DV-980H still looks much better than many DVD players, because Oppo's engineers have implemented the chip's diagonal interpolation function. This does a good job of reducing jaggedness when less-than-ideal material is played. It's not quite as convincing an effect as the smoothing found in more expensive players and doesn't, for example, outdo Faroudja's DCDi technology (as found in the DV-981HD), but it's here, and as a result the DV-980H looks much better playing Video content than many cheaper Progressive Scan/Upscaling DVD players that I've seen.

As it's a one-chip design, the DV-980H can't do anything to smooth some of the jagged colours which are inherent to how Interlaced video is stored on DVD. Depending on what you're watching, though, this will probably be difficult for most to spot.

Scaling (Upconverting) performance and other tests

The DV-980H's scaling quality is very pleasing indeed, and in this regard, it actually outperforms that of the pricier DV-981HD, in two ways.

Firstly, the scaling in this player does not produce much ringing in the image at all. The very best scaling will create upconverted pictures that are almost (or sometimes entirely) free of ringing distortion around high contrast objects (the price tag matches accordingly). The upconversion facility in the DV-980H comes close to achieving this goal. The black-on-grey pixel-thin lines as seen on the AVIA test disc's "Sharpness" test pattern are a good test, and the DV-980H rendered them far more cleanly than several other upconverting players, leaving only a small amount of ringing visible.

Secondly, unlike some other affordable upscaling DVD players, the DV-980H does not introduce any additional "Macroblocking" errors into the image. It might seem odd to talk so much about this issue in a review of a player that doesn't have the problem, but I do so because many other affordable players which correctly play back PAL Films were affected. Now we finally have one that isn't. Scenes with fog or grain which would flicker in green and purple patterns on such players are a joy to watch on the 980H. Certain animated films especially benefit, too - there's a scene in Howl's Moving Castle (R2 PAL), for example, which features an off-blue sky. On affected players, it's alive with a grungy, flickering pattern, but on the DV-980H, it's much cleaner.

Whilst the DV-980H was with me, I used it on my own projection setup, which gave me a 120" diagonal image to pick flaws with. Especially at this size, but also on television-sized displays, this high-quality scaling is a real bonus. DVDs tend to come with some ringing artefacts already encoded due to filtering and other tinkering during the mastering process, so a player that doesn't make this any worse is a very nice thing to have.

As usual with Oppo's players, the DV-980H passes Blacker than Black and Whiter than White shades, meaning that the full tonal range of the video is displayed without loss of detail at the most extreme ends of the spectrum. Detail in the darkest areas is preserved, without clipping, and the whitest areas are presented without any crush.

And, the Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE) is thankfully not featured on this unit, once again a real plus, especially for animation or for saturated films (think Blade Runner).

Audio and other features

The DV-980H output with both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 tracks gave me no cause for concern during the testing process. It also includes EQ and Sound Field modes, plus control over the Audio Pitch on certain outputs, all of which I left off.

It's also worth noting that this player can output 480i and 576i video via HDMI, meaning that owners of video processors can bypass its Deinterlacing and Upscaling and use the player purely as a digital transport.

It also includes all of the convenience features you'd expect from an Oppo player. There's a BOOKMARK function (accessible directly from the remote) which allows you to place markers of your favourite scenes and jump to them with ease, and full Resume support (just eject a disc and its location will be saved, and you'll start from that point upon the next load).

As previously mentioned, the DV-980H has a USB 2.0 slot for the playback of JPEG pictures/slide shows, MP3 files, and DivX/Xvid encoded movies. Simply hooking up a hard drive, pen stick, MP3 player, or any other USB device will allow you to browse stored files and play them back at your leisure. (Don't forget that USB ports also provide power – it's pretty neat being able to charge your mobile phone or MP3 player in the background while you're watching a film, but I don't think Oppo included the port for that reason!)

Like all Oppo players, the 980H comes with a 6-foot HDMI-to-HDMI cable, certified by HDMI Licensing themselves. Having the official HDMI seal of approval guarantees that the cable is up there with the best of them and will be free of errors.

The player is incredibly fast and responsive, too. You can zip through disc and system menus nice and quickly, which makes going back to more sluggish players quite agonising.

The layer change speed, as usual with Oppo, is almost non-existent. (On discs which are almost entirely full, it actually can be completely non-existent, but because most DVD Video discs are nowhere near full capacity, the change takes about a quarter of a second).

Usability and Menus

When I reviewed Oppo's last player, one of my minor criticisms was that its on-screen menus lacked a high-tech AV feel and, quite frankly, weren't too attractive. The 980H goes a long way in addressing these criticisms. The background shows a white Oppo logo against a shot of the Earth from space, surrounded by clouds and a black sky, which is very cool, and much more appealing than the previous milky-coloured look. The basic-looking on-screen menus could be given a makeover, but that's a minor point.

OppoShop deliver the 980H as a region-free player. Even if they didn't, the usual button sequence of SETUP, 92100 removes any troublesome region nonsense and means you can play any DVD from anywhere in the world, and legally enjoy content not available locally.

Remote Control

The remote control included with this player is much like the one included with Oppo's other players, albeit with one or two additional buttons at the top (for OFF and ON, amongst others). It's angled very well and really morphs in with your hand, and the placement of the navigation buttons in the middle is, as always, a smart choice. The buttons feel soft and depress well, and don't feel cheap or clicky.


Functionally, the remote is a winner, too. It has discrete On and Off buttons, as well as the standard Power toggle button, which will please system automators. And on a more personal note, as a recent projector adopter, I appreciate the fact that the buttons glow in the dark, which makes them that easier to find in a pitch-black room.

My only complaint about the remote is the fact that the buttons could be easier to locate by feel - nearly all of the buttons are the same shape and size, which means that they're not as easy as they could be to find with only your thumb.

Conclusion

Oppo's DV-980H is the best example of an affordable, one-chip DVD player that I've seen as of yet. For the incredibly common purpose of watching Film material, it almost always outdoes Oppo's own 981HD, which in itself is a fantastic player. Although its more simplistic design both helps and hinders it (it gets tripped up more often with trickier content), I'm delighted with the picture quality the 980H is capable of producing. It's not totally free of the limitations imposed by its design, so if you're a heavy watcher of Video-based material or are really attached to one or two problematic discs, then you might be better served elsewhere.

If, however, you want a Multi-region Upscaling deck that punches well above its weight and produces wonderful Film quality, then give the 980H a seriously good look. It performed many times above my expectations and the improvements Oppo have already made to it once again demonstrated why they have become such a trusted name.