Lupin
19-04-2005, 10:31 AM
powerbuy "Secrets DVD Benchmark" Best Value
In the past 3 months I have been in search of the best standalone DVD player to feed an upscaled signal to a Panasonic AE700 projector over HDMI or DVI connection.
My criteria was simple, best picture quality with excellent error handling under $500 AUD. This seemed simple enough since there are a limited number of players on the AUS market that even have HDMI or DVI connections, and even fewer under the $500 mark.
After reading what seemed like volumes of text in various forums, I tried most of the popular DVD players in this price range.
First came the Legend HD player, then the momitsu V880DX and an v880N, following that was a Panasonic S97 that a friend for the UK brought over while on holidays (this was the pick of the bunch) and finally a Denon 1910 (also played with a 3910 which was on loan but way out of my price range)
All of these players had their strengths and pitfalls, but none delivered what I believed to be a truly exceptional overall result (barring the denon 3910 at more than $1500.00)
Now I can appreciate that in the endless pursuit of near perfect picture quality and where money is no object, many of us can and will spend thousands of dollars on a DVD player of the 3910+ calibre or immerse themselves in the endless "tweakfest" of HTPC .... but I'm not one of them.
And so I turned to www.hometheaterhifi.com "secrets" DVD benchmark. Anyone who has spent more than an hour researching DVD players online would probably agree that this sites results represent the most accurate gauge of a players performance against its competitors.
With all that in mind, it is no surprise that the best player on the market is the Denon 5910 at a lazy $3500.00 (that's US dollars folks).
View Results from Benchmark "2000"/Select type "DVD players"
<http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi>
On the otherhand, what IS surprising is the latest player to be added to benchmark in this year and which is the subject of this post.
The guys at secrets have benchmarked the OPDV971H from OPPO Digital at a close second to the Denon 5910 but with an astonishing RRP of $199.00 USD!
Now whether or not this was just a bloody good April fools joke or not I was willing to spend a few bucks to find out.
OPPO Digital is a new name company based in the USA. The company is a spin-off from the electronics giant, BBK Electronics who has been in the business for a long time and is a world leader in the electronics field with total manufacturing output matching Sony and Matsushita.(this info is directly from secrets benchmark)
So far so good.
OPPO Digital do not have an Australian distributor but after a slew of emails back and forth and the hint of a possible powerbuy in AUS I have managed to procure one of these units and expect delivery of it within 3 weeks.
Now this post may well be premature, but if this player proves to be all its cracked up to be, then negotiations with OPPO Digital will follow for a powerbuy direct from their manufacturing plant in China.
Most of the specs can be found at their website http://www.oppodigital.com/, but for those that need answers to the questions on everyone's lips:
Multivoltage, it will plug directly into 240v powerpoint without the need of a step-down converter at 50/60Hz.
Upscale resolutions from 480p/480i, to 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i
NTSC/PAL Output @ 60Hz/50Hz 720X480X30/NTSC , 720X576X25/PAL
FLI2310 Faroudja DCDi with Pre-pixel Motion Adaptive De-interlacing
And believe it or not, this unit ships with a free 1.5 metre DVI cable! Somebody pinch me.
Anyway, for those who want to register their interest for one of these units, feel free to email me directly at PCKeys@internode.on.net
I will endeavour to provide feedback when I have received the first unit.
Regards
PCKeys
In the past 3 months I have been in search of the best standalone DVD player to feed an upscaled signal to a Panasonic AE700 projector over HDMI or DVI connection.
My criteria was simple, best picture quality with excellent error handling under $500 AUD. This seemed simple enough since there are a limited number of players on the AUS market that even have HDMI or DVI connections, and even fewer under the $500 mark.
After reading what seemed like volumes of text in various forums, I tried most of the popular DVD players in this price range.
First came the Legend HD player, then the momitsu V880DX and an v880N, following that was a Panasonic S97 that a friend for the UK brought over while on holidays (this was the pick of the bunch) and finally a Denon 1910 (also played with a 3910 which was on loan but way out of my price range)
All of these players had their strengths and pitfalls, but none delivered what I believed to be a truly exceptional overall result (barring the denon 3910 at more than $1500.00)
Now I can appreciate that in the endless pursuit of near perfect picture quality and where money is no object, many of us can and will spend thousands of dollars on a DVD player of the 3910+ calibre or immerse themselves in the endless "tweakfest" of HTPC .... but I'm not one of them.
And so I turned to www.hometheaterhifi.com "secrets" DVD benchmark. Anyone who has spent more than an hour researching DVD players online would probably agree that this sites results represent the most accurate gauge of a players performance against its competitors.
With all that in mind, it is no surprise that the best player on the market is the Denon 5910 at a lazy $3500.00 (that's US dollars folks).
View Results from Benchmark "2000"/Select type "DVD players"
<http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi>
On the otherhand, what IS surprising is the latest player to be added to benchmark in this year and which is the subject of this post.
The guys at secrets have benchmarked the OPDV971H from OPPO Digital at a close second to the Denon 5910 but with an astonishing RRP of $199.00 USD!
Now whether or not this was just a bloody good April fools joke or not I was willing to spend a few bucks to find out.
OPPO Digital is a new name company based in the USA. The company is a spin-off from the electronics giant, BBK Electronics who has been in the business for a long time and is a world leader in the electronics field with total manufacturing output matching Sony and Matsushita.(this info is directly from secrets benchmark)
So far so good.
OPPO Digital do not have an Australian distributor but after a slew of emails back and forth and the hint of a possible powerbuy in AUS I have managed to procure one of these units and expect delivery of it within 3 weeks.
Now this post may well be premature, but if this player proves to be all its cracked up to be, then negotiations with OPPO Digital will follow for a powerbuy direct from their manufacturing plant in China.
Most of the specs can be found at their website http://www.oppodigital.com/, but for those that need answers to the questions on everyone's lips:
Multivoltage, it will plug directly into 240v powerpoint without the need of a step-down converter at 50/60Hz.
Upscale resolutions from 480p/480i, to 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i
NTSC/PAL Output @ 60Hz/50Hz 720X480X30/NTSC , 720X576X25/PAL
FLI2310 Faroudja DCDi with Pre-pixel Motion Adaptive De-interlacing
And believe it or not, this unit ships with a free 1.5 metre DVI cable! Somebody pinch me.
Anyway, for those who want to register their interest for one of these units, feel free to email me directly at PCKeys@internode.on.net
I will endeavour to provide feedback when I have received the first unit.
Regards
PCKeys