Home > Consumer Reviews > OPPO DV-980H Multi-Region DVD player : HDMI 1080p USB DivX SACD DVD-Audio 7.1CH

I bought this player as a start to an upgrade to my home cinema setup.The upscaling works well but the audio difference was immense,you really are in amongst the action.I would thoroughly reccommend this player and Amazon were the cheapest as well.
Gerry.

I purchased this item a few months ago and it still amazes me! I brought it because i wanted to play my region 1 DVDS and I spent loads of money on a TV, I thought I might as well go the whole hog and buy a new DVD player.
It looks and sounds excellent! totally worth the money!

The reason for writing this review so late is because (I'm not too clever on technical things!) I tried to change the resolution to 1080p Full HD and failed,I thought that it didn't work on every DVD so I gave up.But today I was reading through the manual and it says in plain English to stop playback first! DUH! What an idiot! The picture is amazing! Impressive!

This is a high quality product which is extremely good value for the money. I use it for both DVD's and Audio CD's and it performs well for both.

I bought this DVD player because I wanted to play multi-region DVD's. After hours of searching I finally decided on this one and I am so glad that I did. It is 100% plug in and play - there is no faffing about having to choose regions or unlock multi-region capabilities.

The DVD player also provides perfect audio and visual, even with a bog standard TV. It has extensive menus allowing you to do all sorts with the picture and sound. The USB connection also saves time converting downloads as you can simply plug your laptop straight in and watch away.

An excellent DVD player and really good value for money. If you are stuck on which one to choose then I hope this makes your mind up as you won't be disappointed.

The Oppo DV-980H is a DVD player. Like all DVD players, it also plays CDs. Unlike almost all DVD players, it also plays SACD discs. The DVD side of things has been covered by other reviewers, I would just like to comment on using this item as a CD/SACD player in a hi-fi system.

I bought the Oppo on the strength of some very good reviews in some classical CD magazines. Unusually, Oppo have used very high quality components in the audio stages of this player (most DVD player manufacturers pay little attention to performance when playing CDs). As soon as I put the first disc in (Mahler's 3rd. Symphony/ Chailly) Mahler: Symphony No.3 it was obvious that this was an excellent audio player. Wide frequency response, wide dynamics, and a natural sound that is so important for classical music. No emphasis on one particular part of the audio spectrum.

I actually hadn't meant to keep on listening, but I did, simply because the sound was so fine. And this was listening via the phono outputs; you can also output the audio via an HDMI connection direct to a receiver/amp with HDMI input and get results that Gramophone magazine said you would normally pay twice this price to get. I haven't noticed a great deal of difference myself between CDs and SACDs, but that may be because I can't as yet make use of the HDMI output.

A couple of other things. The front section of the extensive manual is written in Swedish; don't worry, there are clearly written English instructions later on in the manual. For some reason, Oppo, a Californian-based company, distribute their equipment in Europe from their Swedish base. This probably keeps costs down as there is no middle man. (But why on earth don't they advertise? They seem to rely on word-of- mouth advertising). No matter.

The display on the player is limited - it is really designed to show settings, tracks, etc. on a TV screen. I set my player up whilst connected to a TV, then moved it over to the hi-fi, preferring to keep video and audio separate. But that's me. The mains plug is a two-pin Continental one, but Oppo do include an adapter for the U.K., so that's no problem. Standard of construction seems high, as does presentation (the player comes in its own cloth bag, a nice touch).

There are two ways of purchasing, from Oppo direct, or through Amazon. At current Euro/pound exchange rates buying through Amazon is marginally cheaper. Either way, delivery from Sweden is by ParcelForce and takes about 5 working days from ordering.

I had budgeted to spend up to £400 on a new CD player, but found that the DV-980H (at £179) out-performed some Marantz and Denon players I auditioned.

At the current price this is a really excellent buy. And you can play DVDs if you want to!!

Highly recommended.