I've heard a lot of great things about the 980. OPPO seems to have a great reputation, even though they're kind of a no-name. For the cost, it's probably a great option.
I have the '981 and it is terrific. It is feeding a 60" non-XBR Sony SXRD and the picture on good source material is terrific. BUT like all upsamplers, NO BETTER than what you feed it. poor in/poor out. It is also possible, that on the rare television with best-grade upsampling, the OPPO's upsampling would be redundent.... But don't count out the audio features. go to the oppo website and do the comparison.
Because of a few changes in features, and the omission of the Genesis/Faroudja chipset, the 981 may still be the 'ultimate weapon' until HD/BlueRay war concludes.....later this week!