Evaluation
The performance of this player is very good for video; you can thank the Faroudja-based DCDi video processing technology for that. We use the HQC DVD to evaluate the player’s video capabilities. The tests we use center on various aspects that affect performance. For example, “Jaggie” test #1 has a line rotating clockwise (like a second hand of a clock), and as it moves through various points of the circle, you look to see if the line loses its solidity. Another test is Motion Adaptive Noise Reduction – where you look at a roller coaster moving along to see if it is leaving a “trail” behind it as it moves or is blurring. The Oppo passes these tests with flying colors, as it does when evaluating for other things like picture detail and noise reduction.
But the real world means watching DVDs, so we’ll go to a sample disc we were sent of Time/Life’s-Warner Home Video’s The Man from Uncle box set (the entire series comes cleverly concealed inside of an attache case). It’s a good disc to use since it includes both black and white and color episodes, and being an older show we can expect there to be some grain, even though it has been newly remastered – this can highlight a player’s ability to handle contrast without giving up on detail.
The Oppo handles the video impressively: black and white is free of color bursts and there’s good detail, while the color (a bit muted and so needing some tweaking) looks realistic and clean. As to grain, fairly evident in both black-and-white and color, it doesn’t exhibit any smudginess to cause a softening of the image.
Of course newer DVDs are also very presentable: having a chance to watch Oliver Stone’s Alexander Revisited – The Final Cut on a player that handles contrast well and resolves the image cleanly truly adds to the enjoyment – especially in battle scenes that come across razor sharp (bad pun, we know).
We also played some DivX video files off of a home-brewed disc without incident, and overall audio quality sounds fine whether playing a movie soundtrack or a CD or SACD (of course what is being heard being more a function of the amp and speakers).
Veredict
The DV-981HD shows that price or brand name alone is no guarantee of quality. And while the lack of a component output is a bit restrictive and it could clearly benefit from an improved graphical interface, the way this Oppo DVD player displays video is something that you will want to see for yourself.
Pros
• High quality video image and upconversion processing
• Many convenience features
• Plays wide range of audio and video formats
Cons
• No Component output
• Poorly designed menus
