Recommendation for a cheap DVD Player

[Roy Munson]

My old Toshiba is starting to give me problems with changing layers as it not only will pause but it sometimes just stops and locks up at the layer change. I'm not ready to make the jump to a HD player until the format is decided so, I would like to get a cheap DVD player to use until the HD format war is over. My only real concern for a new player is that it must be able to handle DVD-R disc's and have a smooth transition from layer to layer. It should also do progressive scan. I don't care about CD play back as I have a 2 ch. system that I listen to music on, I just want something to play movies on. Does anyone know of a cheap player as I described in $100.00 to $130.00 range [or less if that's possible] that would meet my criteria?

[Ricardo]

OPPO is the word of the day :)

$149

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd.html

[Roy Munson]

The Oppo is over the budget I have set. I might eventually consider it but it isn't on my radar at this moment however that could change.

Thanks

[Ricardo]

The Oppo is over the budget I have set. I might eventually consider it but it isn't on my radar at this moment however that could change.

Thanks


I would really try to come up with those extra $20..... rave reviews and many of us here are very happy with both PQ and SQ.

[shawn474]

I was looking at this one, but decided to get the Oppo instead. Fits your criteria.....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7678694&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03013&id=1134702980301

[PolkWannabie]

Roy,

What size TV do you have ?

Does it have HDMI or DVI inputs ?

[Roy Munson]

Rick,

My TV is a Mits 48 inch WS HDTV, it has DVI but it doesn't have HDMI.

[Roy Munson]

I would really try to come up with those extra $20..... rave reviews and many of us here are very happy with both PQ and SQ.

It's really not a matter of coming up with another $20.00, it has more to do with the fact that what ever player I decide on it probably won't be used for more than a year, hence not wanting to spend much for now. I'm just looking for something cheap to get me by for the next year!

As far as the Oppo goes I believe that it only upconverts through HDMI which my TV doesn't have.

[Ricardo]

Well, you can do HDMI to DVI with an adaptor; I even think the Oppo brings one (My 971 brought one..)

Anyway, you can probably get something for $100 or less. Good luck.

[Roy Munson]

OK, after looking around and doing some more research I ordered an Oppo 971 from Amazon..I went over the budget that I assigned to myself but oh well! It seems to always work that way.

[beardog03]

good choice !
The Rookie would`nt steer ya wrong..!

[snow]

OK, after looking around and doing some more research I ordered an Oppo 971 from Amazon..I went over the budget that I assigned to myself but oh well! It seems to always work that way. good desicion, good choice. heres a test on it in a shootout it beat everything else there. including a $13k esoteric player. http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all i got my 970 a couple of days ago and it is the best $149.00 i have ever spent. REGARDS SNOW

[hearingimpared]

OPPO is the word of the day :)

$149

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd.html


I bought one, it's coming 12/29. Let go of the extra $20 bucks dude. Read page 26 of January's TAS. Even if it isn't as good as Chris Martens says, you can't beat the value plus they offer you a great price on an HDMI cable.

I'll let you know how it is.

[Gaara]

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?homevdeo&1172162670

No affil, Oppo 971 for $140 shipped.

Jared

[Ricardo]

Good choice Roy; you'll love it.

[Roy Munson]

Thanks guys, I'm looking forward to it coming. It won't be here until Jan. 8th or so. I'm really interested in the HD players but for me it's not time to jump in until things are a little more settled.

[shawn474]

Got the 981 last week and it cired my itch for the HD player or Blu-Ray Player (at least for the time being ;) ). Hope you like it; I LOVE the 981.

[Disc Jockey]

You'll love the player Roy. The 971 ouputs (and upconverts) only through DVI, it doesn't have an HDMI connection. It ships with both a DVI-DVI cable and a DVI-HDMI cable.

The 970 and the 981 are the ones with HDMI outputs.

DJ

[Roy Munson]

DJ,
I realized after doing a little research that the 971 indeed upconverts through DVI. I had read that the 970 upconverted through HDMI and that is where I got confused. The 971 will work fine with my TV! Hope it's as good as people say.

[mlhm5]

OPPO is the word of the day :)

$149

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv970hd/dv970hd.html

Absolutely agree. Plays anything and everything from any area without hesitation. If you add HD to you setup, Oppo will fit right in.

[hearingimpared]

Received mine today, I'll be hooking it up Saturday.

[mrbigbluelight]

You'll love the player Roy. The 971 ouputs (and upconverts) only through DVI, it doesn't have an HDMI connection. It ships with both a DVI-DVI cable and a DVI-HDMI cable.

The 970 and the 981 are the ones with HDMI outputs.

DJ

The cost of included cables makes this sound like a good buy !

The video signal will be upconverted to 1080i, for instance, through the DVI output.
There is an optical audio output that will also send the audio to the AVR, correct ? For example, a full DTS 5.1 encoded audio signal to the AVR to go along with an upconverted 1080i signal to the TV.

That may seem fairly obvious, but I felt I should ask after reading up on the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD player. What a wasted effort that seems to be
(Video = Good, Audio = Terrible).

[PolkWannabie]

There are both optical and coax audio outputs ...

[Roy Munson]

I don't know how this happened but the Oppo will be here tomorrow [Thurs. 28th] according to my UPS tracking number! I wasn't expecting it until the first week of Jan. I just ordered it four days ago and it was shipped on the 26th out of Sparks Nev. which isn't far from SoCal!!!

[Disc Jockey]

The video signal will be upconverted to 1080i, for instance, through the DVI output.
There is an optical audio output that will also send the audio to the AVR, correct ? For example, a full DTS 5.1 encoded audio signal to the AVR to go along with an upconverted 1080i signal to the TV.


That is correct, and as PolkWannabie said you have the option of optical and coax. You can also output 5.1 through the analog outputs if you so desire. I have not done this so can't vouch for the sound.

[PolkWannabie]

5.1 analog works fine for SACD etc ...

[janmike]

Panasonic RP56. Great DVDP for the price - check out the reviews. Not sure if they still make them so you may have to settle for used.

[Roy Munson]

I received the Oppo 971 this afternoon and this evening I did a basic set-up. My Mits WS48315's native resolution over DVI is 1080i so that's what I set the player to upconvert to and proceeded to watch Dead Man's Chest..all I can say is the pq is stunning!!!! The picture is very crisp and clear, the colors are warm and vibrant..I still have to do a better calibration but I was impressed! After watching DMC I tried several DVD-R's that were giving my old player trouble and they played with no problems on the 971. I might also add that although I've had very limited play time with the Oppo it handled layer changes flawlessly! This is a great DVD player regardless of the price! How it will perform is probably dependent on what type of TV one has and what the native resolution of each individuals display is. Highly Recommended!

[mrbigbluelight]

Well, I figured if it was good enough for Roy Munson and HearingImpaired, it was good enough for us, so ....

The following items have been shipped to you by Amazon.com:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com, LLC):
1 OPPO OPDV971H Digital HD-R... $199.99 1 $199.99

Shipped via DHL Next Day (estimated arrival date: 29-December-2006).

Paid a little extra for one-day shipping (time is one thing I don't have a lot of), so it'll be here TODAY !

Had to go from Hebron, Kentucky to the Wilmington, Ohio sort facility (Hey, just drop it off on the way up to Wilmington !).

It's being shipped by ..... DHL. I had a set of Polk R30's off of Ebay that were shipped by DHL that looked as if they had been drug through the Amazon rain forest by a gorilla with St. Vitus, so .. .keeping my fingers crossed.

My son's buddy would occasionaly drag over his HD DVD player, and hook it up to our Prima TV (from Sears, thank you very much), so we know what it is capable of. Keeping our fingers crossed. :)

The remote has keys that glow in the dark (not back lit, they just glow in the dark). Oooooooooooh ! :eek:

21581 21582

[Disc Jockey]

The remote has keys that glow in the dark (not back lit, they just glow in the dark).

And they don't glow all that well....

[Ricardo]

Wow.....congrats to all the new Oppo owners.


Oppodigital should bring a nice karma gift to Club Polk....:)

[PolkWannabie]

... all I can say is the pq is stunning!!!! The picture is very crisp and clear, the colors are warm and vibrant. After watching DMC I tried several DVD-R's that were giving my old player trouble and they played with no problems on the 971. I might also add that although I've had very limited play time with the Oppo it handled layer changes flawlessly! This is a great DVD player regardless of the price! Highly Recommended!
Roy,

I know this player was a little over your original budget but imho I thought this or the 970 was at least worth a try ... Glad your happy with it ...

[snow]

Well, I figured if it was good enough for Roy Munson and HearingImpaired, it was good enough for us, so ....

The following items have been shipped to you by Amazon.com:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com, LLC):
1 OPPO OPDV971H Digital HD-R... $199.99 1 $199.99

Shipped via DHL Next Day (estimated arrival date: 29-December-2006).

Paid a little extra for one-day shipping (time is one thing I don't have a lot of), so it'll be here TODAY !

Had to go from Hebron, Kentucky to the Wilmington, Ohio sort facility (Hey, just drop it off on the way up to Wilmington !).

It's being shipped by ..... DHL. I had a set of Polk R30's off of Ebay that were shipped by DHL that looked as if they had been drug through the Amazon rain forest by a gorilla with St. Vitus, so .. .keeping my fingers crossed.

My son's buddy would occasionaly drag over his HD DVD player, and hook it up to our Prima TV (from Sears, thank you very much), so we know what it is capable of. Keeping our fingers crossed. :)

The remote has keys that glow in the dark (not back lit, they just glow in the dark). Oooooooooooh ! :eek:

21581 21582 congrats on your purchase. :) REGARDS SNOW

[mrbigbluelight]

Well, got back home yesterday from work, and sitting half in the bushes was a box marked "Amazon.com". :)

....in one piece ! :D

Simple hookup: DVI to the TV, coax to the AVR.

Didn't make any adjustments/calibrations, just got "War of the Worlds" out, and let 'er fly ! (did let the unit warm up to room temp before opening, though).

Nice !! VERY nice ! Definitely in the " Ahhhhhhhh " category.
Used WOTW as a test disk because the black levels on that DVD are pretty tough to display.
Or were. But this Oppo 971H makes watching dark scenes in the basement effortless.
Without ANY video calibrations, the picture appears, to my tastes, slightly
....uhm......"washed out" ? Now, that sounds bad, but it isn't. Sort of like complaining that the Mona Lisa needs to smile more. :)

And the sound ?

We put in the 1st disk of Lord of the Rings. There's a scene early in the movie where Gandalf is riding in a cart and stops to talk to Frodo. Little birds are chirping in the background. No, let me rephrase that:

.....Little birds are chirping all around the room, calling from nests of velvet with voices of thin silk.

UN - GD - BELIEVABLE !!

Same coax cable to the same AVR, so we've always had good-sounding HT audio (for the equipment involved).
But this is something else.
Opening landing scenes from "Saving Private Ryan" ? Very distinctive, very precise sounds from metal-on-metal, boots on sand, water lapping, etc.

I'm going to have to go out and get some classical music today to see how this Oppo performs.

Very pleased, to say the least. Can't go wrong at $199.

So .... let's keep those recommendations for cheap equipment coming !
:D

One minus: the glow-in-the-dark remote doesn't glow worth a crap. :rolleyes:

[PolkWannabie]

Regarding the remote ... I agree ... But then that's why there are good universals ...

Don't think "cheap" ... think "inexpensive" ...

[snow]

congrats on your oppo purchase. it looks like another satisfied oppo user:) its hard to imangine for less than $200.00 a lil more with shipping. that we can get this sort of quality. i remember the day when a semi decent 4 head vcr was at least $400.00 and people were buying em quick at that price. when you do your calibrations can you tell us if it helps with the washed out picture look? THANKS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. SNOW

[Roy Munson]

The Davinci Code was filmed with a lot dark scenes indoors and out and is also known as a film with a soft look, well it looked great on the Oppo 971 upconverting to 1080i on my Mits! It is indeed a bit soft but compared to my old DVD player there just wasn't any contest! When I first watched TDC on my old player my eyes strained because of the soft look but not with the Oppo and as far as blacks go I can't imagine a player doing a better job! I'm still tinkering with mine a little as there are many settings and choices to consider when setting up this player..needless to say I dig it!

edit: BTW..I watched the Aviator last night and the pq was just stunning, near HD quality. Now I'm not saying it rivals HD but on those DVDs with good overall transfers the pq must be seen to be believed. Sometimes when new products come out they get over hyped for a variety of reasons and people praise them because someone else did..not so with the Oppo, it is very deserving of the praise! It's a good match for my Mits!